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Contents | vii
22. Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur 542

“The Sword in the Stone” and “Arthur’s dream, his battle with Mordred,
and his death”
Dorsey Armstrong
For further reading 553

Index 557
Illustrations
The following figures appear between pages 281 and 282

1. Cadbury-Camelot, also called South Cadbury or Cadbury Castle. Image used by
permission of Collections Picture Library
2. Glastonbury Abbey. Image used by permission of Corbis Images
3. “King Arthur’s Leaden Cross,” from William Camden’s Britannia, © The British
Library Board (576.m.7). Image used by permission of The British Library
4. Map of Arthurian Britain
5. “Lancelot crossing Sword Bridge,” detail from Casket with Scenes of Romance from
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA. Image used by permission of the
Scala Archives
6. “Galahad retirant l’épée du perron (Galahad and the Grail),” © BnF (Français 120,
Folio 524v). Image used by permission of the Bibliothèque nationale de France
7. “How Lancelot kissed Guinevere for the first time,” from Le Livre de Messire Lancelot
du Lac, © Bridgeman Art Library (Ms Fr 118 fol. 219v). Image used by permission
of Bridgeman Art Library
8. “Merlin recounting events to Blaise,” © BnF (Français 95, Folio 268). Image used by
permission of the Bibliothèque nationale de France
9. “King Arthur returns to England with a dying Gawain,” © John Rylands University
Library of Manchester (MS 1, fol. 253v). Image used by permission of the John
Rylands University Library of Manchester
10. “Arthur convoking Grail questers,” © John Rylands University Library of Manchester
(French MS 1, fol. 114v). Image used by permission of the John Rylands University
Library of Manchester
11. “King Arthur and attendants” (acc. nos. 32.130.3a and 47.101.4 from the Nine
Heroes Tapestries) from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA. Image
used by permission of the Scala Archives
12. The Winchester Round Table, © Shutterstock. Image used by permission of
Shutterstock
13. “Sir Gawain and Green Knight,” © The British Library Board (Cotton Nero A. X.
art.3, f. 94v). Image used by permission of The British Library
Preface to the Second Edition
This volume has its roots in a smaller Romance of Arthur that was published in 1983. The
purpose then was to offer some of the most important works of medieval Arthurian literature
in fresh, new translations that would convey some sense of the development of King Arthur
from Latin chronicles and Celtic mythology into the romantic king of late-medieval
literature. My fellow editors decided to end the work with Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte
D’Arthur and to highlight such works as Chrétien de Troyes’s Lancelot, or The Knight of the
Cart and the anonymous Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
This work was so enthusiastically received that we followed it with Romance of Arthur II,
an anthology that sought to fill in some of the obvious gaps, such as adding selections from
Wace and Layamon between the seminal history of Geoffrey of Monmouth and Chrétien.
We also added Béroul’s version of the Tristan and Isolde love tragedy, along with Thomas of
Britain, and works that stressed the ever-popular Merlin.
When this work was equally well received, we followed it with Romance of Arthur III,
which stressed lesser-known Arthurian works from Old Norse, Russian, Italian, and Spanish.
In combining the major works from these three volumes, it was often hard to select what
to include and what to omit, but we feel that we have made selections that convey a broad
range of development, including works written in Latin, Welsh, French, Middle English, Old
Norse, Italian, and Provençal. New to this volume are poems of the Provençal troubadours,
along with a few lyrics from Germany, Italy, and Spain. It was felt that we had to supply a
bridge between the earlier histories and chronicles and the sudden blossoming of romantic
narratives in the twelfth century, and it was the lyric writers who filled this gap.
I would like to thank the many colleagues who offered their opinions concerning what
works should be included, as well as those who did the actual translating and wrote the
introductions. Our Garland editor, Gary Kuris, was as helpful here as he was from the very
start. I would also like to thank the now-deceased president of Garland Publishing, Gavin
Borden, who supported us throughout this venture. Gavin was, as Hugh Kenner said, “the
prince of publishers.”
James J. Wilhelm
New York City
1993
Preface to the Third Edition
The success of The Romance of Arthur has been impressive and gratifying; it is an anthology
used in the majority of Arthurian courses offered in Humanities, English, and Comparative
Literature programs. Naturally, many instructors, including those most enthusiastic about
the contents and presentation of the volume, have wished that other texts had been included,
and we have attempted to address their preferences. One of the requests we received most
often concerned the Grail material (entirely lacking from the previous edition), and we have
included the Grail excerpts of three major texts: the two Grail scenes from Chrétien’s Perceval,
a large excerpt of Book IX (the explanation of the Grail and the Grail society) of Wolfram
von Eschenbach’s Parzival, and the concluding section, the Grail liturgy, of the thirteenth-
century French Quest for the Holy Grail.
Contributors were invited but not required to revise their chapters. Most of them did so,
with revisions varying from cosmetic alterations to significant recasting. There is also new
material here, including the Grail texts mentioned above and Marie de France’s Lanval, which
was requested by many who have used the book. We have added an additional episode, the
“marriage soliloquy,” to Thomas’s Tristran.
To accommodate the additional material, we have reduced the excerpts of Sir Thomas
Malory’s Morte Darthur, limiting them to the Sword in the Stone and the conclusion, with
the death of Arthur. Although the Morte Darthur is one of the seminal Arthurian texts of the
Middle Ages—and obviously the most important of all in terms of its influence on later
Arthurian works, especially in English—we made that decision based partly on the fact that
a good many respondents to a survey, and instructors in private conversation, point out that
even with the longer excerpts in the second edition, they order a separate Malory volume
offering either very extensive excerpts or the full Morte Darthur, some in Middle English,
others in modern idiom.
The editor and the publisher of previous iterations of The Romance of Arthur wisely chose
to offer complete texts wherever possible. We retain those uncut works and add the full text
of Lanval, but otherwise we have necessarily had recourse to important excerpts. Without
making this into a two-volume anthology, full Grail (and other) texts obviously could not be
included.
Preface to the Third Edition | xi
We hope that instructors and students alike will welcome these additions. However, there
are some alterations that some may consider heretical. We have made one other major change:
besides reducing the Malory material, we chose to include excerpts from the Winchester
manuscript, translated by Dorsey Armstrong, instead of the Caxton version used in the
previous edition.
The second edition printed one work, The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle in
Middle English. Aided by marginal glosses, readers could manage that work without excessive
difficulty, but it was most often slow going and, for many students, more frustrating than
rewarding. For the new edition we have preferred translations into modern English. Alan
Lupack ably provided a new translation of The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle
into modern idiom.
Joan Tasker Grimbert retranslated the death scene in Thomas’s Tristran but also included
an English version of the hero’s Marriage Soliloquy. Her prose translation replaces the earlier
line-for-line version, thus establishing a formal congruity with the preceding work, Béroul’s
Tristran. Marie’s lais, however, are translated line by line, to give an idea of the original form
of these French texts, which were composed in octosyllabic verse.
These additions and expansions—despite one reduction—will, we hope, increase the
utility and appeal of The Romance of Arthur. In offering it to students, instructors, and anyone
fascinated by the remarkable legend of King Arthur, we wish to thank Boydell & Brewer,
Ltd., for permission to reprint the excerpt of Wolfram’s Parzival, and to Dorsey Armstrong
and to the Parlor Press for granting us permission to use portions of Armstrong’s Malory. We
are grateful to the several Routledge editors who provided advice and assistance at every turn.
And finally, we wish to express our gratitude to Brandy N. Brown, for her invaluable
assistance with the bibliography and with other editorial matters.
Norris J. Lacy
18 June 2012
Acknowledgements
Le Morte Darthur reprinted from Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur: A New Modern English
Translation Based on the Winchester Manuscript, translated by Dorsey Armstrong. ©2009 by
Parlor Press, www.parlorpress.com. Used by permission.
Parzival, With Titurel and the Love Lyrics by Wolfram von Eschenbach, translated by Cyril
Edwards (D.S.Brewer, 2002). Used by permission.
Norse Romance I: The Tristan Legend, translated by Marianne E. Kalinke (D.S.Brewer, 1999).
Used by permission.
Chapter I
Arthur in the Latin Chronicles

James J. Wilhelm
The romantic legend of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table seems more and
more to have had some foundation in history. A man named Artorius in Latin or Arthur in
Welsh and English is mentioned in the Latin histories that describe the collapse of the
christianized Roman Empire in Great Britain and the invasions of the Angles, Saxons, and
Jutes from the lowlands of northern Germany.
After the Romans’ conquest of Britain, begun in A.D. 43, they extended their advanced
culture into the faraway Celtic island and later promoted the spread of Christianity there.
Eventually the Roman Empire was weakened in the west by barbarian invasions. Denuded
of troops, Britain passed from imperial control in 410, and the Britons were thrown back
on their own resources. They still preserved something of Roman civilization, regarding
themselves as Roman citizens who were superior to their insular barbaric enemies, the Irish,
Scots, and the Picts from the never-Romanized northern region, and to the Germanic peoples
of Holland, Germany, and Scandinavia, who were often marauding.
The first important writer to speak of these events was Gildas, a monk who around the
year 547 composed his polemical treatise On the Downfall and Conquest of Britain (De excidio
et conquestu Britanniae). In Chapter 23 he tells how a “proud tyrant,” whom we usually
associate with the British chieftain Vortigern, and his counselors asked “the most ferocious
Saxons of cursed name” to come over from Germany to help them fight against their insular
enemies. This was a most impolitic move. Seeing that the island was relatively defenseless,
the Saxons probably inflicted some losses on the British enemies, but then turned on their
hosts themselves. They drove the Britons into the hills of Wales and Cornwall, where their
descendants live even today, speaking the Celtic tongues of Welsh (or Cymric) and Cornish.
Gildas speaks of these dispersed people in this way:
Chapter 25. And so many of the miserable survivors, who were trapped in the mountains,
were slain in droves. Others, driven by hunger, stretched their hands to the enemy, offering
themselves into endless servitude—if they were not cut down at once in an act that was
2 | James J. Wilhelm
kinder. Others ran off to overseas regions with loud wailings of grief. . . . Still others trusted
their lives to the mountainous highlands, the menacing cliffs and crags, the dense forests,
and the rugged sea caves, remaining, however timorously, in their homelands.
Then some time passed, and the cruel invaders retreated to their home bases. . . . The
survivors collected their strength under the leadership of Ambrosius Aurelianus, a most
temperate [modestus] man, who by chance was the only person of Roman parentage to
have come through the catastrophe in which his parents, who had once worn the royal
purple toga, had been killed, and whose present-day descendants have far degenerated
from their former virtue. He and his men challenged their previous conquerors to battle,
and by the grace of God, victory was theirs.
Chapter 26. From that time, now the native citizens and now the enemy have triumphed
. . . up to the year of the siege of Mount Badon [Badonici montis], when the last but
certainly not the least slaughter of these lowly scoundrels occurred, which, I know, makes
forty-four years and one month, and which was also the time of my birth.
[Text in Chambers, Arthur, pp. 236–37]
Gildas seems to offer us many details, but his language is overdramatized and ambiguous,
especially with reference to “forty-four years.” Is that the span of time from the arrival of the
Saxons or from the leadership of Ambrosius? Also, we do not know the date of Gildas’s birth;
his death is listed as 572 in the highly suspect Annals of Cambria, below. And who was
Ambrosius Aurelianus? He is also mentioned by the other important chronicler, Nennius,
and William of Malmesbury links him with Arthur, whom Gildas ignores. Yet despite his
omissions and ambiguities, Gildas clearly establishes the milieu from which the legend
springs: a downtrodden people finds salvation in a great military leader who is connected
with the civilization of Rome and the Holy Church. As for the intriguing Mount Badon, it
has been identified as Bath, Badbury, and Baddington, although many authorities today
connect it with Liddington Castle near Swindon.
The next Latin writer, the Venerable Bede (673?–735), tends largely to repeat Gildas in
his Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation (731):
Book 1, Chapter 15. In the year of Our Lord 449. . . . At that time the races of the Angles
or the Saxons were invited by the previously mentioned king [Vortigern] to come to
Britain in three long ships. . . . After the enemy had killed or dispersed the natives of the
island, they went home, and the natives gradually recollected their strength and courage,
and they came out of their hiding places and collectively called on heaven for help to avoid
a general disaster. At that time they had as their leader Ambrosius Aurelianus, a temperate
man, who by chance was the only person to have come out of the previously mentioned
catastrophe in which his parents, who had a famous royal name, had been killed. With
him in command the Britons gathered their strength and challenged their previous
conquerors to battle. With the help of God they won the victory. And from that time, now
the native citizens and now the enemy have triumphed, up to the year of the siege of
Arthur in the Latin Chronicles | 3
Mount Badon, when the Britons inflicted great losses on their enemies, approximately
forty-four years after their arrival in Britain.
[Text in Chambers, pp. 237–38]
The span of forty-four years is clarified, and since the arrival time is dated, the year for the
battle is put at 493. This date is not totally unlikely, although Bede’s indebtedness to Gildas
does not inspire much confidence in his presentation.
The first Latin chronicle to mention the name “Arthur” is The History of the Britons
(Historia Brittonum), which is believed to have been compiled about 800 by a Welshman
named Nennius. (See Chapter 2 for an earlier reference in Welsh.) This work was written in
Latin, but many scholars feel that Nennius based his details about the Twelve Battles of
Arthur upon native Welsh sources. We should remember that the modern Welsh people are
the direct survivors of the ancient Britons. The passage has always led many to believe that
there must be something historically real behind it, despite the sacramental nature of the
number “twelve” and the shadowy geography, yet only the Caledonian Forest of Scotland and
the City of the Legion (almost certainly the Welsh Caerleon) can be identified:
Chapter 56. At that time the Saxons were thriving and increasing in multitudes in Britain.
With [their leader] Hengist dead, his son Octha crossed over from the left side of Britain
to the realm of the Kentishmen, and from him are descended the kings of Kent.
Then Arthur fought against these people along with the kings of the Britons, and he was
the leader in their battles. His first battle was at the mouth of the River Glein. The second
to the fifth took place above the River Dubglas [Douglas or Dark Water], in the region of
Linnuis. The sixth battle occurred at the River Bassas. The seventh was a battle in the
Forest of Celidon, that is: the Battle of the Caledonian Forest. The eighth was at Castle
Guinnion, in which Arthur carried an image of St. Mary, the Perpetual Virgin on his
shoulders, and the pagans were put to flight on that day, and there was a great massacre of
them through the power of Our Lord Jesus Christ and his mother Mary. The ninth battle
was in the City of the Legion. The tenth was fought on the banks of the River Tribruit.
The eleventh occurred on Mount Agned. The twelfth was the Battle of Mount Badon, in
which nine hundred and sixty men fell from a single attack of Arthur, and nobody put
them down except him alone, and in every one of the battles he emerged as victor. But
although the others were overcome in the battles, they sent for help from Germany, and
their forces were ceaselessly reinforced. The Saxons brought over leaders from Germany
to rule the Britons up to the reign of Ida, Son of Eobba, the first king of Beornica.
Later in his history, Nennius includes the following passage, which shows that the legend of
Arthur was already becoming a popular myth:
Chapter 73. There is another wonder in the region known as Buelt—a heap of stones piled
up with the footprint of a dog upon it. While hunting the boar Troynt, Cabal, the hunting
dog of Arthur the soldier, stepped on a stone, and Arthur later collected a pile beneath this
and called it Carn Cabal. Men come to carry away the stone in their hands for a day and
a night, yet the next day the imprinted stone is back on the pile.
There is another wonder in the region called Ercing. It is a tomb near a brook that is called
the Mound of Anir, for Anir is the man buried there. He was the son of Arthur the soldier,
who killed and buried him there. Men come to measure the mound, which is sometimes
six feet long, sometimes nine or twelve or fifteen. However you measure it again and again,
you will never get the same figure—and I have tried this myself.
The Carn Cabal has been identified as existing in Breconshire in southern Wales, while
Ercing has been placed in Herefordshire. The hunting of the boar figures prominently in the
Welsh Tale of Culhwch and Olwen in Chapter 3.
The next document is called The Annals of Cambria, another name for Wales, which the
Welsh themselves call Cymru. It dates from the 900s, and offers these dates, which nowadays
seem to be a bit late:
A.D. 518 The Battle of Badon, in which Arthur carried the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ
for three days and three nights on his shoulders, and the Britons were victors. . . .
A.D. 539 The Battle of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut both fell; and there was
widespread death in Britain and in Ireland. . . .
A.D. 572 Gildas died. . . .
This source, suspect as it is, nevertheless supplies us with a mention of a final catastrophic
battle in which Arthur will go down, along with a man whose name evolves into Modred or
Mordred. Although this figure will eventually become an adversary, he could here be one of
Arthur’s allies.
The next source is The Legend of St. Goeznovius, a Latin account of the life of the Breton
St. Goeuznou. The work bears the date of 1019. That has been dismissed by J.S.P. Tatlock as
too early, but Léon Fleuriot has since defended it as correct. In any case, an important article
in Speculum by Geoffrey Ashe has shown that the legend must be examined closely. It is
important because it establishes a continental base of operation for Arthur, which figures in
the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth and later writers. It establishes, in short, a historical link
between Britain and Brittany, which we know existed in literature for the transmission of
such tales as those of Tristan and Parsifal. The pertinent section runs as follows:
After the passage of time the usurping King Vortigern, in order to guarantee support for
himself for the defense of the realm of insular Britain, which he was ruling unjustly, invited
some warlike men from the region of Saxony and made them his allies in his kingdom.
Since these were heathenish and devilish men, who from their natures lusted to make
human blood flow, they called down many evils upon the British.
Shortly afterward their arrogance was checked for a time by the great Arthur, King of the
Britons, who forced them for the most part from the island or into servitude. But after
this same Arthur had brilliantly won many victories in Britain and Gaul, he was finally
called from human life, and the way once again lay open to the Saxons to return to the
island to oppress the British, to overthrow churches, and to persecute saints.
[Text in Chambers, p. 242]
Before this the anonymous author had described how a Briton had emigrated to Gallic
Armorica and founded many colonies, thereby linking the insular and continental Britons
and Bretons.
The next important chronicler is the Englishman William of Malmesbury, who wrote The
Deeds of the English Kings (De rebus gestis regum Anglorum) in about the year 1125. In one
passage from Book 1, Section 8, he verifies the earlier writings and notes that the Bretons (or
Britons or both) now treat the deeds of the heroic Arthur (bellicosi Arturis) as if he were an
earthly Messiah:
But with Vortimer [Guortimer, son of Vortigern] dead, the vigor of the Britons flagged,
and their hopes diminished and flowed away, and indeed would have vanished entirely if
Ambrosius, the lone survivor of the Romans who ruled after Vortigern, had not checked
the unruly barbarians with the exemplary assistance of the heroic Arthur. This is that
Arthur who is raved about even today in the trifles of the Bretons (Britons)—a man who
is surely worthy of being described in true histories rather than dreamed about in fallacious
myths—for he truly sustained his sinking homeland for a long time and aroused the
drooping spirits of his fellow citizens to battle. Finally at the siege of Mt. Badon, relying
on the image of the Lord’s mother, which he had sewn on his armor, looming up alone,
he dashed down nine hundred of the enemy in an incredible massacre.
Then in Book 3, Section 287, William adds more of the kind of information that tends
toward the creation of a myth linking a hero to the land around him:
At that time [1066–87] in the province of Wales known as Ros was found the tomb of
Walwen [Gawain], who was the by no means degenerate nephew of Arthur through his
sister. He ruled in that part of Britain which is still called Walweitha and was a warrior
most famous for his courage; but he was driven from his rule by the brother and the
nephew of Hengist, though he made them pay dearly for his exile. He shared deservedly
in his uncle’s praise, because for several years he postponed the collapse of his tottering
homeland.
However, the tomb of Arthur is nowhere to be found—that man whose second coming
has been hymned in the dirges of old. Yet the sepulcher of Walwen . . . is fourteen feet
long. It is said by some that Walwen’s body was cast up from a shipwreck after he had been
wounded by his enemies, while others say that he was murdered by his fellow citizens at
a public feast. And so the truth lies in doubt, though neither story would lessen the asser-
tion of his fame.
[Text in Chambers, p. 250]
The passage also marks the entry of the name Walwen (Gawain) into Latin literature,
showing that the future paragon of courtly excellence had already developed a legend of his
own by 1125.
The next important writer is Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose History of the Kings of Britain
combines history with legend in a highly imaginative form. The Arthurian segment of his
work is given at length in Chapter 4. This section will close with a writer later than Geoffrey,
the Norman-Welsh Giraldus Cambrensis, who lived from about 1146 to 1223 and was
patronized by King Henry II of England. In his On the Instruction of Princes (De instructione
principum), written in the 1190s, Giraldus gives a fascinating description of Arthur’s grave
and also mentions Queen Guinevere and the magician Morgan the Fay, who plays an
important role in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:
Then Arthur’s body, which legends have fancifully treated as being phantom-like at its end
and carried away by spirits to a faroff place where it is immune to death, was discovered
in these days of ours, buried deep in the earth in a hollowed-out oak tree located between
two stone pyramids that had been set up a long time ago in a holy burial ground at
Glastonbury. The body was revealed by strange and almost miraculous signs and was
transported to a church with great honor and fittingly housed in a marble tomb that bore
a lead cross with a stone placed under it. . . . I myself have seen this, and I have traced the
letters engraved on the cross, which do not project forward but rather inwardly toward the
stone: “Here lies buried the famous King Arthur with Guinevere [Wenneveria] his second
wife on the Island of Avalon.”
There are several things to note here, for he did indeed have two wives, of whom the last
was buried with him, and her bones were found at the same time with her husband’s, but
set apart in this way: two-thirds of the tomb toward the head contained the bones of the
man, while the other third held the woman’s remains. A golden handful of woman’s hair
was found there, retaining its fresh wholeness and radiance, but when a certain monk
greedily reached out and grabbed it the hair dissolved into dust.
Now although there had been certain indications in writings that the body would be found
there . . . and visions and revelations were made to many virtuous and holy men, King
Henry II of England revealed everything to the monks, just as he had heard it recited to
him by a Welsh bard who sang of ancient deeds: that they would find the body sixteen
feet deep in the earth in a hollow oak, not in a marble tomb. It had been buried this deeply
so that the Saxons, who took over the island after Arthur’s death, and whom he had
vigorously beaten back while alive and had almost totally destroyed, could not find it; and
that is why the inscription was turned inwardly toward the stone. . . .
The burial place is now known as Glastonbury, and in ancient times it was called the Island
of Avalon. It is indeed almost an island, being surrounded by marshes; and so in the British
language it was called Inis Avallon or Apple Island, since apples grow there in abundance.
Then too Morgan, the noble matron and lady-ruler of those parts, who was closely related
by blood to King Arthur, transported Arthur after the Battle of Kemelen [Camlan] to this
island, now called Glaston, to heal his wounds. In the British language it was once called
Inis Gutrin (that is, Glass Island), and for that reason the Saxons dubbed it Glastonbury
since Glas means “glass” in their tongue, and bury is “city” or “camp.”
You should also know that Arthur’s bones were huge. . . . His shinbone, when placed on
the ground by a monk next to that of the tallest man there, reached three fingers beyond
the man’s knee. And his skull was so broad and long as to be a wonder or marvel, and the
space between his brows and eyes was the breadth of a full palm. There appeared on him
also ten wounds or more, largely scarred over, except for one, which was larger than the
rest and showed a big cut, which seemed to have been lethal.
These are the most important Latin writings for the question of Arthur’s actual existence.
Work done in the 1980s by Geoffrey Ashe and others has shown that behind the puzzling
traditions we may glimpse the figure of a known British leader who took an army to Gaul in
the final confusion surrounding the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. This man is
documented overseas as “Riothamus,” a name that latinizes a Celtic title meaning “Supreme
King”; and it could have been used as the official epithet of a chieftain whose actual name
was something else—Arthur, for instance. Hints in The Legend of St. Goeznovius do in fact
suggest that its author is referring to the same person when he indicates that Arthur went
over to Gaul, and several other medieval writers give Arthur much the same dating as this
“Supreme King.” If the identification or semi-identification is correct there is an even broader
base for assuming Arthur’s true historical presence.
Similarly, work has been done to try to identify Camelot and other places of Arthurian
interest. Leslie Alcock has made a good case for placing the otherwise mythical Camelot in
Cadbury. There are also possible or probable locations for numerous other sites. Tintagel
Castle has long been known to have existed in Cornwall, while Mt. Badon has been identified
most convincingly as Liddington Castle near Swindon, and the Isle of Avalon probably was,
as the chronicles themselves say, Glastonbury.
But for many readers of Arthurian tales the historical side, while fascinating, is the least
important part of a broad vehicle of legend and myth that has replenished the European
imagination for centuries, from Chrétien de Troyes to T.H. White. The true father of this
mythic material is the pseudo-historian Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose work appears in
Chapter 4. Meanwhile, aside from the chronicles, which were written by men of the church
who were often Germanic rather than Celtic in their sympathies, the myth of Arthur grew
where he properly belonged: among the common people who had been displaced in Wales
and Cornwall and who were looking desperately for a messianic figure of salvation. Their
literature appears in Chapters 2 and 3.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE
All historical citations are taken from E.K. Chambers’s Arthur of Britain, which, although published in 1927 (reprinted
by Barnes and Noble in 1964), remains a standard source. For Tatlock’s discussion of Goeznovius see Speculum, 14
(1939), 361–65; for Fleuriot’s see Les Origines de la Bretagne (1980), p. 277. Ashe’s consideration of “Riothamus”
appears in Speculum, 56 (1981), 301–23.
Chapter 2
Arthur in the
Early Welsh Tradition
John K. Bollard
The texts in this chapter include most of the early Welsh Arthurian poems that precede or
are independent of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain. While they are
too often obscure or fragmentary, these Welsh materials—many considerably earlier than the
twelfth century—demonstrate clearly the deepest roots of Arthurian narrative in Welsh
tradition. In the poems and allusions below, two differing aspects of Arthur are revealed. He
appears in the earliest source as an ideal warrior against whom others are measured, and this
is perhaps the basic Arthurian assumption at the core of all later developments. From this
legendary beginning, possibly stemming from an historical figure, Arthur had developed by
the ninth century into a hero of folk tales and tales of wonder, contending with monsters,
witches, and giants. Other heroes were gradually drawn into his sphere of influence, thus
establishing Llys Arthur, Arthur’s Court, which from the twelfth century on became the arena
in which, throughout Europe, the tenets of chivalry were refined and where questions of
courtly conduct predominate.
Unlike early French, English, and other authors, the medieval Welsh told their tales in
prose. Medieval Welsh poetry, on the other hand, uses frequent allusions to characters, events,
and stories to make a comment on or point about something or someone else. The original
audiences must have recognized these references, though they are often obscure to the
modern reader. Some, of course, are familiar to us today because the names or tales have
survived elsewhere, but because narrative traditions develop and change over time, we can
rarely be absolutely certain that a tale known to us is the same as that intended in the earlier
poetry. Similarly, thirteenth- and fourteenth-century scribes may have imperfectly under-
stood the older manuscripts they were copying, thus generating errors or inconsistencies that
are left for us to puzzle over, not to mention our own difficulties interpreting language from
a period spanning nine hundred years and ending about five hundred years ago. Thus there
10 | John K. Bollard
is much that is tentative in these translations of early Welsh texts. (See the note concerning
Welsh pronunciation, at the end of this chapter.)
In what may be the earliest surviving reference to him, Arthur appears as a standard of
comparison as a powerful warrior. Sometime in the late sixth century Mynyddog the Wealthy,
a ruler of the Gododdin, in what is now southern Scotland, assembled a war-band from all
Celtic Britain. For a year they feasted at his expense before attacking and suffering a disastrous
defeat from a much larger English force at Catraeth, probably the modern Catterick in
Yorkshire. All but one (or three) of the three hundred warriors were killed. The poet Aneirin,
named as Neirin in Chapter 62 of the Historia Brittonum (The History of the Britons), claims
to have witnessed the battle and to have been captured and rescued, though these details may
be later additions to his original poem, called The Gododdin, surviving only in a thirteenth-
century copy of two earlier versions. The poet was contemporary with the fallen warriors,
and his poem is a long series of elegiac stanzas lamenting their deaths. Aneirin himself may
have been born during Arthur’s lifetime—or at least during the period that tradition assigned
to Arthur.
In the following stanza praising a certain Gwawrddur there is nothing that would exclude it
from the earliest stage of composition (though it might be a later interpolation). We can perhaps
see here the beginnings of the long-lasting practice by which other heroes were glorified and
their reputations enhanced simply by coupling them with the name of Arthur:
He pierced over three hundred of the finest.

He struck at both the center and the flank.
He was worthy in the front of a most generous army.
1240 He gave out gifts from his herd of steeds in the winter.
He fed black ravens [i.e., by killing many enemies] on the wall
of a fortress, though he was not Arthur.
Among the powerful in battle,
in the van, an alder shield-wall – Gwawrddur.
Owain son of Urien was an historical sixth-century lord of Rheged in northern Britain. In
the early fourteenth-century Book of Taliesin there is a short elegy praising him. A dozen of
the sixty-one poems in this manuscript are generally considered (though not with absolute
certainty) to be compositions of the historical sixth-century poet, Taliesin, who is also named
in the Historia Brittonum and who was active in North Wales and the Old North. The elegy
for Owain is one of these twelve, and though it contains no mention of Arthur, it is included
here as the earliest surviving poem on a prominent Arthurian character. Owain, known in
French, German, and English romance as Yvain, Iwein, and Ywayne, was drawn into Arthur’s
court and achieved considerable literary prominence as the eponymous hero of his own
Arthurian tale. Owain son of Urien is, indeed, the only Welsh figure whose name and
patronymic have survived intact. As much as it fits the boasting pattern of heroic elegy,
Taliesin’s poem also reveals the poet’s personal sense of loss of his lord, patron, and perhaps
friend.
Arthur in the Early Welsh Tradition | 11
Elegy for Owain son of Urien

The soul of Owain son of Urien,
may the Lord consider its need.
The lord of Rheged whom the heavy greensward covers,
it was not shallow to praise him.
5 The grave of a companion renowned in song, of great fame.
His whetted spears were like the dawn’s rays,
for no equal will be found
to the resplendent lord of Llwyfenydd,
reaper of enemies, captor,
10 with the nature of his father and his forebears.
When Owain killed Fflamddwyn [= “Flamebearer”],
it was no harder than sleeping.
The broad host of Lloegr [= England] sleep
With the light in their eyes,
15 and those who did not retreat
were bolder than necessary.
Owain punished them severely,
like a pack of wolves attacking sheep.
A worthy man above his many-colored arms,
20 who gave horses to suitors.
Though he hoarded them like a fierce one,
they were shared for the sake of his soul.
The soul of Owain son of Urien,
may the Lord consider its need.
As the Anglo-Saxons gained sway over what is now England, many displaced British
traditions from the kingdoms of the “Old North” of southern Scotland and northern
England were relocated in Wales. Considerable evidence for this can be seen in a series of
seventy-three stanzas known as “The Stanzas of the Graves,” composed during the ninth or
tenth century and recorded in the mid-thirteenth-century manuscript known as The Black
Book of Carmarthen, the oldest manuscript collection of Welsh poetry, with twenty-four
variant or additional stanzas found in later manuscripts. Here are listed the traditional
gravesites of legendary Welsh heroes, a number of whom are known to have been rulers or
warriors from other parts of Britain. At many of the identifiable locations in Wales we find
prehistoric Bronze- or Iron-Age burial mounds, cairns, cromlechs, or standing stones.
Most important for Arthurian studies is a much-discussed line naming Arthur: anoeth bit
bet y Arthur. The troublesome word in this line is anoeth. It has been variously interpreted,
but a likely sense in this context is “a thing difficult to find or obtain; a wonder.” Arthur
himself uses the plural, anoethau, four times in Culhwch and Olwen, translated in the next
chapter as “rare and difficult things.” A tradition that Arthur’s grave was unknown may reflect
12 | John K. Bollard
(or may even have given rise to) a belief that Arthur was not dead and that he would return
as a deliverer. Such a belief was current among Bretons by the early twelfth century. William
of Malmesbury’s comments, quoted in Chapter 1, on the grave of Walwen and on the
unknown site of Arthur’s grave strongly suggest that William had some knowledge of Welsh
traditions about the graves of heroes similar to what is found in these stanzas. A number of
other names in these stanzas also appear frequently in Arthurian tradition: Gwalchmai is
known outside Wales as Gawain, Gauvain, Walwen, etc.; Bedwyr, frequently partnered with
Cai (Sir Kay) in early Welsh Arthurian tradition, is Bedivere in French and English; March
is the King Mark of the Tristan legend. There seem to be competing claims for Owain’s grave.
from The Stanzas of the Graves

The grave of Gwalchmai in Peryddon [8]
as a reproach to men;
in Llanbadarn, the grave of Cynon.
The grave of the son of Osfran at Camlan [12]
after many a slaughter;
the grave of Bedwyr on Tryfan hill.
The grave of Owain son of Urien in a square grave [13]
under the earth of Llanforfael;
in Abererch, Rhydderch the Generous.
After blue and red and fair [things], [14]
and great strong-necked steeds,
at Llanheledd, the grave of Owain.
A grave for March, a grave for Gwythur, [44]
a grave for Gwgawn Red-Sword;
hard to find in the world, a grave for Arthur.
Another character originally independent of any connection with Arthur is Geraint, son
of Erbin. Like Owain, he too became the hero of a widely known Arthurian tale, though in
the French Erec et Enide, by Chrétien de Troyes, he is given the Breton name, Erec. Geraint
is frequently connected with southwestern Britain and south Wales and may in part be based
on or conflated with the Geraint who was king of Cornwall in the eighth century. He may
perhaps also be the Geraint mentioned in The Gododdin: “[For] Geraint before [the men of ]
the South, a battle-cry was given. /. . . / I know Geraint. You were a generous lord.” Note the
echo of the battle-cry both here and below.
A tenth- to twelfth-century poem in praise of Geraint is found in several manuscripts; ten
of the eighteen stanzas found in the earliest version in The Black Book of Carmarthen are
translated here. The three-line stanzas or englynion (singular englyn) achieve much of their
effect through the use of incremental repetition with some variation in each englyn, especially
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brain activity in other directions. Hence all efforts are centred in the
direction suggested by the operator, or self-induced, as suggested
by the “dominant idea.”
The sensitive exhibits powers of mind and ability of thought which
were not noticeable in the ordinary waking condition. Not because he
really possesses greater powers of mind or body, but because of the
lack of concentration in the waking state. By this concentration of
direction, so called abnormal feats of strength are performed, rigidity
of structure brought about, and other characteristics not peculiar to
common life. In a higher sense, we see the sensitive passing from
this condition of concentration of one-idea-ism to a spiritual state, in
which the phenomena exhibited are no longer the product of self-
dethronement and of suggestion. Higher still, we see the soul reign
supreme. The sensitive possesses a clear consciousness of what is
transpiring at home and abroad, according to the direction of his
psychic powers.
In the psychic state—the more perfect trance state or control—the
whole mind becomes illumined; past, present, and future become
presentable to the mind of the lucid somnambulist as one great
whole. This higher stage may be reached through the simple
processes of manipulation, and passes as suggested in my little
work, “How to Mesmerise.”
In the mesmeric state the sensitive passes from the mere
automatism of the earlier stages of hypnosis to the distinct
individuality indicated above, although still more or less influenced or
directed by his controller or operator into the line of thought and train
of actions most desired.
The difference between the hypnotic and mesmeric states should
now be very clear. In the former the sensitive has no identity, in the
latter his identity is preserved in a clearly individualised form
throughout the whole series of abnormal acts. Whenever the
sensitive enters this condition his personal consciousness is most
apparent in the middle and higher stages.
In fact, in the mesmeric state, it is very stupid for some operators
to ask the sensitive, “Are you asleep?” It may be understood what is
meant, yet the question is absurd from the standpoint of an
intelligent observer. The sensitive is never more awake. The higher
the state the greater the wakefulness and lucidity of the inner or soul
life.
THE SIXTH SENSE.
In the mesmeric state we see developed what Lord Kelvin

(Professor Thomson, of Glasgow University), Drs. Baird, Hammond,
and Drayton call the magnetic sense—or “sixth sense.” It is a gift of
super-sensitiveness. To my mind it is something more, the
enfranchisement of the soul, the human ego—in proportion as the
dominance of the senses is arrested.
In blindness, it has been noticed how keen the sense of touch
becomes. I have also noticed the keen sensitiveness of facial
perception enjoyed by some of the blind, by which they are enabled
to perceive objects in the absence of physical sight. In the mesmeric
state we see a somewhat analogous mental condition. As the
peculiar sense of the blind is developed by extra concentration of the
mind in the direction of facial perception, so is “the sixth sense”
developed by concentration of direction, as well as by the condition
of sensitiveness induced by the mesmeric state.
This newly recognised sense, “the sixth sense,” not only answers
the purpose of sight and hearing, but transcends all senses in
vividness and power. Materialists, no longer able to ignore the
phenomena of somnambulism and trance, and compelled to admit
man’s avenues of knowledge in this life were not confined to the
recognised five senses, are good enough to give him a “sixth sense,”
even while they deny him a soul. In the same way, no longer able to
deny the existence of mesmerism, they now admit it to consideration
—re-baptised as hypnotism. The phenomena being admitted, we will
not quarrel over the names by which they are called.
PSYCHIC-CONSCIOUSNESS.
As we advance in our investigations we find in the higher
conditions of these states a double or treble consciousness or
memory. The higher including and overlapping the lower. Thus the
consciousness of the hypnotic state includes that of the waking
state, while the memory of the waking state possesses no conscious
recollection of what has taken place in hypnosis, and so on, each
stage has its own phases of consciousness. The memory of the
sensitive, under influence, overlapping and including the memory of
ordinary or normal life.
Strange as it may appear, there are no phenomena which have
been evolved in any of these abnormal conditions of life, which have
not been observed again and again in ordinary or normal life, as well
authenticated instances of dreams, warnings, and telepathy testify.
Dr. Richardson notwithstanding, “in dreams and visions of the
night” God has manifested himself to man in all ages. In other words,
the soul (in sleep and analogous states to somnambulism and
trance) comes more in touch with the sub-conscious or soul sphere
of thought and existence. At times there is an inrush from that sphere
into our present conscious state, by which we know of things which
could not otherwise be known. Of dreams, our space will not admit
more than occasional reference, we may mention as a case in point
the dream of Mrs. Donan, wife of the livery stableman from whom Dr.
Cronin hired his horse in Chicago. A week before Dr. Cronin was
murdered this lady had a dream-vision, and dreamt he was
barbarously murdered, and saw in a vision the whole terrible scene.
This dream was a means, first, of forewarning the doctor, and
second, of leading to the detection of the miscreants.
Of premonitions, an incident reported in the Register of Adelaide,
will suffice:—“Constable J. C. H. Williams has reported to
headquarters that he had an unpleasant experience at about
midnight on Monday. He was on duty at the government offices in
King William Street, and while standing at the main entrance he had
a presentiment that he was in danger, and walked away a few steps.
Scarcely had he moved from the spot, when a portion of the cornice
work at the top of the building fell with a crash on the place where he
had been standing. The piece of plaster must have weighed fully a
stone, and had it struck Williams the result would doubtless have
been fatal. A passer-by saw the constable a few minutes after, and
his scared looks and agitated manner clearly showed that his story
was true.” Concerning telepathy, Mrs. Andrew Crosse, the
distinguished widow of the famous electrician, relates in Temple Bar
an anecdote about the late Bishop Wilberforce, to the effect, the
Bishop was writing a dry business letter one day, when a feeling of
acute mental agony overcame him and he felt that some evil had
befallen his favourite son, a midshipman in the navy. The impression
was correct. On that very day the lad, who was with his ship in the
Pacific, had been wounded and nearly bled to death. When this was
told Hallam, the historian, he replied that a very similar thing had
happened to himself. A few cases are noted further on. Some
persons would repudiate all such incidents as accidents or
coincidences; while others would fly to the extreme, and declare all
such are the result of “spirit control”—that is, some disembodied but
friendly spirit projected the dream, conveyed the warning, or
telepathically despatched the news. But we must never forget news
has to be received as well as despatched. Consequently, we, as
embodied spirits, must possess psychic consciousness.
I believe that much of the phenomena, directly and indirectly
attributed to disincarnate spirit control, are traceable to no other
source than the powers of our own embodied spirits, as revealed by
the facts of somnambulism and trance, and this is the opinion of all
intelligent spiritualists.
“Because,” says Mr. G. H. Stebbins, a prominent investigator of
modern spiritualism in the United States “a person quotes from
books he never saw, or tells of what he never knew in any external
way, that is not final proof that he is under an external spirit control.
Psychometry and clairvoyance may sometimes solve it all.”
“I hold,” says Mr. Myers, “that telepathy and clairvoyance do, in
fact, exist—telepathy, a communication between incarnate mind and
incarnate mind, and perhaps between incarnate minds and minds
unembodied; clairvoyance, a knowledge of things terrene which
over-passes the limits of ordinary perception, and which, perhaps,
achieves an insight with some other than terrene world.”
These are the cautious admissions of eminent investigators in
psychical research.
DOUBLE OR SUB-CONSCIOUSNESS.
“There are two sets,” says Dr. Brown-Sequard, “a double state of

mental powers in the human organism, essentially differing from
each other. The one may be designated as ordinary conscious
intelligence; the other, a superior power, which controls our better
nature.”
J. Balfour Brown, in his “Medical Jurisprudence,” says:—“In no
case of pure somnambulism, waking consciousness of the individual
knows anything of the sleeping consciousness. It is as if there were
two distinct memories.”
This double-consciousness, memory, or sub-state of mental
powers, is another but lower phase of psychic-consciousness, and is
sometimes exhibited by accidents, and also by disease.
Dr. Abercromby relates the case of a boy, four years old who was
trepanned for a fracture of the skull. He was in a complete stupor
during the operation, and was not conscious of what took place. At
fifteen he became seriously ill of fever. In the delirium occasioned by
the fever, he gave a correct description of the operation, and of all
the persons present, their dress, manners, and actions, to the
minutest particulars. The “superior power” must have obtained this
knowledge in some other way than through the ordinary channels of
the outward senses.
In cases of apparent drowning, where the person has been saved
from death by active, external help, we have been informed that the
human mind has worked with a rapidity of action not thought
possible in the waking state, the intensity of menial action being
increased in adverse ratio to the inaction of the external senses and
consciousness. In this state the career of a lifetime has been
reviewed, conversations, actions, persons seen and places visited,
all vividly brought to mind—in possibly less time than it takes to pen
this paragraph. These phenomena suggest the reflection that the
daily waking life—sensuous and worldly-minded—is possibly, to
many, the least real and effective. How much our external life is
influenced by our unconscious (to us in the waking state) sub-life, is
an interesting problem.
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes says:—“The more we examine the
mechanism of thought, the more we shall see that the automatic and
unconscious action of the mind enters largely into all its processes.
We all have a double who is wiser and better than we, who puts
thoughts into our heads and words into our mouths.”
A commercial gentleman of my acquaintance, who was rather
sceptical on the subject of double-consciousness—although,
“notwithstanding,” he said, “Mr. Stead, in the Review of Reviews, had
turned an honest penny out of ghosts, double-consciousness, and
that sort of rubbish”—admitted to me, he had a maid, who had an
awkward habit of rising in her sleep, carefully setting the fires,
cleaning and dusting out the rooms, setting the breakfast table, and
doing many other things which appeared important to the servant-
mind. Her movements were watched. She slipped about with eyes
closed, avoiding obstacles, and doing her work systematically and
neatly, and without fuss, when done, she would go to bed. In the
morning she had no recollection of what she had said or done. It was
a curious thing, he had to admit. The girl was honest enough. He
was certain this habit had not been simulated. Threats of discharge,
and possible loss of wages, did not cure her of this habit. There was
a certain form of “double consciousness” in this case.
“The subliminal consciousness” of Mr. Myers, by which he
accounts for the phenomena of genius, is but another way of
expressing the concept of an “identity underlying all consciousness,”
the psyche, the real “I, me,” “the superior power which directs and
controls our better nature,” the “double who is wiser and better than
we,” the reality of which is so much hidden from our ordinary
experience, because our soul-life is so much buried out of sight by
the débris of the “things of this life,” which, fortunately or otherwise,
pre-occupy so much of our attention.
It is this “subliminal consciousness” we see manifested in the
psychic state, and natural somnambulism. Clairvoyance,
psychometry, thought transference, etc., are as so many spectrum
rays of the one soul light. Call them “subliminal” if you will. These
rays flow out from the soul, and are many-hued, distinct or blurred,
according to the degree of pureness or super-sensitivity of the
external corporeal prism through which they are projected.
Persons have lived for years, we are credibly informed, who have
spent half their lives entranced, in the alternation of two distinct
individualities or two distinct states of consciousness, in one of which
they forget all they had learned or did in the other.
Professor Huxley described (British Association of Science,
Belfast, 1874) a case in which two separate lives, a normal, and
abnormal one, seemed to be lived at intervals by the same individual
during the greater portion of her life.
The conclusion to the whole matter is—the psychic, or soul-
powers in some persons are less entrammelled by the senses than
in others; that a high degree of organic sensitiveness always
accompanies those who are recognised as psychics or sensitives;
that this state of sensitiveness is natural to some, and in others may
be developed by accident, disease, or induced by somnambulism
and trance.
I will endeavour to show these psychic characteristics, or soul
gifts, underlie, and enter into the varied phenomena—clairvoyance,
psychometry, thought transference, thought-reading, and what not,
which are collated under the title of,
“HOW TO THOUGHT-READ.”
CHAPTER II.
Clairvoyance.
What is clairvoyance? “The term, clairvoyance,” says Dr. George
Wyld, in a paper read before the Psychical Research Society,
London, “is French, and means clear-seeing, but it appears to me to
be an inadequate term, because it might signify clear optical vision,
or clear mental vision. What is signified by the term is the power
which certain individuals possess of seeing external objects under
circumstances which render the sight of these objects impossible to
physical optics. In short, by clairvoyance, we mean the power which
the mind has of seeing or knowing thoughts and psychical
conditions, and objects hidden from or beyond the reach of the
physical senses; and if the existence of this faculty can be
established, we arrive at a demonstration that man has a power
within his body as yet unrecognised by physical science—a power
which is called soul, or mind-seeing, and for the description of such a
power the term might be auto-nocticy (αυτονοητικος), or
psychoscopy.” Psychoscopy, or soul sight, would, perhaps, be the
better term. I propose to use the old term—clairvoyance—as it
signifies, in popular usage, the power of seeing beyond the range of
physical vision, as we know it.
That certain persons are endowed with this faculty of clear seeing
—in some of its various phases—is a matter settled beyond dispute.
What special name to call this faculty, or what are the true causes of
its existence; why it should be possessed by some persons and not
by others; why it should be so frail and fugitive in the presence of
some people, and strong and vivid before others; why some persons
are never clairvoyant until they have been through the mesmeric and
psychic states; why some become possessed of the faculty through
disease; while, with others, the gift of clairvoyance appears to be a
spontaneous possession; and why some operators are successful in
inducing clairvoyance, and others not, etc., are interesting questions
to which the student of psychology may, with advantage, direct his
attention.
Clairvoyance is soul-sight—the power of the soul to see. It is the
state of refined psychic perception. This state increases in lucidity—
clearness and power of penetration—in proportion as the activity of
the physical senses are reduced below normal action. It is observed
to be most effective in the trance state—natural or induced—as in
the mesmeric and psychic states. I conclude, then, clairvoyance
depends upon the unfolding of the spirit’s perception, and is
increased in power as the ascendency of the spirit arises above the
activities of the spirit’s corporeal envelope—the body. In proportion to
the spirit’s ascendency over the organs and senses of the body, is
this psychic gift perfect or imperfect.
The large brain or cerebrum is the physical organ of the soul, as
the cerebellum is of the physiological brain functions. Mental
functions are manifested by the former, and physical functions by the
latter.
Clairvoyance, as a spiritual faculty, will doubtless have its
appropriate organ in the brain. I do not profess to locate that organ.
At the same time I have noticed the best clairvoyants are wide and
full between the eyes, showing there is a particular fulness of the
frontal cerebral lobes, at their juncture at the root of the nose. This
may be something more than a mere physiognomic sign. When this
sign is accompanied by refinement of organisation, and a fine type of
brain, I always look for the possible manifestation of clairvoyance in
mesmeric subjects.
Some writers are of the opinion clairvoyance is actually soul-sight,
more or less retarded in lucidity by the action or activity of the bodily
senses. Others believe it to be a state arising from a peculiar highly-
strained nervous condition, which induces the state of super-
sensitivity or impressionability of the organisation. The first may be
termed the spiritual, and the latter the physiological hypothesis. But,
as a matter of fact, both conditions are noted. The latter may account
for much, and possibly is sufficient to explain much that is called
thought-reading—so often mistaken for clairvoyance. It does appear
to me that certain peculiar physiological conditions, varying from
semi-consciousness to profound trance, are necessary for the
manifestation of clairvoyance, even when it takes place in apparently
normal life of the possessor.
It is more than likely that the ornate and mystic ceremonies
indulged in by Hindoo mystics, Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman
priests, had the one grand end in view—viz., to induce the requisite
state of super-sensitivity, and thus prepare the consecrated youths,
sybils, and vestal virgins for the influx of spiritual vision, prophecy,
and what not. When this subtle influx came—by whatever name
called—the phenomena manifested were pretty much the same as
we know them, only varied in degree. The gods spoke per oracle,
Pythean, or Delphic. The man of God either coronated a king or
foretold the end of a dynasty. St. Stephen saw Christ, St. John
beheld visions, Joan of Arc was directed, Swedenborg illumined, and
religious ecstatics in ancient and modern times partook more or less
of the sacred fire—the inner sight. This (stripped of the fantastic
surroundings, priestly mummeries, and dominant belief of the times)
simply indicated the evolution and exercise of clairvoyance and other
psychic gifts.
Coming nearer home, we hear of the mysterious visions at the
Knock, and at Lourdes. Miraculous appearances of the Virgin and
winged angels, to cheer the hearts of the faithful, and to cause the
heads of the scornful to rejoice in sceptical derision. Then we have
all the vagaries produced by the high nervous tension of modern
revivalism, in which the visions seen are but a transformation of
church and chapel dogmas into objective realities. These illusionary
visions—mistaken for clairvoyance—possess less reality than the
delusive fancies of the sensitive in the state of hypnosis.
Clairvoyance will be governed by its own spiritual laws, just as
sight is affected or retarded by physical conditions. What these
spiritual laws are we can only surmise, but this we may safely
conjecture—viz., that soul-sight is not trammelled or limited by the
natural laws which govern physical optics. Clairvoyance and physical
vision are absolutely distinct, and possess little in common.
To illustrate a new subject, it is permissible to draw upon the old
and the well-known. So I venture to illustrate clairvoyance by certain
facts in connection with ordinary human vision. Although some
children see better than others, the power to see, with the ability to
understand the relative positions and uses of the things seen, is a
matter of development. In psychic vision, we also see growth or
development, with increasing power to use and understand the
faculty. Some children are blind from birth, and others, seeing, lose
the power of sight. Many are blind, although they have physical
sight, they see not with the educated eye. Many, again, have greater
powers of sight than they are aware of. As so it is with psychic
vision.
What is true of the physical is also true of the psychic. From the
first glimmerings, to the possession of well-defined sight, a period of
growth and time elapses. From the first incoherent cry of infancy to
well defined and intelligent speech of manhood, we notice the same
agencies at work. Not only is clairvoyant vision generally imperfect at
first, but the psychic’s powers of description are also at fault. St. Paul
could not give utterance to what he saw, when caught up to the third
heavens. His knowledge of things and powers of speech failed him
to describe the startling, the new, and the unutterable. He had a
sudden revelation of the state of things in a sphere which had no
counterparts in his previous experience, in this—his known—world.
Hence, although he knew of his change of state, he could give no
lawful or intelligible expression to his thoughts.
Between the first incongruous utterances, and apparent fantastic
blunderings, and the more mature period in which “things spiritual”
can be suitably described in our language, to our right sense of
things, or comprehension, a period of development and education
must elapse. It is true some clairvoyants develop much more readily
than others.
In the entrancement of the mesmeric and psychic states, there is a
lack of external consciousness. The soul is so far liberated from the
body as to act independently of the ordinary sensuous conditions of
the body, and sees by the perception and light of the inner or
spiritual world, as distinct from the perception and light of this
external or physical world. Elevated, or rather, liberated into this new
condition, the clairvoyant loses connection with the thrums and
threads of the physical organism, and is unable, or forgets for a time,
how to speak of things as they are, or as they would appear to the
physical vision of another. It is not surprising that in the earlier stages
of clairvoyant development, and consequent transfer of ordinary
consciousness and sensuous perception to that of spiritual
consciousness and perception, the language of the clairvoyant
should appear peculiar, incongruous, and “wanting,” according to our
ideas of clearness and precision.
One important lesson may be learned from this—viz., the operator
should never force results, or strive to develop psychic perception by
short cuts. Time must be allowed to the sensitive, for training and
experience, and the development of self-confidence and expression.
Clairvoyance is not a common possession. Nevertheless, I believe
there are many persons who possess the faculty unknown to
themselves. By following out patiently, for a time, the requisite
directions, the possession of this invaluable psychic gift might be
discovered by many who now appear totally devoid of any
clairvoyant indications. Its cultivation is possible and, in many ways,
desirable.
“The higher attainment,” says Dr. John Hamlin Davey, “of occult
knowledge and power, the development of intuition, the
psychometric sense, clairvoyant vision, inner hearing, etc., etc., thus
reached, so open the avenues to a higher education, and enlarge
the boundaries of human consciousness and activity, as to fairly
dwarf into insignificance the achievements of external science.”
Clairvoyance is as old as mankind, but the exhibition of
clairvoyance, induced by mesmeric processes, was first announced
by Puysegeur, a favourite pupil of Mesmer, in 1784. Since that time
to the present not only have remarkable cases of clairvoyance
cropped up, but there have been few mesmerists of any experience
who have not had numerous cases under observation. Clairvoyance
converted Dr. John Elliotson, F.R.S., one of the most scientific of
British physicians, from extreme materialistic views to that of belief in
soul and immortality. The same may be said of the late Dr.
Ashburner, who was one of the Queen’s physicians. Dr. Georget,
author of “Physiology of the Nervous System,”—who was at one time
opposed to a belief in the existence of a transcendental state in man,
—found upon examination of the facts and incidents of artificial
somnambulism, that his materialism must go. In his last will and
testament, referring to the above-mentioned work, he says:—“This
work had scarcely appeared, when renewed meditations on a very
extraordinary phenomenon, somnambulism, no longer permitted me
to entertain doubts of the existence within us, and external to us, of
an intelligent principle, altogether different from material existences;
in a word, of the soul and God. With respect to this I have a profound
conviction, founded upon facts which I believe to be incontestable.”
Dr. Georget directed this change of opinion should have full publicity
after his death.
Space would not suffice me to mention the names of all the highly
educated and refined minds, in the medical, literary, philosophic, and
scientific walks of life, who have studied these phenomena, and who,
like Dr. Georget, have no more doubts of their reality than they have
of their own physical existence, status, or reputation. Among medical
men—some of whom I have known and corresponded with—might
be mentioned Sir James Simpson, Drs. Elliotson, Ashburner,
Esdaile, Buss, Garth Wilkinson, Hands, Wyld, Hitchman, Eadon, and
Davey. Among others on the roll of fame, might be noticed
Archbishop Whately; Earls Ducie, Stanhope, Macclesfield,
Charleville; the present Duke of Argyle; Lord R. Cavendish, Lord
Lindsay; Burton, the traveller; and the late Sergeant Cox. Among
literary men, Mr. Gladstone, Britain’s foremost statesman and
scholar; Mr. Balfour, his able and talented opponent; Bulwer Lytton,
Marryat, Neal, Robert Chambers, Dickens, and Stevenson, of “Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” fame. Mr. George Combe, the distinguished
Scottish metaphysician, philosopher, author, phrenologist, etc., was
profoundly interested in the phenomena. Among well-known men of
science might be mentioned Camille Flammarion, the French
astronomer; Fichte, the German philosopher; Professors Tornebom
and Edland, Swedish physicists; Professor Oliver Lodge, D.Sc.,
F.R.S.; Alfred Russell Wallace, D.C.L., LL.D.; William Crookes,
F.R.S.; Cromwell F. Varley, F.R.S. Notwithstanding this somewhat
formidable array of investigators of clairvoyance, many good people
will not hesitate to deny the value of such evidence, and yet will
believe anything in its favour which may be found in the Bible, as to
its existence in the past. It is a strange perversion of judgment—not
at all surprising—when the majority take (second-hand) for their
religious(?) views whatever is recognised as “sound” in each
particular district and Church. It is not a question of belief, it is “a
question of evidence,” as Mr. Gladstone avers.
The Rev. Mr. MʽKinnon, late pastor of Chalmers’ Free Church,
Glasgow, told me a short time ago, “Clairvoyance was nothing more
than a high nervous concentrated form of mental vision,” to which I
replied, “Admitting the hypothesis—which, however, explained
nothing—it matters little what clairvoyance is esteemed to be or
called, if the facts connected with it are acknowledged.” Even this
friend admitted he knew a man in Mull, who lived on the half croft,
next to his father’s croft. This man had great repute in that district as
“having the Second Sight.” Whatever this man foretold always came
to pass. One instance will suffice. He (Mr. MʽKinnon) remembered
that one day, while this crofter (who was a tailor by trade) was
working, he suddenly stopped, and looked out into vacancy—as he
always did when the “Second Sight was on him”—and described a
funeral coming over the hill, the mourners, who they were, and
numbers, the way the procession took, and the name of the “man
whose face was covered,” and finally, when the procession would
appear. Mr. MʽKinnon’s parents noted the time, and being simple
Highland folk, accustomed to the accuracy of this man’s visions, they
believed what he said, and kept his saying in their hearts till the time
of fulfilment came about. Mr. MʽKinnon assured me “the funeral took
place to the day and hour, twelve months subsequently to the vision,
as predicted.” All I can say is, if “a high nervous concentrated form of
mental vision” is capable of pointing out all this, it is worthy of
investigation. It is evident this tailor at least had a power of vision—
prevoyance—not of the ordinary, everyday kind of vision. Second
sight, as exhibited in this case, is what may be termed spontaneous
clairvoyance.
Epes Sargent, in his work, “The Scientific Basis of Spiritualism,”
referring to clairvoyance, says: “As far as I have admitted it as part of
a scientific basis (demonstrating man’s spiritual nature), it is the
exercise of the supersensual faculty of penetrating opaque and
dense matter as if by the faculty of sight. But it does more. It detects
our unuttered, undeveloped thoughts; it goes back along the past,
and describes what is hidden; nay, the proofs are overwhelming that
it may pierce the future, and predict coming events from the
shadows they cast before.
“What is it that sees without the physical eyes, and without the
assistance of light? What is normal sight? It is not the vibrating ether
—it is not the external eye—that sees. It is the soul using the eye as
an instrument, and light as a condition. Prove once that sight can
exist without the use of light, sensation, or any physical organ of
vision, and you prove an abnormal, supersensual, spiritual faculty—a
proof which puts an end to the theory of materialism, and which,
through its affinity with analogous or corresponding facts, justifies its
introduction as part of a scientific basis for the spiritual theory.”
J. F. Deleuze was profoundly convinced of the existence of this
faculty. He claimed that the power of seeing at a distance, prevision,
and the transference of thought without the aid of external signs,
were in themselves sufficient proofs of the existence of spirituality of
soul.
Except in a very few instances, little or no pains are taken to
cultivate the spiritual nature of man. Civilised man of to-day is but
rising out of the age of brute force of yesterday, and he is still
circumscribed by love of earthly power and position. He is an
acquisitive rather than a spiritual being. Being dominated by the
senses, he will naturally seek and appreciate that which gratifies his
senses most. He has little time or patience for anything which does
not contribute pleasure to his sensuous nature. He would give time
to the investigation of the soul side of life if it brought gold, the
means of enjoyment, and gratified his acquisitiveness and love of
power. Probably the majority give the subject no attention at all. If the
spiritual side of our natures were as fully cultivated as those
elements which bring us bread and butter and praise of men in the
market-place, there is no doubt, no manner of doubt whatever, but
the most of us would occupy a nobler and more spiritually elevated
plane in life; and were adequate means taken, I doubt not but this
faculty of clairvoyance would become more generally known and
cultivated. Even to the selfish, worldly and non-spiritual man,
clairvoyance is not without its practical side and utility, such, for
instance, as supplying Chicago with water. To the spiritually minded,
clairvoyance and all psychic gifts are appreciated, less for what they
will bring, than for the testimony they present of man’s spiritual
origin, transcendental powers and probable continuity of life beyond
this mortal vale.
CHAPTER III.
Clairvoyance Illustrated.
Clairvoyance may be briefly classified as far and near, direct and
indirect, objective and subjective. I propose to give a few well-
authenticated cases to illustrate these phases in this chapter.
FAR AND DIRECT CLAIRVOYANCE
is possibly the highest and purest combination. The sensitive is able

to state facts not within the range of the knowledge of those present.
Thus when Swedenborg described to the Queen and her friends,
when at a distance of several hundred miles from the conflagration,
the burning of her palace at Christiania, no one present could
possibly know of the fire or the incidents connected therewith. Hence
no thought-reading, brain-picking, much less guess-work or
coincidence, could account for the exactness of details given by the
seer. Clairvoyance in this case was not only far and direct, but
objective. That is, the matter recorded was connected with the
physical or objective plane.
CLAIRVOYANCE AN AID TO SCIENCE.
“Chicago, as is well-known, is one of the most go-ahead cities in

the world. Like Jonah’s gourd it appeared to spring up in a night. Its
population rapidly increased, and water soon became a sine qua
non, both as regards use and luxury. Science was at fault; for
geologists had pronounced that there could be no water beneath
such a strata. Top water was all that could be looked for, and
presently a water company was formed to supply this impure kind of
liquid.
“There happened to live at this time in Chicago a person named
Abraham James, a simple-minded man, of Quaker descent,
uneducated, and in fact, quite an ignorant person. It was discovered
by a Mrs. Caroline Jordon that James was a natural clairvoyant, in
fact a medium, and that he had declared when put into the trance
condition that both water and petroleum, in large quantities, would be
found in a certain tract of land in the neighbourhood of the city. For a
long time no attention was paid to his statements. At length two
gentlemen from Maine, called Whitehead and Scott, coming to
Chicago on business, and hearing what had been said by Abraham
James, had him taken to the land where he said water could be had
in immense quantities by boring for. Being entranced, James at once
pointed out the very spot. He told them that he not only saw the
water, but could trace its source from the Rocky Mountains, 2000
miles away, to the spot on which they stood, and could sketch out on
maps the strata and caverns through which it ran. Negotiations were
at once entered into for the purchase of the land, and the work of
boring was commenced. This was in February, 1864, and the
process went on daily till November, when, having reached a depth
of 711 feet, water was struck, and flowed up at once at the rate of
600,000 gallons every 24 hours.
“The borings showed the following kinds of strata passed through
by the drill, and this was spiritually seen and described by the
clairvoyant as practical proofs to the senses of other people. First the
drill passed through alluvium soil, 100 feet; limestone, saturated with
oil, 35 feet, which would burn as well as any coal; Joliet marble, 100
feet; conglomerate strata of sand and flint, mixed with iron pyrites
and traces of copper, 125 feet; rock (shale) saturated with petroleum,
the sediment coming up like putty, thick and greasy, 156 feet; galena
limestone was next reached at a depth of 530 feet; a bed of
limestone, containing flint and sulphuret of iron was bored through,
the depth being 639 feet, and being very hard, the work went on
slowly. At this point there appeared a constant commotion arising
from the escape of gas, the water suddenly falling from 30 to 60 feet,
and then as suddenly rising to the surface, carrying with it chippings
from the drill, and other matters. The work still went on; when at the
depth of 711 feet the arch of the rock was penetrated, and the water
suddenly burst forth from a bore 4½ in. at the bottom, of a
temperature of 58° F., clear as crystal, pure as diamond, and
perfectly free from every kind of animal and vegetable matter, and
which, for drinking purposes and health, is much better adapted than
any water yet known, and will turn out to be the poor man’s friend for
all time to come.
“Here, then, is a huge fact for the faithless: the fact brought to light
by dynamic or invisible agency, and which no power of negation can
gainsay. Natural science said, No water could be found; but
psychology said—False, for I will point out the spot where it will flow
in splendid streams as long as the earth spins on its axis. Since
1864 the artesian well of Chicago has poured forth water at the rate
of a million and a half gallons daily; and what is economic, to say
nothing of Yankee shrewdness, it is conveyed into ponds or
reservoirs which in winter freeze, producing 40,000 tons of ice for
sale, and which might be quadrupled at any time.”[B] This is a case
of far and near, direct and objective clairvoyance. This historical
incident proves the value and reality of psychic vision.
Indirect clairvoyance is the power of discerning what may be more
or less in the minds of those present, including absent or forgotten
thoughts and incidents. Thus, when a clairvoyant describes a place
with accuracy, recognised by some one present to be correct, and
also gives details partly known and unknown, but afterwards found to
be correct, this mixture of phases may be recognised as indirect.
SUBJECTIVE CLAIRVOYANCE
is that phase which enables the sensitive to perceive things and

ideas on the spiritual or subjective plane. The late Rev. Stainton
Moses, well known in literary circles as “M.A., Oxon,” once asked the
following pertinent questions:—“Is there conceivably a mass of life all
round us of which most of us have no cognisance? One gifted lady I
know sees clairvoyantly the spirit-life of all organised things, of a tree
or plant for example. I have heard her describe what her interior
faculties perceive. Is it a fact that spirit, underlying everything, can be
so perceived by the awakened faculties?” I should say yes. If this
lady’s clairvoyance has been of a high order in other respects—why
not in this? This type of psychic vision is of the subjective order.
There are necessarily an infinite variety of phases, pure and
mixed, which the investigator will meet in practice. These phases
may be called far, such as seeing objects, etc., at a distance—
prevoyance, predicting events; retrovoyance, reading the past;
introvoyance, seeing internally, or examining bodies, as in disease;
external introvoyance, seeing into lockets, packets, letters, safes,
and discovering hidden, known or forgotten, or lost objects. Lastly,
there is pseudo-clairvoyance. For one case of direct there are
hundreds of well authenticated cases of indirect clairvoyance, and
again for one of the latter there are thousands of pseudo-
clairvoyance, which are the outcome of states similar to hypnosis,
and are nothing more than an incongruous medley of suggested
ideas and fancies. Thus a strong and positive willed person can
impinge his ideas through the thought-atmosphere of the sensitive
and distort or deflect the psychic vision, and render abortive any
attempts to get beyond the circle of the dominating influence. Again,
the sensitive may enter a realm of fancy—a veritable dreamland of
coherent and incoherent ideation, either the product of the
sensitive’s own condition, or of suggestion—accidental,
spontaneous, and determined—in the sensitive’s surroundings. Of
course any classification of the numerous phases of clairvoyance
must be purely arbitrary.
DIRECT AND OBJECTIVE CLAIRVOYANCE—LOST GOODS RESTORED.
This instance of far vision is taken from “A Tangled Yarn,” page

173, “Leaves from Captain James Payn’s Log,” which was published
recently by C. H. Kelly. As I knew Captain Hudson, of Swansea,
personally, and heard from his own lips the following incident, I have
much pleasure in introducing it here as a further illustration of the Cui
bono of clairvoyance:—
“The Theodore got into Liverpool the same day as the Bland. She
was a larger ship than ours but had a similar cargo. The day that I
went to the owners to report ‘all right,’ I met with Captain Morton in a
terrible stew because he was thirty bales of cotton short, a loss equal
to the whole of his own wages and the mate’s into the bargain. He
was so fretted over it that his wife in desperation recommended him

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22. Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur 542

For further reading 553

The following figures appear between pages 281 and 282

Arthur in the Latin Chronicles

He pierced over three hundred of the finest.

Elegy for Owain son of Urien

from The Stanzas of the Graves

THE SIXTH SENSE.

In the mesmeric state we see developed what Lord Kelvin

“There are two sets,” says Dr. Brown-Sequard, “a double state of

FAR AND DIRECT CLAIRVOYANCE

is possibly the highest and purest combination. The sensitive is able

CLAIRVOYANCE AN AID TO SCIENCE.

“Chicago, as is well-known, is one of the most go-ahead cities in

is that phase which enables the sensitive to perceive things and

DIRECT AND OBJECTIVE CLAIRVOYANCE—LOST GOODS RESTORED.

This instance of far vision is taken from “A Tangled Yarn,” page

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