Note 92 — Chapter V

I have studied the Yvain versions carefully, and have read those of Erec, but not compared them critically; but I should not be surprised if it were ultimately found that in The Lady of the Fountain we have the story at a stage anterior to Chrétien, and probably that at which it came into his hands, redacted by the Welsh scribe under the influence of Chrétien's poem; while in Geraint we have the process reversed, i.e. a rendering of Chrétien's poem modified by the earlier version. In the statement, 'Gwiffert Petit he is called by the Franks, but the Cymry call him the Little King,' we have, I think, a hint of this. The writer must have been too good a French scholar to think the one term a translation of the other; it rather implies that the Welsh knew the character only by a sobriquet borrowed from his diminutive size, which is exactly what we should expect, the earlier stages of story-telling being anonymous. So far as the correspondence in word and dialogue is concerned, the conclusion to be drawn depends entirely on the nature of the parallel passages; if they be merely such ordinary dialogue (question and response) as would naturally spring from the incidents of the story, both may well be reminiscences of the oral version. Analytic, self-communing passages would, of course, point to a later stage in evolution; but the Welsh version dialogue is of the simplest description.