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  ARTHURIAN ROMANCES

  Unrepresented in Malory's
  "Morte d'Arthur"


  _No. III_

  Guingamor, Lanval, Tyolet,
  Le Bisclaveret.




  ARTHURIAN ROMANCES

  UNREPRESENTED IN MALORY'S

  "MORTE D'ARTHUR"


  I. SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT.

  A Middle-English Romance retold in Modern Prose, with Introduction
  and Notes, by JESSIE L. WESTON. With Designs by M. M. CRAWFORD. 2nd
  Edition, 1909. 2s. net.


  II. TRISTAN AND ISEULT.

  Rendered into English from the German of Gottfried of Strassburg
  by JESSIE L. WESTON. With Designs by CAROLINE WATTS. Two vols. 4th
  Edition, 1910. 4s. net.


  III. GUINGAMOR, LANVAL, TYOLET, LE BISCLAVERET.

  Four Lays rendered into English Prose from the French of Marie de
  France and others by JESSIE L. WESTON. With Designs by CAROLINE WATTS.
  2nd Edition, 1910. 2s. net.


  IV. MORIEN.

  Translated for the first time from the original Dutch by JESSIE L.
  WESTON. With Frontispiece and Designed Title-Page by CAROLINE WATTS.
  1901. 2s. net.


  V. LE BEAUS DESCONNUS. CLIGES.

  Two Old English Metrical Romances rendered into prose by JESSIE L.
  WESTON. With Designs by CAROLINE M. WATTS. 1902. 2s. net.


  VI. SIR GAWAIN AT THE GRAIL CASTLE.

  Three Versions from the Conte del Graal, Diu Crone, and the Prose
  Lancelot. By JESSIE L. WESTON. 1903. 2s. net.


  VII. SIR GAWAIN AND THE LADY OF LYS.

  Translated for the first time from Wauchier de Denain's section of
  the Conte del Graal by JESSIE L. WESTON. With Designs by MORRIS M.
  WILLIAMS. 1907. 2s. net.




  [Illustration]

  Guingamor Lanval Tyolet Bisclaveret



  [Illustration]

  FoUR LAIS RENDERED INTo ENgLISH PRoSE
  FRoM THE FRENcH oF MARIE DE FRANcE
  AND oTHERS BY JESSIE L. WESToN.

  WITH DESIGNS BY CARoLINE WATTS



  [Illustration]

  PUBLISHED BY DAVID NUTT AT THE SIGN OF
  THE PHOENIX, LONG ACRE, LONDON.   MCMX


  _Second Impression, 1910_




Preface


The previous volumes which have been published in this series have
contained versions belonging to what we may call the _conscious_ period
of romantic literature; the writers had not only a story to tell, but
had also a very distinct feeling for the literary form of that story
and the characterisation of the actors in it. In this present volume we
go behind the work of these masters of their craft to that great mass
of floating popular tradition from which the Arthurian epic gradually
shaped itself, and of which fragments remain to throw here and there an
unexpected light on certain features of the story, and to tantalise us
with hints of all that has been lost past recovery.

All who have any real knowledge of the Arthurian cycle are well aware
that the Breton _lais_, representing as they do the popular tradition
and folk-lore of the people among whom they were current, are of value
as affording indications of the original form and meaning of much of
the completed legend, but of how much or how little value has not yet
been exactly determined. An earlier generation of scholars regarded
them as of great, perhaps too great, importance. They were inclined
indiscriminately to regard the Arthurian romances as being but a series
of connected _lais_. A later school practically ignores them, and
sees in the Arthurian romances the conscious production of literary
invention, dealing with materials gathered from all sources, and
remodelled by the genius of a Northern French poet.

I believe, myself, that the eventual result of criticism will be to
establish a position midway between these two points, and to show that
though certain of the early Celticists exaggerated somewhat, they
were, in the main, correct--their theory did not account for all the
varied problems of the Arthurian story, but it was not for that to be
lightly dismissed. The true note of the Arthurian legend is evolution
_not_ invention; the roots of that goodly growth spring alike from
history, myth, and faery; whether the two latter were not, so far
as the distinctively _Celtic_ elements of the legend are concerned,
originally _one_, is a question which need not here be debated.[1]

[1] In this connection, _cf._ Mr. Nutt's "Fairy Mythology of
Shakespeare"--Popular Studies, No. 6.

This much is quite certain; while the mythic element in the Arthurian
story is yet a matter for discussion, while we are as yet undecided
whether Arthur was, or was not, identical with the _Mercurius Artusius_
of the Gauls; whether he was, or was not, a _Culture Hero_; whether
Gawain does, or does not, represent the same