table of the prince and the habitual licence during an inter-regnum converted into those scenes of insolent revelry. while the attempt on the life of Telemachus was an after-thought added to enhance the tragedy of the situation, but not fully worked into the denouement.
The same conclusion as to the composite nature of the Saga seems to me to be borne out by an analysis of the folk-tale cycles out of which it was probably composed.
We have already encountered a trace of the great cycle of the Master Thief, which was probably more conspicuous in the original form of the legend.
We have again, in Penelope, an instance of the familiar Forgotten Bride of the folktales. She is left with an infant in her arms in the early days of her married life, while her husband is enthralled by the witch Calypso or Circe. "In the ordinary version," says Professor Crane,[1] "the hero, in consequence of some imprecation, sets out in search of the heroine, who is either the daughter or in the custody of ogre or ogress. The hero by the help of the heroine performs difficult tasks imposed upon him by her father or mother, &c., and finally elopes with her. The pursuit of father or mother, &c., is avoided by magic obstacles raised in their way, or by transformations of the fugitives. The hero leaves his bride to prepare his parents to receive her, but at a kiss, usually from his mother, he entirely forgets his bride, until she recalls herself to his memory and they are both united." But in the Odyssey we have the mere husk of the story, and in particular it omits the Kiss of
- ↑ Italian Popular Tales, pp. 71, seqq., 343, seqq. In the references which follow I have to thank Miss M. R. Cox and Mr. E. Sidney Hartland for much valuable assistance. For other examples of the Forgotten Bride, see Grimm's "Sweetheart Roland" (Household Tales, Mrs. Hunt's translation, vol. i., p. 224, seqq.); Thorpe's "King's Son and Messeria" (Yuletide Stories, pp. 192, seqq.); "King's Son and Princess Singorra " (ibid., pp. 205, seqq.); "Goldmaria and Goldfeather" (ibid., pp. 441, seqq.). The Zulu Version is in Callaway, Nursery Tales, p. 120.
