SOURCE: “Problems of the Tristan Legend,” in Romania, Vol. 53, 1927, pp. 82-102.

In the following essay, Loomis examines several areas of critical disagreement regarding the Tristan legend: the influence of the Welshman Bleheris on the development of the legend, the relation of the legend to the Irish tale of Diarmaide and Grainne, and the dating of Thomas's poem.

Readers of Romania are aware that in vol. LI M. Ferdinand Lot attacked with some severity the theory, proposed by Miss Weston and elaborated by myself, that a certain Welshman Bleheris was to be regarded as an important figure in the development of Arthurian romance¹. Giraldus Cambrensis, Thomas, the author of Tristan, Pseudo-Wauchier, and Wauchier de Denain, all refer to this Bleheris though under somewhat different forms of the name; and there are other less certain references to a Blihos Bleheris and a Master Blihis, who may be identical with him...