ox's hoof 106. The popular creed of Attica, which seems to have delighted in investing the Theban Hercules with much the same absurdities that Northern fable has gathered round the person of Thor, had recourse to a similar invention as the only appropriate means of appeasing this divinity's ravenous appetites. It has accordingly conferred upon him the horn of Amalthæa, the fruit of his victory over the river-god Achelous; and of which the earliest tradition on record has given the popular view of its powers, that it never failed to produce a constant store of food 107. As such, it becomes identified with the Ethiopian table of the sun, mentioned by Herodotus 10s; but in later fictions this idea has been refined into a horn, containing every possible delicacy of the vegetable kingdom, overflowing with all earthly good, and conferring wealth and prosperity upon every one who might chance to possess it 109 106 See Diogenes Laertius, ed. Menage, vol. i. p. 73. 107 See Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg. v. 433. and Pherecydes in Apollod. Bibl. ii. 7. 5. 108 See Herod. iii. 18. Mela, c. 10. (quæ passim apposita sunt, affirmant innasci subinde divinitus): and Solinus, c. 30. 109 See the Scholiast to Lucian's Rhet. Præcept., and Eustathius, as before. The "Navigium" of the same writer contains some curious allusions to different points of popular belief, and which may be compared with the subjects treated of in the text. One of the parties wishes for a set of rings to endow him with the following qualities and advantages: a never-failing store of health; a person invulnerable, invisible, of irresistible charms, and having the concentrated strength of 10,000 men; a power of flying through the air, of entering every dwelling-house strongly secured, and of casting a deep sleep upon whom he chose. Another person in the same piece asks for the wand of Mercury, which is to ensure him an inexhaustible supply of gold. For this wand of wealth and luck, see the Homeric Hymn to Mercury, v. 529; and compare Epict. ap. Arrian. Diss. iii. 20. p. 435. ed. Schweigh., where it is said to convert every thing it touched into gold. This idea of its power found an early circulation in the North; for one of the Glossaries publish ed by Professor Nyerup, in his Symbol. Teut., and certainly not of a later date than the tenth century, translates caduceuma, uunshiligarta. The Vilkina Saga mentions a ring which is to excite affection in the wearer towards the donor, (Müller, p. 233.) and the love-stone of Helen is well-known. Servius (ad Æn.iii. 279.) notices an ointment, prepared by Venus, which had similar powers. The Horny Siegfried becomes invulnerable by bathing in the blood of a slaughtered dragon; and Medea gave Jason an ointment producing the same effect for the space of four-and-twenty hours. (Apollod. Bibl. i. 9. 23.) Orvar Odd had a kirtel which was to preserve him against death by fire or water, hunger or the sword, so long as he never turned his back upon a foe. Müller, 533. This necessarily brings us to the history of the holy Graal", or a sacred cup, which in the house of king Pecheur "appeared daily at the hour of repast, in the hands of a lady, who carried it three times round the table, which was immediately replenished with all the delicacies the guests could desire." The origin of this miraculous vessel, and the manner of its transmission to Europe, are thus related by Robert Borron". 116 The connexion between these symbols, a born and a cup, will be apparent, on recollecting that the former was the most ancient species of drinking-vessel both among Greeks and Barbarians. See Athen. xi. c. 51. Xenophon also notices the application of horns to the same purpose among the Thracians. Anab. vii. 2. 23: and it will be needless to offer any examples from the well-known customs of Western Europe. It will also be evident why both these utensils should be chosen as the types of fecundity, abundance, and vivification, when we remember that both were the receptacles of that element, which was either the symbol of life, (Cans rò vygov rúpov, Proclus in Timæum, p. 318,) or the principal cooperating power in generation (uveyri yàg yivious....rò dag. Porphyrius de Antro Nymph. c. 17.) Hence the cornucopia was bestowed upon all those deities who presided over fertility or human prosperity; upon Achelous and the Nile, Bonus Eventus and Annona, from their share in fostering the fruits of the earth; upon Tyche or Fortuna, the Agatho-dæmon, the tutelary Genii of towns or persons, (such as the Roman emperors,) the Lares, &c. from their beneficial aid in the direction of human affairs. A cornucopia of good fortune has already been noticed in the possession of the Northern Elves or Fays; and one of the Nymphs in the celebrated relievo of Callimachus leads the way with this identical symbol. On the same principle, we meet with a Demeter Poteriophorus, and a Rhea Craterophorus, the Bona Deæ and Magna Matres of the ancient world; and the modius of Serapis, the giver and the receiver, is clearly referable to the same source. (Serapidis capiti mo dius superpositus, quia indicet vitam mortalibus frugum largitate præberi. Rufinus Hist. Eccles. ii. 23.) For further illustration of this copious subject, see Mr. Creuzer's Dionysus, sive Commentationes Academicæ de Rerum Bacchicarum Orphicarumque Originibus et Causis; Heidelberga 1808. 11 Mr. Ritson has declared Robert Borron to be "a man of straw." But as he has offered no authority for such an assertion, the mere auris pa of this critic is not likely to have much weight beyond his school. The Vatican manuscript, No. 1687, commences with these words, "Mesir Robert de Boron, qui cheste estore translata de Latin en Romance, par le commandement de sainte eglise:" and no one can for a moment doubt the influence of the Romish priesthood, in the peculiar colouring given to the narrative. Mr. Ritson has also been a strenuous opponent of all such declarations as claim a Latin, Greek, or Arabic original for the subject-matter recorded. There may be occasional grounds for scepticism on this point; but the sweeping incredulity which rejects every assertion of the kind, is equally prejudicial to a right knowledge of the subject, with the easy faith it affects to despise. know the mutations inflicted upon the "Seven Wise Masters" prior to its receiving an English dress; a variety of Italian tales and French fabliaux are of Arabic or Oriental origin; Greek fable must have been the immediate source of Alexander's story; the expedition of Attila, and Amis and Amillion still exist in Latin verse; and "Walther [of Aquitain's] and Hildegund's flight from Attila, was sung in Latin hexameters, on the model of Virgil and Lucan, by Eckhart, a priest of St. Galle We "The day on which the Saviour of the world suffered, death was destroyed, and our life restored: on that day there were few who believed on him; but there was a knight named Joseph of Arimathæa, (a fine city in the land of Aromat). In this city Joseph was born, but had come to Jerusalem seven years before our Lord was crucified, and had embraced the Christian faith; but did not dare to profess it for fear of the wicked Jews. He was full of wisdom, free from envy and pride, and charitable to the poor. This Joseph was at Jerusalem with his wife and son, who was also named Joseph. His father's family crossed the sea to that place which is now called England, but was then called Great Britain; and crossed it 'sans aviron au pan de sa chemise Joseph had been in the house where Jesus Christ took his last supper with his apostles; he there found the plate off which the Son of God had eaten; he possessed himself of it, carried it home, and made use of it to collect the blood which flowed from his side, and his other wounds; and this plate is called the Saint Graal." This, however, is only the Breton or British account of the Saint Graal. The German romancers have followed a different version of its history, and derive their knowledge of the subject, though ' 112 (An.973)." The Anglo-Saxon fragment of Judith was not taken directly from the Apocryphal narrative. The variations indeed from this document are, generally speaking, of such a kind as any translator might be supposed to indulge in, without our having recourse to another original. But in one passage we meet with a very distinct mention of a musquito-net; an article of furniture not specified in the Book of Judith, which could not have been in use in these Northern realms, and of which the account must have travelled from the countries situated on the Mediterranean Sea. The original legend or romance must hence have been composed in a Southern dialect and those who remember the alleged proficiency of the Anglo-Saxon monks in Greek, may be induced to fix their election on that language. The immediate source from whence the Scop derived his narrative, is of course beyond our inquiry; but such a fact will teach us circumspection in forming any general theory as to the transmission of romantic fictions. Apollonius of Tyre, another Greek romance, also exists in Anglo-Saxon prose. 112 This account has been extracted from a version of Borron's prologue, in the British Bibliographer, vol. i. The translator has there rendered "sans aviron,-without oars." The original has been given in the text from Roquefort's Glossary: it contains no verbal obscurity, but the allusion is not intelligible to the writer of this note. 113 indirectly, from an Oriental source. The Titurel and Parcifal of Wolfram von Eschenbach are respectively devoted to the discovery and the quest of this miraculous vessel: and in both we find a similar account of its powers to that given in the narrative of Robert Borron. The circumstances, however, and the agents which have been connected with it, are wholly different from those contained in the rival version. The name of Arthur is more sparingly introduced than in the Western fiction; and the theatre of its most important events is laid in either Asia or Africa. The immediate source of Eschenbach's poem was a Provençal romance written by one Kyot or Guiot. Of this writer nothing further appears to be known, than the memorial of his labours preserved in the Parcifal of his German translator, and a notice of his strictures upon Chretien de Troyes", who, like most of the Norman troveurs, seems to have drawn his materials from an Armorican source. From Wolfram's poem we gather, that Master Kyot obtained his first knowledge of the Graal from a manuscript he discovered at Toledo. This volume was written in a heathen character, of which the troubadour was compelled to make himself master; and the baptismal rite enabled him to accomplish this arduous task without the aid of necromancy. The author of this mysterious record was a certain heathen astronomer, Flegetanis by name, who on the mother's side traced up his genealogy to king Solomon; but having a Saracen father, he had adhered to his paternal faith, and worshiped a calf. Flegetanis was deeply versed in all the motions of the heavenly bodies; and 113 These notices of Eschenbach's poems have been collected from Mr. Gorres' preface to Lohengrin, an old German romance, founded on the same fiction as the Chevelere Assigne. (See vol. ii. 151.) 114 The language of Eschenbach is thus given by Mr. Görres from the printed edition of the Parcifal : i. Ob von Troys meister Christian, e. Since Master Christian of Troyes has done this tale an injustice, Kyot may well be angry, who has presented us with the right narrative. in the hallowed volume deposited at Toledo, he had carefully inscribed the result of his nocturnal studies. But the book contained nothing more than the astronomer had really read most mysteriously depicted in the skies". Even the name of the Graal was there emblazoned, together with the important fact, that a band of spirits had left it behind them upon earth, as they winged their way to their celestial abodes. The acquisition of this knowledge stimulated Kyot to further inquiries; and he proceeded to search in Latin books for the name of that people which had been considered worthy of guarding the Graal. He perused the chronicles of Brittany, France and Ireland, without much success; but in the annals of Anjou he found the whole story recounted: he there read a complete history of Mazadan and his race, how Titurel brought the Graal to Amfortas, whose sister Herzelunde became the wife of Gamuret and the mother of Parcifal. This is clearly borrowed from the proeme of Kyot. Divested of its extraordinary colouring, we may receive it as amounting to this: that Kyot was indebted to an Arabic original for some of his details, and that the rest were collected from European records of the same fiction. The truth of this is supported by the internal evidence. The scene for the most part is not only laid in the East, but a large proportion of the names are of decidedly Oriental origin. The Saracens are always spoken of with consideration; Christian knights unhesitatingly enroll themselves under the banner of the Caliph; no trace of religious animosities is to be found between the followers of the Crescent and the Cross; and the Arabic appellations of the seven planets are thus distinctly enumerated: Zwal (Zuhael), 115 In the work already referred to, Mr. Görres has endeavoured to prove that Flegetanis must have had a Greek original before him. Of this, or at least of the adoption of Greek traditions, there is the most convincing proof in what is said of the aspis Eccidæmon and the fish Galeotes. The latter is intimately connected with the Northern fiction relative to the Nicors, so frequently mentioned in Beowulf. |