Arthurian Chronicles: Roman de Brut. Wace
are mainly important as testimony to the Celtic element in Arthurian romance, and especially to Layamon's use of current Welsh Arthurian tradition. The large variety of magical possessions assigned to Arthur is also a notable indication of the great emphasis that Welsh legend laid upon his mythological attributes and his character as otherworld adventurer.
[The above facts have been established and discussed by Professor A.C.L. Brown in his article on the Round Table (p. 199, note 1) cited below in Excursus II.; also in Iwain, Boston, 1903, p. 79, note 1; Modern Philology, I., 5–8; Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, XXV., 25 ff. See also the notes on the lines cited from Layamon in Sir Frederic Madden's edition of the Brut. For other magic possessions of Arthur, see below, Excursus II.]
EXCURSUS II.—THE ROUND TABLE
(Wace, Brut, vs. 9994 ff., 10555, 13675; Layamon, vs. 22736 ff.)
Our earliest authority for the story of the Round Table is Wace. He and Layamon agree in calling it a tale of the Britons, and in saying that Arthur had it made to prevent rivalry as to place among his vassals when they sat at meat. Layamon, however, expands the few lines that Wace devotes to the subject into one of his longest additions to his source, by introducing the story of a savage fight for precedence at a court feast, which was the immediate cause for fashioning the Round Table, a magical object. Ancient sources prove that the Celts had a grievous habit of quarrelling about precedence at banquets, probably because it was their custom to bestow the largest portion of meat upon the bravest warrior. It was also their practice to banquet seated in a circle with the most valiant chieftain of the company placed in the middle, possibly owing to the circular form of their huts, possibly for the sake of avoiding the disputes that so commonly disturbed their feastings. The Round Table, accordingly, is to be regarded as a Pan-Celtic institution of early date, and as one of the belongings that would naturally be attributed by popular tradition to any peculiarly distinguished leader. Layamon's version so closely parallels early Celtic stories of banquet fights, and has so barbaric a tone, as to make it evident that he is here recounting a folk-tale of pure Celtic origin, which must have been connected with Arthur before his time, and probably before that of Wace; for this story was undoubtedly one of those "many fables" which Wace says the Britons told about the Round Table, but which he does not incorporate into his narrative.
[See A.C.L. Brown, The Round Table before Wace in Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, VII. (Boston, 1900), 183 ff.; L.F. Mott, Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, XX, 231 ff.; J.L. Weston, as above (p. xv.), pp. 883 ft.]
EXCURSUS III.—THE HOPE OF BRITAIN
(Wace, Brut, 13681 ff.; Layamon, 23080 ff., 28610 ff.)
The belief that Arthur would return to earth, which was firmly established among the Britons by the beginning of the twelfth century, does not in early records appear clothed in any definite narrative form. In later sources it assumes several phases, the most common of which is that recorded by Layamon that Arthur had been taken by fays from his final battle-field to Avalon, the Celtic otherworld, whence after the healing of his mortal wound he would return to earth. Layamon's story conforms essentially to an early type of Celtic fairy-mistress story, according to which a valorous hero, in response to the summons of a fay who has set her love upon him, under the guidance of a fairy messenger sails over seas to the otherworld, where he remains for an indefinite time in happiness, oblivious of earth. It is easy to see that the belief that Arthur was still living, though not in this world, might gradually take shape in such a form as this, and that his absence from his country might be interpreted as his prolonged sojourn in the distant land of a fairy queen, who was proffering him, not the delights of her love, but healing for his wounds, in order that when he was made whole again he might return "to help the Britons." Historic, mythical, and romantic tradition have combined to produce the version that Layamon records. Geoffrey of Monmouth (xi. 2), writing in the mock role of serious historian and with a tendency to rationalisation, says not a word of the wounded king's possible return to earth. Wace, with characteristic caution, affirms that he will not commit himself as to whether the Britons, who say that Arthur is still in Avalon, speak the truth or not. Here, as in the story of the Round Table, it is Layamon who has preserved for us what was undoubtedly the form that the belief had already assumed in Celtic story, through whatever medium it may have passed before it reached his hands.
In the Vita Merlini,[21] a Latin poem attributed by some scholars to Geoffrey of Monmouth, a curious version of Arthur's stay in Avalon is given. The wounded king is taken after the battle of Camlan to the Isle of Apples (for such was understood to be the meaning of the name Avalon), which is the domain of a supernatural maiden, wise and beautiful, Morgen by name, who understands the healing art, and who promises the king that he shall be made whole again if he abides long with her. This is the first mention in literature of Morgan la Fée, the most powerful fay of French romance, and regularly the traditional healer of Arthur's wounds in Avalon.
The Argante of Layamon's version is doubtless the same being as Morgana, for whose name, which in any of its current spellings had the appearance of a masculine proper name, Layamon either may have substituted a more familiar Welsh name, Argante, as I have already shown he might easily have done (Studies in the Fairy Mythology of Arthurian Romance, Boston, 1903, pp. 26–28), or, as Professor J.L. Bruce, with equal plausibility, has recently suggested, he may have used a corruption of one form of the fay's name, Morgant (Modern Language Notes, March, 1911, pp. 65–68).
[I have discussed the various versions of Arthur's stay in Avalon in Studies in Fairy Mythology, chapter III. On Avalon, see id., p. 40, note 2. On the early belief in Arthur's return to earth, see Geoffrey of Monmouth (Everyman's Library), Introduction, p. 10.]
NOTES:
[1] i.e., Paris, in the Ile de France. Vs. 10440 ff.
[2] Vs. 16530 ff.
[3] Roman de Rou, vs. 6415 ff.
[4] Roman de Brut, vs. 10038 ff.
[5] Id., vs. 7733 ff.
[6] Id., vs. 11472 ff. Cf. for other examples: Arthur's conquest of Denmark, Historia, ix. 11; Brut, vs. 10123 ff.; Arthur's return to Britain from France, Historia, ix. 11; Brut, vs. 10427 ff.; Arthur's coronation, Historia, ix. 12 ff.; Brut, vs. 10610 ff.
[7] Vs. 13149 ff.
[8] See Excursus II.
[9] Vs. 11048 ff.
[10] See Excursus III.
[11] Vs. 1 ff.
[12] Layamon's statement that he "read books" at Arnley is interpreted to mean that he read the services in the church.
[13] The poem is written in part in alliterative lines on the Anglo-Saxon system, in part in rhymed couplets of unequal length.
[14] Vs. 18086 ff.
[15] Vs. 20110 ff. More famous speeches still are Arthur's comparison of Childric the Dane to a fox (vs. 20827 ff.) and his taunt over his fallen foes, Baldulf and Colgrim (vs. 31431 ff.).
[16] Vs. 12972 ff.
[17] Vs. 27992 ff.
[18] Vs. 19887 ff.
[19] discussion of this point see J.L. Weston, in Melanges de philologie romane offerts ŕ M. Wilmotte, Paris, 1910, pp. 801, 802.
[20]