Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

350 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race[406]will be slain, widows and orphans will be made.This conception of the question episode seems to me radicallydifferent from that which was adopted in the Welsh version. Itis characteristic of Peredur that he always does as he is toldby proper authority. The question was a test of obedience andself-restraint, and he succeeded in the ordeal. In fairy literatureone is often punished for curiosity, but never for discretion andreserve. The Welsh tale here preserves, I think, the originalform of the story. But the French writers mistook the omissionto ask questions for a failure on the part of the hero, andinvented a shallow and incongruous theory of the episode and itsconsequences. Strange to say, however, the French view foundits way into later versions of the Welsh tale, and such a versionis that which we have in the “Mabinogion.” Peredur, towardsthe end of the story, meets with a hideous damsel, the terrorsof whose aspect are vividly described, and who rebukes himviolently for not having asked the meaning of the marvels at thecastle: “Hadst thou done so the king would have been restoredto health, and his dominions to peace. Whereas from henceforthhe will have to endure battles and conflicts, and his knights willperish, and wives will be widowed, and maidens will be leftportionless, and all this is because of thee.” I regard this loathlydamsel as an obvious interpolation in the Welsh tale. She cameinto it straight out of the pages of Chrestien. That she did notoriginally belong to the story of Peredur seems evident from thefact that in this tale the lame lord who bids Peredur refrain fromasking questions is, according to the damsel, the very personwho would have benefited by his doing so. As a matter of fact,Peredur never does ask the question, and it plays no part in theconclusion of the story.Chrestien's unfinished tale tells us some further adventures ofPerceval and of his friend and fellow-knight, Gauvain, but neverexplains the significance of the mysterious objects seen at thecastle. His continuators, of whom Gautier was the first, tell us