Celtic Motifs in Chrétien’s Romances

Celtic Motifs in Chrétien’s Romances

by Thomas Sharpe

King Arthur chasing the White Stag. Illumination from manuscript of Chrétien de Troyes,' Érec et Énide.i

Professor Jean Frappier (1957) was quoted to have designated Chrétien, the Ovid of a disintegrating Celtic mythology.8 This is not such a good start for a Celtic interpretation, even after Roger S. Loomis, Jessie L. Weston, Lucy A. Paton and other Arthurian scholars of the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first sixty or seventy years of the twentieth, while considering the original composition of the apparently dissonant romances to be of an archaic past, worked to resolve what might have been the coherence of the original narrative.14 A somewhat confounded Loomis (1949), termed the great seething mass [of] the hereditary lore of the Goidelic and Brythonic peoples to have given rise to a gallimaufry of originally independent stories and motifs.22 According to Keller (1987), this gallimaufry was the

confused source of Chrétien’s romances, particularly Le Conte du Graal.14 The Sovereignty By some reparation, Celticist Rachel Bromwich (1991) defined two successive layers to three of Chrétien’s tales that bear similarities to each other in structure and design. For instance, Érec et Énide (Erec and Enide), Yvain ou le Chevalier au Lion (Yvain, or the Knight of the Lion) and Perceval ou le Conte du Graal (Perceval, the Story of the Grail), when taken together, illustrate the narrative of the individual hero who is conducted to maturity through a series of trials or tests.

In Érec et Énide and Yvain ou le Chevalier au Lion, the narrative works around the hero’s conflicting engagements: Érec and Yvain appear to be torn between the love for their wives and loyalty to the fellowship of Arthur, the latter of which are firmly entrenched. Perceval’s theme, moreover, concerns his awkward attempt to gain a foothold in Arthur’s court.3 Of the second layer Bromwich points out, there has been some measure of agreement in distinguishing the pan-Celtic myth of the ‘sovereignty’ as the ultimate but submerged theme underlying all three stories.3 The sovereignty, Bromwich continues, more clearly exemplified in Ireland than in Wales, often appears to the protagonist as the “transformed hag” being restored to beauty by completion of a sovereignty test. She may also appear in the guise of a white animal, usually hunted as a stag, or again transformed into a beautiful woman from white or golden deer, either doe or fawn.3 An example of the two motifs being amalgamated is the story of the Five Son’s of Daire, in the Dindshenchas of Cairn Máil, contained in the C12th Book of Leinster. Incidentally, Krappe (1942), made an extensive comparison of the Irish sovereignty motifs to the Greek, Alcmaeonis (c. 750-500 B.C.) and the Persian, Flight of Artachšir (c. 600 A.D.).17

Also of note, the fusing of the hag and the young woman into the sovereignty was a significant development in C19th Irish literature. From the translation of the folk-poem Róisín Dubh as Dark Rosaleen, by James Clarence Mangan in 1837; James Joyce’s polarity of the old milk-woman and the somewhat sexualised ‘dark rose,’ as Molly Bloom in Ulysses; and Red Hanrahan’s encounter with her duel aspect in W. B. Yeats,’ Cathleen ni Houlihan.37 If Chrétien had no inkling of Bromwich’s secondary ultimate but submerged theme3 in his own stories, the C19th to early C20th Irish literary tradition, perhaps having more acuity towards comparative mythology (more than likely geared towards panCeltic nationalism), certainly exploited the archetype to the full.

The sovereignty motif perceived to underlie Chrétien’s Lancelot, le Chevalier de la Charrette (Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart), appears as an original form in the Irish Tochmarc Étaíne (The Wooing of Étaín), in the Lebor na hUidre (C12th, Book of the Dun Cow). In this version, the mortal High King of Ireland, Eochu, or Eochaidh Airem (son of Finn), marries the fay Étaín. Eochu’s brother Aillil suffers from unrequited love and wastes away.

Confessing to Étaín (who acts as his nurse) the reason for his sickness, she agrees to a tryst out of concern for his health.

Midir, Étaín’s husband from her previous fay incarnation, by enchanting Ailill to sleep and taking on his appearance, abducts her back to their otherworldly land and people.

In much the same way is Guenevere nowadays perceived to be of the Fey. Berg (2012), follows her faery attributes through Chrétien’s le Chevalier de la Charrette, to the diversely episodic Vulgate Lancelot-Grail.2 For the sake of comparison, it could be pointed out that the Irish Fionnabhair (Finnabair), although etymologically the white phantom, as cognate with the Welsh Gwenhwyfar, is actually the mortal daughter of Alill and Queen Medb.

Nonetheless, since the fay Étaín was swallowed from a drink in butterfly form and given birth to, as a mortal, the fey apparently manifest unusual patterns of transmigration, and are not so readily pinned down (pun).

In relation to Guenevere, Gareth Knight (2013) points out that, in a scene in le Chevalier de la Charrette, Lancelot passes through an orchard (fay connotations) to behold the abducted Guenevere at her barred window; she is, according to Knight, wearing the traditional faery colours of a white chemise and scarlet cape.16 These accumalitive fay attributes, appearing consistent throughout the romances, are therefore open to interpretation.

Breton Lais According to Welsh scholar Caerwyn Williams (1991), if Chrétien was disparaging towards the ordinary run of fableors or conteurs, he makes no suggestion that these were Bretons; to the French, the Breton story-tellers had a reputation second to none.36 If the Bretons were famous for their lais (O.M. German, leich, play, melody, or song; Irish laid, song), Chrétien alludes to them as a source, in Érec et Énide. Érec now of his arms unburden, And all vie themselves among To sing of all the joy in song.

For the ladies composed a lay, Named the Lay of Joy, that day: Though that lay is little known.6 Knight (2012), in the prologue to his retelling of the Lai of Graelent,15 notes a cross-motif with Érec et Énide: [S]omewhat glossed over in the lai is where the hosts daughter in Graelent’s lodging house invites him to dine alone with her and provides him with horse and saddle. This is similar to the traditional theme of Hospitable Host and his daughter who

entertain a questing hero, and/or provide him with horse and/or arms, on the bounds of the otherworld.15 From Graelent: It was May, when the days are long. His host had risen early and gone with his wife to dine with another townswoman. The Knight was left alone, with no one to keep him company, apart from the daughter of the house, a very friendly girl.15 Having dined, the knight requests a hunting horse and the maiden saddles one up for him.

But he had hardly entered the wood when in a dense thicket he saw a hind, completely white, whiter than snow on a winter branch, which bounded off at the sight of him.15 The Lai of Graelent is one of three thought to have been composed in the order of Lanval, Graelent, and Guingamor.

Lanval was authored by Marie de France (fl. 1160 to 1215), with the remaining pair anonymously authored. According to Illingworth (1975), although the narratives were taken largely from Marie, the two anonymous lays integrated into their stories, independently of Marie, material stemming from “a nucleus of genuine Celtic tradition.”12 Tyolet is another anonymous Breton Lai that, as well as featuring an otherworldly white creature (a white brachet, or small dog), begins with much the same storyline as Perceval: Tyolet lives alone in the forest with his mother, a widow (Ja vevedamt) and he is skilled in the chase.26 Later on, some lions guarding the way hint at le Chevalier de la Charrette.

Paton, likewise considered the lais to reveal a purer, more original, form of the episodes included in the romances. Tyolet, in tandem with Graelent, fairly well expresses an original form of what she termed, the Fairy Induction:

[In a] very ordinary form [the Fairy Induction] represents her [the fay] as sending out a fairy messenger disguised as some tempting victim for the huntsman's dart, usually a stag, a boar, or a bird, which lures, the young knight to her domain [n.b. He may be given a token enchanted gold ring, or ointment, that confers invisibility, the power to overcome enchantment, restore youth, heal, or if used against him, can induce forgetfulness and bind him to the enchanted realm]. Sometimes the pursuit of the other-world messenger leads him to the bank of a stream, where he sees awaiting him a magic boat, marvellously beautiful and swift, pilotless and rudderless, sent by the fay.26 To continue with the scholarly trail of the white otherworldly creature, we need to be sure of the ground beneath our feet. After all, the Fey, as well as being seductive with their gold rings, have a tricky habit of leading mortals off the beaten track, into bogs and mires.

To quickly encapsulate, Paton hadn’t made any clear distinctions between her Fairy Induction and the sovereignty. Tracing the fey motif back to Oenét Emire (The Only Jealousy of Emer) – a love triangle between Cú Chulainn, his wife Emer and the fay, Fand – in the Lebor na hUidre, Paton traced its development to explain the jealousy of Morgain towards Guenevere, in the romances. She proposed an original story of Morgain’s relationship with Arthur as lover, which was later substituted by Lancelot. In the earliest Arthurian tales (Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace and Layamon), Anna – who’s origin appears to be one of the two sisters of the Irish fay, Morrigan/Morgain – becomes instead Arthur’s sister; later it is Morgain herself. Chrétien subsequently writes in Lancelot to be Guenevere’s lover; in Robert de Boron’s later romance, Morgain’s love for Lancelot remains unrequited.26

Textural Analyses Literarily, Weston, in criticism of a contemporary theory that a romance was merely a string of lais “automatically” put together, had said that the episodic nature of the romances were rather reworked until, “crystallized into shape.”33,34 Keller continues that, in this instance, Weston’s viewpoint is probably taken from the methodological insight of the mathematician Felix Klein: Elements – phonetics – comprising of invariant sets – stock motifs – are transformed through a transformation group – of episodes.14 In any case, this is how Klein’s theory was adapted by philologists (Saussure) as a road-map, well into the C20th century.14 To find some coherence to any apparent dissonance in Chrétien’s gallimaufry then, Weston and Loomis’s approach was, as Keller continues, generally inductive; they proposed to draw upon supporting evidence that flowed from facts. In practice this would involve a reductionist attempt to isolate episodes and motifs apart from the holistic framework of the narrative. In other words, they made their own comparisons in spite of whatever was the author’s real intentions.14 To resolve the resulting inconsistencies inherent within this approach – as for instance when one notes that the Grail is inconsistently either a dish or chalice – Weston was forced to abandon the inductive procedure in favour of conjecture; this meant that they could now be considered both, dish and chalice.

Her subsequent Initiation hypothesis (as with Paton’s Fairy Induction), thus restored consonance to these inconsistencies through the imposition of an inclusive analogical framework.14

Grail Hallows In From Ritual to Romance (1920), Weston wrote, On the whole, I am of the opinion that the treasures of the Tuatha de Danann and the symbols of the Grail castle go back to a common original, but that they have developed on different lines; in the process of this development one 'Life' symbol has been exchanged for another.

But Lance and Cup (or Vase) were in truth connected together in a symbolic relation long ages before the institution of Christianity, or the birth of Celtic tradition. They are sex symbols of immemorial antiquity and world-wide diffusion, the Lance, or Spear, representing the Male, the Cup, or Vase, the Female, reproductive energy.35 For example, the Initiation hypothesis was the idea that individual motifs – dish, chalice, spear and sword – could be related back to a hypothetical ancient fertility drama, or ritual initiation rite. As simultaneous fertility symbols of this ancient ritual, these would be later remembered in the Tarot suits – as pentacles, cups, swords and staves.35 Incidentally, W. B. Yeats’ play, Cathleen ni Houlihan,37 is set on Samhain Eve. An old pack of shuffled playing cards – old as it is, there has been much of the riches of the world lost and won over it – leap from the old man’s hands, transforming into a hare, followed by hounds.

The hare leads the protagonist, Red Hanrahan, to a very big shining house...There was a high place at the end of the house, and on it there was sitting in a high chair a woman, the most beautiful the world ever saw, having a long pale face and flowers about it, but she had the tired look of one that had been long waiting. And there was sitting on the step below her chair four grey old women, and the one of them was holding a great cauldron in her lap; and another a great stone on her knees, and heavy as it was it seemed light to her; and another of them had a very long spear that was made of pointed wood; and the last of them had a sword that was without a scabbard.

Red Hanrahan stood looking at them for a long Hanrahan-time, but none of them spoke any word to him or looked at him at all. And he had it in his mind to ask who that woman in the chair was, that was like a queen, and what she was waiting for; but ready as he was with his tongue and afraid of no person, he was in dread now to speak to so beautiful a woman, and in so grand a place. And then he thought to ask what were the four things the four grey old women were holding like great treasures, but he could not think of the right words to bring out.37 As the motifs developed along such different lines, Weston saw the ritual function of the feeding properties of the cauldron separate out, so that the cup or dish can be easily borne by a maiden. The appearance of the grail may synchronise with the function of the cauldron in feeding of the folk of the grail castle, but not, other than the sacred host, directly from the grail. The separation becomes further exemplified, she writes, in de Boron’s Joseph of Arimathea, where the Fish caught by Brons is to be placed at one end of the table, the Grail at the other.35 And, further to any Christian overlay she states, The plain fact is that in Christian art and tradition Lance and Cup are not associated symbols.35 For the Grail Castle, Weston turned to a more Elemental explanation in that it is always situated in the close vicinity of water, either on or near the sea, or on the banks of an important river, [and water] is an important feature of the Adonis cult. She concluded, moreover, that the Celtic Cauldrons of Plenty from The Land-Beneath-the-Waves belonged to a different line of tradition all together; ...examples of which will be found in the 'Sampo' of the Finnish Kalevala, and the ever-grinding mills of popular folk-tale.35 As for the Sword, Weston drew upon the ritual sword-dance of the Aryan Maruts, Cretan Kouretes and Phrygian Korybantes, to highlight an Indo-European source for the motif. The transmitted folk-memory of this Attic fertility drama, into the half-

remembered insular rites of spring, would eventually morph into the English Morris Dance, or Mumming Play.35 Celtic Linguistics Following his refutation of Weston’s Intitiation hypothesis (and they had many fruitful discussions), Loomis returned to reductionist criticism: The patterns of the kaleidoscope are charming and ever changing, but the bits of coloured glass [invariant underlying characteristics] which make the patterns remain the same.22 Any inconsistencies in the layout of the bits of coloured glass which Loomis deemed representative of what Keller defines, separate antecedent oral traditions, or survivals of archaic versions, were now due to conflations, contaminations, misinterpretations, or otherwise corruptions and transformations of names.22 Concerning a motif in the Gawain section of Le Conte du Graal, Knight16 points out one such glaring inconsistency which was highlighted by Loomis, in Arthurian Tradition and Chrétien De Troyes (1949). Initially triggered by a fortuitous hunt for a white deer, Gawain crosses the border into the otherworldly realm of Escavalon.

And Gawain rode toward the deer, Craftily approaching close Enough to surprise a white Doe, feeding near a blackberry Thicket, and strike it on the neck.

But the doe leapt away, Exactly as a stag might have done, And Gawain galloped after...6 After a series of testing encounters, Gawain, upon reaching Gauvoie (Gorre), extends his quest into the deeper realms of Faery.16 At the foot of the staircase at the entrance to the Castle

of Wonders, a one-legged man, seated alone on a box of rushes, is carving a baton of ash.

Whose wooden leg was silver (enamelled) Wound around with gold (gilded) And bespangled all over with golden Rings and precious stones.

(Trans. Burton Raffel)6 He says not a word as they pass by, and nor do they say a word to him.

Knight’s point here is that Chrétien is again making a story out of materials at his disposal that he did not fully understand.16 Not only by misreading the Old French trosne aornee d’egles – “a throne ornamented with eagles” to mean trossel de gles “bundle of rushes,” a garbled reading of eschequier (chessboard) and eschec (chesspiece) becomes Un eschacier...qui avoit eschace d’arjant,” the “cripple with a silver leg.” That eschase can also mean a “long baton” – which Chrétien says the man is holding – further compounds the confusion. c.f. The Dream of Maxen Wledig in The Mabinogion, where two youths play chess on a silver chessboard with silver pieces, while a white-haired man on an ivory throne (with the image of two eagles in red gold upon it) holds a golden rod from which he is carving more chessmen.16,22 It may be argued, however, how a writer of Chrétien’s calibre, despite his Champenois vernacular, could possibly misread or mistranslate Old French. Howbeit, in the slightly later Didot Perceval (c. 1190–1215) and Perlesvaus (c. 1220) the collocated episodes likewise contain the original stock-motif of the silver chessboard. There is certainly the implication therefore, of prioracquaintance by their anonymous authors, whether textural or oral, with the hereditary lore of the Goidelic and Brythonic peoples.22

Fynn (1952), moreover, while appraising Loomis, nevertheless differs with what he had termed in this case, a blurred outline of a Celtic pattern. She indicates that the figure with the wooden leg is shown through several examples of Romanesque art to represent, a pagan. At St. Aventin, a heathen martyring the patron saint is depicted with a wooden leg. The ferryman warns Gauvain that the eschacier would have harmed him if he could. Fynn concludes that Chrétien’s “blunder” was instead credence shown to an incomprehensible folkloric figure, given rationalization through the living significance of contemporary art.9

Moors in ‘The Arrest of St Aventinus’, St Aventin Church, France, 12th Century. ii

In The Grail: From Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol (1963) Loomis provides another example. This time it is in relation to the derivation of the word Corbenic for Grail Castle, in the Vulgate Lancelot-Grail Cycle: [I]n Old French the nominative case for the words ‘horn’ and ‘body’ was identical, li cors. The First Continuation of the Conte del Graal illustrates the use of cors in both senses; in one instance it refers to a magic horn which, according to the manuscripts, bore the name of Beneiz or Bencoiz, meaning ‘Blessed’. Now the French were not too familiar with sacred drinking-horns, but they were familiar in Chrétien’s day with the Corpus Christi as a sacred, miraculous food.23 If the magic horn, or ‘cup of plenty,’ hadn’t made it into a receptacle for the sacred host by way of Weston’s ritual hypothesis then, it certainly may have done so by Loomis’s inductive route; to a dish that serves not a pike, lamprey or salmon, but the single host (or wafer).6 But, if there is any

accidental or unintentional irony here, particularly by the anonymous author (whether pseudo-Wauchier, or Bleheris) of Chrétien’s first continuation, it was certainly not Chrétien’s style.

If Chrétien intended irony, he generally knew where he was going with it. Knight of course highlights the observation that, after Perceval’s hermit uncle explains the meaning of the grail to him, Chrétien begins to capitalise the Grail spelling, thus inferring a more sacred attribution.16

Modena Archivolt

Modena Archivolt, Italy: Arch, from left to right: Unnamed knight; Isdernus (Ider/Yder); Artus Bretani (Arthur); Burmalt; Winlogee (Guenièvre); Mardoc (Melwas, or Modred); Carrado (Caradoc), Galvagin (Gawain), Galvariun (Galeshin) and Che (Kay).iii

The Arthurian high relief carvings on the archivolt of the north portal of Modena cathedral depict an early version of the abduction of Winlogee (Guenièvre) by Mardoc (Melwas).

Apparently, a group of Breton nobles led by Alan IV, Duke of Brittany, were on their way to the First Crusade, and wintered at Bari during 1096-97. It was in Celtic Myth to Arthurian Romance (1927) that Loomis conjectured their Breton conteur would have passed on the tale to the craftsmen and masons.20 Putting aside any of the Henry de Blois (c. 1096–1171) controversy24 (c.f. the Baconian-Shakespeare controversy), the Modena relief and the abduction episode in the Lancelot, le Chevalier de la Charrette appears to be largely a reworking of an earlier account, in Caradoc of Llancarvan’s The Life of St. Gildas (c. 1130). Although Caradoc was a contemporary of Geoffrey of Monmouth (Latin: Galfridus Monemutensis, c. 1095 – c. 1155), the Life of Gildas was published several years before Geoffrey’s Historia regum Britanniae (c.1138), and as such is termed preGalfridian.

Chrétien substitutes Meleagant for Melwas as Guenièvre’s abductor, whilst Lancelot makes his first appearance in literary romance, as the queen's rescuer and lover.

Loomis translates: Winlogee (Guenièvre) is transitional between the Breton Winlowen and French Guinloie; the Breton Mardoc is from Medrot (Mordred, as per Geoffrey’s Historia); Artus (Arthur) has already attained its standard French form; Galvaginus (Gawain) still preserves, besides the Latin termination, the three syllables of its Welsh original, the epithet Gwallt-Avwyn (n.b.

Bromwich (1978)4 disagrees with Loomis and supports Gwalchmei); the archaistic n in Isdernus, is also retained from the Welsh Edern. It has disappeared completely in Geoffrey and in Chrétien.21 Sims-Williams (1991) considers that behind Caradoc and Chrétien there probably lies a Welsh story about the rescue of Gwenhwyfar from an otherworld island of glass.30 From the (C12th) Welsh Ymddiddan Melwas a Gwenhwyfar (The Dialogue of Melwas and Gwenhyfar, Llanstephan manuscript 122, early C13th): “Who is the man who sits in the common part of the feast, Without for him either its beginning or its end, Sitting down there below the dais?”

“The Melwas from Ynis Wydrin (Isle of Glass); You, with the golden, gilded vessels, I have drunk none of your wine.”

“Wait a little ...

I do not pour out my wine For a man who cannot hold out and would not stand in battle [and] would not stand up to Cai in his wine” “Gwenhwyfar of the deer’s glance, Do not despise me although i am young;

I would stand up to Cai alone.”30 This englynion (short Welsh poem) provides some pre-emptive underlying characteristics for the abduction episode in le Chevalier de la Charrette, where Meleagent takes the abducted Guenièvre to his otherworldly kingdom of Go(i)rre (c.f. OFr. Voirre ‘glass;’ Welsh gwydr ‘glass).30 Sims-Williams observes that the Welsh names are closer to those in Chrétien’s earlier Érec et Énide, however. One of Arthur’s guests at court includes ‘Maheloas, a great baron, lord of the Isle of Glass (Voirre), an island where thunder is not heard, no lightning strikes or tempest blows, no toads or snakes stay, and it is never too hot or too cold.’30 Sims-Williams also compares the Irish version as analogue, rather than source, to be Cú Roí mac Dáire’s expedition with Cú Chulainn into the mysterious land of the Fir Fhálgae (Isle of Man) to carry off a woman, a magic cauldron and other spoils.30

Ecclesia, holds the chalice and collects the blood of Christ. The Synagogue (old law) is shown blindfolded at the right. Enamel plaque from Hildesheim, c. 1160-70.iv Barber argues that, rather than a simplistic equation of the maiden bearing the Grail with the figure of Ecclesia, the Hildesheim and related iconography points to a visual source which could have been familiar to the writers who were elaborating on Chrétien’s original imagery. 1 Considering that to the continuators of Chrétien, the Celtic ‘horn’ or ‘cup of plenty’ and the ‘Corpus Christi’ was an identical li cors, Matthews & Knight (2019) otherwise show how Robert de Boron may have conflated the Mystery of the Passion (last supper), in St. Germanus of Constantinople’s, Ecclesiastical History and Mystical Contemplation (C8th) *, with a later rendition of the Coptic Gospel of Gamaliel (c. C4th5th). The only extant version is the (c.1300) Libre de Gamaliel, where it translates, Joseph of Arimathea took a gresal in which he put the blood of Jesus Christ, and he kept the lance. 25 *

The holy table corresponds to the spot in the tomb where Christ was placed. On it lies the true and heavenly bread, the mystical and unbloody sacrifice. Christ sacrifices His flesh and blood and offers it to the faithful as food for eternal life.

Nartamongae It would be somewhat disingenuous, not to include a short summary of Littleton & Malcor’s (1994) frame of reference: Drawing upon Dumezil and Yoshida, they reverse the interpretations of pro-Celtic derivation to a proposed crosscultural Celtic accretion. Their exegesis begins with the Roman recruitment of related Caucasian Iazyge-Sarmatian and Alanic tribes, who carried their stories and beliefs with them into Britain and Italy, respectively. The subsequent Alanic invasion of Gaul led to the sacking of Rome. During the ransacking of the Basilica of St Peter’s (409 A.D.), a warning of divine consequences or retribution by an ecclesiastic Virgin forced Alaric to order the return of these ‘treasures of Solomon.’ The resulting procession, led by the Virgin, carrying the treasures above their heads (including the sacred plate of the Apostle Peter), became conflated with a proto-Indo-European motif of the magic cup; the latter was represented in the Ossetian Nart sagas as the Nartamongae.19 Somewhat in the same vein as Weston’s conjectures, they consider that whereas the Nartamongae motif has exhibited inparallel or cross-cultural differential developments – e.g. the Irish Cauldron – the consequential allocation of the grail maiden to sovereignty is confounded by Ecclesia (Virgin of St Peter’s Basilica), to be a distortion.19 Littleton & Malcor further suppose that the noble descendant lineages of Alanic settlers around the Lot river valley in southernGaul (c. 415 A.D.) carried the folk-memory of the Alaegatae – the family associated with the Nartamongae – and passed it on to Breton conteurs. The Alaegatae would then conflate with Perceval’s family of the Fisher King, since both objects are carried in procession, the former during banquets.19 Barber’s (2004) supposition, moreover, stems from the sort of grasal (Latin: gradale, C9th; gradate, dated 1030) mentioned in the chansons de geste (c. 1150); it is a secular serving dish ‘beaten of gold’, possibly attributable to a Roman garalis, for the

containment of garum, a fish sauce made from anchovies. He infers that Chrétien intended to portray a secular serving dish – the rich graal – that would have held a salmon, but that it ‘happened’ instead to be a convenient receptacle for the sacred host.1 Considering the earlier mention of the subsequent capitalisation of the spelling, Knight also remarks that since the graal was meant as a secular dish, Chrétien has called his romance the somewhat bathetic, The Story of the Serving Dish.16 Indeed, Barber later concedes the question whether Chrétien is really intimating the dish of the last supper, which “should” contain the fish, but in fact contains the wafer instead. This would then equate with Chrétien’s use of Irony.

We could, of course, in Weston’s conjectural style, go even further towards conflating the sovereignty-grail motif with the semidivine Scythian king, Targitaus (c.1500 B.C.). According to Herodotus, he had three sons, before whom fell from the sky a set of four golden implements—a plough, a yoke, a cup and a battle-axe. Not unlike the grail winner of the romances, only the youngest son succeeds in touching the golden implements without them bursting into flames; the perilous seat springs to mind. And, as with the lineage of Fisher Kings, it was this son's descendants who became the treasure’s guardians, whom Herodotus called, the “Royal Scythians.”11 Whereas Littleton & Malcor have preferred historical research to what they consider the ‘mental calisthenics’ of Celtic linguistic analyses,19 Green (2007), in Concepts of Arthur,9 has dismissed their theory on several grounds; not least, the analogues are post Chrétien. However, even our modern Celticists continue to point out that some post-Chrétien texts, if they highlight any common source, are possible indicators of an original form.

Narrative Interpretations Having covered even a small proportion of the analogues, conjectures and translations between some antecedent and postGalfridian Celtic sources, one is encouraged to consider them not too easily dismissed. The regrettable fact is that, with the sophistication of modern textural interpretation – in terms of linguistic poles – they have been somewhat superseded.14 The scholastic genre of Celtic studies3 around the cusp of the C21st, moreover, at least leave some interpretations open to further investigation and study.

The modern emphasis is more upon the narrative as a paradigmatic–holistic model whereby episodic changes belong to the poetic narrative of the author’s creativity. These paradigmatic shifts in narrative may emphasise either one or other of the linguistic poles, or oscillate between them. The horizontal axis of combination, involves the narrative contexture of where the author wishes to lead the reader (metonym); the vertical pole of selection involves the choice of motifs on a basis of similarity, substitution, equivalence or contrast (metaphor).

As already pointed out, Arthurian scholars like Loomis and Weston tended to split the textual axes. The subordination of the paradigmatic choice – of where the author wished to guide his audience – came secondary to their primary focus on comparative analogy.14 Some examples of this paradigmatic choice in Chrétien’s romances are highlighted by Reichert (2003) in the previous article.29 Chrétien’s use of hyperbole and metonym often provide an exemplum of the aspects of twelfth-century courtly and chivalric society he secretly condemns, while at the same time he is ironically mirroring back the moral consequences.27 The previous article29 likewise interprets Chrétien’s use of alchemical motifs as moral prescriptions. 27 The delineation put forward in this present article, however, suggests that, contemporaneous with his era, the ‘Ovidian maître’ had not the

same degree of interpretive connection, knowledge or understanding into the underlying structures or significance of Insular Celtic mythology, and/or Breton oral traditions.

While still recognising paradigmatic choice and interpretation, some modern ‘Mystery Tradition’ writers like Gareth Knight (Faery Gates of Avalon), John & Caitlin Matthews (Hallowquest, and Arthurian Tarot), Wendy Berg (Gwenevere and the Round Table) et al, drawing somewhat upon the earlier perceptions of Dion Fortune & Margaret Lumley-Brown (Arthurian Formula), choose to experience Chrétien’s romances, and related cycles or lais, rather as ‘threshold texts’ [that still] form a valuable gateway between original oral tradition and the written world.16 To peer through this gateway is, metaphorically speaking, to witness the appearance of the deer at daybreak, whose Caucasian name is Asiruksh, of the Ossetian saga.5 She is cognate with the Greek goddess of the dawn, Eos, and with those of Vedic Ushas, Avestan Usha and Lithuanian Aushra, all of which derive ultimately from the proto-Indo-European *hus or *heus, shining one.32 The white or golden deer is geographically recognised from Steppe art, Siberian folklore and Georgian legend,18 throughout the Breton lais and Arthurian romances, even making an appearance in the oral folklore recorded of the South Pennines, in England.28 The Nart saga in which Asiruksh appears is called Shoshlan’s journey to the underworld.5 As well as forming part of a whole genre of tales in which a hunter pursues a golden deer or a white doe, who transforms into a beautiful woman, it also has an uncannily homologous narrative to the Gawain episode in Le Conte du Graal.

Although tantalising, the homologues are cross-culturally and anachronistically dissevered and may even come across as being a little pareidolic. It might be as well to describe them somewhat in the sense of viewing Katherine Maltwood’s terrestrial zodiac from a light aircraft, or remote-controlled drone.

In restitution of Weston’s imposition of her inclusive analogical framework, which failed to achieve the consonance of a nucleus of genuine Celtic tradition underlying the romances, an alternative paradigm to consider is Taranu’s (2013), ‘rhizomatic’ model.31 This model is inspired by the complex and interconnected root systems of plants. He argues we should not see the extant poetic text as resulting from a straightforward process of transmission from a hypothetical oral ‘ur-text.’ Rather, he argues we should see the surviving text as a concentration of ‘strands’ within a poetic tradition – for example, of characters or thematic building blocks.

In each surviving text, these diverse strands form a ‘tuber’ – that is to say, a unique concentration of ideas, inextricably interconnected with others, both extant and lost. Moreover, each poetic rhizome can be interlinked with other rhizomes of cultural production, both lost and extant, textural and oral.”31 Jacobson (1993), in The Deer Goddess of Ancient Siberia, remarks that the reappearance of similar motifs does not necessarily imply a similarity of underlying belief.13 Latham, assents that these parallel pieces of evidence emerge from a different cultural milleux and represent the concentration of different sets of cultural ‘strands’ in a different recombination to their arrangement in this [Shoshlan’s journey to the underworld] saga.18 Speaking from the axial pole of metaphor, where these rhizomatic ‘strands’ of folk-memory should, by induction, combine into a ‘tuber’ to send up a ‘flower,’ we predict the appearance of a resonant archetype. As such, we could for example behold, among any number of others, the sovereignty; at least from an inner resonance of similarity, where the flow of facts has left the question open to interpretation.

References

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Burton Raffel, Yale University Press; New Ed edition (10 Feb. 1999) 7. De Troyes, Chrétien (c.1170) Erec and Enide, trans. Kline A. S, (The Arthurian Romances of Chrétien de Troyes), Pinnacle Press (24 May 2017) 8. Frappier, Jean, “Chrétien de Troyes”, in Roger Sherman Loomis, ed., Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, A Collaborative History, Oxford: Clarendon Press, (1959), p. 164, in Bromwich, R., First Transmission to England and France, p. 277, The Arthur of the Welsh: Arthurian Legend in Mediaeval Welsh Literature, University of Wales Press; Reprint edition (25 Sept. 2008).

9. Fynn, Sheila M., The "Eschacier" in Chrétien's "Perceval" in the Light of Medieval Art, The Modern Language Review, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Jan, 1952), Published By: Modern Humanities Research Association 10. Green, Thomas (2007) Concepts of Arthur, Tempus Publishing Ltd; UK ed. edition (24 Jan. 2008) 11. Herodotus (1910), The History of Herodotus, Translated by Rawlingson, George & Blakeney, Edward Henry. Kessinger Publishing (10 Sept. 2010) 12. Illingworth, R.N., The Composition of Graelent and Guingamor, Medium Aevum Vol XLIV (1975), in Whalen, Logan, A Companion to Marie de France, Brill; Annotated edition (1 May 2011) 13. Jacobson, Esther, The Deer Goddess of Ancient Siberia: A Study in the Ecology of Belief, BRILL; Illustrated edition (23 Feb. 2012), in Latham, John, Sun-Gods and Soviets, Iran & the Caucasus, Vol. 20, No. 2 (2016), Published By: Brill 14. Keller, Joseph, Paradigm Shifts in the Grail Scholarship of Jessie Weston and R.S. Loomis: A View from Linguistics, Arthurian

Interpretations, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Spring 1987), Published by Scriptorium Press 15. Knight, Gareth, Faery Loves and Faery Lais, Skylight Press (1 May 2012) 16. Knight, Gareth, The Faery Gates of Avalon, Skylight Press (21 Jun. 2013) 17. Krappe, Alexander H., The Sovereignty of Erin, The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 63, No. 4 (1942), pp. 444-454 (11 pages), Published by: The John Hopkins University Press 18. Latham, John, Sun-Gods and Soviets, Iran & the Caucasus, Vol. 20, No. 2 (2016), Published By: Brill 19. Littleton, C. Scott (Author), Malcor, Linda A. (Contributor), From Scythia to Camelot: A Radical Reassessment of the Legends of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and the Holy Grail (Arthurian Characters and Themes), Routledge; 1st edition (2 Mar. 2000) 20. Loomis, Roger Sherman (1927), Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance, Keller, Joseph, Paradigm Shifts in the Grail Scholarship of Jessie Weston and R.S. Loomis: A View from Linguistics, Arthurian Interpretations, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Spring 1987), Published by Scriptorium Press 21. Loomis, Roger Sherman, Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Modena Archivolt: A Question of Precedence, Speculum Vol. 13, No. 2 (Apr., 1938), pp. 221-231 22. Loomis, Roger Sherman (1949), Arthurian Tradition and Chrétien De Troyes, in Keller, Joseph, Paradigm Shifts in the Grail Scholarship of Jessie Weston and R.S. Loomis: A View from Linguistics, Arthurian Interpretations, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Spring 1987), Published by Scriptorium Press 23. Loomis, Roger Sherman (1963), The Grail: From Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol (1963), in Keller, Joseph, Paradigm Shifts in the Grail Scholarship of Jessie Weston and R.S. Loomis: A View from Linguistics, Arthurian Interpretations, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Spring 1987), Published by Scriptorium Press 24. Lot, Francis, The Island of Avalon: An account of the Matter of Britain concerning Geoffrey of Monmouth, Henry Blois and Master Blehis…. the Man who wrote history. Kindle Books 25. Matthews, J. & Knight, G. Temples of the Grail: The Search for the World's Greatest Relic, Llewellyn Publications (8 Jun. 2019) 26. Paton, Lucy Allen, Ph.D. (Radcliffe), Studies in the Fairy Mythology of Arthurian Romance, Boston, U.S.A. Ginn & Company, Publishers (1903) 27. Reichert, Misha Brasher, (2003) Between Courtly Literature and AlAndaluz: Oriental Symbolism and Influences in the Romances of the

Twelfth-century Writer Chrétien de Troyes, University of Minnesota, 2003 28. Roby, John (1872), Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2), Release Date: March 7, 2005, Project Gutenberg Ebook 29. Sharpe, Thomas (Jan 31, 2021) Alchemical Motifs in Chrétien’s Romances, Issuu Digital Publishing Platform 30. Sims-Williams, Patrick, The Early Welsh Arthurian Poems, in The Arthur of the Welsh: Arthurian Legend in Mediaeval Welsh Literature, University of Wales Press; Reprint edition (25 Sept. 2008) 31. Taranu, Catalan (2013), The Elusive Nature of German Heroic Poetry: A Rhizomatic Model, Networks and Neighbours, 1 (1): 44-66, in Latham, John, Sun-Gods and Soviets, Iran & the Caucasus, Vol. 20, No. 2 (2016), Published By: Brill 32. West, M.L. (2007), Indo-European Poetry and Myth, Oxford, in Latham, John, Sun-Gods and Soviets, Iran & the Caucasus, Vol. 20, No. 2 (2016), Published By: Brill 33. Weston, J. L., The Legend of Sir Lancelot du Lac: Studies upon its Origin, Development and Position in the Arthurian Romantic Cycle.

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Image Source I.

II.

King Arthur chasing the White Stag. Illumination from manuscript of Chrétien de Troyes' Erec et Enide (c. 1275) BnF, Manuscrits, Français 24403 fol. 119 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ErecMS-hunt.jpg) Moors in ‘The Arrest of St Aventinus,’ St. Aventin Church, France, 12th Century

III.

IV.

Relief sculptures on the archivolt and lintel of the north portal of Modena Cathedral carved by Wiligelmo in the early 12th century, (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Modena_Cathedral_north_ portal_archivolt_and_lintel.jpg) Crucifixion - plaque from a reliquary - copper and enamel Hildesheim, ca. 1160-1170, At the Musée du Louvre. Included by permission of, Moncaeu on Flickr.com