Under a compound form,
Blihos, (or Blio)-Bliheris, he appears, in the Gawain-Grail
compilation, as a knight at Arthur's court. Now Breri-Blihis-Bleheris
is referred to as authority alike in the Tristan, Grail and Gawain
tradition, and Professor Singer makes the interesting suggestion that
these references are originally due to Bleheris himself, who not only
told the stories in the third person (a common device at that period,
v. Chretien's Erec, and Gerbert's continuation of the Perceval), but
also introduced himself as eye-witness of, and actor, in a subordinate
role, in, the incidents he recorded. Thus in the Tristan he is a
knight of Mark's, in the Elucidation and the Gawain stories a knight
of Arthur's, court. Professor Singer instances the case of Dares in
the De exidio Trojae, and Bishop Pilgrim of Passau in the lost
Nibelungias of his secretary Konrad, as illustrations of the theory.
If this be the case such a statement as that which we find in
Wauchier, regarding Bleheris's birth and origin, would have emanated
from Bleheris himself, and simply been taken over by the later
writer from his source; he incorporated the whole tale of
the shield as it stood, a quite natural and normal proceeding.[14]
Again, this suggestion would do away with the necessity for
postulating a certain lapse of time before the story-teller Bleheris
could be converted into an Arthurian knight--the two roles,
Gewahrsmann und Mithandelnden, as Professor Singer expresses it,
are coincident in date.
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