SOURCE: “Tristan's Combat with the Dragon,” in Revue Celtique, Vol. 41. Reprint. Kraus Reprint Ltd., 1966, pp. 331-49.

[In the following essay, van Hamel studies the details of the dragon-slaying episode in the Tristan legend and compares these elements as they appear in different versions of the legend.]

When Tristan and his men, in quest of the Princess of the Swallow's Hair, have reached the Irish coast and lie in the harbour, they learn that the country is being devastated by a fiery dragon, and that the king has promised his daughter and the half of his kingdom to the man who will slay the monster. The next day the hero sets out alone and accomplishes the deed. He cuts out the dragon's tongue as a trophy. Overcome by his burns, he lies down in a brook and falls asleep. An impostor, the king's seneschal, desires the royal bride for himself. First he makes sure that the monster is dead, and then, under the impression that it has also killed its slayer, he rides off with the head to the court and proclaims himself as winner of the king's daughter. The next day the princess sets out herself to investigate the scene of the combat. The wounded Tristan is discovered and carried to the town. Here she recognises him as the slayer not only of the dragon but of the Morold, her uncle. However, both the king and his daughter are willing to pardon him because of the slaying of the dragon. The claim of the seneschal, who is challenged to battle by Tristan, is proved to be false, the hero being able to produce the monster's tongue. The impostor now leaves the court in disgrace. Tristan proffers his sue for Isolt on behalf of king Mark of Cornwall, and the Irish king readily accepts it¹.

The episode of the slaying of the dragon has long been recognised as one of the many folk-elements, which underly the Tristan romance². The natural conclusion would be that the champion wins the bride for himself, but this has been changed in accordance with the altruistic character of Tristan's quest. The story, as it is told in Tristan and Isolt, belongs to a particular group of folk-tales of the Perseus-type, owing to the character of the impostor, which gives the trait of the hero's cutting out the monster's tongue a deeper significance. This character, as Gertrude Schoepperle remarks, is known in other folk-tales, which are also represented in Celtic popular tradition.

In a recently published collection of Breton folk-lore³ the story occurs even in a more elaborate form, and here it illustrates once more the well-known fact, that the reputation of Brittany for its exact and careful preservation of primitive lore is well-deserved. In a good many cases, I think, Breton traditions are superior even to those of Ireland. Besides, this is not the first instance of a popular element of the Tristan romance being retraced in Brittany⁴. A particular interest attaches to this coincidence, although the day has not yet arrived to make out the nature of the connection.

In the Breton version here alluded to⁵ the story forms a portion of a longer tale entitled Ar Zarpant milliguet. Here the dragon is a monster with six heads. Every day it receives a human being for its prey, in order to prevent it from further devastations. On the day of the hero's arrival the king's eldest daughter will be sacrificed. Immediately the hero presents himself before the king, who promises him his daughter, if he should succeed in delivering her. The princess is on her knees before the serpent's hole. Her unknown champion (who is only a boy) sees the monster emerging from its subterranean abode. In the combat, which ensues, he receives great help from his horse, his dog and his iron helmet, and at last he separates the dragon's six heads from the body with his sword. He cuts out the six tongues, wraps them up in his handkerchief and makes off for an inn near by, in order to prepare himself to appear before the king. A disgusting dwarf, distorted and warped, who dwells not far from the palace (his name is Beg-lor)⁶, has witnessed the bloody scene. He takes the six heads in his hand, dips his knife in the gore, and announces at the palace that he has killed the dragon. Reluctantly the king declares himself prepared to fulfill his promise, and the princess, though disbelieving the claimant's remonstrances, can only obey. Owing to the dwarf's orders the hero is refused admittance to the king's presence. Thus he is obliged to devise a stratagem. When the banquet has commenced, he tells his dog to penetrate into the hall, to lick the maiden's hand, and then to overthrow the table with all the dishes upon it. The faithful animal does as it is told, and the same scene is repeated on a second and a third day. Twice the dog escapes, but the third time it is caught, and its master is dragged before the king. Now he makes himself known as the rightful pretender to the seat next the princess, and supports his claim against the usurper by producing the six tongues, which appear to fit exactly into the six mouths. In vain the false bridegroom attempts to disappear, and his crime is expiated on the gallows. But the successful dragon-slayer becomes the king's son-in-law.

The above summary shows once more that in Celtic popular tradition stories of the same type as that of Tristan's dragon fight are known. It could not be held that this folk-tale should have drawn its material from any poetic or prose version of the Tristan story. It preserves several traits, which no doubt are ancient, and which all our versions of Tristan and Isolt ignore. Among these I reckon the hero's youthful age, the large number of heads of the monster, the part played by the helpful animals at the combat, and by the faithful dog at the banquet.

Other stories of the same type have been noted down in Brittanny⁷ and in other Celtic countries as well⁸. A striking variant is preserved in Lorraine⁹. In all these the monster emerges at regular periods and claims a living oblation, which it has been promised in order that it may refrain from further devastations. The youth arrives on the day when the king's daughter will be sacrificed. The number of the dragon's heads varies from one to six or seven, and the slaying takes from one to three days. An important incident is the recognition of the hero, who either modestly retires or falls asleep after the combat. It occurs in two variants. In one of these there is an impostor, or even three, and everything happens as in the tale quoted above. This is the version of all the Breton variants; it has been retraced by E.S. Hartland in a large number of versions of our story all over the world. The other variant knows of no impostor. Here the hero falls asleep on the third day and the princess takes from him either a lock of hair or a shoe, or both. When afterwards the king orders his men to search the country for the unknown champion, he is easily recognised by means of one of these tokens. It is clear that a connection exists between these two variants of the recognition scene and the number of days of the combat. The princess only realises the necessity of keeping the hero's shoe or cutting off a lock of hair, when she has come to know his habit of disappearing after his day's work on a previous occasion. On the other hand the impostor draws his sinister courage from the hero's unnoticed and ephemerical appearance.

In all the folk-tales an introduction has been prefixed to the story of the dragon fight; its object is to account for the supernatural power, with which the youthful hero is invested. Of this introduction two principal versions may be distinguished. In the first he possesses himself of a magic sword, or even armour, which he finds in a giants' hoard. The other version derives his heroic character from a supernatural birth and represents his mother as having eaten a wonderful fish, which is sometimes styled “The Queen of Fishes”. Of these the former is not sufficient in itself, for the sword can only be won by killing the giants, and thus supernatural power is required even at this stage of the story. Thus the fight with the giants involves a preliminary introduction, where the hero makes friends with a supernatural being, mostly an animal, which imparts to him the necessary magical qualities.

From the two Irish representatives of the introduction I distinguish these versions as the Speckled bull-version and the White salmon-version. In the Irish tale called An tarbh breac the boy is being ill treated by a stepmother, who sends him out to look after the cattle but leaves him without food. Among the herd there is a speckled bull. It nourishes the boy from its horn. When the stepmother becomes aware of this, she determines on having the animal killed. She does not succeed, however, but at the same time the bull has to leave the place. It takes the boy with it, and when they find themselves in safety in the woods, it tells him, as soon as it will have been killed in a fight with another bull, to strip it of a part of its skin and thus make a girdle, which will preserve him in all subsequent dangers. It is this girdle which afterwards enables the hero to overcome the giants and win the magic sword.

The Speckled bull version occurs in other variants of our story also. In the Breton folk-tale given by Luzel we find a supernatural animal called the “Murlu”, which supports the boy, who is the son of the king of France and his second wife, in his three days' struggle with the giants. Afterwards the Murlu is transformed into a beautiful horse; it carries the boy to the place of the dragon fight and quenches the monster's fire by vomiting large gushes of water. At the end the Murlu makes itself known to the hero as a transformation of his father's first wife, who had attempted to seduce his mother when, disguised as a young page, she first came to the kings court; she had died of grief because of her lack of success, and her punishment consisted in remaining in animal shape, until the day when she should succeed in marrying the young prince to a lady he would have saved from a dragon.

Notwithstanding the complicated form, in which the Speckled bull version occurs in this story, it shows the same fundamental conception as the Irish tale, and we may gather from it that here also the speckled bull, although it is not explicitly stated, must, be considered as a transformation animal. Other evidence confirms this view. In an Irish story of an altogether different type¹⁰, where the King of Greece's sword has to be won in order to fight a giant, the speckled bull's part is played by a white horse, which gives exactly the same advice as the speckled bull: bain an croiceann díom. The true nature of this horse is revealed by the helpful horse in a Breton folktale, which makes itself known as the hero's grandfather¹¹. An interesting variant of the group of tales discussed here is supplied by the Egyptian legend of the Two Brothers¹², where āa good many of the elements which constitute the Celtic tales (such as the helpful bull, the false queen, etc.) may be discerned, though differently connected.

The White Salmon—version of the introduction in its simplest form is very perspicuous. The supernatural power, which the hero displays in fighting the dragon, is accounted for by a supernatural birth. The hero's mother has been denied the blessings of maternity during many years of matrimony until, by the intercession of supernatural powers, a child is born, which afterwards becomes a hero. This trait is quite common even in newly-made stories¹³.

The Wonderful Fish presents itself in two different ways. Either it is caught by the father, who is a fisherman, and reveals its secret only when its life is threatened (thus in Ar Zarpant Milliguet and Le Fils du Pêcheur), or the father consults a wizard as to how to get an heir, and is told to go fishing and make his wife eat the Wonderful Fish he will catch (An Bradán Geal). In the former variant the fish provides the future hero at the same time with a set of animal friends, who, deriving their life force from the same source, will remain devoted to him and support him in all dangers. In Ar Zarpant Milliguet the fish tells the father to give the water, in which it is boiled, to the bitch, the bones to the mare, and to plant the three big thorns that will be found in its interior in the garden. Thus are born on the same day three boys, three cubs and three colts, and in the garden three lances spring up. In Le Fils du Pêcheur the same thing happens. An Bradán Geal puts it differently. Here the wizard strictly forbids that anyone should partake of the fish but the mother. The cook, however, desirous to taste of her own hands' work, puts a little piece of fish into her mouth, and within a year she gives birth to a boy at the same moment as her mistress.

Thus in some versions the supernatural birth from the Wonderful Fish is connected with another well-known folk-element, that of the Helpful Animals, which, however, is not necessarily implied. The Life Brother, on the other hand, who in An Bradán Geal is born from the cook, occurs in all tales of this type and may be regarded as an essential element of the Wonderful Fish formula. In Ar Zarpant Milliguet and Le fils du Pêcheur the hero has two brothers from the outset, and the close connection, which exists between the three owing to their common birth, is expressed by the symbol of the Life Liquid, which the parting brother leaves in the others' hands. The hero of An Bradán Geal tells his brother to go out into the garden every morning and observe the colour of the water in the well; as long as it has the colour of honey, he will be thriving well, but as soon as things turn against him, there will be the colour of blood upon it. In the same way in Ar Zarpant Milliguet the boys, on bidding farewell to the paternal home, leave a pitcher, filled with water, behind them; when there is something wrong with them, the water will become dark. The father of Le Fils du Pêcheur is told by the Wonderful Fish to preserve its blood in three vials, one of whom he is to give to each of his three sons; as soon as danger threatens them, the blood will boil. Similar traits are found in many other folktales¹⁴.

As it has been argued before, an introduction conveying the hero's supernatural power, was attracted by the story of the dragon fight, but the special character of origin of this power was in no way determined by it. The Sword of the Giants, preceded by the Speckled Bull formula, and the White Salmon formula would suit equally well. For the structure of the story as a whole, however, the prefixion of the latter introduction had another consequence, which tended to sever it farther from the Speckled Bull variant. The Life Brother and the Life Liquid, both original elements of the White Salmon formula, play no part in the dragon fight, what shows the secondary character of the combination. Still it cannot be imagined, that they should be devoid of all interest for the further development of the story as a whole. We shall have to look for a connection outside the dragon fight.

The versions that open with the White Salmon formula, followed by the story of the dragon fight, have a sequel, which is lacking in those that have the Speckled Bull introduction, and which does bear a connection to the elements in discussion. This sequel is found in its simplest from in the Irish tale of An Bradán Geal. Soon after his marriage with the princess, whom he has delivered from the dragon, the hero sees a stag entering the room by the window and leaving it again on the opposite side. He saddles his horse and sets out to hunt it, accompanied by his dog and his hawk. At the falling of night he discovers a house, which is inhabited by a witch. She wants him to tie up the animals with a magic withe, and then she starts wrestling with him. When he is overcome, she touches him and his animals with a magic wand and changes them all into grey stones. On that very moment his Life Liquid turns dark as blood, and his Life Brother starts to trace him. When he gets to the court, they all take him for his brother and express their surprise, that he has been the first knight to return safely from the hunt of the enchanted stag. He does not reveal his identity and the next day, when the stag again crosses the room, he undertakes the hunt. The witch desires him to fasten up his animals, but the throws the withes into the fire. Then she attacks him, but with the help of the animals he masters her; wrings the wand from her, and delivers his brother and his three animals by touching them with it. At last the witch is turned into a stone.

Ar Zarpant Milliguet has exactly the same sequel, but for a few discrepancies owing to the differences in the introduction. Here the number of the brothers amounts to three, so that two of them have to be petrified before the third can perform the delivering act. Here the hunt is not introduced by the appearance of the enchanted stag—which, of course, has to be regarded as a transformation animal under the evil power of the witch,—but when looking from his window on the day after his marriage, the hero perceives a magic wood, which he enters hunting notwithstanding his wife's supplication. Here he discovers the witch and her hut after having passed through a terrible thunderstorm, which recalls that of Owein and Lluned. Of the brothers' animals only their dogs are mentioned and it is not expressly stated, that these are the dogs with whom each of them is connected by conception from the Wonderful Fish, but it may be surmised that the real character of the dogs must be explained in this way and that also the horses are understood.

In the Lorraine version Le fils du pêcheur the magic wood is replaced by a burning castle. This must be an innovation of this particular tale, as the burning castle belongs to a different type of story and has nothing to do with the hunt of the enchanted stag¹⁵.

If this sequel of the Enchanted Hunt, which is found in all versions with the White Salmon introduction, is originally and essentially connected with it, the same question may be asked as to the Helpful Animals. It has already been pointed out that supernatural conception from a fish does not necessarily imply the birth of helpful animals from the same origin. The Irish version An Bradán Geal lacks the helpful animals altogether in the introduction, whereas they do appear here in the sequel. Thus the helpful animals were neither implied by the introduction, nor attracted by the dragon fight, where they play no part, but by the enchanted hunt. But even here they are only of an accidental character. In An Bradán Geal, when the second brother delivers the hero out of the power of the witch, he is assisted by his three helpful hunting animals. But Ar Zarpant Milliguet omits the horse entirely from the sequel, and assigns no active part to the dog in the wrestle with the witch; the magic lance, which was also engendered by the wonderful fish, appears to be forgotten at the end, and is superseded by a firearm, and but for the witch's transforming the dog and the firearm into stones, we should not be aware of anything supernatural in either of them. The Lorraine version given by Cosquin puts it exactly in the same way, but here the transformation object is a tuft of grass, Thus it would seem that, once the hero had been equipped for the enchanted hunt with hunting animals, which could assume more or less the character of helpful animals, a closer relation between him and his animal friends could easily be established, by deriving their birth from the identical supernatural power, emanating from the wonderful fish. But at the same time the helpful animals are essential neither to the Wonderful Fish nor to the Enchanted Hunt formula.

This conclusion is confirmed by the observation that helpful animals are sometimes utilised in altogether different connections. In one of the versions of our tale taken down by Luzel in Brittany¹⁶, the hero is assisted by helpful animals in all his difficulties, but here they are no hunting animals owing to the absence of the enchanted hunt. The hero meets a bear, a fox and a hare, who lend him their services first in overcoming a set of robbers, then in delivering a princess from a dragon, and finally in exposing the impostor. In this version the hero has no supernatural birth, what is decisive for the character of the helpful animals also. Helpful animals are found in many folktales and in various forms. They borrow their special character in each case from the possibilities afforded by the story into which they are introduced.

The helpful animals, once they have found their way into a story framed out of various elements, will easily find a part to play in each of these. The more remarkable is the fact that they figure but rarely in the dragon fight. The version given by Luzel in Mélusine is almost unique in this respect. In the dragon fight the folktale raises itself unconsciouly to the level of the epic, and shrinks before impairing the hero's character by lending him any supernatural aid. Exactly the same fact may be noticed in those variants, which have the Speckled Bull introduction in stead of the Wonderful Fish formula. Here also the speckled bull retires, when the heroic deeds commence, and it is only in the Breton Murlu story, that the Murlu, rather awkwardly and to great detriment of the epic character of the whole, takes an active part in the combat by vomiting water and thus quenching the monster's flames.

Only where the dragon fight is extended with the scene of an impostor, who attempts to profit from the hero's fatigue and secure the royal bride for himself by presenting the monster's heads to the King, the helpful animals come in regularly. The impostor is not an essential element of the dragon fight, in the Irish version An Bradán Geal he is not alluded to. But in a great many tales of the Perseus type he is well-known¹⁷. The hero either retires or falls asleep after the combat. The impostor, who is mostly a charcoal-burner (or three charcoal-burners), passes and finds the monster's heads, without noticing that the tongues have been cut out. The king finds himself under the obligation to accept him as his son-in-law, though reluctantly, and the wedding-feast begins. At this moment the helpful animals come in. In Ar Zarpant Milliguet the dog provides for his master an opportunity to appear before the king and present the dragon's tongues, by surrendering itself into the hands of the king's servants on the third day, after having overthrown the dining table twice before. Cosquin's Lorraine version puts it in much the same way: the dog penetrates into the hall twice over, and the third time it is pursued by the king himself who thus detects the hero.

In the two Breton versions given by Luzel the development is slightly different, owing to the preceding traits. In the Murlu story the Murlu appears in the hall and transforms itself into a beautiful queen, who discloses the impostor's lies. In the Mélusine version the hare and the fox venture themselves into the hall on the first and second day to tell the princess that the hero is coming to claim her for his rightful bride. On the third day the bear takes him on its back and forces a way to the king's presence, where the hero produces the dragon's tongues and challenges the impostor to battle. he impostor never accepts the challenge and expiates his crime on the pyre or the gallows.

Of the impostor scene the same thing may be said as of the helpful animals. It is in no way essential to the dragon fight and adapts itself to the trend of each particular tale. In some versions it is altogether lacking. Sometimes the hero disappears because of his utter fatigue owing to his many wounds and burns, sometimes he retires out of modesty. The character of the impostor is not fixed and the incidents connected with the recognition vary. The whole scene is but a digression, which does not contribute to the development of the story. Still it seems possible to account for its introduction into so many folktales of the Perseus type. It was attracted not so much by an artistic desire of contrast between the ideal hero and the wicked world, as by the psychological necessity to place the hero's identity in the king's eyes beyond all doubt. Once it has been contested and successfully maintained, it remains unquestionable.

Hence it is in no way surprising, that with a similar object other episodes were introduced into tales, where the impostor is unknown. Thus in the Irish version An Tarbh Breac the struggle with the monster lasts three days, and on the third day, when the princess has come to know the hero's habit of vanishing after his difficult work, she snatches a shoe from him, which enables her afterwards to retrace her deliverer. In the same way An Bradán Geal makes the hero befriend himself with the princess on two subsequent days, after he has loosened her fetters and expressed his desire to await the monster by her side. At the falling of night, when the dragon has remained invisible, he makes away of a sudden, promising to return on the morrow. Thus, when on the third day he falls asleep on her bosom, she cuts off a lock of his hair, and later on, when the dragon has been killed and the hero is ready to vanish again, she manages to hold one of his shoes. Now she possesses two tokens, which will serve afterwards as a means of recognition.

The episode of the combat with the dragon, as it occurs in Tristan and Isolt, has preserved the main characteristics of the folktale from which it was borrowed, though a few details were modified in order to raise it to the level of a chivalresque romance. Both the introduction and the sequel are absent, as well as all the other traits connected with them. One would even hesitate to see in Tristan's horse a rest of the hero's helpful horse from the folktale, as the animal, far from protecting his master against the monster's flames, succumbs at the inception of the fight.

In Tristan's dragon fight, besides, the princess is not going to be sacrificed by her countrymen to the monster as a tribute, but the king will present her as a reward to the slayer of the devastating dragon. Thus the hero is not so much the deliverer of the maiden as of the country. The impostor, of course, could not remain a charcoal-burner or a dwarf, but was raised to a courtier's rank, though in Eilhart's relation his original character is by no means eclipsed. In order to escape from the impostor's snares the princess rides out the day after the combat and discovers the exhausted hero herself. Thus a connection is established between the hero and the heroïne, what was a necessity, since the hero does not deliver her with his own hands. The healing episode, which ensues, is in accordance with the character of Isolt in the romance.

The most conspicuous, however, of all details in the whole episode of the romance are the two recognition scenes, where Isolt identifies the dragon-slayer first with Tantris, then with Tristan. Tantris was the wounded harper, whom she had healed on his previous visit to Ireland, Tristan the slayer of her uncle, the Morold. It will be noticed, that the two recognition scenes occur only in the redaction of Tristan and Isolt by Thomas. The older redaction, represented by the fragment of Béroul and Eilhart von Oberge's Tristan, only mentions the latter, owing to the fact that here the hero, after his first voyage for healing to Ireland, has not been admitted to Isolt's presence, but is only presented with a powerful plaster, which she prepares for him.

There is a controversy between prof. Bédier and the much regretted Miss Schoepperle on this subject¹⁸. Miss Schoepperle has shown¹⁹ that in the French Prose Romance, which along with Eilhart is our only existing authority for this part of the Béroul version, the whole dragon combat is an interpolation. Hence this version knew only of a recognition with Tristan, the slayer of Morold. Thus it becomes questionable whether the recognition scene with Tantris, and the meeting in person of Tantris and Isolt during the voyage for healing, by which this recognition is implied, must be assigned to the original Tristan romance (the Estoire), or not.

From a logical point of view Miss Schoepperle can only be right in answering this question in the negative. Tristan sets out to win for his under the Princess of the Swallow's Hair, who needs must be unknown to him. If Tristan, after the slaying of Morold and the first voyage to Ireland as Tantris, recovers his health by Isolt's personal care, the quest of the Princess of the Swallow's Hair is deprived of its original significance. Hence it may be argued that the Estoire knew of no meeting of Isolt and Tantris (or Pro, as he is called by Eilhart), and consequently of no recognition as Tantris after the dragon fight. According to Miss Schoepperle only one recognition of the hero can be accepted for the Estoire after the slaying of the dragon, namely that as Tristan, the killer of Morold, from the missing fragment in his blade.

Miss Schoepperle admits, that some uncertainty in this part of the narrative is not surprising. It arose from the mixing together of two inconsistent elements, the voyage for healing and the quest of the Princess of the Swallow's Hair. The Estoire discarded the contradiction by representing Isolt as preparing a plaster for Tristan, but not seeing him personally at the court. Thomas, on the other hand, who rejected the swallow and the golden hair as childish, made Tantris appear at the Irish court and recover his health by Isolt's personal attendance, what involved another recognition scene after the dragon combat.

Now even this original uncertainty would justify us in questioning the Estoire's demand for logic as it is proposed by Miss Schoepperle. Something may be said in behalf of prof. Bédier's case too. In Thomas and his followers we find two recognition scenes, one arising from the previous encounter of Tantris and Isolt, and the other from the missing fragment in the hero's blade. Of these only one, namely the second, occurs in Eilhart and, it may be assumed, Béroul. What is more likely to have happened, the discarding of one by Béroul, or its invention by Thomas?

The invention of the recognition as Tantris could easily be accounted for, once the healing by Isolt in person was there, and it was, no doubt, attracted by it. But would an original version represent the hero as crossing to Ireland, as the only place on earth where his health could be recovered, without his encountering at the same time the princess that was to heal him? If we find one version where such a meeting occurs, and another where it is lacking, is it not more probable that the former preserves the original tradition, even if a want of logic must be waived, and that the latter has endeavoured to establish the missing order?

The solution of the problem depends on the interpretation of Tristan's island combat with Morold. The king of Ireland claims a tribute from Cornwall and sends Morold, his wife's brother, to levy it. However, Morold is killed by Tristan, and his corpse is taken to Ireland, where a fragment of Tristan's blade is found in it. Afterwards the hero, who has been wounded with Morold's envenomed sword, finds healing in Ireland and his identity is not discovered. But on a later quest for a bride for his king he is recognised owing to the failing fragment of his sword.

Miss Schoepperle points out that this story is founded upon a popular tradition. Consequently it must be considered apart from all relations which the persons that play a part in it bear to each other or to the Tristan romance. Morold, though represented as the king's brother-in-law, is originally not a human being²⁰. Monster's levying tribute are well-known in folktales²¹. As a rule the annual tribute consists of a young man or maid, and is only stopped when the king's daughter herself is being threatened by the monster and an unknown hero delivers her. After the combat the hero has his wounds dressed by her, but then escapes, until he is recognised by a token. These tales constitute a division of the Perseus legend²² and are closely related to the tales analysed in the present paper.

In the Morold episode all these elements occur, and but for the relations existing between the different persons, caused by its being adapted to the Tristan romance, it would not be difficult to recognise them. Morold has become a man, though many of his supernatural traits remain, and the brother of the Irish queen. At the same time the place of the delivered princess that was to attend the hero and recognise him after his escape by a fragment of his blade, was taken by Isolt of Ireland. That, however, these two were originally not one and the same person, still appears from the fact that the lady that heals the hero's wounds is not Isolt the princess but her mother, Isolt the queen. Thus the Morold story was linked to the love romance of Tristan and Isolt by what may be styled a partial identification of the heroïnes. A similar process is adopted at a later stage of the romance. During his exile in Brittany a commonplace romantic trait is attached to the person of Tristan. He supports Kaherdin, who finds himself in a great strain, and thus wins his friend's sister as his wife. This lady also bears the name of Isolt, and by this outer symbol the combination of this episode with the rest of the romance acquires a very intimate character.

In fact, three conceptions were interwoven in the Estoire to account for the winning of Isolt by Tristan:

1. The princess is intended as a tribute to Morold, who is, however, slain by Tristan. She heals his wounds, but he escapes. Afterwards he is recognised by a token. This token, as we have seen already, is mostly a lock of hair or a shoe. But according to the tastes of chivalry, which prevail in the romance of Tristan, a fragment of the blade, which is discovered in the monster's corpse, is put in stead.

2. A swallow drops a golden hair in the court and the king vows to marry the lady to whom it belongs. The quest is accomplished by one of his heroes.

3. The hero slays a dragon and exposes an impostor by producing the tongue. Thus he wins the bride.

Of these three conceptions the first, which, in fact, is but a variant of the third, was more or less curtailed in order to make it consistent with the story as a whole: the princess is no longer intended as a tribute for the Morold. This modification, as all other alterations in the subject-matter of the story, was caused by the localisation of both the Morold's and the princess' home in Ireland and the establishing of a blood relation between Morold and Isolt. The lady claimed as a tribute was now eliminated from the story and only a few traits were left, which betray her original presence, namely the healing of Tristan by the Irish queen, and the recognition from the missing fragment of his blade. Another of these traits is that Mark after the Morold combat makes Tristan his heir, what in the underlying folktale doubtless implied the giving of his daughter as a wife.

The further modifications involved by the interweaving of the three conceptions as explained above, are the following.

1. The healing of Tristan has been split up. It is started, although in vain, in Cornwall, that is the country delivered from tribute, and finished in Ireland, the residence of the princess that takes the place of the lady saved by the hero.

2. A voyage for healing must be introduced. The curing lady is the queen and the hero meets the future heroïne only to teach her harping. In a branch of the tradition, namely in the Béroul-Eilhart version, this meeting was omitted and superseded by the sending of a plaster, in order to avoid contradiction with the formula of the Princess of the Swallow's Hair.

3. Isolt regards Tristan as her enemy, because he has slain her uncle. Thus a conflict is created in her, as he is at the same time the deliverer of her country from the fiery dragon.

4. The various recognitions must get a fixed place, which is not inconsistent with the general trend of the romance. The recognition of Tristan as the slayer of the dragon by his being able to produce the monster's tongue preserves its original position immediately after the exploit. The recognition of Tristan as the slayer of Morold by the lost fragment of the blade is deferred until after the dragon combat, thus causing the tragic conflict in Isolt already referred to. A third recognition (as Tantris) survives in that part of the tradition, which has not discarded the encounter of Tristan and Isolt during the voyage for healing. Here, on the other hand, the formula of the Princess of the Swallow's Hair was deliberately left out, since it was not an unknown bride the hero went to win for his lord, but the lady to whose tender care he owed the recovery from his wounds, inflicted by the Morold.

Of all these modifications the original enmity, arising from the blood relation between Isolt and Morold, was by far the most important. It engendered the tragical conflict in Isolt, which is the most outstanding characteristic of this portion of the romance. The author of the Estoire was fully aware of the necessity to credit Tristan with as much good-will in Isolt's eyes as he could possibly accumulate. The dragon fight was already there, but this was more to the country's benefit than Isolt's. So Tristan was made the princess' beloved harping teacher during his previous visit, but even so there was Morold's blood on his hands. Nothing but the love potion could wipe it off. In the scenes preceding Isolt's leaving Ireland in Tristan's company a contradiction remains, which strikes every reader's eyes. The sudden change in the princess can be explained from obedience to her parents, but on the side of the king and queen, who resent the slaying of Morold so strongly, it remains puzzling. Here the way in which the Estoire was patched up, peeps through. But for the blood relation between Morold and the Irish royal house everything would be quite natural. In the underlying folktale, of course, the Morold never levied tribute in behalf of a foreign king, but on his own account. It was this new-established blood relation which gave birth to a well-devised tragical conflict, but to a rather awkward contradiction at the same time.

Notes

1. The scene does not occur in the fragment of Béroul. See Eilhart von Oberge, 1598-2264.

2. See Gertrude Schoepperle, Tristan and Isolt, I, 203 sqq.

3. E Korn an Oaled, livet ha renket gant an aotrou Jézégou, Quimper, 1923. J. M. Guivarc’h.

4. Cf. Revue Celtique, 37, 323 sqq. (the co’our of the sail on the returning hero's ship).

5. E Korn an Oaled, p. 239 sqq.

6. “Eur paourkeaz reuzeudijk, tort, luch, kamm, pikouzet,
   eun druez a welet.”

   Revue Celtique, XLI.

7. See Mélusine, I, 57; Revue des traditions populaires, IX, 172 sq.; F. M. Luzel, Contes populaires de Basse-Bretagne, II, 296 suiv.

8. Irish: An tarbh breac (ed. Dublin, Gill and Son); Brian 7 Aodh an braddiu gbil (ed. Athlone, Cumann Clodhadóireachta). A Scotch variant is cited by E. S. Hartland, The legend of Perseus, I, 37, where variants from all other parts of the world will also be found.

9. See E. Cosquin, Contes populaires de Lorraine, no. 5. (Le fils du pécheur); cf. also no. 37.

10. Sgéaluidhe fior na seachimhaine, ed. by An Craoibhín Aoibhinn, Dublin, 1911, Gill and Son, p. 48 sqq.

11. “Me, va mabig, eo da dad-koz”: Jézégou, E korn an oaled, p. 107.

12. Quoted by Andrew Lang, Myth, ritual and religion, II, 318 sqq.

13. Cf. the story of Daniel O’Connell's birth in Lady Gregory's Kiltartan History Book, p. 23 sq.

14. See, for instance, the Egyptian story quoted by Andrew Lang.

15. Cf. the tale quoted above from Sgéaluidhe fior na seachtmhaine, where both the enchanted hunt and the burning castle occur independently from each other.

16. See Mélusine, I, 57.

17. See E. S. Hartland, The legend of Perseus, vol. III, appendix, table C.

18. See J. Bédier, Le Roman de Tristan, II, 210 sqq. and G. Schoepperle, Tristan and Isolt, I, 84 sqq.

19. See also Röttiger, Der heutige Stand der Tristanforschung, Hamburg, 1897.

20. See Eilhart von Oberge, Tristan, l. 351 sqq.

21. For instances see G. Schoepperle, op. cit., II, 326 sqq. The connection with the Irish fomoire must be rejected.

22. See E. S. Hartland, Legend of Perseus, III, 1-95.