Bulfinch’s Mythology Thomas Bulfinch (intellectual books to read TXT) 📖

often gets into trouble. Yet Arthur seems to have an attachment to him, and often takes his advice, which is generally wrong. ↩

Several cities are allotted to King Arthur by the romance-writers. The principal are Caerleon, Camelot, and Carlisle.

Caerleon derives its name from its having been the station of one of the legions, during the dominion of the Romans. It is called by Latin writers Urbs Legionum, the City of Legions. The former word being rendered into Welsh by Caer, meaning city, and the latter contracted into lleon. The river Usk retains its name in modern geography, and there is a town or city of Caerleon upon it, though the city of Cardiff is thought to be the scene of Arthur’s court. Chester also bears in Welsh the name of Caerleon; for Chester, derived from castra, Latin for “camp,” is the designation of military headquarters.

Camelot is thought to be Winchester.

Shalott is Guilford.

Hamo’s Port is Southampton.

Carlisle is the city still retaining that name, near the Scottish border. But this name is also sometimes applied to other places, which were, like itself, military stations. ↩

“Samite,” a sort of silk stuff. ↩

“N’as” is “not was,” contracted; in modern phrase, “there was not Mochel sorwe” is “much sorrow;” “morwe” is “morrow” ↩

Newfangled⁠—fond of novelty. ↩

“Lunys,” the string with which the falcon is held. ↩

A musical instrument. ↩

“Good faith was the very cornerstone of chivalry. Whenever a knight’s word was pledged (it mattered not how rashly) it was to be redeemed at any price. Hence the sacred obligation of the boon granted by a knight to his suppliant. Instances without number occur in romance, in which a knight, by rashly granting an indefinite boon, was obliged to do or suffer something extremely to his prejudice. But it is not in romance alone that we find such singular instances of adherence to an indefinite promise. The history of the times presents authentic transactions equally embarrassing and absurd.” —⁠Scott, Note to Sir Tristram ↩

“Feres,” companions; “thewes,” labors; “leers,” learning. ↩

“Aglets,” points or tags. ↩

“Pinckt upon gold, etc.,” adorned with golden points, or eyelets, and regularly intersected with stripes. “Paled” (in heraldry), striped. ↩

A fool was a common appendage of the courts of those days when this romance was written. A fool was the ornament held in next estimation to a dwarf. He wore a white dress with a yellow bonnet, and carried a bell or “bauble” in his hand. Though called a fool, his words were often weighed and remembered as if there were a sort of oracular meaning in them. ↩

The word means both “fisher” and “sinner” ↩

The use of green rushes in apartments was by no means peculiar to the court of Caerleon upon Usk. Our ancestors had a great predilection for them, and they seem to have constituted an essential article, not only of comfort, but of luxury. The custom of strewing the floor with rushes is well known to have existed in England during the Middle Ages, and also in France. ↩

“Cordwal” is the word in the original, and from the manner in which it is used it is evidently intended for the French Cordouan or Cordovan leather, which derived its name from Cordova, where it was manufactured. From this comes also our English word “cordwainer” ↩

Amongst all the characters of early British history none is more interesting, or occupies a more conspicuous place, than the hero of this tale. Urien, his father, was prince of Rheged, a district comprising the present Cumberland and part of the adjacent country. His valor, and the consideration in which he was held, are a frequent theme of Bardic song, and form the subject of several very spirited odes by Taliesin. Among the Triads there is one relating to him; it is thus translated:

“Three Knights of Battle were in the court of Arthur: Cadwr, the Earl of Cornwall, Launcelot du Lac, and Owain, the son of Urien. And this was their characteristic⁠—that they would not retreat from battle, neither for spear, nor for arrow, nor for sword. And Arthur never had shame in battle the day he saw their faces there. And they were called the Knights of Battle. ↩

Before the sixth century all the silk used by Europeans had been brought to them by the Seres, the ancestors of the present Boukharians, whence it derived its Latin name of Serica. In 551 the silkworm was brought by two monks to Constantinople; but the manufacture of silk was confined to the Greek empire till the year 1130, when Roger, king of Sicily, returning from a crusade, collected some manufacturers from Athens and Corinth, and established them at Palermo, whence the trade was gradually disseminated over Italy. The varieties of silk stuffs known at this time were velvet, satin (which was called “samite”), and taffety (called “cendal” or “sendall”), all of which were occasionally stitched with gold and silver. ↩

There exists an ancient poem, printed among those of Taliesin, called the “Elegy of Owain ap Urien,” and containing several very beautiful and spirited passages. It commences:

“The soul of Owain ap Urien,
May its Lord consider its exigencies!
Reged’s chief the green turf covers.”

In the course of this Elegy the bard, alluding to the incessant warfare with which this chieftain harassed his Saxon foes, exclaims:

“Could England sleep with the light upon her eyes! ↩

The custom of riding into a hall while the lord and his guests sat at meat might be illustrated by numerous passages of ancient romance and history. But a quotation from Chaucer’s beautiful and half-told tale of “Cambuscan”