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STUDIES IN THE TANNHÄUSERLEGEND.

I. THE ORIGIN OF THE LEgend of the MOUNTAIN OF Venus.

The question concerning the origin of the legend of the Venusberg presents many intricacies and has been often considered from various points of view, but no definite and satisfactory explanation seems yet to have been reached. If in the following discussion an unusual, and, at first sight, improbable point of view is assumed from the outset, the reader is asked to reserve judgment until the whole of the tale is told.

At present there exist two general theories as to the origin and probable localization of what was known in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries as the mountain of Venus. One assumes that it was in Germany where the story originated, and that it attached itself to various mountains there. The Hörselberg in Thuringia has been especially exploited as the seat of the legend and an excellent account of this version is given by Grässe in a pamphlet published in 1861. Still another theory whose chief modern exponent is Gaston Paris assumes that the myth had its origin in Italy and thence traveled into Germany.

The story had wide circulation in the centuries just mentioned, frequent references being made to it in the literature of that period. Before the 14th and after the 16th centuries, however, we find no literary mention of it. Where the story really started and what it really is, becomes, therefore, an interesting question. It is the conviction of the writer that any attempt to attribute the beginnings of the legend to the peculiar formation or tradition of some actual mountain is based on a wrong premise and can never lead to any satisfactory conclusions. Inasmuch as it is the purpose of this paper to link it with a matter seemingly so remote as to make the attempt appear startling, we shall lay down the thesis at once in order that 1J. G. Th. Grässe, Der Tannhäuser und Ewige Jude, 1861.

ay be no doubt even from the beginning as to the point bed.

The legend of the Venusberg is nothing more nor less than au growth of the legend of the Holy Grail.

THE GRAIL.

A great mass of material, much of which is fanciful and speculative, has been written on the origin of the grail legend a the West. Some few investigators have touched the matter to the quick, but at widely separated points and as yet with no freught of such a connection of their respective discoveries as would result in a full and logical explanation of the whole question. Such a connection of facts which at present are left more or less isolated will help to clear up some of the existing concision in this chapter in the history of the grail legend.

The story of the Holy Grail makes its initial appearance in The 'necacie of the West in the 12th century, in the account o Chac cu de Proves (1190.) Where Chrestien got his inspotacion for such a work we cannot ascertain. We are told of 400 given You by his patron prince, whose father had brought N Fast Mind of Christ. Hertz in his translation of P. goow a brief dur onsite account of the matter." (7 xxx xử Máx tislowed by many others down to recent times. Angolea at the Ace of the legend in western literWhence and Now it came into the West in Panky hax Na mach Parussed, but with no very satisI was het gation by Konrad Burdach seems, Discle as quite to overshadow all previous 1 wwcdng which looks like substantial fact Si caca swọ general theories on this point were Pat way that it was a Christianized relic of a preNga rows perhaps connected with the return of a druhe worship and of Celtic origin. The

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second, that it was developed from the legend of Joseph of Arimathia and Nicodemus."

In an address given in 1903, Burdach gave a brief outline. of his conclusions, which it was his purpose to develop more fully and completely in book form later. The report of the address appeared in the Deutsche Literaturzeitung for that year and it is on this that all the references in this paper to Burdach's theory are based. The book has not yet appeared, although it is awaited with much expectation by those interested in the subject. Burdach accepts neither of the explanations just mentioned. He admits that the legend in the West is of purely Christian origin, but assigns it to quite a different quarter than Joseph of Arimathia. The spear he places as of equal importance with the cup and as of equal antiquity. He describes at some length the materialistic rites of the Eastern or Greek Church, shows in what essentials it differs from the Western, gives explanations of the symbolism of the ritual, all of which shows the emphasis laid on mysteries of cult in that branch of the Catholic Church. He finally gives as his conclusion that here is to be found the source of the western legend; that crusaders to the East, attending church, and beholding all the gourgeous ceremonial of the Byzantine Mass, were so impressed by its crowning glory, the Great Entrance, in which appeared the Holy Gifts, that they brought back a tradition of the cup and spear to the western world and thus the legend of the cup and bleeding spear began.

Inasmuch as Burdach's book has not yet appeared and his full and detailed exposition is not at hand, it has seemed necessary here to add some facts not found in his brief account in order to make certain of our ground.

In the liturgy now used by the Graeco-Russian Church, which is a direct descendant of the Greek Church since about 992, we find certain facts which bear Burdach out point by point in what he has said of the Byzantine Mass, and fill in 5 Hertz, Parzival, 421.

Deutsche Literaturzeitung, 1903, Nr. 46, p. 2821 ff.