"Celtic Tradition and Psychological Truth in Chretien s "Chevalier au Lion

In Arthurian Tradition and Chr~tien de Troyes,1 R. S. Loomis has shown in convincing fashion that the major part of the matiGre de Bretagne derives from Celtic legend and Irish mythology. In particular, his detective work in tracing the transformations of this tradition has uncovered four principal sources for Chritien's Yvain: 1) the victory of a hero over a testing giant, ultimately based on the story of Cuchulainn and Curoi recounted in Bricriu's Feast; 2) the Other World romance of a hero with a water-fay, a story derived from various legends concerning Morgain la f4e and from the love of Cuchulainn for the faery-woman Fand as told in Sickbed of Cuchulainn; 3) the story of the lion, a motif traceable to various medieval versions of Androcles and the Lion and to the Irish story of Conall's revenge on Lugaid in which a grateful dog-headed horse appears; 4) the theme of the disinherited sister which culminates in the climactic battle between Yvain and Gauvain, a motif with no Celtic origin. On the basis of a detailed comparison of Chritien's Yvain and the Welsh Mabinogi, Owain and Lunete, Loomis postulates the existence of a common source, which he labels Y, and to whose author he attributes the credit for synthesizing the above motifs (except #4) into a coherent whole: The author of Y, who was responsible for most of the final adjustments in plot. as well as for much of the psychological interest displayed in Yvain and Owain, must have been a literary craftsman of no mean order. (308) According to this statement, aside from altering a few relatively insignificant details, Chrdtien showed his originality only by delaying the personal combat between Yvain and Gauvain until the end of the romance: [Chrdtien] seems to have felt that the series of combats in which Yvain engaged after his cure from madness required a climax, a combat more terrific and with a worthier opponent than any he had encountered. (319) 2

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