Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

292 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race[340][341]is beloved by Arthur's queen, but rejects her because he has afairy mistress in the “isle d'Avalon.” Gawain is mentioned, and anepisode is told in the “Lai de Chevrefoil” about Tristan and Iseult,whose maid, “Brangien,” is referred to in a way which assumesthat the audience knew the part she had played on Iseult's bridalnight. In short, we have evidence here of the existence in Brittanyof a well-diffused and well-developed body of chivalric legendgathered about the personality of Arthur. The legends are so wellknown that mere allusions to characters and episodes in them areas well understood as references to Tennyson's “Idylls” would beamong us to-day. The “Lais” of Marie de France therefore pointstrongly to Brittany as the true cradle of the Arthurian saga, onits chivalrous and romantic side. They do not, however, mentionthe Grail.Chrestien de TroyesLastly, and chiefly, we have the work of the French poetChrestien de Troyes, who began in 1165 to translate Breton“Lais,” like Marie de France, and who practically brought theArthurian saga into the poetic literature of Europe, and gaveit its main outline and character. He wrote a “Tristan” (nowlost). He (if not Walter Map) introduced Lancelot of the Lakeinto the story; he wrote a Conte del Graal, in which the Graillegend and Perceval make their first appearance, though he leftthe story unfinished, and does not tell us what the “Grail” reallywas. 208 He also wrote a long conte d'aventure entitled “Erec,”containing the story of Geraint and Enid. These are the earliestpoems we possess in which the Arthur of chivalric legend comesprominently forward. What were the sources of Chrestien? No208 Strange as it may seem to us, the character of this object was by no meansfixed from the beginning. In the poem of Wolfram von Eschenbach it is a stoneendowed with magical properties. The word is derived by the early fabulistsfrom gréable, something pleasant to possess and enjoy, and out of which onecould have à son gré, whatever he chose of good things. The Grail legend willbe dealt with later in connexion with the Welsh tale “Peredur.”