Book IX

. p. 283, where a full account of Herzeleide's marriage will be found, '_Herzeleide_.' The modern German rendering of this name carries with it its own interpretation in the play of words familiar through Wagner's _Parsifal_, 'Ihr brach das Leid das Herz und Herzeleide starb.' But the original form, Herzeloyde, indicates, in Bartsch's opinion, a Southern French modification, _loyde_ being a variant of _hildis_, _oildis_. The name Rischoydè, we know in its form of Richilda, and Herzeloyde seems to come from the same root. Professor Rhys (_Arthurian Romance_, p. 180) has suggested derivation from the Welsh _argelwythes_ = 'the lady,' but the suggestion has not won general acceptance.

Page 54, line 614--'_The maid and her lands he won_.' Readers will doubtless remark the fact that though we meet with numerous allusions to marriages and marriage festivities throughout the poem, yet in no single instance is the marriage attended by a religious ceremony. This is an indication of the original date of the story, which testifies to a very early stage of social development. The original idea of marriage was that of a contract made by mutual consent publicly before witnesses, as we find here in the marriages of Gamuret with Belakané and Herzeleide, or later on in