Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

345him sleeping, and doubted her faith; how despitefully he treatedher; and in how many a bitter test she proved her love andloyalty—all these things have been made so familiar to Englishreaders in Tennyson's “Enid” that they need not detain us here.Tennyson, in this instance, has followed his original very closely.Legends of the Grail: The Tale of PeredurThe Tale of Peredur is one of great interest and significancein connexion with the origin of the Grail legend. Peredurcorresponds to the Perceval of Chrestien de Troyes, to whom weowe the earliest extant poem on the Grail; but that writer left hisGrail story unfinished, and we never learn from him what exactlythe Grail was or what gave it its importance. When we turn forlight to “Peredur,” which undoubtedly represents a more ancientform of the legend, we find ourselves baffled. For “Peredur” maybe described as the Grail story without the Grail. 243 The strangepersonages, objects, and incidents which form the usual settingfor the entry upon the scene of this mystic treasure are all here;we breathe the very atmosphere of the Grail Castle; but of theGrail itself there is no word. The story is concerned simply withthe vengeance taken by the hero for the slaying of a kinsman,and for this end only are the mysteries of the Castle of Wondersdisplayed to him.We learn at the opening of the tale that Peredur was in thesignificant position of being a seventh son. To be a seventhson was, in this world of mystical romance, equivalent to being [401]marked out by destiny for fortunes high and strange. His father,Evrawc, an earl of the North, and his six brothers had fallenin fight. Peredur's mother, therefore, fearing a similar fate forher youngest child, brought him up in a forest, keeping from243Like the Breton Tale of “Peronnik the Fool,” translated in “Le FoyerBréton,” by Emile Souvestre. The syllable Per which occurs in all forms of thehero's name means in Welsh and Cornish a bowl or vessel (Irish coire—see p.35, note). No satisfactory derivation has in any case been found of the latterpart of the name.