and a character remarkably sensitive belonged to their inherited intellect and fancy, it would be possible to add the fame of Celts to that of races that are presumed to have contributed elements to the world's thought. Such is naturally the idea of writers who have a strain of Celtic blood, and of scholars who spend their lives in examining Celtic literature; under the influence of such preconceived notions, the subject is treated with an energy which imports a spirit of warfare into the peaceful realm of scholastic investigation.
The problem is rendered more difficult, and perhaps insoluble, by the lack of material. There certainly did exist a mass of mediæval Welsh Arthurian literature, having its roots in a remote past; but this literature has survived only in a few compositions of a relatively late date, the production of littérateurs, and too remote from popular tradition to serve as guides. The work of the Anglo-Norman or French writers, who occupied themselves with Arthurian themes at the time when that material was first introduced to attention, that is, to say before the middle of the twelfth century, has entirely vanished; of the French romances of the second generation only very few have remained, and those so sophisticated as possibly to bear but small resemblance to the essays of predecessors. Under such circumstances, criticism becomes speculation, and the conclusion of a scholar usually only his way of accounting to himself for an impression which has forced itself on his mind, and which, before he becomes aware, has controlled his inferences.
In French poetic romances, the chief knight of the Round Table is that nephew of Arthur whose name, in French verse, is spelled Walwain or Gauvain (g, in this case, being an orthographic equivalent for a foreign w). The character of the knight constitutes an ideal embodiment of courtesy. In consequence of this excellence, he is described as especial protector of undefended ladies, while writers desirous to introduce into society a new hero find Gawain a valuable chaperon. Such portraiture seems modern and French; it is allowed that ancient Welsh epos could have known nothing of the refinements of mediæval courts. If it could be determined what part the Briton played in the ancient Cymric stories, and what alteration the likeness underwent, the comparison would be instructive; and it is to this difficult task that Miss Weston has addressed herself.
The name Walwen is first mentioned by William of Malmesbury, who makes him a nephew of Arthur; he is an adversary of the son of Hengist the Saxon, and is expelled from his hereditary possessions in Galloway; he perishes at sea as an exile. Geoffrey of Monmouth also describes Walgainus as a nephew of the king, but his account is otherwise quite inconsistent; at the age of twelve years the young knight, who has been educated in Rome, appears in the continental camp of Arthur, and never comes in contact with Saxons, The divergence seems to give ground for the assumption, that before the appearance of Geoffrey's work various accounts had existed respecting the life of the hero.
Welsh literature, strangely enough, knows nothing of Walwen. Arthur's nephew appears and plays a prominent part, but bears the name of Gwalch-
