^./^.^^^^ 
 
 
 (i")!! IThe JfciuMul of ariiil;!)!: 
 
 ITS ORIGIN IN MYTH AND ITS DEVELOPMENT 
 IN ROMANCE, 
 
 BY 
 
 RDWAlll) TYIUIELL LKlTll. LL.n. 
 
 Read before the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 
 April 9th 1868. 
 
 i'omban 
 
 PRINTFD AT Till: 
 
 EDUCATION SOCIETY'S PRESS, BYCULLA 
 
 1868. 
 
K 
 
 
\-" l\jl^ Vlc^ 
 
 ON THE LEGEND OF TRISTAN. 
 
 Amon(; tlie themes of ineiliicval Romance few possess such striking 
 elements of poetical interest as the Legend of Tristan. I fear, however, 
 that it is not so widely known as it deserves to he, and I may therefor.^ 
 he pardoned for hrietly giving those main outlines of the story which are 
 common to most of the versions that we have. 
 
 Tristan of Lyonesse, the hero, is royally descended. The mvsterious 
 gloom, which shrouds the very threshold of his life, appears prophetic 
 of the tragedy ahout to he unfolded. His mother, on learning that his 
 father has fallen in hattle, dies in giving him birth- Kept in ignorance 
 of his parentage, the orphan Prince is secretly brought np by Rual, a 
 trusty follower, and educated by him in all knightly accomplishments. 
 When grown to man's estate, Tristan presents himself at the court of 
 his childless uncle King Mark of (.'ornwall, who, on hearing his history, 
 adopts him as a son. To save his country from paying a shameful 
 tribute of men and money to the neighbouring Irish, Tristan slays 
 jVIorold, their champion, in single combat. The youthful victor, how- 
 ever, at tlie same time receives a dangerous wound from the poisoned 
 weapon of his foe, which no native art can cure. He, therefore, absents 
 himself from his uncle's court, and lands disguised in Ireland, where he 
 is fortunately cured by Isolde, surnamed the Fair, daughter of the Irish 
 King. Tristan eventually returns to Cornwall, and paints the charms 
 of the Princess in such glowing colours, that Mark resolves to make hei 
 his Queen. Tristan undertakes to woo heron behalf of his uncle, and 
 journeys to Ireland for that purpose. On his arrival at the Irish conn, 
 he learns that the King has promised his daughter's hand to the man who 
 should rid the land of a terrible dragon. Tristan succeeds in killing the 
 monster, and claims the prize in his uncle's name, llie King gives his 
 consent, and Tristan sets sail with Isolde the Fair for Cornwall. On the 
 voyage they both unwittingly drink of a Magic Potion, entrusted to the 
 care of Brangaene a waiting-woman, and destined for King Mark. 
 This Potion possesses the property of making those who partake of it 
 
4 OX 'J'HK LEGEND OF TKLSTAX. 
 
 deeply enamoured of each other ; and it is upon this effect on Tristan 
 and Isolde that the whole story turns. Isolde becomes the wife of 
 Mark, but continues devoted to Sir Tristan. Mark discovers the 
 attachment, and persecutes the lovers, who practice various deceptions 
 in order to effect a meeting, and even succeed in making their escape 
 together. Isolde the Fair afterwards returns to her husband, wliile 
 Tristan, driven to despair, weds another Isolde, named "of the White 
 Hand." Our hero vainly endeavours to forget his first love in deeds of 
 reckless daring. On again receiving a grievous hurt in battle, he sends 
 for her who alone can work his cure. His messenger is instructed to 
 hoist, on his return, white sails should his errand prove successful, and 
 black sails if the reverse. Isolde of the White Hand, jealous of her 
 rival, tells Tristan that she descries a black sail on the horizon, though 
 in reality the sail is a white one. Bereft of hope he dies, and Isolde 
 the Fair, finding on her arrival that her aid has come too late, 
 dies also, of grief, by his side. King ISIark, when he hears of the 
 Magic Potion and its unhappy effects, causes the lovers to be buried in 
 one tomb, on which he plants a rose and a vine. These afterwards 
 grow up so closely entwined one with another that none can ever 
 sej)arate them. 
 
 This legend, which struck the key-note of Romance, was, from its 
 very nature, likely to captivate the imagination of medifcval writers. Sir 
 Tristan's knightly prowess and Isolde's queenly beauty were the repre- 
 sentative types of the heroes and heroines of chivalry. Their ill-starred 
 loves formed the favourite theme of the poet, while their constancy 
 iinder every misfortune became proverbial throughout Europe. The 
 thoroughly human interest which attaches to the legend alone makes 
 it an attractive study to the modern reader ; yet its history is no less 
 instructive and curious, as I shall attempt to show in the i)resent jiaper. 
 Perhaps the most remarkable feature of cultivated minds at the present 
 day is the intense interest with Avhich they follow every attempt to 
 clear the early history of man from the mists which have hitherto 
 shrouded it from modern gaze. All l)ranehes of knowledge are being 
 pressed into the service of the scientific explorer, but few ecpial Com- 
 parative Mythology in importance. The history of the Tristan Legend 
 is, I venture to say, an interesting contrib\ition to that science. The 
 germ of the tale is to be found in one of a class of myths widely 
 (liR'nscd over the old world, and (o it a gradual aeerction of nivlhs. 
 
ON THK LEUKNb uF TItlSTAN. 
 
 belonging to other classes, appears to have taken place. These various 
 materials were subsequently moulded by Ronuuicc into the legend we 
 have l)ef()re us. In view of these fiicts, I pro|)o.seto de;d with its early 
 invtliie origin, its development in niediteval Romance, and its reappear- 
 ance in modern Drama. 
 
 German writers, such as Vo.i Groote,* Mone.f and Kurtz^ have 
 •attem|)ted to elncid:ite the origin of the leg.Mid by com]>;iring it with 
 various ancient myths. The singular reseniblinces, wiiich were thus 
 brought to light, led them to trace it to a common source in the deifica- 
 
 tion of the pow ers of natnre. _ The earliest objects of mythological - 
 
 worship were Un([Uestionably pt-rgonifipntiffiis^ q\' tlio p1i!r.nnm(^nn nlwprv- , 
 
 able in the physical universe. ' Nature's mysterious powers, beforcyv 
 which man found himself so helpless, would l)e worshipped as good or • 
 as evil divinities, whose aid was to b^ supplicated or whose anger was 
 to bo averted, according as they were likely to assist or thwart his ^ 
 undertakiiigs. There gradually arose by the side of these another class 
 of deities. Mortals, who during life had been distinguished for their • 
 pliysical or their mental ({ualities, were raised after death by the » 
 popular imagination into heroes. In course of time these latter, from - 
 being looked upon as the guardians of the national fortunes, were con- , 
 founded withthcjcarlier gods, and became in their turn objects ofj jjviiu 
 
 worship; The wondrous legends associated with their names in popular/ 
 tradition thus grew up into the myths of a national Pan theon. I n these 
 myths we find the relations of human life employed to symbolize the 
 operations of nature as sh wn forth in the seasons and the movements 
 of the heavenly bodies. Such fables were embodied by the priesthood 
 into Religious jNIysteries, ^ which it was not improbably sought to 
 preserve esoteric truths from" the gaze of the vulgar under the veil of 
 allegory. Most prominent among these truths would be the close 
 relation between the material and spiritual worlds, the struggle between 
 good and evil, and the existence of a future state. 
 
 * Von Groote. Tristan, von Meister Gotjrit von Strassburg, mit dcr Fortset- 
 zung des Meisters Ulrich von Thurheim : Berlin, G. Reimer, 1821. 
 
 t MoxE. Einleituwj in C. von Groote s Ausjabe von Tristan und Isolde. Also 
 Uebcr die Sage von Tristan, etc. Heidelberg, 1822. 
 
 X Kurtz. Tristan iind Isjlde, Gedicht von Gottfried von Strassbiirg: Stuttgart, 
 Becher, 18 17. 
 2t 
 
6 ON THE LEGEND OP TRISTAK". 
 
 In the Mysteries the departure of Summer, the gloomy reigii of 
 Winter, and the approacli of Spring were celebrated almost universally 
 Tinder the allegory of a beautiful youth, the Sun-god, violently slain, and 
 mourned by his true love Nature until he is at length restored to life. 
 The Egyptians symbolized this by the murder of Osiris at the hand of 
 his brother Typhon, who flung the corpse of his ^^ctim, enclosed in a 
 chest, into the river Nile. After a sorrowful search, his consort Isi3 
 found it, and succeeded in bringing her lord to life again. Osiris be- 
 comes the King of Amenthe, the realm of the dead, where Isis under the 
 name of Nephthys shares his throne for half the year. Hindu !Mytho- 
 logy describes the death and resurrection of the god Kama in a similar 
 manner. The Phoenicians yearly commemorated the untimely end ol 
 Thammuz on the banks of the stream, whose waters were said to have 
 been stained purpfe with his blood. Hence arose, also, the Grecian 
 fable of the fixir Adonis, whose loss A])hrodite so passionately mourned, 
 that Persephone^ Queen of Hades-, restored him to her for a portion of 
 the year. In Phrygia we meet with Cybele's wild grief for Atys her 
 shepherd lover, her wanderings in search of him and his return once 
 more to life. The people of Cius in Bythinia held sacred the memory 
 of Ilylas, carried beneath the stream by nym|jhs enamoured of hi* 
 beauty. Festivals, also, were held in Greece in honoirr of Dionysus- 
 Zagreus the Wine-god, who, having been cruelly torn in pieces by the 
 Titans, came to life again, and sought his mother Semele in the 
 Underworld. Similar tales were told of the tragic dcatlis of LinuS;., 
 Ilyacinthus, Narcissus and Heracles, of the Tliracian Corybas, of thc^ 
 Cabiric Esmun, of Melicertcs at (yorinth, jNlitras in Persia, and of the 
 Scandina\'ian Baldur and Sigurd. The allegory was, also, sometimes 
 presented xmdcr a different form, as in the rape of Kore by Phito. 
 or in the touching tales of Orpheus and Eui'ydice, of Admetus and 
 Alceste. 
 
 Besides this talc of the suflfering god, there is also another, which i.s 
 often found interwoven Avith it, and which belongs to the same family 
 of solar myth. I refer to that of the god or licro triumphant in 
 combat with giatgts and dragons. Thus, ])robably also, as some sug- 
 gest, were connnemorated tliC sanguinary struggles cauSed l)v dynastic 
 changes, foreign invasions, and the inlrodnction of new religions. Wc 
 see, however, underlying such tales, the deeper truth of the great conflict 
 betuecn good aiul evil, in which the former iij ultimatolv the victor, lu 
 
dN^ TflE LEO. END oP TRISTAN. 7 
 
 l^igypl war was wagoil by Sob tbe scrj)ont and liis giants against Ophioii 
 the Good Principle ; in India by Vrita against Indra ; in Persia by 
 Ahrinian against Orniuzd ; in Greece by the Titans against the Gods ; 
 and in Scandinavia by Fenrir against Odin and the iEsir. Of a similar 
 character is the terrible vengeance wrought by Uie Huns on the Bnr- 
 gnndians, with which the " Nibehingcnlicd" so tragically ends. The 
 same idea is expressed in the tale of the valiant hero rescuing a 
 beauteous maiden from the power of a malignant monster, and receiving 
 her hand as his reward. I will merely point, for examide, to the legends 
 told of the Egyptian Perses or the serpent Typhon, of Perseus and 
 Andromeda, of Apollo and the Python, and of Theseus and Ariadne, 
 in which we may notice the singular parallels that even many of the 
 names suggest. * 
 
 \J[n the TristJirrtegntd ^(TTecognise traces of the same old fable 
 of the Sji^gaiL-^Khese yearly death the great goddess Earth or Nature 
 mourns. At the same time it is allowed, that the hero himself may well 
 have been, nay probably was, an historical character, whose memory 
 continued to live in the traditions of his country. Tristan, like Perseus 
 and other ancient heroes, by slaying a monster, wins a Princess as his 
 prize. His love for the two Isoldes resembles the double union dV 
 Adonis to Aphrodite and Persephone, and of Osiris to Isis and Nephth-\ 
 on Earth and in Hades. It is also worthy of notice, that as Osiris 
 said to have abolished the custom of eating human flesh, so too 
 the victory of Theseus over the Minotaur, and of Tristan over Morold 
 put an end to a tribute of human beings, — stories supposed to signify 
 the abolition of human sacrifice from the national worship. The 
 incident of the Black Sail is told in the Theseus legend in connection 
 with the fate of the ag ed /Egeu s. A woman's bitter jealousy of 
 her rival is the indirect cause of the deaths both of Tristan and 
 Siegfried. The sad search of Isis for Osiris, of Nepte for her daughter 
 Isis, of Dcmeter for Persephone, and the mourning of Nanna for Baldnr 
 find parallels in the wanderings of Rual after his fosterchild Tristan, 
 
 * Kurtz (p. Ix.) points ont, that the dragon Vlidan, which appears in 
 the lejreud of " Wigalois," bears a name curiously resembling Pj-thon and 
 Tyjihcn. 
 
8 ON TIIF, LEGEND OF TRISTAX. 
 
 and the lovinjj journey of Isolde the Fair to save the life of her 
 dying lord. INIiich of the original Sun-myth is doubtless no longer 
 to be found in Romance, more especially that portion which relates to 
 the hero's return to life. The possibility, however, of Tristan's life 
 being saved by the magical skill of the first Isolde may be said to recall, 
 in some degree, the promised resurrection of Osiris if his scattered 
 limbs be reunited, and that of Baldur the Beautiful should all things 
 weep for him. ' / 
 
 The story of Tristan's birth and childliood belongs to the widely- 
 spread myth of the Royal Foundling, who is secretly nurtured, and 
 afterwards happily reinstated in his rights. The sad circumstances 
 under which he first sees the light arc more or less similar to those 
 related of Osiris and his two sons Horns and Harpocrates, of Ilagen in 
 the Siegfried legend, and others, such as the Teutonic Wolfdiedrich, the 
 French Ogier le Danois and the British Launcelot. The hero's ignorance 
 of his parentage is reproduced in the tales of Cyrus, Siegfried, Otnit, 
 Reiuhold, and the twin founders of Rome ; while Rual acts the same 
 fatherly part by Tristan that Mithradates, Faustulus, Merau and 
 others do by their infant charges. 
 
 The last class of myths, which I intend to mention in connection with 
 
 the Tristan Legend, is that to which the Magic Potion belongs. Magic 
 
 Potions in Myth appear of different kinds. Some confer the gifts of / 
 
 immortality, of beauty, or of knowledge ; others stimulate the passion of / 
 
 love, producft madness or oblivion, enervate the j)hysical powers, or 
 
 heal deadly hurts. The earliest, and perhaps the best known, are the 
 
 ^ various drinksof_thit-g <jd t) in nU -aTTricrit mythologies. We have tlie 
 
 vFr Vedic Soma or Amrita, the Iranian Ilaoma, the Greek Nectar and 
 
 KV\\i \ Ambrosia, and the Teutonic Mead, in all of which Aryan myths the 
 
 \ original idea of the cloud-water lies. The sacramental chalice of the 
 
 'AyuOos Aaifio}v in the Dionysia, the bowl of Isls, the Water of Life of 
 
 Persian fable, Lethe's stream, the KvKfcov of the Eleusinian neophyte, 
 
 and the enchanted cup of Circe are all akin to those divine draughts. 
 
 The Celtic race possessed other myths of this class in the world-famous 
 
 Holy Graal, which had the power of even restoring the dead to life ; 
 
 the golden basons of Bran the Blessed and Peredur ; and Tsdiesin's 
 
 wondrous Brew of Science. Meditcval Magic (liri\t>(I its Kiivir Vita\ 
 
 its love-philtres and wilehcs' caiildiou from iJk' same source ; whWc 
 
ox TTIE LEOKND OF TRTSTAK. 9 
 
 in iho Sigmil Lojjoiul wo meet with n mythic draught, the OiniiDtisa'l, 
 eniployod to make the hero forget his love.* 
 
 Leaving aside all speculation as to the cause of the singular family 
 likeness which appears in these myths, wo are next met hy the question. 
 Whence jloea the -TiktaiiXcgcuiL c ome to » » ? There has been much 
 diversity of opinion on this point- Some liave maintained, on the 
 authority of early chroniclers, that, at the time of the Saxon descents into 
 Britain, great numbers of the British took refuge in Armorica, hence 
 ralltd IJretagne or Brittany, and carried with them the legend, among 
 their old traditions, into their new home. According to others it was 
 introduced from England into Normandy and Brittany by Anglo-Norman 
 Minstrels, at the time when those provinces belonged to the English 
 crown. A third hypothesis makes it indigenous to Brittany. There 
 can, however, b e no d oubt as to its British source. Tristan himself 
 figures in the ^VelsU--TJia<S^^^^lTcllglve a mythical history of Britain 
 from the earliest times down to the VII century of our era."|' According 
 to that work, the three great swine-herds of Britain were Pryderi son 
 of Pwvll, Col son of Collvrewi, and Trystan son of Tallwch. Trystan, 
 while tending the swine of ^March (Mark), falls in love with Essyllt 
 (Isolde), the wife of the latter. ^March and his companions, of whom 
 Arthur is one, conduct an expedition against Trystan to recover the 
 swine, but without success. Trystan was also one of the three heralds 
 whose mandates were law, and one of the three crowned chieftains 
 famed for their inflexible will. He was, lastly, one of the three illustrious 
 warriors who had the conduct of the mystic rites at Arthur's court. 
 Essyllt herself was one of the three British spouses notorious for their 
 
 * See on this subject Kcn.v. Die Uerablcunft des Feuers und des Gcctte'riranls : 
 Berlin, Duemmler, 1859. See also Des Gefvasius von Tilbury Otia ImpcriaJia, 
 herausjeijchen von Felix Liebrecht: Hannover, Rnempler, 1856, as to the mira- 
 culous dew that falls from heaven on Christmas-night (p. 2), and the note thereon 
 (p. 56). Liebrecht calls attention to a similar tradition in Iceland and Scandinavia 
 concerning the dew on St. John's night. He also refers to the Nucta or miracu- 
 lous drop of Egypt, said to heal the plague (see note to Moore's Lalla J?ooi-7i), 
 and to the mythic dew shaken off the manes of the steeds of the Valkyriur. 
 See Gkimm. Deutsche Mythologie : Goettingen. 1854, p. 393. Grimm has also 
 an interesting chapter on Jleilavoac, or water supposed to possess magical 
 properties (Ibid, p. 551). 
 
 + The Myvyrian Archaology of Wales, vol. II., cited by Davies in his 
 Mythology and Rites of the British Druidsy etc. London, Booth, 1809. ' 
 3t 
 
10 ON THE LEGEND OF TRISTAN. 
 
 infidelity to their husbands, a characteristic which has been curiously 
 preserved to the heroine in Romance. Resides these traces of a 
 mythical Tristan in Celtic Rritain, we also possess others in a fragment 
 of a Welsh poem, said to be at least as old as the X century a.d.* i 
 An introduction infornis us, that it is a dialogue between Trystan and / 
 Gwalchmai son of Guiar. Trystan, crossed in love, has absented hinisclfc_. 
 for the si>ace of three years from Arthur's court. Tliat monarch 
 thereupon sends twenty-eight of his followers to bring the exile back. 
 Trj^stan, however, slays them all, and only consents to listen to the 
 words of Gwalchmai the Goldcn-tongued, with whose appeal the poem 
 commences. Trystan is finally persuaded to visit Arthur, who wel- 
 comes him as his nephew, and conjures him by their ancient friendship 
 to return to his allegiance. "With Tristan's submission the fragment 
 unfortunately ends. IM. de la ViriemiuTpK-, in his interesting work on 
 ancient Celtic legends, f calls attention to the fact, tliat most of these 
 details are to be found iii some of tlve later Romances of Tristan. He 
 also' compares the talc of the Love Potion to the iNIagical Rrew of / 
 Science, already mentioned, which occurs in the old Welsh legend of/ 
 Taliesin in the " Mabinogion," translated by Lady Charlotte Guest. ]^ 
 That work, also, contains another ancient tale, which agrees with the 
 Romance of Tristan in some important particulars. iSlorold, for ex- 
 ample, under the nanae of Martolwch, appears again as the Irish Prince . 
 demanding tribute of the British, though v/c learn for the first time its- m 
 origin. It seems that a noble Cambrian had cut off the ears and tongue* 
 of the horses belonging to an Irish Chief, for which insult tlie Rritisb 
 were compelled to furnish annually to Ireland a fixed amount of gold) 
 and silver, together with a qnantity of horses equal in number to those 
 Avhich had been mutilated. We also meet in the same tale with Rran- 
 goene as Branwen, the British spouse of jMartolwch. Even she, despite 
 her high station, is made to feel tfce bitter hate of the Irish towards her 
 countrymen by being forced to perform tbe offices of a menial, thereby 
 filling a position analogous to thnt of the waiting-woman in Romance. J 
 
 * The Myvyrain, etc. vol. I. p. 17&. A trauslation of tliis poom is to be' 
 fcrand in Von dor llagen's otlitiou of Gottfried von StiTkBsburg's works, anil in the- 
 Appendix to Scott's edition of Sir Tristrcm. 
 
 f De la Villkmakqub'. Lcs Romans dc la Tahlc J?<))i(Zi', etc. rarif, DidicroU 
 Cie. 1861, pp. 72-83. 
 
 X Lady C. Gukbt. Muhinoiiioiu etc. London, 1838. Vol. HI. p. 197 
 
L 
 
 t>N THE LKOKNL) OF TKISTAN. 11 
 
 \Vp now nrrivc at the pi-riod when the losoiid nindr its aiipoarnnco in 
 VliL' Rjinaiitic literature ot' the Middle Ajres. Here the inoderu reader 
 is fairly astonished by the fanciful and incongruous suhjects that are 
 presented to him. The stirring life of Chivalry, in its chequered 
 lights and shades of love and hate, appears inextricably interwoven with 
 the woriJers drawn from fairylaiuI^j^cTiiUcni^iJA.,^^ 
 Adventures the moscirnprobable follow one another in rapid succession 
 without apparent connection, and exhibit, in many cases, a singular 
 ignorance of the commonest facts in history and geography. For the y<y^ 
 cause of th,?se peculiar characteristics we must go back to the end of 
 the XI century when the dawn of literature was yet slowly breaking 
 through the preceding gloom, and Christendom, bursting forth into a 
 blaze of enthusiasm, sprang to arms to free the Holy Sepulchre from 
 th e hands of the In fidel. To th is mighty movement, so fraitful jb- 
 important results. Chivalry and Romance, the two fairest creations of 
 the Middle Ages, mainly owe their birth. No other period in European 
 history has ever been so rich in poetical elements. On a sudden, a 
 new and glorious world of Eastern splendour burst on the astonished 
 gaze of the West ; for men's imaginations, dazzled by the glowing 
 descriptions that were given, painted the East as a land of faery and 
 enchantment. While religious excitement was roused to the fullest 
 pitch, a wild spirit of adventure, a thirst for gain and glory filled all 
 classes with an uncontroll ible longing to lake part in the great enter- 
 prise. This new and vigorous life, which sprang up evervwhere iu 
 Europe at that day, made itself particularly noticeable in the sudden 
 blossoming forth of Romantic poetry. The latter owed its distinctive 
 character to a variety of elements. The ardent spirit of Christianity, 
 which then animated Europe, found its natural expression in the Cru- 
 sades. It was reserved, however, for Romance to immortalize its 
 fundamental princijde of love, which culminated in the homage paid to 
 the Virgiii Mother of Christ. Tlie ideal of Chivalry was sought to be 
 realised in the conception of the perfect knight, that combination of the 
 warrior and the saint, iu which the heroic nature of heathen times 
 became tempered by the hallowing" influences of a purer religion. An- 
 other important element in Romantic poetry may be traced to the 
 effect of Eastern thought on Europe. The occupation of Spain by 
 the Moors had the result of making other European countries in some 
 \Jegree familiar with the treasures of Arabian literature- Wondrous 
 tales wf geuii aud cQchantmeuts, adorned with all the brilliant fancv 
 
12 ON THE LEGEND OF TRISTAN. 
 
 of the East, found their way across the Pyrenees. From Persia, also, 
 the tales of Firdusi, breatliing a spirit singularly resembling that of Chi- 
 valry, entered Europe in the track of the returning Crusaders ; while 
 from the Aryans of Hindustan came to their Western brethren, 
 through strange channels, those apologues, which supplied so many 
 materials to European fiction.* 
 
 The first Romantic poems appeared in Southern France at the time 
 when the dialect of Provence had driven out the Latin, and attained to 
 the dignity of a national language. It has been justly remarked, that 
 the earliest literary efforts of a people arc of a poetical nature ; and to 
 this rule those of Southern France formed no exception. INI- Fran- 
 cisque Michel has carefully collected the various passages in the chanzos 
 of the Troubadours, which make mention of Tristan. The earliest 
 occurs in a poem by Rambaud, Count of Orange, who wrote about the 
 middle of the XII century. Of the numerous other Proven9al poets, 
 who touch on the same subject, M. Michel gives the names of no less 
 than thirteen^ The South of France does not appear to have pro- 
 duced any metrical version of the legend ; it was thus left to the Epic 
 poetry of the North to give new life to Eastern fiction. As the scene 
 changes, we are reminded of the powerful influence exercised on 
 Romance by a new element, introduced by those sea-rovers, whoso 
 energy and daring led them to conquer Normandy and England, to 
 found powerful states on the coasts of the Mediterranean, and to extend 
 
 * Tho Sanscrit collection of Fables, known ag the Pancha-Tantra, was 
 translated into Pehlovi early in the VI century ; from thence into Arabic iu the 
 VIII century ; from Arabic into Modern Persian in tho X and into Greek in tho 
 XI century. A Hebrew translation of tho Arabic text (date unknown) was 
 also made, afterwards rendered into Latin by John of Capua in tho latter half of 
 tho XIII century, and from thcuco into most European languages. Tho Ikwk 
 of Scndahad, also originally written in Sanscrit, was translated into Persian, and 
 from tbenco into Arabic. From Araliic it passed into Syriuc, and from tho latlor 
 arose a Greek version under tho title of " Syntipas." A Hebrew version, sup- 
 posed to havo been made from tlio Arabic, was translated by Dam Jehans, a 
 monk, into Latin at the end of tho XII or tho beginning of tho XIII century 
 by tho name " Historia Septem Sapientium Roma?." Of this last various trans- 
 lations appeared in English, Fi"onch, and other modern languages under tho 
 titles of " Tho Seven Wiso Masters," " Dolopathos," " Eurastus," &e. See 
 Deslonochampb. Essai sur les Fahlos Indiennes. Paris, Techncr, 1838. 
 
 t FnANCTsQUE MitiiKi,. Tristan, rccucil dc cc qiu reste dcs jioc)ii(.'i> rdalijs d 
 ses aventarcs, <:l>:. L'Jndrl•^, Pickering, 1S35. (See lutrodui-tion.) 
 
lA riiK i,e<:i:nd of tuistan. 1) 
 
 tiioir sway iii'i) Asia itsolt". TI^^^< j^)()iii\-\ojrv i r inytl i -I i f tlnir 
 Hitlicrs, ill wliifli tlic occult forces of imtTiiv pljiyctl so iiroiiiiiiciit a 
 part, contributed its heroes, its cohboUls and its elves to the world 
 of wonders iu which Iioinancc lU-h'j^hted to move. There was thus 
 breathed into niechioval poetry a spirit of pecuHar fresliness and vigour, 
 which must, in a great measure, have tended to counteract the enervating 
 influence of Asiatic hterature. 
 
 Tbc court of Xorniandy, the new home of those Northmen, In-came 
 the hirl!i-i)h'.ce of the Komantic Epos. There the rise of a national 
 Language and hterature was effected in nmeh the same way as in the 
 South, though nearly a century Liter. In the XI I centurv, when the 
 Langue d'Oil had superseded the German of the Prankish conquerors, 
 a host of poetical Romances rapidly made their appearance. Romantic 
 fiction may be said to have formed, according to its subjects, three 
 great cycles ; the Carlovignian, the—ArlJiurian, and the Classical. /" 
 'I'o the second, which alone concerns us here7 Tjclong the Romances of 
 the Round Table, the Holy Graal, PcrcevaTTtauTTceJot^^iU. TrLstau ; alJh- 
 of whiclTcome to us TTonrthe same old British source. The tale of 
 Tristan, though originally formln'g a more or less separate and distinct 
 legend, became gradually confounded in mediaeval Romance with those 
 of the Round Table. In the latter, Arthur appears to us as a half- 
 mythical, half-historical character. Tradition represents him as the chief 
 of a noble band of knights, adorned with every grace and virtue 
 of Chivalry, amongst whom Tristan shines conspicuous. These Arthu- 
 rian legends, having been naturalised, as we have seen, in Brittany, 
 were probably afterwards collected and handed down in Latin prose 
 by ear'y chroniclers- In that case the Trouveres would naturallv 
 have taken the materials for their poems from those Latin compilatious, 
 though they may doubtless also have met with the same tales later at 
 the English court of the Dukes of Normandy.* 
 
 The labours of M. Francisque Michel furnish us with the earliest 
 French metrical versions that we possess of the Romance of Tristan. 
 The first of these is a fragment taken by him from a MS. in the 
 
 * See Elli!<. Early English Metrical Romances : Loudon, Bulm. 1646, 
 p. 21. He is of opinion, that " the Courts of our Norman Soveiei-^ns, rather tliau 
 those of the Kings of France, ]iroduced the birth of romance literature;" and cites 
 as his authorities >I. dc la Ravaiilieie, the Count de Trcssaii^ and the Abbe de la 
 Rue. 
 
 It 
 
 Y 
 
11 ON THE legend' of TRISTAN, 
 
 Royal Library at Paris, and which has also been jJiiblishtMl by Vo!i clcr 
 Iliigen. Its author is unknown, but it seems from internal evidence to 
 liave been composed during the rei:?n of Richard I, or of John, or of 
 Ilcnry III. Tlie second is a complete work from a ^IS. in the 
 Library of Bern ; the third and fourth arc the fragments of Douce, 
 y mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in his edition of " Sir Tristrem ;" the 
 fifth is the " Lai du Chcverefoil " of Marie dc France, dating from 
 the commencement of the XIII century ; andthe last is an extract 
 from " Le Donnez des Amans" in a MS. of Sir Thomas PhiHi|)ps. 
 I deem it here unnecessary to make more than j)assing mention of 
 these poems, but before leaving the French poets I should state that 
 Chrestien de Troyes, the Avell-knoAvn Trouvcre, who flourished at the 
 end of the XII century, is supposed by many to hayc himself written 
 a metrical Romance of Tristan, since lost. Soon after these poems, 
 with the spread of education, numerous prose Romances on the subject 
 made their appearance in France.* Of these, the earliest that we have 
 professes to be translated from the Latin by an English knight named 
 Lucas de Gast, and to have bi'en afterwards added to by one Ilelye de 
 Buron.f • According to Tressan, the Latin version, from which it was 
 taken, came from the pen of<Rusticiea 3e Puise, who probably com- 
 posed it (1110 — 1120) for Ilenry I at that sovereign's brilliant court in 
 Normandy. As these prose Romances of Tristan, which dei>arteil 
 greatly from the simplicity of the original legend, arc, with one excep- 
 tion to be noticed hereafter, of no importance for us, I need here only 
 add, that from France the tale rapidly spread and found a home in the 
 literature of almost every country in Europe- 
 
 The only English metrical Romance on Tristan, that we possess, is 
 the one edited by Sir Walter Scott, from what is known as the 
 Auchinleck MS. It has been attril)Uted by him to the Scottish bardi 
 Thomas of J^reeldoune in the XIII century, from whom, as hcj 
 argues, Gottfried von Strassburg derived the materials for a poem on 
 Tristan, which I shall mention later. J The non-existence of any other 
 
 * We also have the Koniatices of Meliadus de Leounoys and Ysaie lo Trisii-, 
 the father and son of Tristan according to a corrupt vci-sion of the legend. 
 
 f F. Michel, llccueil, etc. Vol. I. p. x.>cxi. Sec, however, Ihc reiuark.-s of yii 
 W. ScoLt iu his iulrodiiction lo iS'u' Tii^lrcni. 
 
 X W. ^;(;orr. Pwlkal Wurkn. Edinburgh, Constable. 162J. \ «.l. I \\ 'I'liis 
 la-il llieiny has, hnwcvcf, been reriitcd l>y Von dcr Ilii'^cii, IJucsching, \i>u Cii'Mitc, 
 I'licc and Madden. Sec 1'. Aliclu.'!. Uicinil, cfc. \»\. I. [>. \\\iv. 
 
0>J THE LEOKNli iiF ti:ht\\. ^') 
 
 Kiiu;lisli poem on Uh- siibjcot is the K\ss_Mj:aii;:i il' wo ronsidi-r, tliat for 
 a loiiir period Hiiglish |)Oi-try was (■Ironii-d o idy lit food for the massos. 
 
 and limt the liisrhor classes most prohahlv read tlic K oiiiaiices of the 
 
 o I ^ . 
 
 Tronvcres in the orif^inal/^^ We have evidence, however, that the tale 
 of Tristan am!"Isol(Te was well known in the world of letters after the 
 establishment of a national literature in England, in the references 
 made to it by Chaucer, Lydgate, Gower, Caxton, Spenser, Skelton, 
 Ben Jonson, and other writers. f The name of " Tristrem" wag also 
 long eniploved to designate one exjiert in woodcraft, from our hero's 
 high ])rofi(ncucy iii that art according to the old Romancers. The 
 only English prose version of tlie Romance of Tristan is to be found in ; 
 Books VIII, IX, X and XII of the " Mortc d' Arthur," compiled 
 from the old French writers by Sir Thomas Malory, and first printed 
 l)y Caxton iu the year 148,"». Like the originals, however, whence it 
 was taken, the story is sadly corrupted by admixture with Arthurian 
 legends, and possesses little intrinsic merit. It nevertheless contains 
 the curious st-jry of a niagic drinking-horn sent by Morgan le Fay to , 
 
 King Arthur, which had such a virtue, that there might no lady ^" 
 drink of it but if she were true to her lord ;• — if she were false she 
 should spill all the drink, and if she were true she might drink 
 peaceably. This horn was intercepted by Sir Lamorak and forwarded 
 to King Mark, who thereupon made his Queen and a hundred ladies 
 drink thereof; and there were of all but four ladies that drank clean. J 
 This horn is introduced into some of the Romances of Perceval, from 
 which Ariosto probably took the idea of his enchanted cup.§ In one 
 of the old French Fabliaux, entitled ^' Court Mantel," or " Le Manteau 
 inal taillc," the tale is told of a ma^ie. doak, wki<;h will only fit the 
 virtuous among the ladies of Arthur's xourtr.^ A similar test occurs 
 in the " Vrihat-Katha," and " Thuthi-Xameh," where, however, a lotus 
 takes the place of the magic horn.|| In " Amadis de Gaul" the same 
 
 * See Scott's Introduction to Sir Ti isfrcDi, p. Iii. 
 
 t See F. Michel. Hecttcil, etc. Vol. I. pp. .\xi — xxvii. 
 
 t The Byrth, Lijf and Actcs of Kynii Arihur, etc. London, Longmans, 1817. 
 
 § This cnp La Fontaine afterwards borrowed from Ariosto's talc. 
 
 H Le Grand d'Aussy. Fabliaux oh Contcs du Xlle.ct dn XIIIi: i(ihh'. 
 Pari>, Onfroy. 1779. Vol. I. p. GO. 
 
 II See De>lnngc]ianips. Fahles Indicnnc", p. 107. 
 
 L 
 
10 
 
 ON THE LEGEND OF TRISTAN. 
 
 virtue lies in a wreath, and in " Perccforest " in a rose : in other tales it 
 is a waxen image, or a vase which changes calour.* 
 
 In Italy, as M. Gingnene informs us, the tale of Tristan became 
 known at a very early period through ])rose translations of the old / 
 French Romances. The ovdy original poem on the subject in ItaliaJi' 
 appears to be of late date and of no value. f Dante places Tristan, toge- / 
 ther with two other popuLy;J)(n'pcs,JLaiuicelotjuid^aTis, in lus flelT ;/ ///l 
 and takes "cceasimi "to censure severely those Romances wlitcTi in his /- . 
 opinion tend to eix^ourage adultery. | Ariosto, in his " Orlando Furioso,''^^ J j 
 describes a visit 'paicTTiy Dradamants to Sir Tristan's lodge, where 
 every traveller seeking admittance was forced to win it with his 
 sword ;§ a custom followed by Sir Tristrem himself at Sir Brunor's Castle 
 Pluere according to the " Mortc d' Arthur." Similar references to the 
 tale of Tristan may be met with in the works of other Italian poets. ^[ 
 
 A translation of the French Romance appeared in Spain at the com- 
 mencement of the XVI century, and is mentioned in Don (Quixote. 
 Cervantes himself, in all probability, owed to the old Celtic legend the 
 hero of that immortal satire on the Romances of Chivalry, for the cor- 
 rupted form Tristrem, wdiich was commonly derived from the Welsh 
 words trist ("sad") and trem (" a face"), exactly answers to the 
 Knight of the Woeful Countenance. || Grjuiyi notices an old S})anl8h 
 fragment of our legend, which contains an incident unknown to aiyy/^ 
 other version. Isolde the Fair is therein represented toJia\^ h^c6me 
 
 ^ — : — ^ — 
 
 * DuNLOP. 11 ixforii of Fiction, etc. Edinburah. ISlG. VntTI. p. 275. He 
 refers, also, to the g'ii'dlo of I'']oi-iiiii'l in S])onsei-, to tlio Breton Lul ilu Corn, and to 
 the old English Ballad of The Boij and the Mantle. 
 
 t GiNGUKNio'. Ilixta'nr liftcraiir (I'lffilh'. Vol. V. j). 14. Soo 1- . Miclicl in lii:* 
 Intfoduction, p. xvi. 
 ^. t Inferno. V, 28, G8. 
 
 ^ Orlando Furioso. XXXII. i^O—DS. ■ 
 
 % See P. Michel. Jiecueil, etc. jiji. xv, xvi. 
 
 II See Davies, p. 447. Tho other English form Tn'tifranr in cxplninod in 
 Jlomaiico as follows : — "When ho is christoiiod lot call him Tristram, tliat is as 
 much to say as a sorrowful birth." Mortc d' Arthur, Book VI 1 1. For^juson, in his 
 work The Tcidnnic Name SijAtcw, is oqnally at fanlt when lio sii^'gosts that 
 Tristram may ))c diiivcd fidia tho A. S. thiisi, bold, daring, nnd ram, a i-aven. 
 Francisqno ISIiclicI, in liis iiulcs.vdl. F. ]i. xii. ^ivos: — " 7ViV7, sad ; Trislija and 
 'i'l-istictK, sciiinw," IVmn ;i t/'uii4i>li Kni'li.vh Vocabulary j " Tnintav, s. c. {iruat) 
 
ON THE LEGEND OF TRISTAN. 17 
 
 a mother in consetiuencc of partaking of a lily, which p;rew on Tristan's 
 grave. This lily, as Knrtz suggost.-i, corresponds to the rose and vine 
 of the other Romances. "We light here, however, upon a curious class 
 of myths, which we find in most ages and countries. The idea they 
 represent probably originated in the employment by early races of 
 certain trees and plants as phallic symbols. Among the Hindus such 
 a one was the Lotus ; another was the Indian flower Kambal, to which 
 the sage Xachiketa owed his birth. The Chinese, also, have a legend 
 concerning the miraculous conception of the Divine Reason by his ho'y 
 mother Shing-mu, after she hud eaten of the flower Lien-wu (Xelum- 
 bium). Besides these tales, there is another related by Ovid, according 
 to which Juno, anxious to have offsjjring, touched a certain flower at the 
 bidding of Flora, and thereupon obtained the fulfilment of her wishes.* 
 Passing by the Scandinavian nations, whicli -prodaced-ao -ori ginal 
 work on the Tristan *X<cgeud,t we at last reach Germanv. There, 
 during the XII and XIII centuries, were agencies as potent at work as 
 those which, as we have seen, called forth the literary activity of 
 France. The German nation was roused into the same warlike ardour, 
 the same intellectual life as the rest of civilized Europe at that day ; 
 and, in addition, a strong national feeling was everywhere fostered bv 
 the consciousness that their sovereign held the proud position of tem- 
 poral head of Christendom. These circumstances operated most 
 favourably in developing the literature of Germany. Towards the 
 end of the XII century began an era of Epic poetry, which falls into 
 the two great divisions of P.-pular Epic and Court Epic. The former 
 confined itself to subjects taken from native legendary lore, while the lat- 
 ter celebrated the foreign heroes of Romance, and amongst these Tristan. 
 The first German Romance of Tristan appears to have been a poem 
 
 a noisy one, a blusterer. Trist. a. (ty-rJiist) pensive, sorrowful, sad," from 
 Owen's Welsh Dictionary; " Trisf, Tiiirseach, sad, heavy, melancholy, tired, 
 weary," from an Irish-English Dictionary ; " Trys, Trus, sad, sorrowful, sadly," 
 from Price's Archaiologia Comu-Britannica ; " Trist, a. sad, tired, etc." from a 
 Gaelic Dictionary. Davies gives Trystan in the Triads the meaning of " herald ;" 
 others render the word by " tumultuous." 
 
 * Fasti, \. 229. See also Leckv. History of nationalism : vol. I. p. 233, 
 where an old superstition connected with this subject is given. 
 
 t There is both an Icelandic and a Danish prose translation of the legend : the 
 former dates from the XIII centiu-y. See also Arvasox. Icelandic Legends .- 
 London, Longmans, ltC6, p. 251. 
 5 T 
 
1$ ON THE LEGEND OF TRISTAN. 
 
 written by Eilhart von Obergej_a_j3oet in the trnji i nf TTpnr y thr* T.ioQj_^ 
 but of tbis we only possess a fragment of no worth.* At the com- 
 mencement of the XIII century. Master Gottfried von Strassburg ^ 
 wrote his Epic of Tristan and Isolde, which is by far the greatest 
 work on the subject in any language. f There has been considerable / ,-<V 
 diiference of opinion as to the immediate source whence he took his /^^^ ' 
 materials, lie himself mentions that his authority was one " Tiioma^Ly \/^ 
 ofBritanie," who had the tale from " Britannic books." J He adds/I 
 further, that he had long searched for the version of Thomas in both ^^^jt-^*' 
 French and Latin works, and that he had at last found it and followed jj 
 it solely. From the frequent use of French words and phrases in his ^'' 
 poem, there appears to be little doubt that his original was one of the 
 old Anglo-Norman Romances. § Gottfried's Epic is of "tileTughest/ / 
 meritas aliterar}' pi'uduL'lium — He-seizes, with real poetic genius, thet/j^j^y 
 dramatic incidents of the story ; and paints, with rare insight into 
 human nature, the varied passions of the actors in graceful and vigorous 
 language. The early years of Tristan, his skill in arms and woodcraft, 
 and the tenacity with which he pursues his lawless amour with Isolde 
 under various disguises, are admirably described. The picture 
 of the Queen is no less happily rendered. She never, however, 
 appears conscious of the evil of her position, but, on the contrajy, 
 _^is only aiixious to conceal her inconstancy from i\Iark. To this 
 end she does not scruple even to order her waiting woman, whom 
 she fears will betray her, to be put to death. The only task Gottfried 
 j)roposes to himself, however, is to pourtray the course of earthlv 
 passion ; nor should it be forgotten that his standard ( f morality 
 was merely that of his time. Gottfried died ere his work was 
 completed, but we have two different continuations by Ulrich von 
 
 • Eilhart represents his hero as " unborn," in tlie same sense as Sliakespearc's 
 Macduff, Firdusi's Rustcm, and the lius.sian hero Dubniuii IS'ikititjicli (sec Grimm. 
 Deutsche Mytholoyie, vol. I., p. 3C1). 
 
 t Von DRn Hagen. Gottfried von Strasshiirff WerJie, etc. Uroslau, Jlax 
 u Komp. It23. Tlii.s edition contains al^o the lVa;;nH'iit of l^ilhiii-t von Olicrge. 
 t The orifjinal in Gottfried runs thus: — • 
 
 " Als Thomas von Britanie giht 
 " Dcr aventure moistr wa?*, 
 " Und ;iu liriliiiischfn Jiticchcn las, etc." 
 § This conclusion is i)crfcclly ('(insistent wit li the rcfcicnce to " Uritnnic," which 
 may stand either for Itrittany or Uriluin. 
 
 // 
 
ON THE LEGEND OF TRISTAN. .10 
 
 Tliniheim and Ilcinrich von Friberg, neither of whom equalled 
 their master in genius-* An unimportant metrical version of the 
 legend appeared later by one ^5'^"hart17Tf^n l^.in't inlifrg, whn is sup- 
 l)Osed to have lived in the latter half of tlic XIV century. In modern 
 times two poets, A. W. von Schlegel and Karl Immcrmann, commenced 
 poems on Tristan, which, however, hke Gottfried, they were destined ^^^"^'^''^^ 
 never__to_finishj^ Renderings of the great Epic into moderlTGermair" L<:x>--M_V 
 have also been made by Kurtz and Simrock, X the former of whom "--' 
 composed a sequel based on those of Ulrich and Heinrich. The best 
 known prose work on Tristan is to be met with in the "Book of Love," 
 a collection of old Romances dating from the XVI century; but the 
 original legend is therein so distorted, that the reader has difficulty 
 in recognizing it.§ In Germany the subject has also been treated 
 in a dramatic form. In the year 1.^53 Hans Sachs, the Nuernberg 
 cobbler, wrote " The Tragedy of the strong love of Sir Tristrant for 
 the fair Queen Isalde," which, however, has little but its quaintness to 
 recommend it.*[ True to his character of moral teacher, he concludes 
 his work with a warning to all men not to fall a prey to an unlawful 
 love. The only other drama on Tristan, and one oi considerable merit, 
 has appeared recently from the pen of Ludwig Schneegans.il It offers 
 a curious instance of the strong hold that the legend has maintained on 
 the German mind down to the present day. The author has evidently 
 followed the version given by Gottfried von Strassburg in preference to 
 anv of the old prose Romances, yet the general outline only has been 
 retained. In sekcting such a theme, he must have been struck by the 
 grand capabilities it presented, in the hands of the poet, for a treatment 
 in conformity with modern ideas. To this end it became absolutely 
 necessary to leave out much of mediaeval detail. Schneegans, for 
 example, has carefully excluded from bis work every ingredient belong- 
 ing to the marvellous, above all the Magic Potion. He has rightly 
 
 * The fiymer wrote about 1250, the latter about 1300. Their poems will be 
 found in Von der Hagen's edition of Gottfried's works. 
 
 t Immermann. Tristan und Isolde, etc. Duesseldoif, Scbaub, lir41. 
 
 t SiMKOCK. Tristan und Isolde, von Gottfried von Strasslui-'j. Leipzig, Brock- 
 bans. 1855. 
 
 § BuESCHixG & Vox DER Hagex. Bitch der Liebe. Berlin, Hitzig, lt09, 
 vol. I. 
 
 T H.\KS Sachs. ErnstUche Trauerspiele, etc. Nuernberg, Scbrag. 1{?19. 
 vol. II. 
 
 II L. ScHXEEGAXS. Tristan, Trauersjiiel, etc. Leipzig, Otto Wigand. 1665. 
 
20. ON THE LEGEND OF TRISTAN. 
 
 understood, that the development of a drama should proceed naturally A' 
 from inner causes, and not from fortuitous and external ones.,— Att-tha^ 
 was gross and unseeinly,..the-yrodurt nf.jthe mind of the Middle Ages, 
 has been stufliousljjivoifled. in carrying out liis Aiews, thf dramatist 
 ]ias-coTn|7letely modernised the characters with which he has had to 
 deal. Of the general treatment of the drama it may be said, that the 
 essential— all that remains eternally true of human passion and human 
 trial — has been retained, stripped of the accidental accessories supplied 
 by INIyth and Romance. The gold, in short, has been worked, and the 
 dross properly rejected. 
 
 Thus far I have endeavoured to sketch the history of the Tristan 
 Legend from its earliest recorded beginnings down to the present time. 
 Although one or two writers on the subject have, as we have seen, at- 
 tributed it, not without reason, to a source common to many myths of 
 tlie ancient world, still its first undeniable traces have hitherto only 
 been found in ancient British lore. I trust, however, that I shall be al^le, 
 in the coarse of this paper, to supply the links whi ch are here wanting. 
 Taking the Welsh recordsr^-tlm5t(tesrwe"possess, for a starting point, 
 we are at once met by the difficulty there is in explaining them. It . 
 has been asserted, that the three mighty swiuj-herds of the Triads - ^ 
 signify three remarkable epochs in Druidical history, of which Tristan 
 represents the last ; and that his guilty love for the unchaste Essyllt 
 points to anuidioly mixture of foreign with native Celtic rites which then 
 took place. The introduction of the new worship is ascribed to the riuf- 
 nicians, those "missionaries of the ancient world," whose sacred symbol 
 of the boar is said to reappear in Tristan's swine. The advocates of 
 this view also identify the strange rites, for which they contend, with 
 the human sacrifices offered up by that race to Moloch.* Be that as it 
 may, it is a well-known fact that the boar was held sacred to the Sun-god 
 by both Aryan and Semitic nations, and was employed by the Egyptians 
 as a symbol of Typhon. It appears, also, in the Sun-myths of Adonis 
 and Heracles, while in Homer we read of its being sacrificed to Zeus 
 and Helios, f !•! f^ic German Romance of Tristan, which I have < , 
 already mentioned, the swine or boar of the old Celtic myth is actually | 
 preserved in (lie licnildic device borne on the hero's shield. J In my 
 
 • Kurtz, p. Ixii. 
 
 t Iliad, XIX. 197. 
 
 } Siinvuck. I'mt I. p. 202. 
 
ON THE LEORNn /lJF \TIit^TA^'-^ \-5 -V.-^-^t? 
 
 opinion, liowevor, the Celtic tale woilvl m )re inliir.allv jirocooil from 
 an Ary an tha n a Spmi tio sonrpp ; a view which 1 h -licve will he hornc 
 out hy the result of tiie followinj; in(|niry. 
 
 I ])roj)nsp to slnw, that, with the Celts, Tristan and Rran^reno Ind 
 o:ij;inalIy each a separate lea;en(l. Yet as these latter, heing hased on 
 mythical conceptions of kindred natural pha;nomena, arc closely inter - 
 twin :h1, I shnll treat tliem as forminp; jiortions of one and the sime myth. 
 For the sake of convenicnee, I will tirst examine the personality of the 
 waiting-woman. Her Celtic name of Branwen or Brangwen literally 
 signifies the " white raven;" hut in our inquiry we may leave the 
 unimportant OY>\t\\ct fftcen ("white") out of consideration. The nam? 
 Bran seems to have designated a mythic personage of considerahle im- 
 jiortancc in Celtic legend. In a Welsh tale, Bran, surnamed the 
 Blessed, is the brother of Branwen. We find him invading Ireland to 
 take vengeance on ^Martolwch for the insults offered, to his sister. 
 Falling mortally wounded in battle, he bids his followers carry his head 
 to England, and bury it on the White i\Iount in London, lie projjlie- 
 cies, that tkey will be many years on their way feasting and listening to 
 the singing of the birds of Ilhiannon, and the head as pleasant company 
 to them as it ever was when on his body. But when they shall open 
 the door which looks towards Aber Ileuvelcn and Cornwall, then thev 
 are to haste to London and execute his last wish. After his death, all 
 which he had foretold comes to pass. The followers bide feasting seven 
 years at IlarlecTvwliercunto come three birds, compared to whose singing 
 all the songs they had ever heard were harsh. Tlieu they went to 
 Gwales in Fenvro, where they dwelt feasting in a spacious hall over- 
 looking the ocean, forgetful of time, during a period of fourscore 
 years. " And it was as j)lcasant to them having the head with them 
 as if Bran had been with them himself." At length one Ileilyn opens 
 the door, and looks towards Aber Ilenvelen and Cornwall. 'I'hen the 
 vemembrancc of all their sorrow comes back to them, and thev haste 
 to Loudon, where they bury the bead on the Wliite Mount.* (^oncern - 
 ing this Bran there is another Welsh tale. One day, wliile hunting in 
 Ireland, he comes to a piece of water, called " the Lake of the 
 Basin," whence issues a man of gigantic stature and hideous mien, 
 bearing in his arms a Basin, and accompanied by a sorceress and a 
 dwarf. These strange beings follow Bran, who shows them hospitalitv 
 
 • Mahiimjion, He. Vol. Ill, p. 197. 
 
2t2> ON THE LEOEND OF TRISTAN. 
 
 and receives tlie Basin ns a recompense. This vessel, wliieli possesses 
 the miraculous property of restoring the dead to life, is given hy Bran to 
 liis hrother-in-law Martolwch. Wlieu tlie former invades Ireland, the 
 rashness of his gift hecomes apparent ; for, thanks to it, the foe never 
 diminishes in number. Finallv, liowcvffTTvhcn the ncadof a wicketV 
 IrisTTcniefEfim^Ts Hixng~tlferein, the IMagic Basin breaks in pieces-* 
 I believe, also, that we find traces of this myth in the tale of "Owenn or 
 the Lady of the Fountain." The hero rides through a forest, where he is 
 met by a gigantic man with only one eye, who directs him to a stately 
 tree. Under the tree is a fountain, and beside the fountain a block of 
 marble, on which stands a silver Basin attached to a chain. Owenn 
 fills tlie Basin with water, Avliich he pours upon the marble ; and imme- 
 diately there bursts forth a mighty peal of thunder, followed b}' torrents ■, 
 of rain. After this the sky becomes serene ; and upon the tree descendy 
 birds, whose singing surpasses the singing of all other birds. f The mytl(/U 
 of Mimir in Scandinavian mythology recalls, in a strange mTnmfr,tliut 
 of the Ce ltic Bran. High above the heavens and overspreading the 
 world, towers, we are told, the mighty ash Yggdrasil, iu whose branches 
 sits an eagle with a hawk between its eyes. The tree has three roots, 
 under the second of which is Mimir's well of wisdom and genius. The 
 All-Father himself pledged an eye to obtain a drink of its waters. ^liniir 
 is sent as hostage to the Vanir, who cut off his head ; but Odin pre- 
 serves it with such art, that it speaks and tells him many secret things. + 
 In these tales we notice certain conunon features, of which the most pro- 
 minent one is that of a vessel or fountain ])ossessing miraculous projier- 
 
 * Mahinogion, etc. Vol. III. j). 81. This same vessel appears also in the legend 
 of Pcrediir, the Hero of the Bleeding Head ; of Peronik with the Golden Basin and 
 Diamond Lance; and of Perceval and the Holy Graal. See Lr.'i Jiomntis dv hi 
 liable lionde, etc., pp. 134, 140— 14G, 321, HiG. See also De la ViLLK.MAnQUK'. 
 Harzaz-hrch : Chants popnlaire.i dc la Brclagne. Paris, A. Frank, 4th Kd. Vol. 
 I. p. 205. It has a poem on the death of an historical Bran, who is said to liavo 
 fallen at the battle of Kerloiin in the X century. There are points in it, bi)\vever, 
 which have evidently been borrowed from tlie myths of Bran and Tristan ; for 
 instance the tree with the wondrous singing birds, and the fata! black sail. 
 
 t Tlie talo of Owenn, the Yvain of Iloniance, is given by M. do la Villeinar(|iic' in 
 Lph liomam dc la Table lionde, ]). 171). llo refers to tlie marvellous forest of 
 Marseilles, and shows tliat Owenn's magic waters coiros]iond exactly to the I,nk»> 
 of Dulcun in Wales, and to the Fountain nf Baiaiilon in the finest of Bn'cilicn 
 in Brittany. Ibid, )). 2:il. 
 
 t TnoRi'R. Nortliiiii Miilliiihunj. ilc. London, Luinlcy. IJ-'jI. Vo'. I. p. \b. 
 
OM TKK LKCKNh oF TKISTAN'. 23 
 
 tics."" lU'siiU's this, wo have tlic tree, tlic l)inl.s, tlir iiiylliic (iiii--cyi'il 
 being, and tla- luiiiiaii lie.ul pri-servcd tVoiu decay. 
 
 Having thus, as I sidnnit, shown tlip connection between the myths 
 of l?ran and Mimir, there remains oidy to trace hack both to a mytholo- 
 gical conception found among all tlie Aryan races, Knhn has shown, 
 that, with them, the (Celestial Tire and Drink were originally supposed 
 to be generated in precisely the same manner. The primitive method 
 of obtaining fire by the friction of two j)ieces of wood was, according to 
 him, first suggested to man by observing the same eff.'ct produced by 
 the action of parasitical and creeping plants on the trees to which they I 
 dung. To this day the Brahmins thus kindle their sacred flame by /I 
 what is known as the fire-drill, a method identical with that emj)loyed 
 1)V them in churning. The production oftbc Celestial Fire and Drink, 
 or lightning andnuTi, came to be not unnaturally attributed to a similar 
 process within the clouds : hence arose two di-stinct myths as to their 
 origin. In the first of these the sun was a fiery disk or wheel, rekindled 
 dailv bv the turning in its nave of the churning-stick {prainatithu), 
 whicli represented the thunderbolt or lightning. f In the second myth 
 lightning and rain were both conceived as proceeding from a heavenly 
 tree, which Knhn recognises as the symbol of t' e cloud-masses. In 
 India it is the Soma-droppiug A^vattha or lipa, surrounded by the lake 
 Ara ; in Scandinavia the world-ash Yggdrasil distilling honey-dew, from 
 the roots of which flow streams of Mead. The Persian fable departs 
 but slightly from the same primitive idea in making the Gaokcrena or 
 heavenly Ilaoma grow separate from, though near to, the tree Yat-bes 
 in the lake Vouru-Kasha. :j; These myths gave rise again to others 
 
 * This c()iic(])tion is a very aiifiunt one among the Celts. Besides the Lake of 
 Dulcnu and the Touutaiu ofBaianton, there is also the vase described hy Taiiesiu 
 as under the charge of tlic Patron of liaids. It possesses the property of ins]>irin}y 
 l)oetic genius; conferring wisdom; and laying bare the future, the mysteries of 
 nature, aud the riches of human knowledge. See Romans dc la Table Homlv, etc. 
 p. U2. 
 
 t Ilirabhuiift (lot Fcucrs, etc., !>. GG. The analogy of the churning j)r<)ccs.'< 
 lia.s been still more strikingly [trcserved in a myth to be found in Hindu Epos, which 
 represents the gods as churning the great Milk-sca with the niounliun INfandara 
 or Manthara for a churning-stick, and Ihcicl'V producing first Fire, then Aniiita or 
 the Drink of Immortality. -Ibid, p. 217. 
 
 X Ibid, pp. 124-131. 
 
 V 
 
2 1 ox tllE LEtiEND OF TUlSTAN. 
 
 rcirardiii;;' tlu- oriuiii of the Tcrrcstri-.il Fire and Drink.* Tlifir celestial 
 equivalents were tabled to have Ijcen st(Jen Ijy a bird, which is some- 
 times described as wounded in its tlitrht from heaven, and losing either 
 a feather or a claw.f I" the Vedas, for e.\aini)le, Agni, under the name 
 of Bhuranyu, steals the Celestial Soma in the form of a golden-winged 
 falcon (ri/ena). In Greece the mythic bird was personified by the 
 Argivc hero Phoroneus, who exactly answers to Bhuranyu,^ and by 
 Zeus as the eagle, which carried off Ganymede to make him the cup- 
 bearer of the gods.§ With the Romans it was the AA'ood-pecker, called 
 ricus Fcronicus after the Sabine lightning-goddess Feronia, the feminine 
 equivalent of Phoroneus. ^| In Scandinavian mythology, also, Odin is 
 represented as stealing the heavenly Mead from Suttung in the disguise 
 of au eagle. There still lingers in German and Celtic folk-lore a recol- 
 lection of the same A.ryaii cloud-bird i.i the well-known traditions regard- 
 ing the cuckoo, stork, swallow, wren and robin. Of the last-named 
 bird there is a Welsh tale, according to which it dailv carries a droj) of 
 water to the dismal land of spirits and of tire, in order to quench the 
 tiame. But in doing so its feathers are scorched ; hence it is called 
 Bron-rhuddyn, or " breastburnt."i| This Bron, however, seems to 
 be merely a corruption of Bran. In my opinion, Bran is the original 
 Celtic bird of rain and lightning, now personified as a male in Bran the 
 
 • The Sanscrit pramnntlia is derived from the veib mathniini (to shake, t(i 
 iiih), identical with the Greek y.av6dvci3 ; and in their common root maitth hiy 
 the idea of " seizing-, robbing," whence tlio Sanscrit pminathn (theft). In tliis wo 
 ti-ace, as Professor Benfey has pointed oat, the ()rigin of the ohl Greek tale of 
 Pronaetheus, the fire-steulcr. Hcnihkiinft dcs Feucrg, etc., pp. IG, 17. 
 
 t I'roni tlie feather springs the Pala;a tree, iVom tlie claw a thorn. Ibid, 
 j>l.. 147, lii5. 
 
 t lie ajipear.s as tlie son of tlie rivor-jj;od Inaeluis and tlie wixul-nymph Melia, 
 anil to hiin the i)eoi)le of Ar^^os attributed tlie introdiietion of fire on earth. See 
 PitKLLEit. GilvdiiM-he MijtIwhHjh: Berlin, Weidiiiann, If^Ol. Vol. 1 1 , p. 3U. As 
 Knhn shows, Melia (" the Ash'') is here clearly tlie mighty doud-treo, Inachiis 
 (he waters that siirronnd it, and Phoroneus the bird which bears away the lightning. 
 
 § Jliialikuiift (leu J^'ciicru, rh\, ]). 170. 
 
 11 Knlin very liajipily eslabiishes a eoiiiirelJKii between (lie Kcniiiiii wnodjieeker 
 and Ibr Celrslial l''ire and Diink, l>y reference to the h-eiid> of Iiomnbi.- and 
 Jlenins, amA oI I'ieus, lii.si KIiil; of l.alimii. Ibid, pp. ;>- Do. 
 
 II !^vv C/i<iitr .\(>/(sfi(iiii '^ AvUf ami Qiici in:. " Jjondou 1859. 
 
<»N TIfK I-K(;KNIi ok TItlSTAN. 2-> 
 
 Ulc'SSfri, now as n tVmuK' in Iknnwcn.* In tin- Itt^cnil ot" tin- 
 former, as in that ofMiujir, fli(^}ir «(l c()rrcs[ton «l«; to tin' r-lnw nr uiug. 
 wiiich is scvoroil from tho falcon in Hindu niytliology . In Scandinavia, 
 huwever, Odin, as tlu' nivtliic hird, scorns to liavc usurped the position 
 whifli nmst originally have belonged to Miuiir. Fnially, the legend of 
 Owcnn retains a distinct trace of the old Aryan myth in the thunder- ' 
 storm, which occurs at the Magic Fountain. The marl)le block, also, 
 jdainly stands for the rock, which is a very common mythic synd)ol 
 for the cloud. t In the eye ])ledged by Odin we recognize a symbol 
 of the setting sun ; and the same idea in all likelihood originally lay in 
 the solitary eye of Owenn's gigantic guide ;|: ^Vith regard to IJran- 
 wen, the part she ])lays in the Tristan Legend, where she ajipears as 
 the dispenser of the Magic Potion, clearly points her out as the feminine 
 personification of the same Aryan cloud-bird. The name Bran may, 
 on the one hand, be derived from the Sanscrit Bhuraiiyu, by the not 
 unusual suppression of the first vowel and of the afiix. As the root 
 bhai- of Bhuranyu shews the u to be really an a, the older Celtic form 
 of Bran would thus in all y)robability be Biirun, a word which wc find 
 compounded with ton (" hill") in the Breton Baranton, the name of 
 Yvain's Magic Fountain. § On the other hand. Bran may be noth- 
 ing more than the Celtic word for " raven," used as a proper name. 
 This would show, that the raven represented the lightning-bird in Celtic, 
 as well as in Greek and Scandinavian mythology. *;[ 
 
 • The name of Bran appears corrupted to Bron in a French metrical Romance 
 by Robert de Borron, and to Ban in a later French prose Romnnce. The latter form 
 may also be found in the Morte d'A rthur. Sec liomavv dc la Table liondv, etc. p. 147. 
 
 t Ileruhkinift dex Feuers, etc. p. 213. 
 
 t In the Yedas the sun is called the eye of Variina. (Ibid, p. 53.) Grimm also 
 states that the sun was the eye of Oinuizd with the Persians; of llie Demiurge with 
 the Egyptians ; of Zeus with the Greeks ; and of Wuotan or Odin with the Teutonic 
 races. See Dentfche Mytholo(/ie. Vol. II. p. GG5. 
 
 § Bhuranyu is a compound of bhuraiui (i.e. bharoria) and yu, and bignifics 
 literally " desii"ous of carrying." 
 
 H For instance the mythic ravens of Apollo and Odin, who both lepresent Rudra 
 the Vedic stoim-god. King Arthur, also, who c«riesponds to these two deities in 
 Celtic myth, is said to have been changed at his death into a raven (see Grimm. 
 JJeutfchc Mijthuluyic. Vol. II. p. G37, where he cites Bon Qulrote, I. 40). Owenn 
 himself, according to ancient tradition, was accompanied to battle by the three 
 hundred lavens of Kenverhenn. Griinni refci'j to the ravenof the aik, and Licbrecht 
 finds the same mythic bird among Mahi.'medau uatiou.-. {Ot'ut Iiitjieiialui, p. I5b.) 
 
2b ON THE LEOKND OF TKISTAN. 
 
 With regard to Tristan, a very interesting question arises as to 
 whctlier ha is an ancient mythic personage venerated by the Aryan 
 family prior to tlieir migrations into Europe. Of this I believe some 
 cvide:ice m-ay be gathered from the history of Feridun, the celebrated 
 hero of Persia. His legend, as told by Firdusi in the Shahnameh, 
 runs thus: — Fcridun, the son of Abtin and Firanck, is born in the 
 reign of Zohak. That King, warned by wise men that the c'.iild would 
 overturn his kingdom, seeks after his life. Fcridun's father is killed, / 
 but he himself is saved by his mothiT, who flees with him into India,''' 
 where he is brought up in secret b^_aji?rmit. "When sixteen years of 
 age he demands of his mother the history of his birth. On hearing of 
 the persecution by Zohak, he determines to obtain his revenge. The 
 legend j)roceeds to narrate his victory over the King, whom he nails, 
 Prometheus-like, to a rock, in obedience to a divine command. The rest 
 of his story has n) importance for us.* Professor Koth iuforms us.f 
 that in the Ya^na the hero is called Thraetoni (or, according to 
 the two emluent Eastern scholars Professors Westergaard and Max 
 Miiller, Thractaona), X which name was afterwards corrupted into 
 
 * It ia interesting to compare this talo with an olil French Romance in prose, 
 edited liy Trcssan, nndor the titlo Hldoirc de Tristan de Leoniwis, etc. Paris, 
 >|3idot, I'aTi VII. Like many of its kind, it gives a long account of the hero's 
 ancestors, commencing with Bron, tho brother of Joseph of Ariniathca and 
 custodian of the Holy Graal. Bron's grandson, Apollo by name, is bom in 
 Cornwall, where his mother, a Babylonian Princess, has sought an asylum. 
 Thanoi", the King of that couutry, being warned by a sago that tho infant is des- 
 tined to work him ill, exj)oses it in a wood. Apollo is, however, rescued and 
 brought up in secret by a poasaiit woman. lie afterwards becomes a celebrated 
 fcniglit, known by the tlio titlo of " the Adventurous," and lives to fulfil tho 
 l»r<)phecy of tho sage l)y killing the King. It will bj scon how nearly this talo 
 resembles tliat of Foridun, fr'oin which it was i)robably taken ; a view which is 
 stronglhened by the fiict that Tristan's rival in tho sanio llomanco is callod 
 Pheredin, a name singularly like that of tho Persian hero. Should this conjoc- 
 turo bo cjrrect, wo have hero tho curious spectacle of two distinct treatments 
 of tlio same myth, independotitly developed in ditferent countries and at jioriods 
 widely distant from ono another, woven finally, without design, into one story. 
 
 f Zeitschrijt dcr dca'.nch'.'n morgenhTmllschcn Qesscllschaft, vol. II. p. 2 Hi. 
 
 X Tho MSS. diQcr in their siielling of tho name. Some, liko tho Bonibay 
 edition and (lie three MSS. in L<)ii(K>n, road TItraSlaond ; others, liko tho Veudi- 
 dail Sade, tlu; tliroe Yat,'na.s, and tho MS. of Mv. l^Iauoekjee (Jjr.H'ljee, read 
 TluaetaitC. (Sec Joui-nil Asiali>j[uc, 1th Series, vol. II, \<. I'Jl). 
 
ON THK r,Er,KNn OF TRISTAN'. '1 1 
 
 Fredihvi nnd Feridiin. His birtli is there ilescriljed as due to 
 (he speeinl favour of Ilaoinn, the Divine Nectar jtersoiiifictl. That 
 deity is said to liavc rewanU'd the fideUty of four of his wor- 
 shippers hv blessing tlieni with oft'spriiif?, destined to l)e the hene- 
 fuctors of the worUl. Of these the first is named Vivan^hvat, whose 
 son was Yima ; the second Athwya, whose son was Tlxructona ; tlie 
 third Thrita,* whose sons were Urvakshaya and Kere(;a9pa ; and the 
 fourth l*urusha(,'|)a, whose son was Zarathustra. In Yima, Thractona 
 and Kere9aepa we recognise the three great heroes Dshcmshid, IVridiui, 
 and Gershasp ; in Zarathustra the Projdiet of Iran. Thrautona is 
 represented as the slayer of the devastating serpent Azhi Dahaka, 
 " created hy Ahriman for the destruction of this world," of which the 
 name Zohak is a corruption. "We also learn that Thractona or reridun 
 is to be met with in Indian mytholog}', a discovery due to the 
 
 * Eupoiic Burncnif (Journal Asiatlque, 4th scries, vol. V. p. 251) held the 
 Zend Thrita to be an aucicnt form, in which tlic .adjectival snfRx ta is iiiiniediately 
 joined to the nmneral thri to give it the value of an ordinal, as in the case of the 
 Vedic numerals ekata, dvita and trita (first, second and third). Neriosengh, the 
 Sanscrit translator of the Zend-Avesta, also looks upon Thrita as expressing num- 
 ber, but Roth points out, that, in the passage whore it occurs in the Yacna, the 
 numeral is found in its proper form beside the word Tlirita. lloth {Zeitschrift 
 der deutschen monjenlmidigchen OcsscUschaft, vol. 2, p. 225) refcra to the Ycn- 
 didad as showing thegift of healing possessed by Thrita. He also calls attention 
 to the fact that the form Thrita of the Zend-Avesta not only far more nearly re- 
 sembles Trita than ThraStona does, but isactually the samo word. lie says, " I dt) 
 not doubt I shall also come upon the trace of this Thrita in the Vedic texts. The 
 priest, who beats and presses out thcHoma with stones, is thei-e called, in many 
 passages, Thrita. Could the designation of the priest, who prepares the potent and 
 curative drink, have been changed in the sister religion, from recollections of a 
 common past, to the name of a hero versed in the healing art ? On tho other 
 hand, if wo would assume that tho Zend race had hero presoi-ved' the original 
 idea, could not tho name of the Leech have been trausfen-ed to tbe Iloma priest ? 
 That in such a case a Leech should bear tho name of a water-god is quite pro. 
 bable among a people who held water to possess gi-eat healing properties. Many 
 questions remain here, no doubt, still to be answered ; e.g. how it comes that 
 in the Zend one and tho samo Yedic word bears two forms." Professor Wester- 
 gaard of Copenhagen, in his article on Ancient Iranian Mythology {Jounxal of 
 the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol, V., and Weber: Indische 
 Studien : vol. 3, p. 402), remarks, " I am more inclined to seek the etymology of 
 the Zend Thrita in the root thra, to save or presei-ve, iu which ci>so tho name 
 "Would bo signiCcative of office." 
 
28 ON THE LEOKNI) OF TKTSTAK. 
 
 celebrated Orientalist Eugene Burnonf.* In the Vedas the hero 
 is called Trita Aptya. As the Zend Thruttona, however, cannot 
 be directly derived from the Vedic Tribi, Professor Roth suggests 
 an intermediate form Trelavmn, afterwards Tritavan. It aj)pears that 
 another form Tretana, still more like the Zend, actually occurs 
 once in the Rig-Veda, f These Indian and Iranian myths resemble 
 each other not only in the names of the actors, but also iu their history. 
 Trita, for instance, owes his birth to the Divine Soma, and by its aid 
 succeeds in conquering the evil serpent Ahi. Indra in one hymn is 
 made to say, " It was I who gave Trita against the serpent to win the 
 cows ;" X and in another hymn Agastya exclaims, " I will j)raise the 
 Drink — the Soma Drink — by means of which Trita tore Vritra 
 {i.e. Ahi) in pieces." § . 
 
 * See Jowrnal Asiatiquc, 4tb Series, vol. V. p. 49'i. According to Burnouf, 
 the form Thraetanv, of which the crude form is ThraStana, represents a 
 patronymic in which ilirac is a modification of thri (three). The other form 
 Thractaoni), of which the crude form is Tkraetaona, is, he held, more easily ex- 
 plained if taona is considered as another form of the Sanscrit iiina (a qnivcr). 
 In such a case Tkraetaona would be translated as " the hero with the three 
 quivers." This he considered to bo the meaning, in view of the Persian ortho- 
 graphy of FeridUn, in which the last vowel presupposes either ^n u or an o in 
 the primitive word. 
 
 + See Roth {Zeitschrift der deutschen morgcnlandisclien GcsscUschafl, vol. 
 2, p. 219), and his rendering of the passage in which the woi'd occurs (ibid: p. 
 230.) He remarks that one sees in it traces of the later and more amplified myth 
 of Dirghatama (Malid Bhdmta, 1. 153. See Lassen : Indische AUerthumskitndc, I. 
 550). See, however, Wil.son's translation (R!<j-Veda, vol. 2, p. 103) and tlie note 
 thereto appended, iu which ho says " I cannot acquiesce in the opinions of those 
 scholars who imagine a connection between Trt'f ana and Fcridun; even admit- 
 ting a forced similarity of name, there is nothing analogous in the legends re- 
 lating to either." See also his note (ibid. vol. 1, p. 141) where he refers to the 
 story of Ekata, Dvita, and Trita, told in the Nitimanjari, and adds, that if his 
 interjirctation of the above passage bo correct, there can bo little relation be- 
 twesn Trita and Tretana, and between the latter and Fendiln. 
 
 X Jtig-Vcda. X, 4, G, 2. 
 
 § Ibid. I, 24, 8, 1, according to Roth's rendering. Wilson has it, "I glorify 
 Pitu the gi-eat, the npliolder, the strong, by whoso invigorating power Tri(a 
 slew the mutilated Vritra." In the foot-notes ho remarks that Pitu (rendered 
 as Soma by Roth) is the divinity presiding over food, and adds " Trita is hero 
 evidently a name of Indra; the Scholiast exjdains it, he whoso fame is spread 
 through the three worlds, or, as Mahldhara inter])rets it, Tristhdna-Indrah, llio 
 thrce-statioucd Indra. Yajur Veda : XXXIV. 7." 
 
ON rnr, lkckn'd or timstan', 20 
 
 Thcso inytiis, ns \vi' have scoii, contniii two distinct and proiiiiiicnt 
 rk-incnts beIon<;ing to the Tristan legend, viz., the Dragon ('oinl);it 
 and the Magic Potion. Th e myth of the Fonndlfng, thongli al'^o 
 
 worthy of remark, appears in the Persian poem as a If.ter a(hhtion, for 
 we do not find it in the other two earlier versions of the Trita nivth. 
 In examining, further, the changes that must have taken place from Tre- 
 tavana, through the forms TrUavawt, Tr'itan, to Trit'i, we cannot iu'l|) 
 being struck by the wonderful resemblance, that is here apparent, to the 
 name of our Celtic hero. If the Vedic commentators are right in their 
 assertion that the word Triti is derived from the Sanscrit muucral 
 fraijns, tris, tri (three), I A-enture to submit, that we have good grounds 
 for believing in the identity of Tritan and Tristan. ^ 
 
 The exact position of Trita among the Vedic deities is difficult to 
 determine, as his name is merely incidentally mentioned in the lli'>- 
 Veda, and then only about thirty times in all. Professor Koth regards //^ 
 him as {vJiali<;forgottengod of more ancient times. He sees in the Trita 
 legend the Aryan myth oTthc CToudHilemon, who steals the heavenly 
 cows or rain-clouds, and drives them before him until the Fire-god's 
 thunderbolt, descending, cleaves the sable veil, which the robber has 
 spread over the sky, and makes earth once more fruitful. With the 
 above learned writer, also, Trita assumes the double character of a 
 Wind-god and Water-god.* He is apparently strengthened in his 
 belief by the fact of Aptija, the hero's patronimie, signifving " the 
 Water-born" or "the Water-ruler." This, he rightly holds, refers 
 not to the ocean or rivers, but to the waters of heaven, the region of 
 rain and mist. We must not forget, however, that the deeds of Trita 
 are also ascribed in the Vedas to Indra, who is Sun-god as well as Rain- 
 
 * Sec Zeitsckrift der deutschen morgenlwivlischcn Cfcssellschaft : vol. 11. 
 p. 222. Roth suggests that Trita may bo identified with Vayii, the deity 
 presiding over the wind in the Vedas, and cites the following passages from tho 
 Soma hymns in support of this theory : — " Tho sweet Soma flowed and brou^ lib 
 forth Trita's name (i. e. power), in order that Yayu might become Indra's com- 
 panion." He further refers to a hymn of Gaya, wherein tho flames of Agni, the 
 Fire-god, are described as suddenly flaring up, when Trita from heaven blows 
 upon him ; and to another hymn ascribed to the same person, where Trita is 
 mentioned in connection with the word vdta (the wind). 
 
30 ON THE LEGEND OF TRISTAN. 
 
 god. Trita appears among the gods at the creation of the Sim. in 
 a mystic hymn of Dirghatama : 
 
 " Yaina gave (t. e created) hlin, 
 
 " Tiita harnessed liini, 
 
 " Gandharva seized his bridle j 
 
 " Out of the Sun, ye Vasu («. e. Gods) • 
 
 " Have made a horse. 
 
 " Thou art Yama, oh Arvan (j. e. Sun), 
 
 " Thou art Trita of the mysterious way, 
 
 ♦' Thou art the brother of Soma, 
 
 " Tliree-fold affinity thou hast, they say, in Heaven."* 
 
 Here Trita is actually described both as the Sun itself and as its rulef 
 harnessing him, as Phrebus-ApoUo might have done, to his cclestia, 
 chariot. These lines also give us an insight into the meaning of the 
 numeral three, which, as we have seen, probably lies in the name Trita . 
 This idea of~a Solar Trinity was further developed in the later Hindu 
 Trimurti, which had its equivalents in all European mythologies. In Ihe 
 prose Edda, Odin is mentioned in conjunction with Har (the High) 
 and Jafnhur (the Equally High), as Thrithi (the Third) ; and, in 
 Greece Zeus was, in like manner, occasionally called Tp'nos a-ioTr]p.-\ Sir 
 William Jones says : — " It is possible that the triple Divinity of the 
 Hindus was originally no more than a personification of the sun, whom 
 they call Treyltenu or Tritmi, or three-bodied, in his triple capacity 
 of producing forms by his genial heat, preserving them by his light, 
 or destroying them by the concentrated force of his igneous matter." 
 Trita or Tristan in such case would be a most appropriate ai)j)ellation 
 of the Sun-god, as exemplifying iu a striking manner one of his three 
 attributes of Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer. J It seems, therefore, 
 
 * Rio-Veda. I. 22, 7, 2. 
 
 t KuJin {Tlcrahlainft des Feucrs, etc. p. 158) derives the dosignatiou of Zeus na 
 rpiTos from the third driuk, whicli was dedicated to him as au>TTjp by the Greeks 
 at their feasts. He also compares this custom with tho three mighty draughts 
 attributed iu myth to Indra, Odin, and Thor respectively. But instead of tho 
 name of the god being derived from tiio driuk, may not rather tho driuk have 
 been suggested by the name of tho god? See also Grimm {Deutsche ]iIijtholo<jU; 
 Vol. I., 1). 118). 
 
 % Burnouf informs us (Journal Asiatiquc, 4th Series, vol. IV, p. 107), tliai, 
 the word ThraUona has been supposed to meau " tho one with three bodies." 
 on account of tho elements thraf' (for thri) three, aud taono (for ianu) body. 
 He does nol, however, accept this derivation, because the crude form of the word 
 
OK TirE LTaTENTD ot tristax. -IT 
 
 Ijy 110 means ImpruljahK', that the unmo Trita was origimlly cm|ilnye(l 
 
 to express the tliird person in an ancient Hindu Triad ; and Tr'x^ian^^ 
 liiniselt'may be some clay possibly identified with one of the three rhief 
 Celtic deities, Ilesus, Teutates, and Taranis. 
 
 The Aryan idea of a Celestial^^e%»i lies in tlie waters of Ara and 
 of Vouru-Kasha, in whTC*^ as we have seen, the Hindus and Per- 
 sians respectively placed their world-trees. We even find it at home 
 among the Hebrews, for we read of the great Elohini, who made 
 the firmament, and divided the waters under the firmament from the 
 waters above the firmament. Tlie ancient Egyj^tians conceived the sun 
 fls a vessel sailing across the heavenly sea or i^ther ; hence the crescent- / 
 shaped bark which they launched at the new moon, when the god / 
 Osiris was said to enter the crescent in order to render the Earth fruitful, /r 
 Whether this bark has any connection with that of Ti-istan. a nd with 
 the golden cup, in which the solar hero Heracles sailed across the sea, 
 is an interesting question. It is a significant tact, that in India the divine 
 ('ri, and in Hellas the Sun-bride Aphrodite, were fabled to have risen from 
 the sea-foam ; and that Poseidon, conceived as Sun-god as well as Water- 
 god, was made to woo Demeter.* Were it not indeed too bold an hypo- 
 thesis, I would be tempted here to suggest the possibility of that Sea-god's 
 offspring TptVcof being merely a Hellenised form of the older Aryan 
 Trit'i, " the Water-born," in his capacity of celestial Water-god. f 
 There cannot be any doubt but that the Sun-god and K:un-god were 
 origiually identical in most mythologies. The fecuudatiou of the Earth 
 
 is Thraefaona, and taona does not oflFer the slightest analogy to tanu (body) 
 It should be here stated, that the above passage from Sir William Joues 
 was not cited with a view to connect in any way Thraetona or Trita with 
 Treyitenu (Tmyi tanu.) 
 
 * In the Yedas we meet with the Apas, nymphs of the waters, who are 
 also called Ndvyai^, or those that sail on the sea of Heaven. Sister-forms were 
 the Apsarases, types of the Swan-maidens of German folk-lore. 
 
 + Since the above was ^vritten, Professor Buehler has kindly placed in my 
 hands a most interesting paper, recently read by the learned Professor Benfey 
 before the Royal Society of Sciences, Goettingen, entitled Tplrcovia 'Aduva 
 Femininum <Jes Zendi^cfien Maicitlinum Ihmetdna dthwyana, in which thj> 
 connection between Trita and Tptrtof is specially pointed out. The eminent 
 Celtic scholar Mr. Whitley Stokes, in his edition of Cormac's Glossanj, states, on 
 the authority of Dr. Siegfried, that, although the names Trita, Thraefaona, Tpirav 
 and ' Ap(f)i-TpiTr] point to the meaning " sea," it is only Irish which supplies tho 
 vocable in triath, gen. trSthan, (See Preface, p. xix.) 
 
?.9 
 
 ON THE LEGEND OF TRISTAN. 
 
 by light aiul water from the Sun-god was typified in the Dionysiaii 
 and Mithraic Mysteries by a sacrament of Ijread and Avine. This may 
 explain in some measure the rose and vine on Tristan's grave, if we 
 take the former to be the emblem of Aphrodite-Ceres and the latter of 
 Dionysos.* With the Hindus the Sun appeared as the Day-spring, 
 whence l)oth light and water derived their being. Their early 
 cosmogonists said, "from the sun comes rain," "the sun pours out 
 water."-!- I'^ theVedas the sun is invoked as "the genu of the waters 
 the disi)layer of herbs, the cherisher of lakes, rej)lenishing the j)onds 
 with rain,"J and we meet with mxmerous other passages that bear 
 out our view. The following examples may suthce : — 
 
 " Agni, abiding in the waters. . . Benefactor of the universe in 
 the waters, manifested as it were in the womb of the waters." § 
 
 "May those waters which are contiguous to the sun, and those with 
 which the sun is associated, be propitious to our rite."^ 
 
 " O Soma, descend with that stream with which thou lightedst up 
 the Sun ; do tliou descend, and send water for the use of mau."|! 
 
 * The rose and vine, however, have probably taken the place of the hazel and 
 honeysuckle. We find both the latter in the Lai du Chevrefoil of Marie de France, 
 which celebrates an incident in the Tristan legend to be met with nowhere else. 
 The hero sends his love a message, carved on a hazel branch, in which he 
 likens himself and her to the hazel and honeysuckle, that, if once united, cannot 
 afterwards be severed without dying. As the poetess obtained her materials from 
 original Welsh and Breton sources, this tale possesses very great importance for 
 us. The hazel is a well-known lightning-tree among the Aryans of Kurope, and 
 its union to a creeper like the liouoysuckle would illustrate in a ivuiarkal)Ie manner 
 Kuhn's theory regarding the origin of the Terrestrial Fire and Drink. The hoiu-y- 
 suckle itself, from the sweet juice of its blossoms, would further be a natural 
 emblem of the mythic plant, which yields the Celestial Soma or INIead. Its name 
 of " Goat's-leaf" in both French and German, also, in a measure strengthens 
 this view, if we consider that the goat was specially sacred to the God of 
 Fire and Thunder; and that the modern representative of the latter, the Devil, 
 ni)])e:\re(l under the form of that animal at tiio Witches' Sabbath. Besides, tlio 
 Jioueysucklo is still sometimes known in Lower (iermany as Hcxenschlingc or 
 " Witches'-Suare." Ibid, p. 1030, note. See Grimm. JJcuttrhc Mi/tholo<ji<; 
 vol. I. p. 1G8. 
 
 + Wuttkc, vol. II. pp. 2G5, 317. 
 
 X Wilson, Eig-Vcdn, vol. IL p. lU. 
 
 (j Ibid, vol. I. pp. 58, 177. 
 
 t Ibid, p. 57. 
 
 II Stevenson. S(n>ia-Vedo, p. 188. 
 
ON run i,i;i;i:\i) of ti.mst.w. 'jo 
 
 We cannot, thcrefluT, liolp concluding that Tritavann, Tritan, or 
 Trita was only one of the numerous personifications of the Sun in its 
 different ])hases, represented in the Yedas under names as various 
 ns Agni Vai^vanara, Silrya, Puslian, Bhaga, Savitar, Aryaman, Mitra, 
 and Vishnu. 
 
 AVe next come to the h eroji ic, whose original Welsh name of EssvH^ 
 is said to have the meaning of " SjuictatJ^"'" In France it assumed / _ j cl o 
 
 various forms, of which Ysolt perhaps most nearly rcsemhlcs the ^\ ^ JJ 
 
 Welsh ; and this in Germany afterwards became Isolde. Except in / ^ 
 Romance, the figure of the Queen does not stand out in sufficient ^-'^^^ c,/ ''^ 
 relief to assist ns in discovering her real position in Celtic Myth. All ■ J-i^c^ - 
 we know of her there is, that she was a Cornish Queen, notorious for ^ / 
 her infidelity to her husband, and her attachment to Tristan. But ^ /^>^/'''^ 
 if we consider the mythic character of Tristan and his relation to 
 Isolde, we are justified in viewing the latter as originally a jjcrsonifica- 
 tion of the Earth. In such a case she would hold a position 
 corresponding to that of Cybele-Khea, the mighty goddess of 
 Earth, and bride of the slain Sun-god of the Mysteries. Her skill 
 in leech: £raft ;_aboutj\yhich th e Welsh records_ are sileixtr-is probably 
 referable to the myth of the Magic Bason. The other Isolde, named 
 " of the White Hand," has already been compared to Nejjhthvs, 
 Persephone and Chriemhild, and represents no doubt the rival ^ 
 goddess of the ILiderwQrld,--A¥ith--wtnTril — the Sun-god tarried and ' 
 forgof his first love for a time. This idea, which has ever l)een a popular 
 one in both ancient and modern days, is also found in the tales of Odys- 
 seus, Baldur, Tannha?user, Tamlane, and Ogier le Danois.f ^-- — ■ 
 
 In European countries, where rain falls throughout the year, a 
 Dragon combat, such as is contained in the Tristan Legend, would 
 more probably symbolize the change from Winter to Spring, than the 
 bursting of the thunder-cloud which heralds the rainy season of the 
 tropics. I should be inclined, therefore, iinder the circumstances, 
 to view the Trita legend among the Celts as a pure Sun-mvth. 
 
 * I Icani through Sfr. Wliitley Stokes, that Dr. Siegfried irlontifiod EfS'jUt 
 with the old Gaulish AdsnVuta, which occurs in Ilcnzcn ; Nos. 58G1-, 5911. 
 
 t Fata riTorgana givr- the hero a wreath of forgctfulncss, which corresponds to 
 the ;NTaj:ic r.'tioii of other myths, ^^cc Griinni : Deutsche Mythohgie, p. tS8. 
 
5t ON THE LEGEND OF TRISTAN. 
 
 March or Marc signifies, curiously enough, iu Cymric " a horse,"* and, 
 as such, might not unnaturally be supposed to represent the A'edic / 
 courser of the Sun. Tristaii^ho^eier, — iiot—AIarkjis the Sun-god. ^t^ 
 Mark, like Rudra, Arthur and Odin, the Wild Huntsmen^ is probably 
 the Storm-god, as the flyin;^ cloud naturally suggested to the ancients 
 the idea^^'oT a lV6rse' scouring the gloomy sky. His swine or boars, 
 like the Vedic 31aruts, are the raging winds that follow in his train,f 
 whose inactivity during the Summer months would not improbably be 
 figured forth by their being under the custody of the Sun-god Tristan. 
 The antagonism between the aged monarch and his youthful heir 
 would be that between the stormy Winter and th^ golden Spring-tide. 
 Isolde, retaining the character of Earth-goddess already ascribed to 
 her, gives herself up joyously to the embraces of the youthful Sun-god 
 who woos her. The Magic Draught, brought down by the mythic cloud- 
 bird, becomes the welcome vernal shower, through whose -life-giving 
 influence the Earth is rendered fruitful. At length bleak Winter 
 returns, and, like Mark, re-asserts his power over the ha})less Queen ; 
 while the stricken Suu-god dies, or wanders to other lands and seeks 
 another bride. 
 
 * We have the horse as the embodiiucufc of hghtniug iu the Uccaii;i-avas of 
 Inclra, with its neigh of thunder ; the winged Pegasos of Zeus ; and the Slcipnir 
 t»f Odin. The same image is conveyed by the Aroion of Poseidon ; the Cen- 
 taurs ; the steeds of the Valkyriur ; Yggdrasil (i.e. Ygg's or Odin's horse) ; and the 
 elephant Airavataof ludra. See Kuhu ; Hembkun/t des Feuers, etc. jip. 132 — 13-4> 
 251. The expulsion of summer by winter is symbolized iu the woll-known 
 tradition of the Furious Host. See Grimm. Deutsche Mytkologie; vol. II., ji. 870, 
 uud Liebrccht. Otia Imperialia, p. 173. 
 
 t In the Vcdas, both Riulra the Storm-god, and the cloud, are called l'<im/i(i 
 (l)oar). The Maruts themselves bear sometimes the designation of Vardhu, 
 M-liich lloth considers identical with Vardha. In Sanscrit the boar is known as 
 Va'jradanta (lightning-tooth) from the whiteness ami sharpness of his tusks. Tho 
 mountain-ash, the well-known lightning-troe of tho western Aryans, is still some- 
 times called in German Ebevesche (Boar-ash). See Kuhn, llembkunj't des Feuers, 
 etc. p. 202. Tho Scandinavian god Freyr, from whom came rain and sunshine 
 and to whom men prayed for fruitful seasons, was drawn in iiis car by a lioar 
 with golden bristles {GulUnbursti), which turned night into day : hence tiio 
 sacrifices of a boar (SdnarficcU r) in his honour. Boars were offered up to the 
 groat Earth-goddess Demetor, and traces of a similar custom appear among ih(> 
 Pianka. See Grimm. Deutsche MijlhoJo,jU; Vol. 1. ]>]). tt, lo, 11)3, \iH. 
 
* •* 
 
 U'l 
 
 :•• A !•. 
 
 ON TIIK LKciK.NI) OF TKFSI'AN'. 
 
 ••35 
 
 From those tacts I think we may couchule that the Tristan Legend 
 was originally an archaic Aryan myth ; that it was carried westwards 
 into Britain with the wave of Celtic migratjon ; that it ])assed at a 
 very early period from thence into Brittany ; and that it owed its pre- 
 servation there mainly to the fact of that province being the last 
 resting-place of the Celtic langnage in France. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE. 
 
 With regard to the spelling of the proper names that occnr in the 
 legend, I may state, that, for the sake of convenience, I have adopted 
 the foro ps employed l>v (lOttjVied von Strassbnrg. The following list, 
 however, will sutiice to show the^total ahsehCO of any fixed rule in the 
 matter. Isolde is spelt Yseus, Yseutz, Yseut, Yssculz, Izentz, 
 Yseul, Ysou, Ysolt, Isault, Essyllt, Yssilt, Ysone, Yseult, Iset, 
 Ysalde, Yscuda, Yzeult, Iseulte, Isot, Isodda, Ysoude, Ysonde, 
 Ysote, Isond, Isotta, Iseo, Isawde, Isowde, Isod, Isold, Ysiaut^ 
 and Ysoud. Tristan is Tristans, Tristram, Tristrans, Tristant, 
 uTristran, Tritans, Tritan, Tristranz, Tristanz, Tritanz, Trijtrant, 
 Trystrem, Trystren, and Trustrnm. j Mark is March, Marc, and Mars. 
 Brang.ene is Brengain, Brangian, Brauweu, Braugien, Brangweyne, 
 Brangneyn, Brangwyna, Bragwaine, Brangwin, Brangwcn, and 
 Brengwain. Rual is Rohand, and llhyhawd. Morolu is Morauut, 
 Morhoult, Marlot, Morolt, Morhot, Morogh, and Martholwch. 
 
 iiuAlBAX : VKIKIED AT THE EDUCATIOK SOClKTX's PKESS, BYCULLA. 
 
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