Whilst engaged on the Translations contained in these volumes, and on the Notesappended to the various Tales, I have found myself led unavoidably into a muchmore extensive course of reading than I had originally contemplated, and onewhich in great measure bears directly upon the earlier Mediæval Romance.
Before commencing these labours, I was aware, generally, thatthere existed a connexion between the Welsh Mabinogion and theRomance of the Continent; but as I advanced, I became betteracquainted with the closeness and extent of that connexion, itshistory, and the proofs by which it is supported.
At the same time, indeed, I became aware, and still stronglyfeel, that it is one thing to collect facts, and quite another toclassify and draw from them their legitimate conclusions; andthough I am loth that what has been collected with some pains,should be entirely thrown away, it is unwillingly, and withdiffidence, that I trespass beyond the acknowledged province of atranslator.
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries there arose intogeneral notoriety in Europe, a body of “Romance,”which in various forms retained its popularity till theReformation. In it the plot, the incidents, the characters,were almost wholly those of Chivalry, that bond which united thewarriors of France, Spain, and Italy, with those of pure Teutonicdescent, and embraced more or less firmly all the nations ofEurope, excepting only the Slavonic races, not yet risen topower, and the Celts, who had fallen from it. It is notdifficult to account for this latter omission. The Celts,driven from the plains into the mountains and islands, preservedtheir liberty, and hated their oppressors with fierce, and notcauseless, hatred. A proud and free people, isolated bothin country and language, were not likely to adopt customs whichimplied brotherhood with their foes.
Such being the case, it is remarkable that when the chiefromances are examined, the name of many of the heroes and theirscenes of action are found to be Celtic, and those of persons andplaces famous in the traditions of Wales and Brittany. Ofthis the romances of Ywaine and Gawaine, Sir Perceval de Galles,Eric and Enide, Mort d’Arthur, Sir Lancelot, Sir Tristan,the Graal, &c., may be cited as examples. In some casesa tendency to triads, and other matters of internal evidence,point in the same direction.