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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Although the Joie de la Cort episode in Crestien's Erec has been the center of many a stormy controversy, no adequate explanation has been provided for two puzzling features—the significance of the title and the purpose of the mysterious horn on the stake. Critical discussions, however, have shown that the episode contains Celtic elements. Even so conservative a scholar as J. D. Bruce concedes that “Celtic parallels seem to establish the Celtic origin of the episode.” And Gaston Paris, F. Lot, Philipot, Bruce, and Gruffydd are among the notable critics who accept the Celtic derivation of Mabonagrain and other names. Professor Archer Taylor, too, has demonstrated that the motif of the vacant stake is characteristically Celtic. All this evidence indicates that we may find an explanation in Celtic tradition for the title and the horn.
1 The irrationality of these and other elements in the episode has been noted by G. Paris, Romania, xx (1891), 154 f.; E. Philipot, Romania, xxv (1896), 258 ff., 281, 289; W. Foerster, in his fourth edition of Yvain (1912), p. xli; R. Edens, Erec-Geraint (Rostock, 1910), p. 123 ff.; W. A. Nitze, MP, xi (1914), 475 f.; R. Zenker, Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Litteratur, xlviii (1926), 48 f.; C. B. Lewis, Classical Mythology and Arthurian Romance (1932), p. 105 f.
2 J. D. Bruce, The Evolution of Arthurian Romance 2d ed. (Göttingen-Baltimore, 1928), i, 109. So also Philipot, loc. cit., 275, 284 ff., and Zenker, loc. cit., 49: “Aus Philipots Darlegungen geht nun mit Gewissheit hervor, dass der J C Episode in letzter Linie eine keltische Feengeschichte zugrunde liegt.” See also A.C.L. Brown, Iwain, (Harvard) Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, viii (1903), 136 f.
3 G. Paris, loc. cit., 153, n. 4; F. Lot, Romania, xxiv (1895), 321 f.; E. Philipot, loc. cit., 277 ff.; Bruce, loc. cit.; W. J. Gruffydd, Y Cymmrodor, xlii (1930), 145, and Revue Celtique, xxxiii (1912), 456.
4 A. Taylor, “The Motif of the Vacant Stake in Folklore and Romance,” RR, ix (1918), 21 ff. He says, p. 28: “Heads on stakes appear in medieval tales of the most varied provenance. Yet the vacant stake appears only in Arthurian romances which have Celtic connections of some sort, and seven centuries later its greatest popularity is still Celtic.”
5 R. S. Loomis and J. S. Lindsay, “The Magic Horn and Cup in Celtic and Grail Tradition,” Romanische Forschungen, xlv (1931), 66–94.
6 Ibid., 90 f.; Sone de Nansai, ed M. Goldschmidt, Bibliothek des Literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, Vol. 216 (Tübingen, 1899), ll. 4556 ff., 4927 ff.; Le Haut Livre du Graal, Perlesvaus, ed. W. A. Nitze and T. A. Jenkins (Chicago, 1932), i, 115 f., 303 f., 407.
7 Romanische Forschungen, xlv, 88.
8 Ibid., 91 f.; The Elucidation, ed. A. W. Thompson (New York, 1931), ll. 99 ff.
9 Rom. Forsch., xlv, 88–90; R. S. Loomis, “Chastiel Bran, Dinas Bran, and the Grail Castle,” Kastner Miscellany (Cambridge, 1932), pp. 342–350.
10 Perlesvaus, pp. 246–256.
11 Fouke Fitz Warin, ed. L. Brandin (Paris, 1930), pp. 3 ff.
12 Ms. O, followed by Nitze and Jenkins in their text, usually reads la tor, “tower,” and is supported by the Welsh translation. Br., on the contrary, varies widely: le cor (l. 5922), li cors (ll. 5923, 5941), le cor d'ivoire (l. 5939), le torel (l. 5944). The analogy of the tor in Fouke and of the torel in the Chevalier au Cygne, presently to be cited, render it fairly certain that the author of Perlesvaus, though not the scribe of MS. O, meant “bull.”
18 Professor Loomis has shown (Kastner Miscellany, p. 345) that these accounts are independent of each other. Perlesvaus could hardly have been the source of Fouke in this passage since Perlesvaus knows nothing of the subterranean treasure so important in the later romance, and since in Fouke there is no mention of the Dragon Knight, the copper automata, and the Damsel of the Golden Circlet of the Perlesvaus. The best explanation for the correspondences and the differences in the two stories is that both go back to a common source.
14 Queen Mary's Psalter, ed. G. F. Warner (London, 1912), pl. 13, 14, 57, 67. See also miniature at beginning of The King of Tars, Auchinleck MS., f. 7.
15 La Chanson du Chevalier au Cygne, ed. C. Hippeau (Paris, 1874), i, 130.
16 The Voiage and Travayle of Syr John Maundeville, Everyman ed., p. 147. This feature is derived from Odoric of Pordenone. Cf. ibid., p. 238.
17 Arthur Dickson, Valentine and Orson (New York, 1929), pp. 191–197.
18 Kastner Miscellany, p. 342 ff. Cf. C. Oman, Castles (London, 1926), p. 225, where Dinas Bran has also been identified with Chastiel Bran.
19 T. Gwynn Jones, Aberystwyth Studies, viii (1926), 71 n., and E. Anwyl, Celtic Review, iv (1907–8), 258.
20 The Thirteen Treasures of the Isle of Britain, MS. Peniarth 77, National Library of Wales, (p. 214): “Corn Bran Galed or gogledd y ddiod ar bwyd a ofynid a gaid ynddo pan i damvnid.” The arguments for accepting this as genuine old Welsh tradition, despite the fact that the earliest mention of the Horn occurs in a manuscript dated about 1460, may be found in Professor Loomis's article in Romanische Forschungen, xlv, 68 f. and in Kastner Miscellany, p. 346 f.
21 Mrs. G. H. Bell, Hamwood Papers, (London, 1930), 254. J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore (Oxford, 1901), i, 148.
22 Loomis, Kastner Miscellany, p. 345.
23 Loomis, Romanische Forschungen, xlv, 80 f.; and Kastner Miscellany, p. 346.
24 Loomis, Kastner Miscellany, p. 347.
25 The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances, ed. H. O. Sommer (Washington, 1909), i, 288 f.; iv, 344–347; v, 298–303.
26 Loomis, Revue Celtique, xlvii (1930), 39 ff.; Romanische Forschungen, xlv, 87 ff.
27 Christian von Troyes, Erec und Enide, ed. W. Foerster (Halle, 1890).
28 Cf. E. Martin, in his edition of Wolfram's Parzival (Halle, 1900–1903), ii, 174, s.v. Brandigan: “Der Name erinnert an den Personennamen Bran.”
29 Les Mabinogion, ed. J. Loth (Paris, 1913), i, 145 and n. 2, 148 f.; Loomis, Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance (New York, 1927), p. 148 f.
30 Can the name Evrain be a form of Bran? Nor only is Vran a mutated form of Bran in Welsh but confusion, either phonetic or scribal, between v and b is not impossible. A French redactor, encountering the form devran (of Vran) may have divided it incorrectly into d'Evran or Evrain. Professor Loomis points out that the same process probably gave rise to the form Hebron in Robert de Boron's Joseph as an alternative for Bron, since debron divided into d'Ebron would suggest the Biblical Hebron. We may find support for this conjecture that Evrain was originally Bran in the variant uirains (Erec, 6070). U and v were of course used interchangeably in manuscripts, and the i following the initial letter is a natural modification by a French scribe, since initial vr is an outlandish combination. Still another possible confirmation is furnished in Pseudo-Wauchier (Potvin, iii, ll. 16305 f.) in a list of knights: “Et li biaus fius le roi Urain,/Que on apieloit Mabounain.” In Erec, we recall, King Evrain is the uncle of Mabonagrain.
31 Les Mabinogion, ed. J. Loth, i, 124, 128, 148 ff. Also Loomis, Revue Celtique, xlvii (1930), 57 ff.
32 MS. Bibliothèque Nationale, français, 12577, fol. 64 v. to 66 v., Modern Language Association Rotograph No. 26.
33 Cf. also Edinburgh MS., fol. 39v.
Que ia nus horn qui l'ait a soi
N'aura ne froit ne fain ne soi,
Ja niert an si estrange leu.
Cf. also Huon de Bordeaux, ed. Guessard and Grandmaison (Paris, 1860) ll. 3233 ff.
Qui le cor ot et tentir et sonner,
S'il est malades, lues revient en santé;
J'a n'avera tant grande enfermeté.
Et l'autre fée i donna mieus asés:
Qui le cor ot, çou est la verités,
S'il a famine, il est tous asasés,
Et s'il a soif, il est tous abevrés.
34 The Elucidation, ll. 63 ff. Cf. Loomis, Romanische Forschungen, xlv, 91 f.
35 See W. A. Nitze, “The Identity of Brons in Robert de Boron's Metrical Joseph” in Medieval Studies in Memory of Gertrude S. Loomis (New York, 1927), pp. 135–145; R. S. Loomis, “Bron and other Figures in the Estoire del Saint Graal,” M. L. R., xxlv (1929), 418–23; Robert de Boron, Le Roman de l'Estoire dou Graal, ed. W. A. Nitze (Paris, 1927), p. xiii.
36 Loomis, Rom. Forsch., xlv, 70 f.
37 C. Potvin, Perceval le Gallois, iv (Mons, 1868), 61–75. T. Malory, Morte d'Arthur, Bk. vii, chap. 15–18.
38 Loomis, Kastner Miscellany, p. 343 f.
39 Such a division is not uncommon in medieval narrative. See for a similar instance in the Tochmarc Emere, M. Deutschbein, Beiblatt zur Anglia, xv (1904), 16 ff., and for the Perlesvaus itself see B. Weinberg, PMLA, l (1935), 26.
40 A. Dickson, Valentine and Orson, p. 197, n. 84.
41 Gerbert de Montreuil, La Continuation de Perceval, ed. Mary Williams (Paris, 1922), ii, ll. 8979 ff. Cf. Bruce, op. cit., ii, 163, n. 37.
42 The Ancient English Romance of Havelok the Dane, accompanied by the French Text, ed. F. Madden (Roxburghe Club, London, 1828), p. 138 f. (Le Lai d'Havelok, ll. 881 ff.); p. 174 (Geffrai Gaimar's version, ll. 671 ff.). For Lion de Bourges, see H. Zeddies, Weitere Studien zur Chanson de Lion de Bourges, Teil iv (Greifswald, 1907), p. 10 f.; and H. Wilhelmi, Studien über die Chanson de Lion de Bourges (Marburg, 1894), p. 8 f.
43 Philipot, Romania, xxv, 261, n. 1.
44 Neither of these functions—to announce the joy or to dispel enchantment—can be original. See Nitze, MP, xi (1914), 475.
45 A. Taylor, RR, ix (1918), 21 ff. Cf. above, n. 4.
46 J. D. Bruce, op. cit., i, 109, n. 17; L. A. Paton, Studies in the Fairy Mythology of Arthurian Romance, Radcliffe College Monographs, No. 13 (Boston, 1903), p. 84, n. 3.
47 A. C. L. Brown, Iwain, p. 124 f.
48 Philipot, Romania, xxv, 281 ff.
49 W. J. Gruffydd, “Mabon vab Modron,” Y Cymmrodor, xlii (1930) 129, 147; W. J. Gruffydd, “Mabon ab Modron,” Revue Celtique, xxxiii (1912), 452–61; Loomis, Celtic Myth, p. 321. For a discussion of Mabon the Enchanter, see W. H. Schofield, Studies in the Libeaus Desconus, (Harvard) Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, iv (1895), 125 ff.; Philipot, Romania, xxv, 281 ff.; and Gruffydd, Y Cymmrodor, xlii (1930), 145.
50 Bruce, op. cit., ii, 69.
51 I am most grateful to Professor Loomis for his invaluable advice and unfailingly generous assistance in preparing this article.