egged him to build a
nunnery, and to allow her to retire from the world, as she would fain
give herself to the service of God. When the nunnery was ready,
Guildeluec took the veil, with some thirty nuns, of whom she became
the Superior. Then Eliduc wedded his love, and after some years of
happiness they too resolved to retire from the world, Guilliadun
joining Guildeluec, who received her as a sister, and Eliduc going to
a monastery which he had founded near by.[17]

[17] M. Gaston Paris (_Poesie du Moyen Age_, vol. ii.), in
recalling various legends of "Le Mari aux deux femmes,"
suggests that the present story, borrowed by Marie from
Celtic tradition, is probably of Occidental, and not
Oriental, origin, since in the polygamous East the story of
two wives would not have furnished a sufficient motive for a
special narration.

In this charming romance, given here in epitome only, the two most
interesting points, after noting the mutual suffering of the lovers
for love's sake, are the episode of the sacrifice to the sea, and that
of the weasel and the life-giving flower. Both these incidents point
to the great antiquity of the fundamental theme of the story, which
Marie, possibly like many another before her, merely reclothed in
garments suited to the fancy of the time. In most stories where the
sea has to be appeased by the sacrifice of some one, it is the guilty
person who is thrown overboard, or if the offender is not known, lots
are cast to determine who shall be the one to make expiation to the
god. In the present instance Eliduc is clearly the wrong-doer, but he
is the hero, and must be treated as such, and accordingly the hostile
voice is the one to be silenced in the depths of the sea.

The other incident--the restoration to life by means of a flower or a
herb--frequently occurs in classical stories and folk-lore.[18]
Perhaps the most familiar example, and, owing to the recent
excavations in Crete, the most interesting one, is that connected with
Glaucos, son of Minos, king of Crete. In the story (Apollod. iii. 3)
Glaucos when a boy fell into a cask of honey and was smothered. His
father, ignorant of his fate, consulted the oracle to ascertain what
had become of him, and the seer Polyeidos of Argos was named to
discover him. When he had found him, Minos shut Polyeidos up in the
tomb with the dead body of the boy until he should restore the latter
to life. Whilst Polyeidos was watchin