FOOTNOTES:
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Keightley, Thomas
[473] Pomp. Mela, iii. 6.
[474] It might seem hardly necessary to inform the reader that these verses and those that follow, are our own translations, from Marie de France. Yet some have taken them for old English verses.
[475]
E korole nao c'horrigan, Bleunvek ho bleo, gwisket gloan, Kelc'h ar feunteun, d'al loar-gann. Villemarqué, Barzan-Breiz, i. 8.
The c'h expresses the guttural.
[476] This manifestly alludes to Lanval or Graelent, or similar stories.
[477] It follows, in M. de Roquefort's edition,
"Deci ne muez fu ou désis."
Of which we can make no sense, and the French translation gives no aid. In the Harleian MS. it is
"De cine muez fu ou de sis,"
which is more intelligible.
[478] This tends to prove that this is a translation from the Breton; for Innocent III., in whose pontificate the cup was first refused to the laity, died in 1216, when Henry III., to whom Marie is supposed to have dedicated her Lais, was a child.
[479] The same was the case with the Wünschelweib (Wish-woman) of German romance.
Swenne du einêst wünschest nâch mir, Sô bin ich endelîchen bî dír,
says the lady to the Staufenberger. She adds,
Wâr ich wil dâ bin ich, Den Wunsch hât mir Got gegeben.
He finds it to be true,
Er wûnschte nach der frouwen sîn, Bî îm sô war diu schöne sîn. Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 391.
[480] In the Shâh-nâmeh, Siyawush, when he foresees his own death by the treachery of Afrasiâb, tells his wife Ferengis, the daughter of that monarch, that she will bear a son whom she is to name Ky Khosroo, and who will avenge the death of his father: see Görres, Heldenbuch von Iran, ii. 32.
[481]
Desi k'a une hoge vint: En cele hoge ot une entree.
M. de Roquefort, in his Glossaire de la Langue Romaine, correctly renders hoge by colline. In his translation of this Lai he renders it by cabane, not, perhaps, understanding how a hill could be pervious. The story, however, of Prince Ahmed, and the romance of Orfeo and Heurodis (see above, p. 52), are good authority on this point: see also above, pp. 405, 408.
[482] In the Harleian MS. Mandement. M. de Roquefort confesses his total ignorance of this people; we follow his example. May it not, however, be connected with manant, and merely signify people, inhabitants?
[483] Roman de Roux, v. ii. 234.
[484] See Roquefort, Supplément au Glossaire de la Langue Romaine s. v. Perron.
[485] Barzan-Breiz, Chants Populaires de la Bretagne, recueilles et publiés par Th. Hersart de la Villemarqué. Paris, 1846. This is a most valuable work and deserving to take its place with the Ballads of Scotland, Scandinavia, and Servia, to none of which is it inferior. To the credit of France the edition which we use is the fourth. How different would the fate of such a work be in this country!
[486] We make this distinction, because in the ballads in which the personage is a Fay, the word used is Korrigan or Korrig, while in that in which the Dwarfs are actors, the words are Korr and Korred. But the truth is, they are all but different forms of Korr. They are all the same, singular and plural. The Breton changes its first consonant like the Irish: see p. 371. We also meet with Crion, Goric, Couril, as names of these beings, but they are only forms of those given above.
[487] Hence we may infer that they came originally from Scandinavia, communicated most probably by the Normans.
[488] Stone-tables. They are called by the same name in Devon and Cornwall; in Irish their appellation is Cromleach.
[489] Barzan-Breiz., i. xlix. 69.
[490]
Welsh.
Breton.
Gweliz mez ken gwelet derven,
Gweliz vi ken guelet iar wenn,
Gweliz vi ken gwelet iar wenn,
Gweliz mez ken gwelet gwezen.
Erioez ne wiliz evelhenn.
Gweliz mez ha gweliz gwial,
Gweliz derven e Koat Brezal,