Arthurian Tradition & Chrétien de Troyes

by Roger Sherman Loomis

1952. 2nd Printing. 503 pages. No dust jacket. This is an ex-Library book. Red cloth. Book has been rebound by library, with expected inserts, stamps and inscriptions. Binding remains firm. Pages are lightly tanned throughout. Boards have light shelf-wear with corner bumping. Slight crushing to spine ends.

503 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[dragonhelmuk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loomis’ book can be summed up as incredibly influential but completely outdated. On the one hand, his book was one of the first to systematically trace the Celtic origin for Chretien’s Old French sagas, and in my opinion he does a better job even than Sims William’s recent attempt to find the Irish origins for some Welsh stories. Some of his parallels are brilliant, like his comparison between CuChulainn’s boyhood deeds and Perceval’s. The trouble is that not all of his parallels are so good. Often he mistakes what seems like coincidental similarity, or the similarities to be expected in medieval European tales for a source-innovation relationship. At his worst Loomis also has a kind of primitivist reasoning. He seems to hold the belief that the medieval French stories are not just “debased versions” of Celtic myths “originals” (he openly admits this) but also that the Celtic stories he is looking at are somehow pristine and completely pure. He comments at one point that even Irish folklore is pure from external influence, although of course also debased by time. This is patently untrue and actually I would suggest that medieval Welsh and Irish texts are (for the most part) just as far from Iron Age paganism as medieval French texts are. Two quotes:

{Loomis openly engaging in flight of fancy}
Perhaps therefore, since there is ample evidence of moon worship among the Celts, Aranrot was a moon-goddess. Though nothing told of her in The Four Branches of the Mabinogi or elsewhere supports this view, it is entirely possible that some recognition of her mythical nature should descend to Lunete, since we have seen, time and time again, that mythical traits of other personalities in Irish and Welsh saga are preserved in Arthurian romance.

{Interesting that it is the French and not the Welsh version of the lion which is so common in England}
The story of Yvain and his lion must have made a great appeal to Chrétien and his readers, furnishing amusement by the semihuman antics of the beast, stimulating admiration by its noble example of gratitude, loyalty and courage. Here was a theme nicely adapted to the medieval sense of humour and sense of honour. At the great courtly festival held at Hem monacu in 1278 Robert II, count of Artois, played the part of the Chevalier au Lion and apparently was accompanied by some thirteenth-century Snug the Joiner in a lion’s skin who furnished farcical entertainment. The author of Gui de Warewic filched the episode from Yvain, and an English illuminator, who filled the lower margins in the Smithfield Decretals with miscellaneous scenes, depicted with zest the beast sitting on its haunches and holding up its paws in gratitude to Gui.

[Flint Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only other person to review this book has stated that he is hopelessly outdated; absolutely. He's also went on to say Loomis did a better job of tracing the origins of Arthurian tales than even Sims-Williams; not true. Although Loomis gives more detail, the fact is that research by Bromwich in 1991 showed that there was a plethora of means by which Arthurian materials came to the continent, and before that a wide range of transference options between Ireland and Britain. To by terse, Bromwich taught us all that tracing the various themes and episodes of a story that was a part of the bardic culture of inserting hundreds of motifs and details is an impossible task.

Loomis is hopelessly outdated. His reasoning, the foundations for his arguments, even the nature of the source materials he used has been greatly improved since this book. And though he had some brilliant ideas, his can only be the source of inspiration, his scholarship is no longer strong enough to be cited.