Note 22 — Chapter II

I am quite at a loss to account for the mistake into which such authorities as M. Gaston Paris and Professor Foerster have apparently fallen. In M. Paris's study the idea that Lanzelet is the rescuer is perhaps rather implied than stated, but when I wrote the Charrette chapter (viii.) in my Studies on the Legend of Sir Gawain, in which I followed the article in Romania, I was certainly under the impression that the latter was the case. In the introduction to the Karrenritter, p. xliv., Professor Foerster distinctly says that Lanzelet frees the queen. I have read and re-read the text carefully and made my final summary direct from it, and there is no doubt that Lanzelet has nothing to do with the matter. The passage in question is contained in ll. 6975-7445. How too did Professor Foerster come to ignore the real character of Guinevere's imprisonment? Cf. Charrette, lxxi.