THE PLOUGHMAN KING

II.

Several years ago I published, in this review 1, a study on the Spanish and Portuguese Legends of King Wamba and at the same time pointed out the existence of the same motif or group of motifs among the Slavs of Bohemia and Hungary. The conclusions which I arrived at were first, that of the Iberian versions those of the group called S alone are of truly popular and traditional origin, while group T owes its rise to the efforts of a rationalistic age 2; second, that the Bohemian story of Libuse and Premysl is more complete than any of the Spanish and Portuguese versions 3. I added that the material then at my disposal would hardly justify an examination into the origin of the legend 4.

Since 1919, I have found additional data bearing on the legend and which will, I hope, permit me to bring this work to a more satisfactory conclusion.

There exists a variant which has hitherto never been pointed out and which proves that the legend of the Ploughman King was still alive in Andalusia towards the middle of the last century.

1 Tome XLVI, pp. 516-546.

2 Ibid., p. 540.

3 Ibid., p. 534 ff.

4 Ibid., p. 542.

I refer to the version of R. H. Busk 1. It can be summed up as follows:

1. Being without a king, the Goths send an embassy to the pope, asking him to pray to God that he may reveal to them the man most fit for the kingship.

2. God reveals to the pope that the future king of the Goths will be a ploughman named Wamba.

3. Wamba is sought for a long time.

5.

4. The place where the messengers find him is in Andalusia. The messengers meet a woman bearing a basket on her shoulder, who addresses the ploughman by the name of Wamba, and invites him for dinner.

6. The messengers greet him as their king.

7. He implores them not to kill him.

8. He puts a rod in the ground, saying that he would accept the dignity offered to him if it should begin to blossom, whereupon the miracle happens.

9. Both he and his wife are crowned.

10. There is just one ox mentioned, of grey and white color and which draws the plough.

In my study I also conjectured that the absence of the episode of the iron table in the Spanish branch of the legend is due to early loss, it being rather loosely connected with the rest of the story. I added that a trait of it might perhaps still be seen in the fact that in the Iberian versions the ploughman is brought a meal 2. This conjecture has since been confirmed. The story of the ploughman king and the meal on the iron table does exist in Spain, thought it is no longer attached to the

1 Rachel Hans Busk, Patrañas; or Spanish Stories Legendary and Tradi tional, London, 1870, p. 122.

2 P. 541.

figure of Wamba. The Libro de los Enxemplos relates in chapter CCCXXVIII the following story 1.

....Acaeció que gentes estrannas en muchas partes turbando el imperio de Roma, preguntaron qué es lo que debian facer, é fuéles respondido que tomasen por príncipe al que fallasen comiendo en mesa de fierro. E enviaron caballeros á muchas partes si podrian fallar este homme; é algunos caballeros destos, pasando por Dalmacia, fallaron un rústico que habia suelto los buex del arado para que descansasen, é en tanto él asentóse á comer é puso la reja por mesa; é de que vió los caballeros que venian á él, levantóse cortesmente á ellos, é convidábalos á comer, fablando muchas palabras con ellos é prudentemente preguntándoles, é asimesmo respondiéndoles á lo que le preguntaban. Ellos veyendo homme de tan fermoso cuerpo é tan bien fablante é cortés é bien compuesto en costumbres; otrosí, parando mientes que le fallaron comiendo sobre el fierro, segund habian dicho los dioses, declaráronle la causa por qué eran venidos, é rogáronle que obedeciese la voluntad de los dioses, é asi fué traido á Roma, é fué fecho emperador..... E fué así que Diocleciano morió á pon

zonna.

As we see, the legend is here attributed to the Emperor Diocletian. But there can be no doubt that we have to deal with a transposition due to learned and monkish influences. The episode is nowhere else told of Diocletian; furthermore, the Illyrian emperor was certainly no popular hero in Spain. He was known in the middle ages as the ruthless persecutor of the Christians. However, some details of Diocletian's life which were known to the clerics made the transposition of the episode from the Wamba cycle very easy indeed. The similarity of the openings of this story and the Wamba legend is significant. Finally, we have another instance of the Ploughman King's dying a violent death, for which no point of attachment could be found in the life of Diocletian.

The legend of the Ploughman King, both in the Iberian

1 Ed. Don Pascual de Gayangos, in Biblioteca de autores españoles, tomo LI, Madrid, 1860, p. 525.

Peninsula and Bohemia, shows features of remarkable antiquity which make it extremely probable that it goes back to a period far anterior to the settlement of the Goths in Spain and the Czechs in Central Europe. This leads us to look for possible parallels among other nations and peoples.

The central idea of the Libuse Legend is undoubtedly the wedding of the queen with the farmer whom her messengers find ploughing his field with an iron ploughshare drawn by a pair of oxen. Premysl's ploughing itself has a deep symbolical significance. For according to the chronicles of Cosmas, Dalimil and Hajek, he tells the royal messengers that if they had come later, after he had finished his work, there would always be bread in the country; but as it is, there will be times of famine also. Premysl's ploughing is, then, full of meaning for the future prosperity of the people; it is no ordinary ploughing, but a magical or religious ceremony which is expected to have a quickening influence on the crops in general. Such a ceremony is, however, by no means peculiar to the ancient Slavs and Goths; it is rather found among the most diverse peoples all over the globe, in classical antiquity, in ancient Mexico and in Modern Europe. Suffice it to mention here a number ot the better known instances.

On the northwestern slope of the Acropolis there was a field sacred to Athena where, according to Greek custom, the holy ploughing took place soon after the autumnal equinox, perhaps at the following full moon 1. A similar ceremony was noted at Scirum, near Athens 2. The myths of the ploughing of Cadmus and Iason 3 and the battle of the earth-born giants

1 O. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte, I-III, München, 1906, p. 27.

2 Ibid., p. 38.

3 For a Finnish parallel of the Iason story cf. the Kalevala in Grimm,

Kl. Schr., II, Berlin, 1865, p. 92, and A. Lang, Custom and Myth, New York, 1885, p. 172.