discussed. It will be noted that the group just considered is purely literary and purely mediaeval. Though it has representatives in Italy, Germany, Sweden, and England, it is to all intents and purposes French in source and character. Five of its members are the only variants treated in this chapter where the question of dividing the hero's prize is brought up. The group thus stands by itself, and may be considered as an entity when we come to a discussion of the larger matters of relationship.
A solitary folk-tale now demands attention—my Breton II. The Grateful Dead in a simple form is here combined with a story told of Gregory the Great,[1] as Luzel, to whom the tale was recounted by a Breton peasant, indeed briefly noted.[2] The Breton tale runs as follows: A rich lord and lady had no children. While the lady was praying to St. Peter in a chapel that was being repaired, she fell a victim to a young painter, and had by him a son, who was named after St. Peter. When the boy was twelve years of age, he carried St. Peter across a stream one day, while his shepherd companion
- ↑ The Trentall of St. Gregory. The Old French text has been edited by P. Meyer, Romania, xv. 281-283. The English versions, of which the first seems to be taken from this, are found in the following MSS.: (A) Vernon MS. fol. 230, ed. Horstmann, Engl. Stud. viii. 275-277, and The Minor Poems of the Vernon MS. i., E.E.T.S. 98, 1892, pp. 260-268; Vernon MS. fol. 303, variants given in Horstmann's ed. for E.E.T.S.; MS. Cotton Caligula A II., ed. Furnivall, Political, Religious, and Love Poems, E.E.T.S. 15, 1866, pp. 83-92, reprinted by Horstmann, E.E.T.S. pp. 260-268; MS. Lambeth 306, variants given by Furnivall; a critical text with variants of the four was made by A. Kaufmann, Trentalle Sancti Gregorii, Erlanger Beiträge, iii. 29-44, 1889. (B) MS. 19, 3, I, Advocates' Libr., Edinburgh, ed. Turnbull, The Visions of Tundale, 1843, pp. 77 ff., and Bülbring, Anglia, xiii. 301-308; MS. Kk. I, 6, Camb. Univ. Libr., ed. Kaufmann, pp. 44-49. Kaufmann in his introduction discusses the relations of the versions. See further Varnhagen, Anglia, xiii. 105 f. Another legend of Gregory in popular fiction is treated by Bruce in his edition of De Ortu Waluuanii, Publications Mod. Lang. Ass. xiii. 372-377. The story in the Gesta Romanorum to which Luzel, i. 83, note, refers is this rather than our tale.
- ↑ i. 83 and 90, notes.
