^{page 231 note 1} Le Roman de Brut, par Le Roux de Lincy, Rouen, 1836; l. 10558.

^{page 231 note 2} Id., 9982, 13676.

^{page 231 note 3} Id., 9994, 10553, 13672; in Layamon the fight preceding the establishment of the Round Table is by natives against foreigners, uncuthe hempen (Layamon's Brut, by Sir Frederic Madden, London, 1847, ii, p. 534).

^{page 231 note 4} Wace, 10,000 seq.; Layamon, ii, 539-540.

^{page 231 note 5} Roman de Merlin, Sommer, London, 1894, p. 57; Huth Merlin, Paris et Ulrich, Paris, 1886, i, p. 96.

^{page 231 note 6} Huth, ii, 62.

^{page 231 note 7} Roman, p. 152 et al. ⁸ P. 539.

^{page 231 note 1} Roman, 57; Huth, i, 96. For the importance of this number among the Celts, see J. Loth, L'année Celtique, Paris, 1904, p. 46.

^{page 231 note 2} Huth, ii, 65-67.

^{page 231 note 3} Id., ii, 169-170.

^{page 231 note 4} Loeseth, Tristan, Paris, 1890, p. 149.

^{page 231 note 5} Loeseth, Tristan, p. 149, § 206.

^{page 231 note 6} Sommer's edition, London, 1889, Bk. viii, ch. iv, p. 279.

^{page 231 note 7} Hartland, Legend of Perseus, London, 1894, ii, 248 seq. and 277 seq.

^{page 231 note 9} Huth, i, 97; Roman, 57.

^{page 231 note 9} Huth, ii, 67: “Each spake with other as it were his brother.—Layamon, 540.

^{page 231 note 10} Wace, 9998.

^{page 231 note 1} Layamon, 538 seq.

^{page 231 note 2} Roman, 97; Huth, i, 96.

^{page 231 note 3} Huth, ii, 62, and Introduction, i, pp. xxvi and xliii.

^{page 231 note 4} Paulin Paris, Romans de la Table Ronde, ii, 126.

^{page 231 note 5} Pp. 534 seq.

^{page 231 note 6} Roman, 55; Huth, i, 95; Hucher, Le Saint-Graal, i, 253.

^{page 231 note 7} Wolfram conceives it as a circle with a vacant space in the midst; Martin, Parzival, Halle, 1900-1903, st. 309 and 775; Hertz, Parzival, Stuttgart, 1898, p. 513, n. 127.

^{page 231 note 8} 539-540.

^{page 231 note 1} St. 309 seq. In the Roman de Merlin, also, though the Round Table is not mentioned, the equivalent festival is held in the fields, p. 437.

^{page 231 note 2} Huth, ii, 67; Tristan, §§ 206 and 377.

^{page 231 note 3} Roman, 57 seq.; Huth, i, 96 seq.

^{page 231 note 4} Huth, ii, 66.

^{page 231 note 5} Roman, 60.

^{page 231 note 6} Nutt, Studies in the Legend of the Holy Grail, London, 1888, p. 23.

^{page 231 note 7} The Round Table, which is still preserved at Winchester, is thus described by Milner (History of Winchester, London, n. d., vol. ii, p. 204):— “The chief curiosity in this ancient chapel, now termed the county hall, is Arthur's Round Table, as it is called. This hangs up at the east end of it (in the nisi prius court) and consists of stout oak plank…. The figure of King Arthur is painted on it, and also the names of his twenty-four knights, as they have been collected from the romances of the 14th and 15th centuries. The costumes and characters here seen, are those of the reign of Henry VIII, when this table appears to have been first painted; the style of which has been copied each time that it has since been painted afresh. At the time we are speaking of, and even in the middle of the 15th century, this table was certainly believed to have been actually made and placed in the castle by its supposed founder, the renowned British Prince Arthur who lived in the early part of the 6th century. Hence it was exhibited as Arthur's Table, by Henry VIII, to his illustrious guest the Emperor Charles.” See also vol. i, p. 246. This is probably the object exhibited at Hunscrit at the marriage of Philip II to Queen Mary; Wace, ii, note to pp. 166-7. Camden mentions it as hanging up at Winchester, Britannia, London, 1695, col. 120. A picture of it is given in Hone's Year Book, London, 1832, p. 81. With its rays proceeding outward from the centre, it has all the appearance of a sun-symbol.

^{page 231 note 1} During the Middle Ages dining tables were brought in for meals and removed afterwards (Schultz, Höf. Leben, i, 80, 432) and this custom is presupposed in several of the Arthurian stories, where there are tables, rather than one table.

^{page 231 note 2} Roman, 58.

^{page 231 note 3} Id., 57.

^{page 231 note 4} Id., 58.

^{page 231 note 5} Id., 60.

^{page 231 note 6} Id., 436.

^{page 231 note 7} When Arthur receives news from Gawain, he holds a Round Table; Parz., st. 654.

^{page 231 note 8} Roman, 40.

^{page 231 note 9} “La Table ronde est ici la réunion des vassaux, des hommes du roi, aux quatre grandes fêtes de l'année, Noël, Paques, la Pentecôte et la Saint-Jean; et l'intention manifeste des romanciers est encore ici de rapporter à l'ancienne cour des rois bretons l'origine de tous les usages auxquels se conformaient les grands souverains du douzième siècle, Louis VII, Philippe-Auguste et Henry d'Angleterre. Tenir cour et tenir Table ronde était alors une même chose, dont on voulait que le premier example remontat au prophète Merlin, et au roi Uter-Pendragon, comme aussi l'usage de distribuer des livrées et de faire présents aux dames qui venaient embellir de leur présence ces grandes réunions.—P. Paris, Romans de la T. R., ii, 64. The truth of this statement should not blind us to the fact that there are also folk elements in these stories.

^{page 231 note 1} Layamon, p. 539 seq.

^{page 231 note 2} Ib. and Wace, 9994 seq.

^{page 231 note 3} See above, concerning the names on the seats.

^{page 231 note 4} Huth, i, 96; Roman, 56, 436; Lai du Cor (Wulff, Lund, 1888) opening lines. In this last case, however, the presence of women is required for the chastity test. The great feast given by Arthur on his coronation at Pentecost, as it is described by Geoffrey, Bk. ix, ch. xii seq., in many respects resembles a Round Table. Both sexes are present, though separated for some ceremonies, and we have the religious exercises, banquet and sports. For all these circumstances, compare the feast of Carman in Ireland.

^{page 231 note 5} Parz., st. 216, 776.

^{page 231 note 6} See Hertz, Parz., p. 512, n. 125.

^{page 231 note 7} Romam, 57.

^{page 231 note 8} Huth, i, 97.

^{page 231 note 9} St. 775. See Martin's note to 1. 21. The earlier banquet (st. 309) is also in an open field:

^{page 231 note 10} Parz., st, 776.

^{page 231 note 1} Id., 777.

^{page 231 note 2} Tournaments are said to have been a late importation from France. Du Cange, Glossarium, Paris, 1850, Diss. v, vol. vii, p. 24.

^{page 231 note 3} Das Höfische Leben zur Zeit der Minnesinger, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1889, ii, p. 117.

^{page 231 note 4} a. d. 1252, “Anno quoque sub eodem milites angliae, ut exercitio militari peritiam suam et strenuitatem experirentur, constituerunt, non ut in hastiludio, quod Torneamentum dicitur, sed potius in illo ludo militari, qui Mensa Rotunda dicitur, vires suas attemptarent. Duo igitur milites electissimi, Ernaldus scilicet de Munteinni et Rogerus de Leneburne, dum se lanceis mutuo impeterent, Ernaldus letaliter vulneratus, praeceps cadens obiit interfectus, qui in militari exercitio nulli in Anglia secundus censebatur.”—Matthaei Parisiensis Historia Anglorum, Rolls Series, vol. iii, p. 124.

^{page 231 note 5} Sir Nicholas Harris Nicholas, Observations on the Institution of the most noble Order of the Garter, Archœologia, xxxi; see p. 104, for the feasts of 1344 and 1345; pp. 108-9, for the magnificence of the entertainments; p. 151, “domum quae rotunda tabula vocaretur,” Walsingham; ib., “Rex Angliae Eotundam Tabulam ccc militum tenuit apud Wyndesoure, et totidem dominarum, pro qua excessivi sumptus facti sunt, Cotton ms. See further Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, London, 1810, p. 128, who recognizes that the Round Table is a joust rather than a tournament. An interesting Round Table is cited by San Marte in a note to Geoffrey, p. 420 (ad ann. 1284): “Item convenerunt Comites, Barones, Milites de Regno Angliae, ac etiam multi proceres transmarini, circa festum Beati Petri quod dicitur ad vincula ad rotundam tabulam apud Neubin, juxta Snowdon, praeconizatum, in choreis et hastiludicis adinvicem colludentibus, in signum triumphi contra Wallensium proterviam expediti.” See also Du Cange, Glossarium, s. v. Tabula Rotunda. The examples include Spain, France, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as England; sufficient proof that these knightly Round Tables were founded on the Romances, and not vice versa.

^{page 231 note 1} F. Walther, Das alte Wales, Bonn, 1859, p. 272.

^{page 231 note 2} Loth, Mabinogion, i, p. 17.

^{page 231 note 3} Gött. gel. Anz., 1890, p. 796, note.

^{page 231 note 4} Loth and Zimmer, loe. cit., and Das Alte Wales, p. 267.

^{page 231 note 1} Rhys, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by Celtic Heathendom, London, 1898, pp. 208-9. The Century Dictionary derives Eisteddfod from two Welsh words meaning sitting and circle. For the circle of stones within which a gorsedd is held, see Cambrian Journal, 1855, p. 155, and 1857, pp. 8 seq. On p. 100 (1857), it is stated that the stones or turf of the circle are used as chairs; also that there may be four such meetings in a year, at Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide and St. John's Festival. On p. 310 of the same volume occurs the following account: “A meeting of the Gorsedd was held last Alban Elved on the hill of Bryn Castell y Brenhin, near St. Bride's Major, in Glamorgan, where an appropriate circle of stones had been constructed for the occasion by the joint labor of several of the inhabitants.” To this spot the company marched in procession; certain persons entered the bardic enclosure where the introductory ceremonies prescribed by ancient usage were held. The president ascended the Maen Arch and took his station in the “eye of light,” or the radial representation of the Divine Name, etc.

^{page 231 note 1} Studies in the Arthurian Legend, Oxford, 1891, p. 9.

^{page 231 note 2} P. W. Joyce, A Social History of Ancient Ireland, New York, 1903, ii, p. 20; D'Arbois de Jubainville, Littérature Celtique, i, 197.

^{page 231 note 3} Rhys and Brynmore Jones, The Welsh People, New York, 1900, p. 200.

^{page 231 note 4} Joseph Anderson, Scotland in Pagan Times, Edinburgh, 1883, ch. iv. See p. 206, “The circular wall …. is a characteristic feature of Celtic construction.”

^{page 231 note 5} Joyce, Social Hist., ii, 37.

^{page 231 note 6} Id., 85. Tradition assigns a circular feasting place to one of the early Irish kings. “On montre encore aujourd'hui, sur la montagne de Tara, l'emplacement de la forteresse ou rath de Loégairé. C'est une enceinte circulaire formée par deux rangs de fossés concentriques, avec rejet de terre en dedans. Le roi d'Irlande se fit enterrer près de là, en mémoire des bons festins qu'il y avait faits avec ses fidèles vassaux,” Litt. Celtique, i, 180. Moreover, the origin of the rath is ascribed to the mythical Nemed., id., ii, 90.

^{page 231 note 1} R. T. Glennie, Arthurian Localities, Edinburgh, 1869; Chalmer's Caledonia, London, 1810, i, 244, note m. There are also the Great and Little Arthur among the Scilly Isles, interesting for their barrows. The earliest known reference to an Arthurian locality dates from the year 1113 in Cornwall, “ubi ostenderunt nobis cathedram et furnum illius famosi secundum fabulas Britannorum regis Arturi ipsamque terram ejusdem Arturi esse dicebant.”—Zimmer, Zs. für franz. Sprache und Litt., xiii, 109.

^{page 231 note 2} E. g., Robin Hood's Pennystone. “It is fathered upon Robin Hood, because that noted outlaw was much in these parts, and the country people here attribute everything of the marvelous to him, as in Cornwall they do to King Arthur.”—Archœologia, ii, 362. It is interesting to note that Robin Hood became Lord, and Maid Marian Lady, of the May. Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, 312.

^{page 231 note 3} Circles in Buteshire, New Statistical Account of Scotland, v, 52.

^{page 231 note 4} R. T. Glennie, Arthurian Localities, p. 9.

^{page 231 note 5} Id., p. 10, citing Selden's note on Drayton's Poly-Olbion, Works, ii, 724.

^{page 231 note 1} Arth. Loc., 7, 8.

^{page 231 note 2} Camden's Britannia, newly translated into English with large additions and improvements, Edmund Gibson, London, 1695, col. 620.

^{page 231 note 3} Id., 628.

^{page 231 note 4} Id., 661.

^{page 231 note 1} Camden, 817-818; see also Arth. Loc., 74. Scott mentions this place in the Bridal of Triermain, Canto i, § vii, and note. Murray's Guide (1869) describes Mayborough as “a circular enclosure, about 100 yards in diameter, formed by a broad ridge of rounded stones, heaped up to a height of 16 feet.” In the centre is a large roughly hewn stone. Note the connection of Arthur's Round Table with May.

^{page 231 note 2} Bruce, ed. John Jamieson, Glasgow, 1869, Book ix, l. 559:

^{page 231 note 3} Rex Arthurus custodiebat le round table in castro de Styrlyng aliter Snowdon West Castle. Skene, Four Ancient Books, i, 57.

^{page 231 note 4} New Stat. Acct., viii, 406; Arth. Loc., 42. Arthur's Oven is also at this spot; New Stat. Acct., viii, 357, and Camden, 921: Camden speaks of “a confus'd appearance of a little antient city …. (the common people) call it Camelot.”

^{page 231 note 1} Roman, 53; Huth, 92.

^{page 231 note 2} Bk. viii, ch. x seq.

^{page 231 note 3} Id., ch. xii.

^{page 231 note 4} Id., Bk. ix, ch. xii.

^{page 231 note 1} Forbes Leslie, Early Races of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1866, ch. v and ch. ix; James Fraser, Transac. Inverness Scientif. Soc. and Field Club, vol. ii, 1880-83, p. 379.

^{page 231 note 2} Joyce, Social Hist., ii, 434.

^{page 231 note 3} Hampson, Medii Aevi Kalendarium, i, 355.

^{page 231 note 4} Jour. Anthropol. Inst., vol. 30, pp. 61-69; Archœologia, xxi, 450, “The Kirk,” a circle; New Stat. Acct., iii, 61, Tumulus, by tradition the site of a pagan altar: the road leading to it is called the Haxalgate, Haxa meaning high-priestess. id., 451, at Morebottle and Mow, a circle named the Trysting Stones, and another the Tryst. Chalmer's Caledonia, i, 81, Beton Hill, a tumulus in Dumfriesshire; Archœologia, xxii, 410, “In the Highlands clachan signifies both a circle of stones and a place of worship.” See also Rhys, Celtic Heathendom, 194-5, remarks on the circular shrine to Apollo in the island of the Hyperboreans with the harping and chanting of the citizens in honor of the Sun-god; and p. 204, on sacred mounds.

^{page 231 note 5} Le Foyer Breton, Paris, 1864, ii, 25-26. In a note, it is stated that this usage still exists in the mountains of Cornouailles and in Vannes.

^{page 231 note 6} A druidical circle.

^{page 231 note 1} Archœolog. Journ., xxvii, 225 seq., Megalithic Remains in the Department of the Basses-Pyrénées.

^{page 231 note 2} Wright, The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon, London, 1875, p. 89.

^{page 231 note 3} Brand, Popular Antiquities, London, 1853, i, 318.

^{page 231 note 4} Archœologia, xxxi, 450. Note the apparent equality of lord and tenants.

^{page 231 note 5} S. v. Beltane, see also Frazer, Golden Bough, iii, 262.

^{page 231 note 1} See, for example, Mannhardt, Myth. Forsch., p. 12 seq. For agricultural stories becoming romantic, Nutt, Fairy Mythology of Shakespeare, London, 1900.

^{page 231 note 2} Welsh People, p. 247.

^{page 231 note 3} Frazer, Golden Bough, i, 7.

^{page 231 note 4} Mannhardt, Myth. Forsch., 195-6.

^{page 231 note 5} Gött. gel. Anz., 1890, p. 518.

^{page 231 note 1} 1b.

^{page 231 note 2} O’ Curry, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, iii, 529. There is also a mortuary significance:

See also the account of these festivities in Joyce, Social Hist., ii, 434 seq., and Rhys, Celtic Heathendom, 409 seq. The importance of keeping “early grayness” from their young kings is fully explained in Frazer's Golden Bough, Killing the God, ii, 5 seq.

^{page 231 note 1} Rhys, Arth. Leg., ch. ii.

^{page 231 note 2} “Artus der meienbaere man,” st. 281, l. 16.

^{page 231 note 3} See New Eng. Dict. and Jamieson's Scottish Dict., s. v. Beltane.

^{page 231 note 4} Mannhardt, Wald- und Feldkulte, Berlin, 1877, p. 229 seq.; Frazer, Golden Bough, treatment of myths of Adonis, Dionysus, Attis, etc.

^{page 231 note 1} Frazer, G. B., i, 203; Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, 310.

^{page 231 note 2} G. B., iii, 259-261.

^{page 231 note 1} Sinclair, Stat. Acct., v, 84.

^{page 231 note 1} Golden Bough, iii, 295-297.

^{page 231 note 1} Golden Bough, iii, 293-4, quoting John Ramsay.

^{page 231 note 2} Sinclair, Stat. Acct., xi, 621; also Golden Bough, iii, 294.

^{page 231 note 1} Sinclair, Stat. Acct., xi, 620; also Golden Bough, iii, 262; Brand, i, 224-5.

^{page 231 note 1} Hertz, Parz., pp. 430-432. For heathen customs transformed into Christian, see Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, tr. Stallybrass, London, 1883-1900, i, 11: 64; ii, xxxiv seq.

^{page 231 note 2} Arth. Legend, p. 9.

^{page 231 note 3} Hertz, Parz., 512, n. 125.

^{page 231 note 1} A parallel custom is preserved by Appian, Bell. Mithr., 66; “Mithradates offered sacrifice to Zeus Stratius on a lofty pile of wood on a high hill according to the fashion of his country, which is as follows. First the kings themselves carry wood to the heap. Then they make a smaller pile encircling the other one, on which (the larger one) they pour milk, honey, wine, oil, and various kinds of incense. A banquet is spread on the ground for those present, in the same manner as was the custom at Pasargada in the solemn sacrifices of the Persian kings.” See Folk-Lore, xv, 3, p. 306.

^{page 231 note 2} The intercourse of the sexes has often been resorted to as a sympathetic charm to promote the growth of the crops, Golden Bough, ii, 204-209. For the relation of the marriage of the May pair to vegetation, see Mannhardt, Baumkultus, ch. v. Mock marriage on May day, Golden Bough, iii, 240. Marriages were a special feature of the fair at Tailltenn, Joyce, Social Hist, ii, 439. This notion will perhaps explain the men's refusal to come to Eochaid Airem's feast at Tara on the ground that he had no wife, and no man came to Tara without a wife.—Rhys, Studies in Arth. Leg., p. 24; Zimmer, Gött. gel. Anz., 1890, p. 519.

^{page 231 note 3} Only in Wolfram.

^{page 231 note 4} See p. 234, above. The object of agricultural rites, as Mannhardt and Frazer have shown, was to ward off evils and to procure benefits. A curious expression of this idea of plenty is found in Layamon, p. 544; Merlin prophesied that “a king should come of Uther Pendragon, that gleemen should make a board of this king's breast, and thereto sit poets very good and eat their will, ere they should thence go, and wine-draughts outdraw from this king's tongue, and drink and revel day and night; this game should last them to the world's end.”

^{page 231 note 1} Possibly this was originally four or eight nights, the Celtic half week or week.

^{page 231 note 2} For the mock human sacrifice substituted for a real one, see Golden Sough, ii, 67 seq.

^{page 231 note 3} Geoffrey, Bk. x, ch. iii.

^{page 231 note 4} Kilhwch and Olwen in Mabinogion.

^{page 231 note 5} “Es scheint auf druidischen Feuerdienst zu deuten, dessen Andenken jedoch im Märchen schon verwischt und verblichen ist.” Beiträge zur bretonischen und celtisch-germanischen Heldensage, Quedlingen, 1847, p. 65. Is it too fanciful to imagine that the attempted burning of Guinevere, of Iseut, and of Lunet might have originated in an ancient sacrifice by fire?

^{page 231 note 1} Zs. f. franz. Spr. und Litt., xiii, p. 109.

^{page 231 note 2} The Round Table before Wace, Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, vol. vii.

^{page 231 note 3} Joyce, Social Hist., ii, 105; Rhys and Brynmor-Jones, Welsh People, 201.

^{page 231 note 1} Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, translated by C. D. Yonge, London, 1854, vol. i, p. 245, Bk. iv, ch. 36. The passing of the wine deisiol suggests that the feast here described may have been ceremonial.

^{page 231 note 2} See quotation from Ten Brink, Round Table before Wace, p. 190, n. 3.

^{page 231 note 1} Golden Bough, iii, 139.

^{page 231 note 2} The Farmer's Boy, Summer.

^{page 231 note 1} Sports and Pastimes, London, 1810, p. 321: Brand refers to this equality at the harvest-supper as general, ii, 16.

^{page 231 note 2} Brand, Popular Antiquities, ii, 27, note. For the word mell, see English Dialect Dictionary of Wright.

^{page 231 note 3} An interesting example is offered even in the reign of Henry VIII, though it is not called a Round Table. The king and his followers rode to the wood to fetch the May, and after this held a three days’ tournament. Hall's Chronicle, London, 1809, p. 520. For connection between May and jousts, see Du Cange, s. v. Maium, “Eodem Maii nomine designari videtur hastiludii species, in charta ann. 1346.”

^{page 231 note 1} Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, vol. i, p. 248, Bk. iv, c. 40. See also Litt. Celtique, vi, 53.

^{page 231 note 2} iv, viii. Wace, with greater detail, 4407-4459.

^{page 231 note 3} Mannhardt, Myth. Forsch., 77.

^{page 231 note 4} Golden Bough, ii, 99 seq.; Brand, i, 246.

^{page 231 note 5} Brand, i, 389.

^{page 231 note 1} Sports and Pastimes, p. 316. For confusion of festivals see Chamber's Mediœval Stage, Oxford, 1903, i, 256.

^{page 231 note 2} The fact, mentioned above, p. 233, that tradition has preserved the record of at least three Round Tables confirms the theory of such a development.