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                            _Grimm Library_

                                 No. 15

                       THE THREE DAYS' TOURNAMENT
      (_Appendix to No. 12, 'The Legend of Sir Lancelot du Lac'_)




                          _The Grimm Library._
                       (_Crown 8vo. Net Prices._)

  I. GEORGIAN FOLK-TALES. Translated by Marjory Wardrop. _Cr. 8vo, pp._
          xii + 175. 5_s._
  II., III., V. THE LEGEND OF PERSEUS. By Edwin Sidney Hartland, F.S.A.
          3 vols. L1, 7_s._ 6_d._
    Vol. I. THE SUPERNATURAL BIRTH. _Cr. 8vo, pp._ xxxiv + 228 (_not
          sold separately_).
    Vol. II. THE LIFE-TOKEN. _Cr. 8vo, pp._ viii + 445. 12_s._ 6_d._
    Vol. III. ANDROMEDA. MEDUSA. _Cr. 8vo, pp._ xxxvii + 225. 7_s._
          6_d._
  IV., VI. THE VOYAGE OF BRAN, SON OF FEBAL. An Eighth-century Irish
          Saga, now first edited and translated by Kuno Meyer.
    Vol. I. With an Essay upon the Happy Otherworld in Irish Myth, by
          Alfred Nutt. _Cr. 8vo, pp._ xvii + 331. 10_s._ 6_d._
    Vol. II. With an Essay on the Celtic Doctrine of Rebirth, by Alfred
          Nutt. _Cr. 8vo, pp._ xii + 352.  10_s._ 6_d._
  VII. THE LEGEND OF SIR GAWAIN. Studies upon its Original Scope and
          Significance. By Jessie L. Weston, translator of Wolfram von
          Eschenbach's 'Parzival.' _Cr. 8vo, pp._ xiv + 111. 4_s._
  VIII. THE CUCHULLIN SAGA IN IRISH LITERATURE. Being a Collection of
          Stories relating to the Hero Cuchullin, translated from the
          Irish by various Scholars. Compiled and Edited, with
          Introduction and Notes, by Eleanor Hull. _Cr. 8vo, pp._ lxxix
          + 316. 7_s._ 6_d._
  IX., X. THE PRE- AND PROTO-HISTORIC FINNS, both Eastern and Western,
          with the Magic Songs of the West Finns. By the Hon. John
          Abercromby. I., _pp._ xxiv + 363. II., _pp._ xiii + 400. L1,
          1_s._
  XI. THE HOME OF THE EDDIC POEMS. With Especial Reference to the 'Helgi
          Lays,' by Sophus Bugge, Professor in the University of
          Christiania. Revised Edition, with a new Introduction
          concerning Old Norse Mythology. Translated from the Norwegian
          by William Henry Schofield, Instructor in Harvard University.
          _Cr. 8vo, pp._ lxxix + 408. 12_s._ 6_d._
  XII. THE LEGEND OF SIR LANCELOT DU LAC. Studies upon its Origin,
          Development, and Position in the Arthurian Romantic Cycle. By
          Jessie L. Weston. _Cr. 8vo, pp._ xii + 252. 7_s._ 6_d._
  XIII. THE WIFE OF BATH'S TALE. Its Sources and Analogues. By C. F.
          Maynadier. _Pp._ xii + 222. 6_s._
  XIV. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM. The Epic Theme of a Combat between Father and
          Son. A Study of its Genesis and Use in Literature and Popular
          Tradition. By Murray Anthony Potter, A.M. _Pp._ xii + 235.
          6_s._

                         _All rights reserved_




                                  THE
                         Three Days' Tournament


                    A Study in Romance and Folk-Lore

      _Being an Appendix to the Author's 'Legend of Sir Lancelot'_

                                   By
                            Jessie L. Weston
            AUTHOR OF 'THE LEGEND OF SIR GAWAIN' ETC., ETC.


                                 London
                        Published by David Nutt
                       At the Sign of the Phoenix
                               Long Acre
                                  1902

               Edinburgh: Printed by T. and A. Constable




                                PREFACE


The Study comprised in the following pages should, as the title
indicates, be regarded as an Appendix to the Studies on the Lancelot
Legend previously published in the Grimm Library Series. As will be
seen, they not only deal with an adventure ascribed to that hero, but
also provide additional arguments in support of the theory of romantic
evolution there set forth. Should the earlier volume ever attain to the
honour of a second edition, it will probably be found well to include
this Study in the form of an additional chapter; but serious students of
Arthurian romance are unfortunately not so large a body that the speedy
exhaustion of an edition of any work dealing with the subject can be
looked for, and, therefore, as the facts elucidated in the following
pages are of considerable interest and importance to all concerned in
the difficult task of investigating the sources of the Arthurian legend,
it has been thought well to publish them without delay in their present
form.

In the course of this Study I have, as opportunity afforded, expressed
opinions on certain points upon which Arthurian scholars are at issue.
Here in these few introductory words I should like, if possible, to make
clear my own position with regard to the question of Arthurian criticism
as a whole. I shall probably be deemed presumptuous when I say that, so
far, I very much doubt whether we have any one clearly ascertained and
established fact that will serve as a definite and solid basis for the
construction of a working hypothesis as to the origin and development of
this immense body of romance. We all of us have taken, and are taking,
far too much for granted. We have but very few thoroughly reliable
critical editions, based upon a comparative study of all the extant
manuscripts. Failing a more general existence of such critical editions,
it appears impossible to hope with any prospect of success to 'place'
the various romances.[1]

Further, it may be doubted if the true conditions of the problem, or
problems, involved have even yet been adequately realised. The Arthurian
cycle is not based, as is the Charlemagne cycle, upon a solid substratum
of fact, which though modified for literary purposes is yet more or less
capable of identification and rectification; such basis of historic fact
as exists is extremely small, and for critical purposes may practically
be restricted to certain definite borrowings from the early chronicles.

The great body of Arthurian romance took shape and form in the minds of
a people reminiscent of past, hopeful of future, glory, who interwove
with their dreams of the past, and their hopes for the future, the
current beliefs of the present. To thoroughly understand, and to be able
intelligently and helpfully to criticise the Arthurian Legend, it is
essential that we do not allow ourselves to be led astray by what we may
call the 'accidents' of the problem--the moulding into literary shape
under French influence--but rather fix our attention upon the
'essentials'--the radically Celtic and folk-lore character of the
material of which it is composed.

We need, as it were, to place ourselves _en rapport_ with the mind alike
of the conquered and the conquerors. It is not easy to shake ourselves
free from the traditions and methods of mere textual criticism and treat
a question, which is after all more or less a question of scholarship,
on a wider basis than such questions usually demand. Yet, unless I am
much mistaken, this adherence to traditional methods, and consequent
confusion between what is essential and what merely accidental, has
operated disastrously in retarding the progress of Arthurian criticism;
because we have failed to realise the true character of the material
involved, we have fallen into the error of criticising Arthurian romance
as if its beginnings synchronised more or less exactly with its
appearance in literary form. A more scientific method will, I believe,
before long force us to the conclusion that the majority of the stories
existed in a fully developed, coherent, and what we may fairly call a
romantic form for a considerable period before they found literary
shape. We shall also, probably, find that in their gradual development
they owed infinitely less to independent and individual imagination than
they did to borrowings from that inexhaustible stock of tales in which
all peoples of the world appear to have a common share.

Thus I believe that the first two lessons which the student of Arthurian
romance should take to heart are (_a_) the extreme paucity of any
definite critical result, (_b_) the extreme antiquity of much of the
material with which we are dealing.

But there is also a third point as yet insufficiently realised--the
historic factors of the problem. We hear a great deal of the undying
hatred which is supposed to have existed between the Britons and their