Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

294 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race[343]In the absence, however, of any information as to when, orexactly what, Bleheris wrote, the opinion must, I think, hold thefield that the Arthurian saga, as we have it now, is not of Welsh,nor even of pure Breton origin. The Welsh exiles who colonisedpart of Brittany about the sixth century must have brought withthem many stories of the historical Arthur. They must also havebrought legends of the Celtic deity Artaius, a god to whom altarshave been found in France. These personages ultimately blendedinto one, even as in Ireland the Christian St. Brigit blendedwith the pagan goddess Brigindo. 210 We thus get a mythicalfigure combining something of the exaltation of a god with adefinite habitation on earth and a place in history. An Arthursaga thus arose, which in its Breton (though not its Welsh) formwas greatly enriched by material drawn in from the legends ofCharlemagne and his peers, while both in Brittany and in Walesit became a centre round which clustered a mass of floatinglegendary matter relating to various Celtic personages, humanand divine. Chrestien de Troyes, working on Breton material,ultimately gave it the form in which it conquered the world, andin which it became in the twelfth and the thirteenth centurieswhat the Faust legend was in later times, the accepted vehicle forthe ideals and aspirations of an epoch.The Saga in WalesFrom the Continent, and especially from Brittany, the storyof Arthur came back into Wales transformed and glorified. Thelate Dr. Heinrich Zimmer, in one of his luminous studies ofthe subject, remarks that “In Welsh literature we have definiteevidence that the South-Welsh prince, Rhys ap Tewdwr, whohad been in Brittany, brought from thence in the year 1070the knowledge of Arthur's Round Table to Wales, where ofcourse it had been hitherto unknown.” 211 And many Bretonlords are known to have followed the banner of William the210 See p. 103.211 “Cultur der Gegenwart,” i. ix.