diff options
| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-03-08 03:52:03 -0800 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-03-08 03:52:03 -0800 |
| commit | 7398d4bd14f0386f8e0d30b7d5f6b190bbbf5a3e (patch) | |
| tree | 5b8b8fa1c6251eb85ab3538e4b13dce57640743a | |
| parent | 43ab4a507258371f4b9e5512bbaba2de41386926 (diff) | |
| -rw-r--r-- | 42205-0.txt | 380 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 42205-8.txt | 13330 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 42205-8.zip | bin | 289207 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 42205-h.zip | bin | 382895 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 42205.txt | 13330 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 42205.zip | bin | 288752 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/42205-8.txt | 13330 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/42205-8.zip | bin | 289207 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/42205-h.zip | bin | 382895 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/42205-h/42205-h.htm | 13549 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/42205-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 41200 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/42205-h/images/deco.jpg | bin | 30863 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/42205.txt | 13330 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/42205.zip | bin | 288752 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/readme.htm | 13 |
15 files changed, 2 insertions, 67260 deletions
diff --git a/42205-0.txt b/42205-0.txt index 20075cc..acf8333 100644 --- a/42205-0.txt +++ b/42205-0.txt @@ -1,24 +1,4 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, by Alfred Nutt - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail - With Especial Reference to the Hypothesis of Its Celtic Origin - -Author: Alfred Nutt - -Release Date: February 26, 2013 [EBook #42205] - -Language: English - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDIES ON LEGEND OF HOLY GRAIL *** - - - +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42205 *** Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images @@ -12969,360 +12949,4 @@ Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, by Alfred Nutt -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDIES ON LEGEND OF HOLY GRAIL *** - -***** This file should be named 42205-8.txt or 42205-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/2/0/42205/ - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you -do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the -rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose -such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and -research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do -practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is -subject to the trademark license, especially commercial -redistribution. - - - -*** START: FULL LICENSE *** - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at - www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy -all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. -If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" -or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the -collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from -copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative -works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg -are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project -Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by -freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of -this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with -the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by -keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project -Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate -access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently -whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, -copied or distributed: - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived -from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is -posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied -and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees -or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work -with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the -work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 -through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional -terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked -to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the -permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), -you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a -copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon -request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other -form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided -that - -- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is - owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he - has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments - must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you - prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax - returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and - sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to - the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." - -- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or - destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium - and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of - Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any - money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days - of receipt of the work. - -- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set -forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from -both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm -collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain -"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or -corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual -property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a -computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by -your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. -To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 -and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent -permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. -Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 -North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email -contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the -Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To -SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any -particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. -To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42205 *** diff --git a/42205-8.txt b/42205-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 018605e..0000000 --- a/42205-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,13330 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, by Alfred Nutt - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail - With Especial Reference to the Hypothesis of Its Celtic Origin - -Author: Alfred Nutt - -Release Date: February 26, 2013 [EBook #42205] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDIES ON LEGEND OF HOLY GRAIL *** - - - - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - - - - - - - - - The Folk-Lore Society, - FOR COLLECTING AND PRINTING - RELICS OF POPULAR ANTIQUITIES, &c. - ESTABLISHED IN - THE YEAR MDCCCLXXVIII. - - [Illustration: Alter et Idem.] - - PUBLICATIONS - OF - THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY. - 1888. - XXIII. - - - - -List of Officers of the Society. - -1887-1888. - - -PRESIDENT. - - THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF STRAFFORD. - - -VICE-PRESIDENTS. - - ANDREW LANG, M.A. - W. R. S. RALSTON, M.A. - EDWARD B. TYLOR, LL.D., F.R.S. - - -DIRECTOR. - - G. L. GOMME, F.S.A., 1, Beverley Villas, Barnes Common, S.W. - - -COUNCIL. - - THE HON. J. ABERCROMBY. - A. MACHADO Y ALVAREZ. - THE EARL BEAUCHAMP, F.S.A. - EDWARD BRABROOK, F.S.A. - DR. G. B. BRINTON. - JAMES BRITTEN, F.L.S. - LOYS BRUEYRE. - MISS C. S. BURNE. - EDWARD CLODD. - PROFESSOR D. COMPARETTI. - G. LAURENCE GOMME, F.S.A. - A. GRANGER HUTT, F.S.A. - SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, BT., F.R.S. - REV. DR. RICHARD MORRIS. - ALFRED NUTT. - EDWARD PEACOCK, F.S.A. - Z. D. PEDROSO. - PROFESSOR A. H. SAYCE, M.A. - CAPTAIN R. C. TEMPLE. - HENRY B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A. - - -AUDITORS. - - G. L. APPERSON. - JOHN TOLHURST, F.S.A. - - -LOCAL SECRETARIES. - - IRELAND: G. H. KINAHAN, R.I.A. - SOUTH SCOTLAND: WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK, ESQ. - NORTH SCOTLAND: Rev. WALTER GREGOR. - INDIA: CAPTAIN R. C. TEMPLE. - CHINA: J. STEWART LOCKHART. - - -HONORARY SECRETARIES. - - A. GRANGER HUTT, F.S.A., 8, Oxford Road, Kilburn, N.W. - J. J. FOSTER, 36, Alma Square, St. John's Wood, N.W. - - - - -STUDIES ON THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL. - - - - -_Works by the same Author._ - - -=The Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula among the Celts.=--_Folk-Lore -Record_, Vol. IV. 10_s._ 6_d._ - - "Interessante étude de mythographie comparée."--_Revue Celtique._ - -=Mabinogion Studies, I. The Mabinogi of Branwen, daughter of -Llyr.=--_Folk-Lore Record_, Vol. V. 10_s._ 6_d._ - - "Eingehendes und sehr beachtenswerthes Studium."--Prof. ERNST - WINDISCH, in _Ersch und Gruber_. - - "These careful and searching studies deserve to be honourably - mentioned."--Mons. HENRI GAIDOZ, in the _Academy_. - - - - - STUDIES ON THE - LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL - - _WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE HYPOTHESIS_ - OF ITS CELTIC ORIGIN. - - - BY ALFRED NUTT. - - - "Welchem Volke das Märchen (von Parzival's Jugendgeschichte) - angehörte, welches die schriftliche oder mündliche - Ueberlieferung mit der Gralsage in Verbindung brachte, ist - schwer zu bestimmen, doch würde dasjenige Volk den meisten - Anspruch darauf haben, bei welchem sich dies Märchen ausserhalb - jenes Zusammenhangs nachweisen liesse."--K. SIMROCK. - - "The Celtic hero who in the twelfth century became Perceval le - Chercheur du basin ... in the end became possessed of that - sacred basin le Saint Graal, and the holy lance which, though - Christian in the story, are the same as the talismans which - appear so often in Gaelic tales ... the glittering weapon which - destroys, and the sacred medicinal cup which cures."--J. F. - CAMPBELL. - - "In all the Fenian stories mention is made of Fionn's healing - cup ... it is the same as the Holy Grail of course."--J. F. - CAMPBELL. - - - London: - DAVID NUTT, 270-71, STRAND. - 1888. - - - - - HARRISON AND SONS, - PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY, - ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON. - - - - -DEDICATION. - - - To the Memory - OF - J. F. CAMPBELL, - FROM WHOM - I FIRST LEARNT TO LOVE CELTIC TRADITION. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - CHAPTER I. - - Description of the leading forms of the Romance: Conte del - Graal--Joseph d'Arimathie--Didot-Perceval--Queste del Saint - Graal--Grand Saint Graal--Parzival--Perceval le Gallois-- - Mabinogi of Peredur--Sir Perceval--Diu Crône--Information - respecting date and authorship of these works in the MSS. page 1 - - - CHAPTER II. - - Summaries--Conte du Graal: Pseudo-Chrestien, Chrestien, - Gautier de Doulens, Manessier, Gerbert--Wolfram--Heinrich von - dem Türlin--Didot-Perceval--Mabinogi of Peredur--Thornton MS. - Sir Perceval--Queste del Saint Graal--Grand Saint Graal-- - Robert de Borron's poem, Joseph of Arimathea page 8 - - - CHAPTER III. - - The legend formed of two portions: Early History of Grail, - Quest--Two forms of each portion distinguished--Grouping of - the various versions--Alternative hypotheses of development-- - Their bearing upon the alleged Celtic origin of the Grail-- - Closer examination of the various accounts of the Grail: The - first use made of it and its first possessor; its solace of - Joseph; its properties and the effect produced by it; its - name; its arrival in England; the Grail-keeper and his - relationship to the Promised Knight--Three different stages - in the development of the Queste--The work and the - qualification of the Promised Knight--Conclusions: Priority - over Early History of Quest--Chronological arrangement of the - versions page 65 - - - CHAPTER IV. - - SKETCH OF THE LITERATURE CONNECTED WITH THE GRAIL CYCLE. - - Villemarqué--Halliwell--San Marte (A. Schulz)--Simrock-- - Rochat--Furnivall's reprint of the Grand St. Graal and of - Borron--J. F. Campbell--Furnivall's Queste--Paulin Paris-- - Potvin's Conte du Graal--Bergmann--Skeat's Joseph of - Arimathea--Hucher: Grail Celtic, date of Borron--Zarncke, Zur - Geschichte der Gralsage; Grail belongs to Christian - legend--Birch-Hirschfeld develops Zarncke's views: Grand St. - Graal younger than Queste, both presuppose Chrestien and an - earlier Queste, the Didot-Perceval, which forms integral part - of Borron's trilogy; Mabinogi later than Chrestien; various - members of the cycle dated--Martin combats Birch-Hirschfeld: - Borron later than Chrestien, whose poem represents oldest - stage of the romance, which has its roots in Celtic - tradition--Hertz--Criticism of Birch-Hirschfeld page 97 - - - CHAPTER V. - - Relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du Graal--The - former not the source of the latter--Relationship of the - Conte du Graal and the Mabinogi--Instances in which the - Mabinogi has copied Chrestien--Examples of its independence-- - The incident of the blood drops in the snow--Differences - between the two works--The machinery of the Mabinogi and the - traces of it in the Conte du Graal--The stag hunt--The - Mabinogi and Manessier--The sources of the Conte du Graal and - the relation of the various parts to a common original--Sir - Perceval--Steinbach's theory--Objections to it--The counsels - in the Conte du Graal--Wolfram and the Mabinogi--Absence of - the Grail from the apparently oldest Celtic form page 127 - - - CHAPTER VI. - - The Lay of the Great Fool--Summary of the Prose Opening--The - Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula--Comparison with the - Mabinogi, Sir Perceval, and the Conte du Graal--Comparison - with various Gaelic märchen, the Knight of the Red Shield, - the Rider of Grianaig--Originality of the Highland tale-- - Comparison with the Fionn legend--Summary of the Lay of the - Great Fool--Comparison with the stag hunt incident in the - Conte du Graal and the Mabinogi--The folk-tale of the twin - brethren--The fight against the witch who brings the dead to - life in Gerbert and the similar incident in the folk-tale of - the Knight of the Red Shield--Comparison with the original - form of the Mabinogi--Originality of Gerbert page 152 - - - CHAPTER VII. - - The various forms of the visit to the Grail Castle in the - romances--Conte du Graal: Chrestien; Gautier-Manessier; - Gautier-Gerbert--Didot-Perceval--Mabinogi--Conte du Graal; - Gawain's visit to the Grail Castle--Heinrich von dem - Türlin--Conte du Graal: Perceval's visit to the Castle of - Maidens--Inconsistency of these varying accounts; their - testimony to stories of different nature and origin being - embodied in the romances--Two main types: feud quest and - unspelling quest--Reasons for the confusion of the two - types--Evidence of the confusion in older Celtic literature-- - The Grail in Celtic literature: the gear of the Tuatha de - Danann; the cauldron in the Ultonian cycle; the Mabinogi of - Branwen; vessel of balsam and glaive of light in the - contemporary folk-tale--The sword in Celtic literature: - Tethra; Fionn; Manus--Parallels to the Bespelled Castle; the - Brug of Oengus, the Brug of Lug, the Brug of Manannan Mac - Lir, Bran's visit to the Island of Women, Cormac Mac Art, and - the Fairy Branch; Diarmaid and the Daughter of King Under the - Waves--Unspelling stories: The Three Soldiers; the waiting of - Arthur; Arthur in Etna; the Kyffhäuser Legend, objections to - Martin's views concerning it--Gawain's visit to the Magic - Castle and Celtic parallels; The Son of Bad Counsel; Fionn in - Giant Land; Fionn in the House of Cuana; Fionn and the Yellow - Face--The Vanishing of the Bespelled Castle--Comparison with - the Sleeping Beauty cycle--The "Haunted Castle" form and its - influence on Heinrich's version--The Loathly Grail Messenger page 170 - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - The Fisher King in the Conte du Graal, in the Queste, and in - Borron and the Grand St. Graal--The accounts of latter - complete each other--The Fish is the Salmon of Wisdom-- - Parallel with the Fionn Saga--The nature of the Unspelling - Quest--The Mabinogi of Taliesin and its mythological - affinities--Brons, Bran, Cernunnos--Perceval's silence: Conte - du Graal explanation late; explanation from the Fionn Saga-- - Comparison of incident with _geasa_; nature of latter; - references to it in Celtic folk-tales and in old Irish - literature, Book of Rights, Diarmaid, Cuchulainn--_Geasa_ and - _taboo_ page 207 - - - CHAPTER IX. - - Summing up of the elements of the older portion of the - cycle--Parallelism with Celtic tradition--The Christian - element in the cycle: the two forms of the Early History; - Brons form older--Brons and Bran--The Bran conversion - legend--The Joseph conversion legend, Joseph in apocryphal - literature, the Evangelium Nicodemi--The Bran legend the - starting point of the Christian transformation of the - legend--Substitution of Joseph for Bran--Objection to this - hypothesis--Hypothetical sketch of the growth of the legend page 215 - - - CHAPTER X. - - The Moral and Spiritual import of the Grail-Legend - universally recognised--Popularity of the Arthurian Romance-- - Reasons for that Popularity--Affinities of the Mediæval - Romances with early Celtic Literature; Importance of the - Individual Hero; Knighthood; the _rôle_ of Woman; the Celtic - Fairy and the Mediæval Lady; the Supernatural--M. Renan's - views--The Quest in English Literature, Malory--The earliest - form of the Legend, Chrestien, his continuators--The Queste - and its Ideal--The Sex-Relations in the Middle Ages-- - Criticism of Mr. Furnivall's estimate of the moral import of - the Queste--The Merits of the Queste--The Chastity Ideal in - the later versions--Modern English Treatments: Tennyson, - Hawker--Possible Source of the Chastity Ideal in Popular - Tradition--The Perceval Quest in Wolfram; his Moral - Conception; the Question; Parzival and Conduiramur--The - Parzival Quest and Faust--Wagner's Parsifal--The Christian - element in the Legend--Ethical Ideas in the folk-tale - originals of the Grail Romances: the Great Fool; the Sleeping - Beauty--Conclusion page 228 - - - APPENDIX A.: The Relationship of Wolfram to Chrestien page 261 - - - APPENDIX B.: The Grand St. Graal Prologue and the Brandan - Legend page 264 - - - INDEX I. The Dramatis Personæ of the Legend page 266 - - - INDEX II. page 275 - - - - -INTRODUCTION. - - -The present work is, as its title states, a collection of "Studies." It -does not profess to give an exhaustive or orderly account of the Grail -romance cycle; it deals with particular aspects of the legend, and makes -no pretence of exhausting even these. - -It may be urged that as this is the case the basis of the work is too -broad for the superstructure, and that there was no need to give full -summaries of the leading forms of the legend, or to discuss at such length -their relation one to another, when it was only intended to follow up one -of the many problems which this romance cycle presents. Had there existed -any work in English which did in any measure what the writer has here -attempted to do, he would only too gladly have given more space and more -time to the elaboration of the special subject of these studies. But the -only work of the kind is in German, _Birch-Hirschfeld's Die Gralsage_. -Many interested in the Arthurian romances do not know German; and some who -profess an interest in them, and who do know German, are not, to judge by -their writings, acquainted with Birch-Hirschfeld's work. It seemed worth -while, therefore, to present the facts about the cycle with greater -fulness than would have been necessary had those facts been generally -accessible. The writer felt, too, that whatever judgment might be passed -upon his own speculations, his statements of fact might give his book some -value in the eyes of students. He also wished to give all who felt an -interest in the line of investigation he opened up the opportunity of -pursuing it further, or the means of checking his assertions and -conjectures. - -The writer has taken his texts as he found them. He has studied the -subject matter of the romances, not the words in which they have been -handed down. Those who seek for philological disquisitions are, therefore, -warned that they will find nothing to interest them; and those scholars -who are well acquainted with the printed texts, but who are on the search -for fresh MS. evidence, must not look here for such. On the other hand, as -the printed texts are for the most of such rarity and price as to be -practically inaccessible to anyone not within reach of a large library, -the writer trusts that his abstract of them will be welcome to many. He -has striven to take note of all works of real value bearing upon the -subject. He endeavoured, though unsuccessfully, to obtain a copy of M. -Gaston Paris' account of the Arthurian romances which, though it has been -for some months in print, is not yet published. - -The writer has done his best to separate the certain from the conjectural. -Like M. Renan, in a similar case, he begs the reader to supply the -"perhaps" and the "possibly's" that may sometimes have dropt out. The -whole subject is fraught with difficulty, and there are special reasons -why all results must for some time to come be looked upon as conjectural. -These are glanced at here and there in the course of these studies, but it -may be well to put them together in this place. Firstly, whatever opinions -be held as to which are the older forms of the legend, it is certain that -in no one case do we possess a primary form. All the versions that have -come down to us presuppose, even where they do not actually testify to, a -model. Two of the forms which there is substantial agreement in reckoning -among the oldest, the poems of Chrestien de Troyes and Robert de Borron, -were never finished by the authors; sequels exist to both, of a later date -and obviously affected by other forms of the legend. A reconstruction of -the original story is under these circumstances a task of great -uncertainty. So much for the difficulty inherent in the nature of the -evidence, a difficulty which it is to be feared will always beset the -student of this literature, as no new texts are likely to be found. -Secondly, this evidence, such as it is, is not accessible in a form of -which the most can be made. The most important member of the group, the -Conte du Graal, only exists in one text, and that from a late and poor -MS. It is certain that a critical edition, based upon a survey of the -entire MS. evidence, will throw great light upon all the questions here -treated of. The Mabinogi of Peredur has not yet been critically edited, -nor have the MSS. of the other romances yielded up all that can be learnt -from them. Thirdly, whatever opinion be held respecting the connection of -the North French romances and Celtic tradition, connection of some kind -must be admitted. Now the study of Celtic tradition is only beginning to -be placed upon a firm basis, and the stores of Celtic myth and legend are -only beginning to be thrown open to the non-Celtic scholar. Were there in -existence a Celtic parallel to Grimm's great work on German Mythology, the -views for which the writer contends would have been, in all likelihood, -admitted ere now, and there would have been no necessity for this work at -all. - -Whilst some of the reasons which render the study of the Grail legends so -fascinating, because so problematic, will probably always remain in force, -others will vanish before the increase of knowledge. When the diplomatic -evidence is accessible in a trustworthy form; when the romances have -received all the light that can be shed upon them from Celtic history, -philology, and mythology, the future student will have a comparatively -easy task. One of the writer's chief objects has been to excite an -interest in these romances among those who are able to examine the Celtic -elements in them far more efficiently than he could do. Welsh philologists -can do much to explain the _Onomasticon Arthurianum_; Cymric history -generally may elucidate the subject matter. But as a whole Welsh -literature is late, meagre, and has kept little that is archaic. The study -of Irish promises far better results. Of all the races of modern Europe -the Irish have the most considerable and the most archaic mass of -pre-Christian traditions. By the side of their heroic traditional -literature that of Cymry or Teuton (High and Low), or Slav is recent, -scanty, and unoriginal. - -A few words must be said in defence of the free use made of conjecture in -the course of these studies. This is well nigh unavoidable from the way in -which the texts we have to deal with have come down to us. What M. Renan -has said about the Hebrew historical scriptures is excellently exemplified -in the Grail romances. There was no fixed text, no definite or rounded -sequence of incidents, of which scribes respected the integrity. On the -contrary, each successive transcriber was only anxious to add some fresh -adventure to the interminable tale, and those MSS. were most thought of -which contained the greatest number of lines. The earlier MSS. have, -therefore, almost entirely disappeared, and we are dealing with works -which we know to have been composed in the twelfth century, but of which -we have only thirteenth or fourteenth century transcripts. Inconsistencies -in the conduct of the story are the inevitable consequence in most cases, -but sometimes the latest arranger had an eye for unity of effect, and -attained this by the simple process of altering the old account so as to -make it fit with the new. In dealing with the text of an _individual_ -author, whether ancient or modern, it would be in the last degree -uncritical to explain difficulties by such hypotheses as the loss of an -earlier draft, or the foisting into the work of later and incongruous -incidents and conceptions. Not so in the case of the romances; this method -of explanation is natural and legitimate, but none the less is it largely -conjectural. - -The writer may be blamed for not having presented his subject in a more -engaging and more lucid form. He would plead in excuse the circumstances -under which his work has been carried on. When the only hours of study are -those which remain after the claims, neither few nor light, of business -and other duties have been met, it is hard to give an appearance of unity -to a number of minute detail studies, and to weld them together into one -harmonious whole. The fact that the work has been written, and printed, at -considerable intervals of time may, it is hoped, be accepted as some -excuse for inconsistency in the terminology. - -The writer has many acknowledgments to make. First and chief to Dr. -Birch-Hirschfeld, but for whose labours, covering well nigh the whole -field of the Grail cycle, he would not have been able to take in hand his -work at all; then to Dr. Furnivall, to whose enthusiasm and spirit the -publication of some of the most important texts are due. In these two -cases the writer acknowledges his gratitude with the more readiness that -he has felt compelled to come to an opposite conclusion from that arrived -at by Dr. Birch-Hirschfeld respecting the genesis and growth of the -legend, and because he has had to differ from Dr. Furnivall's estimate of -the moral value of the Galahad romances. To M. Hucher, to Mons. Ch. -Potvin, the editor, single-handed, of the Conte du Graal, to M. d'Arbois -de Jubainville, to Professor Ernst Martin, to the veteran San-Marte, to -Herr Otto Küpp, and to Herr Paul Steinbach, these studies owe much. -Professor Rhys' Hibbert Lectures came into the writer's hands as he was -preparing the latter portion of the book for the press; they were of great -service to him, and he was especially gratified to find opinions at which -he had arrived confirmed on altogether independent grounds by Professor -Rhys' high authority. The writer is also indebted to him, to Mr. H. L. D. -Ward, of the British Museum, and to his friend Mr. Egerton Phillimore for -help given while the sheets were passing through the press. Lastly, the -writer desires to pay an especial tribute of gratitude and respect to that -admirable scholar, J. F. Campbell. Of all the masters in folk-lore, Jacob -Grimm not excepted, none had a keener eye or surer, more instinctively -right judgment. - -Although the writer admits, nay, insists upon the conjectural character of -his results, he believes he is on the right track, and that if the Grail -romances be worked out from any other point of view than the one here -taken, the same goal will be reached. It should be said that some of the -conclusions, which he can claim as his own by right of first mention, were -stated by him in a paper he read before the Folk-Lore Society in 1880 -(afterwards reprinted, Celtic Magazine, 1887, August-October); and in a -paper he read before the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, in 1884. - -These studies have been a delight and a solace to the writer; had it been -otherwise, he would still feel himself amply repaid for his work by the -thought that he had made a contribution, however slight, to the criticism -of the Legend of the Holy Grail. - - - - -ERRATA. - - -[The reader is kindly begged to mark in these corrections before using the -book.] - - Page 22, line 12, _for_ Corbièrc _read_ Corbière. - " 25, line 37, _insert_ Passion _before_ Week. - " 30, 7 lines from bottom, _for_ Avallon _read_ Avalon. - " 85, line 24, _for_ Percival _read_ Perceval. - " 86, line 12, _for_ Percival _read_ Perceval. - " 90, 5 lines from bottom, _for_ Pelleur _read_ Pelleans. - " 102, line 22, _for_ seems _read_ seem. - " 120, line 3, _for_ 1180 _read_ 1189. - " 124, line 29, _for_ Bron _read_ Brons. - " 156, line 11, _insert_ comma _after_ specially. - " 159, line 11, _for_ Henessey _read_ Hennessy. - " 163, note, _i.e._, _for_ Graal _read_ Gaal. - " 183, line 23, _insert_ comma _after_ more. - " 188, line 5, _for_ euphemerised _read_ euhemerised. - " 188, line 5, _for_ invasion _read_ invasions. - " 188, line 17, _for_ mystic _read_ mythic. - " 189, line 1, _for_ LXXVII _read_ LXXXII. - " 197, note, _for_ Carl the Great _read_ Karl the Great. - " 200, line 12, _insert_ comma _after_ plight; _dele_ comma _after_ - love. - " 201, 1 line from bottom, _insert_ late _before_ mediæval. - " 204, note, _for_ Percival _read_ Perceval. - " 217, line 23, _for_ mystic _read_ mythic. - - - - -STUDIES ON THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - - Description of the leading forms of the Romance: Conte del - Graal--Joseph d'Arimathie--Didot-Perceval--Queste del Saint - Graal--Grand Saint Graal--Parzival--Perceval le Gallois--Mabinogi of - Peredur--Sir Perceval--Diu Crône--Information respecting date and - authorship of these works in the MSS. - - -The following are the forms in which the Legend of the Holy Grail has come -down to us:-- - -A.--=Le Conte del Graal=, a poem of over 60,000 verses, the major part of -which (45,379 verses) was printed for the first time by Potvin: Le Conte -del Graal, six volumes, 8vo. (vols. ii.-vi. containing our poem), Mons, -1866-71, from a MS. preserved in the Mons Library.[1] The portion of the -poem which is not printed in full is summarised by Potvin in the sixth -volume of his edition. The poem, so far as at present known, is the work -of four men: - - A I. Chrestien de Troyes, who carried the work down to verse 10,601. - - A II. Gautier de Doulens, who continued it to verse 34,934. - - A III. Manessier, who finished it in 45,379 verses. - - A IV. Gerbert, to whom are due over 15,000 verses, mostly found - interpolated between Gautier de Doulens and Manessier. - -A MS. preserved in the Library of Montpellier[2] differs in important -respects from the Mons one as far as Gautier de Doulens and Manessier are -concerned. It intercalates 228 verses between verses 20,294 and 20,296 of -the Mons MS., and gives a different redaction of verses 34,996-35,128 in -agreement with the aforesaid intercalation. It likewise mentions two -visits of Gawain to the Grail Castle. The intercalation in Gautier may be -called A II_a_, and the variant in Manessier A III_a_. - -B.--=Joseph d'Arimathie, Merlin=, exists in two forms: (1) a fragmentary -metrical version entitled in the sole existing MS. (Bibliothèque -Nationale, No. 20,047. Fonds St. Germain, No. 1,987) Li R(o)manz de l'est -(o)ire dou Graal, and consisting of 4,018 verses, 3,514 for the Joseph, -the remainder, for about one-fifth of the Merlin. First printed by -Francisque Michel: Le Roman du St. Graal. Bordeaux, 1841. Secondly by -Furnivall: Seynt Graal or the Sank Ryal. Printed for the Roxburghe Club, -two volumes, 4to., London, 1861-63, where it is found in an appendix at -the end of vol i. (2) A prose version of which several MSS. exist, all of -which are fully described by E. Hucher: Le Saint-Graal, ou le Joseph -d'Arimathie, three volumes, 12mo., Le Mans, 1875-78, vol. i., pp. 1-28. -The chief are: the Cangé MS. (_circa_ 1250) of which Hucher prints the -Joseph, vol. i., pp. 209-276, and the Didot MS., written in 1301, of which -Hucher prints the Joseph, vol. i., pp. 277-333. Hucher likewise gives, -vol. i., pp. 335-365, variants from the Huth MS. (_circa_ 1280). - -These different versions may be numbered as follows:-- - - B I. The metrical version, which I shall always quote as Metr. Jos., - from Furnivall's edition. - - B II. The prose versions: B II_a_, Cangé Jos.; B II_b_, Didot Jos.; B - II_c_, Huth Jos., all quoted from Hucher, vol. i. - -C.--=Perceval=, prose romance found in the already-mentioned Didot MS. at -the end of the Merlin, printed by Hucher, vol. i., pp. 415-505, from which -it will be quoted as Didot-Perceval. - -D.--=Queste del Saint Graal=, prose romance commonly found in the MSS. in -combination with Lancelot and the Mort Artur. Edited by Furnivall: La -Queste del St. Graal. Printed for the Roxburghe Club, 4to., London, 1864. -The introduction contains a full account of the existing MSS. A different -redaction from that of any of the known French MSS. is preserved in a -Welsh translation, printed, with a modern English version by the editor, -from a fifteenth century Hengwrt MS., by the Rev. Robert Williams: Y Seint -Graal, London, 8vo., 1876. I shall quote-- - - D I. Queste, from Furnivall's edition. - - D II. Welsh Quest, from Williams' edition. - -E.--The so-called =Grand Saint Graal=, prose romance found in the MSS., -both preceding the Merlin and the Queste, and preceding the Queste and the -Mort Artur. Printed by Furnivall from Cambridge and Brit. Mus. MSS., -together with a metrical English adaptation by Henry Lonelich, of about -the time of Henry the VIth, in the already-mentioned Seynt Graal; and by -Hucher, vols. ii. and iii., from a Le Mans MS.; will be quoted as Grand -St. Graal, from Furnivall's edition. - -F.--=Parzival=, by Wolfram von Eschenbach, German metrical romance, -critically edited from the MSS. by Karl Lachmann, Wolfram von Eschenbach, -Vierte Ausgabe, 8vo., Berlin, 1879, from which it will be quoted as -Wolfram. - -G.--=Perceval le Gallois=, prose romance, first printed by Potvin, vol. i. -of his Conte del Graal, from a Mons MS., with variants from a fragmentary -Berne MS. (as to both of which see pp. 353, etc.). A Welsh translation, -with modern English version by the editor, made from a MS. closely allied -to the Berne fragments, and representing a superior text to that printed -by Potvin, in Williams' already-mentioned Y Seint Graal. - -Besides these works there exist two versions of the Perceval legend in -which the Holy Grail, as such, does not appear. These are:-- - -H.--=The Mabinogi of Peredur, the son of Evrawc=, Welsh prose romance -found in the Red Book of Hergest, a MS. of the end of the fourteenth -century, and in MSS. a hundred years older. I shall quote it as Peredur, -from Lady Guest's English translation of the Mabinogion, 8vo., London, -1877. - -I.--=Sir Perceval of Galles=, English metrical romance, printed for the -first time from the Thornton MS., of _circa_ 1440, by Halliwell: The -Thornton Romances, printed for the Camden Society, small 4to., London, -1884; from which I shall quote it as Sir Perceval. - -Finally there exists an independent German version of certain adventures, -the hero of which in the Conte du Graal, in Wolfram, and in the Mabinogi, -is Gawain. This is-- - -K.--=Heinrich von dem Türlin.= Diu Crône. Edited by G. H. F. Scholl. -Bibliothek des Litterarischen Vereins, vol. xxvii., Stuttgart, 1852. - -The positive information which the different MSS. of the above mentioned -works afford respecting their authors, date of composition, sources, etc., -is as follows:--In the prologue to his poem, Chrestien (Potvin i., pp. -307-308) dedicates his work to "Li quens Felippes de Flandres," who as he -states (verse 67), "li bailla le livre," which served him as model, and -whom he praises at great length as surpassing Alexander. We know that -Count Philip of Flanders took the cross in 1188, set out for the Holy Land -in 1190, and died on the 1st of June, 1191, before Akkon.[3] As Chrestien -says not a word about the crusading intentions of Philip, it may be -inferred that he wrote his prologue before 1188, and began the poem in -1189 at the latest. Gautier de Doulens (probably of that ilk, in Picardy, -some miles from Amiens)[4] has only left his name, verse 33,755, Gautiers -de Dons qui l'estore, etc. Manessier the next continuator has been more -explicit; he describes himself as completing the work at the command -of ... - - Jehanne la Comtesse - Qu'est de Flandre dame et mestresse. - (Potvin, vi., p. 157.) - -This Joan, daughter of Baldwin the VIth, ruled Flanders _alone_ during the -imprisonment of her husband after the battle of Bouvines (1214-1227), and -Manessier's words can only apply to her during this period, so that his -continuation must have been written between 1214-1227.[5] The third -continuator, Gerbers, only mentions his name (Potvin, vi., p. 212). - -The author of version B, names himself, B I, verse 3,461, Messires Roberz -de Beron; verses 3,488-94 state that no mortal man had told the story, -until he had it from - - Mon seigneur Gautier en peis - Qui de Mont Belyal estoit. - -Verse 3,155 gives the name somewhat differently, Meistres Robers dist de -Bouron. The prose versions follow the poem with additions, thus Cangé Jos. -(p. 275); Messires Roberz de Borron lou restrait à mon seigneur Gautier, -lou preu conte de Mobéliart. - -Walter of Montbeliard, brother to Count Richard of Montbeliard, went to -the Holy Land in 1199, became Constable of Jerusalem, Regent of Cyprus, -and died in 1212. The date of his birth is uncertain, but as his elder -brother died in 1237, Walter could hardly have been born before 1150. His -father, Amadeus, died in 1183, in which year he received the countship of -Montfaucon. It may only have been after he thus became independent that -Robert entered his service. In any case Robert could not have spoken of -him as "mon seigneur," before 1170. That year may, therefore, be taken as -a _terminus a quo_, and the year 1212 as a _terminus ad quem_ for dating -these versions. - -The Grand St. Graal is likewise ascribed in the MSS. to Robert de Borron, -and it is further stated that he translated from Latin into French--Et -ensi le temoigne me sires robiers de borron qui a translatee de latin en -franchois cheste estoire (ii. p. 78). - -The Queste ascribed in the MSS. to Walter Mapes, is said to have been -compiled by him for the love of his lord, King Henry--maistre Gautiers Map -les extrait pour l'amor del roy Henri son seignor, qui fist l'estore -translater du latin en francois[6]--Walter Mapes, born before 1143 (he -presided at the assizes of Gloucester in 1173), died in 1210. If we may -believe the MSS., the Queste would probably fall within the last -twenty-five years of the twelfth century. - -The author of Perceval le Gallois describes himself (Potvin, i., 348) as -writing the book for the "Seignor de Neele," whose Christian name, -"Johan," is given four lines lower down, at the command of the "Seingnor -de Cambresis," _i.e._, the Bishop of Cambray. This John of Nesle is -probably the one who in the year 1225 sold the lordship of Bruges to -Countess Joan of Flanders.[7] - -Wolfram von Eschenbach, of that ilk, in North Bavaria, born in the last -thirty years of the twelfth century, died about 1220. He knew Chrestien's -poem well, and repeatedly refers to it, but with great contempt, as being -the wrong version of the story, whereas he holds the true version from -Kyot, the singer, a "Provenzal," who found the tale of Parzival written in -heathen tongue at Dôlet (Toledo), by Flegetanis, a heathen who first -taught concerning the Grail, put it into French, and after searching the -chronicles of Britain, France, and Ireland in vain, at length found -information in the chronicles of Anjou (pp. 202 and 219). - -Nothing is stated in the works themselves respecting the authors of the -Mabinogi and the Thornton Sir Perceval. - -Heinrich von dem Türlin frequently quotes Chrestien as his authority, -_e.g._, verses 16,941, 23,046, 23,982. - -If these various statements are to be accepted, it follows that in the -course of fifty years (1170-1220) a great body of romance came into -existence, partly in France, Chrestien, his continuators, and Robert de -Borron; partly in England, Walter Mapes; and partly in Germany, Wolfram -von Eschenbach, and Heinrich von dem Türlin. Of this body of romance only -a portion has come down to us, the work of Kyot and the Latin originals of -the Queste and the Grand St. Graal having disappeared. Furthermore, it is -only possible to date with any accuracy three or four of the works, viz., -Chrestien, Manessier, Wolfram (whose poem falls certainly within the first -ten years of the thirteenth century), though it may also be taken as -certain that R. de Borron wrote after 1170, and the anonymous author of -Perceval le Gallois before 1225. Of the dated works Chrestien's is the -oldest, 1188-90, and it postulates the existence of previous versions. - -The object of the present investigation being to determine, as far as -possible, the age and relationship to one another of the different -versions which have come down to us, to exhibit the oldest form of the -story as we have it, and to connect it with Celtic traditional belief and -literature, it will be well, before proceeding to further discuss the -various points left doubtful by the evidence gathered from the MSS., to -give clear and detailed summaries of the most important versions. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - - Summaries--Conte du Graal: Pseudo-Chrestien, Chrestien, Gautier de - Doulens, Manessier, Gerbert--Wolfram--Heinrich von dem - Türlin--Didot-Perceval--Mabinogi of Peredur--Thornton MS. Sir - Perceval--Queste del Saint Graal--Grand Saint Graal--Robert de - Borron's poem, Joseph of Arimathea. - - -=The Conte du Graal.=--PSEUDO-CHRESTIEN.[8]--The story tells of the -"Graal," whose mysteries, if Master Blihis lie not, none may reveal; it -falls into seven parts, and shows how the rich land of Logres was -destroyed. (1) In the wells and springs of that land harboured damsels who -fed the wayfarer with meat and pasties and bread. But King Amangons did -wrong to one and carried off her golden cup, so that never more came -damsels out of the springs to comfort the wanderer. And the men of King -Amangons followed his evil example. Thereafter the springs dried up, and -the grass withered, and the land became waste, and no more might be found -the court of the Rich Fisher, which had filled the land with plenty and -splendour. (2) The Knights of the Table Round, learning the ill done to -the damsels, set forth to protect them; they found them not, but fair -damsels wandering in the woods, each with her knight; with the latter they -strove, and when they overcame them sent them to Arthur. Thus came Blihos -Bliheris to Arthur's court conquered by Gauvain; he knew goodly tales and -he told how the wandering damsels were sprung from those ravished by King -Amangons. So long would they wander till God gave them to find the court, -whence joy and splendour would come to the land. (3) Arthur's knights -resolved to seek the court of the Rich Fisher--much knew he of black art, -more than an hundred times changed he his semblance, that no man seeing -him again recognised him. Gauvain found it, and had great joy therefrom; -but before him a young knight, small of age, but none bolder of -courage--Percevaus li Galois was he--he asked whereto the Grail served, -but nought of the lance why it dripped blood, nor of the sword one half of -which was away whilst the other lay in the bier. But he asked surely -concerning the rich cross of silver. Now in the room three times there -arose such great sorrow that no man who heard it, so bold he might be but -feared. Afterwards the room filled and the king came in, full richly -dressed, so that he might hardly be known of them that had seen him the -day before, fishing. And when all were sat down the Grail came in, and -without serjeant nor seneschal served all present, and 'twas wonder what -food it gave them. And then came the great marvel which has not its like. -But Perceval will tell of this, so I must say no more; it is a great shame -to tell beforehand what is in a good tale. When the good knight shall come -who found the court three times you shall hear me tell of Grail and lance, -and of him who lay in the bier, of the sword, of the grief and swooning of -all beholders. (4) Now the court was found seven times, and each time -shall have a fresh tale:-- - - The seventh (the most pleasing) tells of the lance wherewith Longis - pierced the side of the King of holy Majesty; - - The sixth of warlike feats; - - The fifth of the anger and loss of Huden; The fourth of heaven, for he - was no coward, the knight Mors del Calan, who first came to Glamorgan; - - The third of the hawk whereof Castrars had such fear--Pecorins, the - son of Amangons, bore all his days the wound on his forehead; - - The second has not yet been told; it tells of the great sorrows - Lancelot of the Lake had there where he lost his virtue; - - And the last is the adventure of the shield, never a better one was - there. - -(5) After this adventure the land was repeopled; court and grail were -found; the streams ran again; the meadows were green, the forests thick -and leafy; so that all folk marvelled. But there came back a folk, the -same that came out of the springs (save they were not cooks), a caitiff -set, and built for their damsels the rich Maidens' Castel, and the Bridge -Perillous, and Castel Orguellous, and warred against the Table Round. In -the castle were 376, each sire of 20 knights. And not till after four -years did Arthur overcome them and was there peace. - -_(Here beginneth the Story of the Grail.)_ - -(6) There were in the land of Wales twelve knights, of whom Bliocadrans -alone survived, so eager were they in seeking tournament and combats. -After living for two years with his wife, childless, Bliocadrans set forth -to a tournament given by the King of Wales and Cornwall against them of -the Waste Fountain. At first successful, he is at length slain. A few days -after his departure his wife has borne a son. When at length she learns -her husband's death, she takes counsel with her chamberlain, and -pretending a pilgrimage to St. Brandan, in Scotland, withdraws to the -Waste Forest far removed from all men. Here she brings up her son, and -though she allows him to hunt in the forest, warns him against men covered -with iron--they are devils. He promises to follow her counsel, and -thenceforth he goes into the forest alone. - -=The Conte du Graal.=--(_a_) CHRESTIEN.--(1) When as trees and meadows -deck themselves with green, and birds sing, the son of the widow lady goes -out into the wood. He meets five knights, and, as their weapons shine in -the sun, takes them for angels, after having first thought them to be the -devils his mother had warned him against. He prays to them as his mother -has taught him. One of the knights asks if he has seen five knights and -three maidens who had passed that way, but he can but reply with questions -concerning the arms and trappings of the knights. He learns of Arthur the -King who makes knights, and when he returns to his mother tells her he has -beheld a more beautiful thing than God and His angels, knights namely, and -he too will become one. In vain his mother tells him of his father's and -his two elder brothers' fates, slain in battle. Nothing will serve, so the -mother makes him a dress of coarse linen and leather, and before he leaves -counsels him as follows: If dame or damsel seek his aid he is to give it, -he is to do naught displeasing to them, but to kiss the maiden who is -willing, and to take ring and girdle of her if he can; to go for long with -no fellow-traveller whose name he knows not, to speak with and consort -with worthy men, to pray to our Lord when he comes to church or convent. -She then tells him of Jesus Christ, the Holy Prophet. He departs clad and -armed in Welsh fashion, and his mother swoons as though dead. (2) Perceval -comes to a tent in the wood, and, taking it for a convent, goes in and -finds sleeping on a bed a damsel, whom the neighing of his horse wakes. In -pursuance of his mother's counsel he kisses her more than twenty times, -takes her ring from her, and eats and drinks of her provisions. Thereafter -he rides forth, and her lover returning and hearing what has taken place, -swears to avenge himself upon the intruder, and until such time the -damsel, whose tale he disbelieves, is to follow him barefoot and not to -change her raiment. (3) Perceval learns the way to Carduel from a -charcoal-burner; arrived there, he sees a knight coming forth from the -castle and bearing a golden cup in his hand, clad in red armour, who -complains of Arthur as having robbed him of his land. Perceval rides into -the castle hall and finds the court at meat. Arthur, lost in thought, pays -no attention to the first two salutations of Perceval, who then turns his -horse to depart, and in so doing knocks off the King's hat. Arthur then -tells him how the Red Knight has carried off his cup, spilling its -contents over the Queen. Perceval cares not a rap for all this, but asks -to be made knight, whereat all laugh. Perceval insists, and claims the Red -Knight's armour. Kex bids him fetch them, whereat the King is displeased. -Perceval greets a damsel, who laughs and foretells he shall be the best -knight in the world. For this saying Kex strikes her, and kicks into the -fire a fool who had been wont to repeat that the damsel would not laugh -till she beheld the best of knights. (4) Perceval tarries no longer, but -follows the Red Knight, and bids him give up his arms and armour. They -fight, and Perceval slays his adversary with a cast of his dart. Yonès, -who has followed him, finds him put to it to remove the knight's -armour--he will burn him out of it if need be--and shows him how to -disarm the dead man and to arm himself. Perceval then mounts the knight's -steed and rides off, leaving the cup to Yonés to be given to the King, -with this message: he, Perceval, would come back to avenge the damsel of -the blow Kex struck her. (5) Perceval comes to a castle, in front of which -he finds an old knight, to whom he relates what has befallen him, and of -whom he asks counsel as his mother bade him. The knight, Gonemans of -Gelbort, takes him into his castle, teaches him the use of arms, and all -knightly practices. In especial he is to avoid over-readiness in speaking -and in asking questions, and to give over his habit of always quoting his -mother's counsels. He then dubs him knight, and sends him forth to return -to his mother. (6) After a day's journey Perceval comes to a town defended -by a castle, and, being allowed entrance therein, finds all waste and -deserted, even the very convents. The lady of the castle, a damsel of -surpassing beauty, welcomes him and bids him to table. Mindful of -Gonemans' counsels he remains silent, and she must speak to him first. She -turns out to be Gonemans' niece. At night the young stranger is shown to -his chamber, but the damsel cannot sleep for thought. Weeping she comes to -Perceval's bedside, and in reply to his wondering questions tells him how -the forces of King Clamadex encompass the castle, and how that on the -morrow she must yield, but rather than be Clamadex's she will slay -herself. He promises to help her, and bids her to him in the bed, which -she does, and they pass the night in each other's arms, mouth to mouth. On -the morrow he begs for her love in return for his promised aid, which she -half refuses, the more to urge him on. He fights with and overcomes -Aguigrenons, Clamadex's marshal, and sends him to Arthur's court. Clamadex -hearing of this tries afresh to starve out the castle, but a storm luckily -throws a passing ship ashore, and thereby reprovisions the besieged ones. -Clamadex then challenges Perceval, is overcome, and sent to Arthur's -court, where he arrives shortly after his marshal. They relate wonders -concerning the Red Knight, and the King is more than ever displeased with -Kex for having offended such a valiant warrior. After remaining for a -while with Blanchefleur, Perceval takes leave of her, as he longs to see -his mother again. (7) He comes to a river, upon which is a boat, and -therein two men fishing. One of them, in reply to his questions, directs -him for a night's shelter to his own castle hard by. Perceval starts for -it, and at first unable to find it reproaches the fisher. Suddenly he -perceives the castle before him, enters therein, is disarmed, clad in a -scarlet mantle, and led into a great hall. Therein is a couch upon which -lies an old man; near him is a fire, around which some four hundred men -are sitting. Perceval tells his host he had come from Biau-Repaire. A -squire enters, bearing a sword, and on it is written that it will never -break save in one peril, and that known only to the maker of it. 'Tis a -present from the host's niece to be bestowed where it will be well -employed. The host gives it to Perceval, "to whom it was adjudged and -destined." Hereupon enters another squire, bearing in his hand a lance, -from the head of which a drop of blood runs down on the squire's hand. -Perceval would have asked concerning this wonder, but he minds him of -Gonemans' counsel not to speak or inquire too much. Two more squires -enter, holding each a ten-branched candlestick, and with them a damsel, a -"graal" in her hands. The graal shines so that it puts out the light of -the candles as the sun does that of the stars. Thereafter follows a damsel -holding a (silver) plate. All defile past between the fire and the couch, -but Perceval does not venture to ask wherefore the graal is used. Supper -follows, and the graal is again brought, and Perceval, knowing not its -use, had fain asked, but always refrains when he thinks of Gonemans, and -finally puts off his questions till the morrow. After supper the guest is -led to his chamber, and on the morrow, awakening, finds the castle -deserted. No one answers his calls. Issuing forth he finds his horse -saddled and the drawbridge down. Thinking to find the castle dwellers in -the forest he rides forth, but the drawbridge closes so suddenly behind -him that had not the horse leapt quickly forward it had gone hard with -steed and rider. In vain Perceval calls: none answer. (8) He pricks on and -comes to an oak, beneath which sits a maid holding a dead knight in her -arms and lamenting over him. She asks him where he has passed the night, -and on learning it tells him the fisher who had directed him to the castle -and his host were one and the same; wounded by a spear thrust through both -thighs his only solace is in fishing, whence he is called the Fisher King. -She asks, had Perceval seen the bleeding lance, the graal, and the silver -dish? had he asked their meaning? No; then what is his name? He does not -know it, but she guesses it: Perceval le Gallois; but it should be -Perceval the Caitiff, for had he asked concerning what he saw, the good -king would have been made whole again, and great good have sprung -therefrom. He has also a heavy sin on his conscience in that his mother -died of grief when he left her. She herself is his cousin. Perceval asks -concerning the dead knight, and learning it is her lover offers to revenge -her upon his slayer. In return she tells him about the sword, how it will -fly in pieces if he have not care of it, and how it may be made whole -again by dipping it in a lake, near which dwells its maker, the smith -Trebucet. (9) Perceval leaves his cousin and meets, riding on a wretched -horse, a scantily and shabbily clad woman of miserable appearance, -lamenting her hard fate and unjust treatment. She is the lady of the tent -whose ring Perceval had carried off. She bids him fly her husband, the -Orgellous de la Lande. The latter appears, challenges Perceval, but is -overcome by him, convinced of his wife's innocence, compelled to take her -into favour again, and both must go to Arthur's court, relate the whole -story, and renew Perceval's promise to the damsel whom Kex had struck, to -avenge her. Arthur, when he hears of the deeds of the young hero, sets -forth with his whole court to seek him. (10) Snow has fallen, and a flock -of wild geese, blinded by the snow, has had one of its number wounded by a -falcon. Three blood drops have fallen on the snow, and Perceval beholding -them falls into deep thought on the red and white in his love's face. -Arthur and his knights come up with him. Saigremors sees him first, bids -him come, and, when he answers no word, tilts against him, but is -overthrown. Kex then trys his luck, but is unhorsed so rudely that arm and -leg are broken. Gauvain declares that love must be mastering the strange -knight's thoughts, approaches him courteously, tells his own name and -learns Perceval's, and brings the latter to Arthur, by whom he is received -with all honour. Perceval then learns it is Kex he has overthrown, thus -fulfilling his promise to the damsel whom Kex had smitten, and whose -knight he offers himself to be. (11) Perceval returns on the morrow with -the court to Carlion, and the next day at noon there comes riding on a -yellow mule a damsel more hideous than could be pictured outside hell. She -curses Perceval for having omitted to ask concerning the lance and graal; -had he done so the King would have been healed of his wound and ruled his -land in peace; now maidens will be put to shame, orphans and widows made, -and many knights slain. Turning to the King she tells of the adventures to -be achieved at the Castel Orgellous, where dwell five hundred and seventy -knights, each with his lady love. He, though, who would win the highest -renown must to Montesclaire to free the damsel held captive there. She -then departs. Gauvain will forth to the imprisoned damsel, Giflès to the -Castel Orgellous, and Perceval swears to rest no two nights in the same -place till he have learnt concerning graal and lance. (12) A knight, -Guigambresil, enters and accuses Gauvain of having slain his lord. The -latter sets forth at once to the King of Cavalon to clear himself of this -accusation. (13) On his way he meets the host of Melians, who is preparing -to take part in a tournament to approve himself worthy the love of the -daughter of Tiebaut of Tingaguel, who had hitherto refused his suit. -Gauvain rides on to Tingaguel to help its lord. On arriving at the castle -the eldest daughter jeers at him, whilst the youngest takes his part, -declaring him a better knight than Melians, whereat her sister is very -indignant. On the first day of the tournament Melians shows himself the -best knight, but the younger sister still declares her faith in Gauvain, -and has her ears boxed in consequence. She appeals to Gauvain to be her -knight and avenge the injury done her. He consents, overcomes Melians, -whose horse he sends to his little lady, and all other knights; then, -after telling his name, rides forth. (14) He meets two knights, the -younger of whom offers him hospitality, and sends him to his sister, -bidding her welcome him. She receives him kindly, and when, struck with -her beauty, he asks her favours, grants them at once. They are interrupted -by a steward, who reproaches her with giving her love to her father's -murderer, and calls upon the castle folk to attack Gauvain. The latter -defends himself until the return of Guigambresil, who reproaches the lord -of the castle for letting Gauvain be attacked, as he had expressed his -readiness to do single combat. Gauvain is then allowed to go, and is -excused the combat if within a year he can bring back the bleeding lance. -He sets off in search of it. (15) The tale returns to Perceval, who has -wandered about for five years without thinking of God, yet performing many -feats. He meets three knights accompanied by ladies, all clad in -penitents' dress. 'Twas a Good Friday, and the eldest knight rebukes -Perceval for riding fully armed on such a day. He must confess him to a -holy hermit who lives hard by. Perceval goes thither, accuses himself of -having forgotten God through his great grief at not learning the use of -the graal. The hermit reveals himself as his uncle, tells Perceval that he -is in sin as having caused his mother's death, and for that reason he -could not ask concerning lance and graal; but for her prayers he had not -lived till now. Perceval remains two days with his uncle, receives -absolution, and rides forth. (16) The story turns to Gauvain, who, after -Escalavon, finds beneath an oak a damsel lamenting over a wounded knight; -the latter advises Gauvain to push on, which he does, and comes upon a -damsel who receives him discourteously, and when at her bidding he has -fetched her horse from a garden hard by, mocks at him and rides off. He -follows, and culls on the way herbs with which he heals the wounded -knight. A squire rides up very hideous of aspect, mounted on a wretched -hack. Gauvain chastises him for discourteous answers; meanwhile the -wounded knight makes off with Gauvain's steed, making himself known as -Griogoras, whom Gauvain had once punished for ill-doing, Gauvain has to -follow the damsel upon the squire's hack, comes to a river, on the other -side of which is a castle, overcomes a knight who attacks him, during -which the damsel vanishes, is ferried across the stream, giving the -vanquished knight to the ferryman as toll; (17) comes on the morrow to the -Magic Castle, wherein damsels are held fast, awaiting a knight full of all -knightly virtues to restore their lands to the ladies, marry the damsels, -and put an end to the enchantments of the palace. Upon entering, Gauvain -sees a magnificent bed, seats himself therein, is assailed by magic art, -overcomes a lion, and is then acclaimed lord of the castle. He would then -leave the castle, but the ferryman says he may not, whereat Gauvain is -moved to anger. On the morrow, looking forth, Gauvain beholds the (18) -damsel who led him to the ford, accompanied by a knight. He hastens forth, -overcomes the knight, seeks again the damsel's love, but is sent by her to -the Ford Perillous. Here he meets Guiromelant, who loves Gauvain's sister, -Clarissant, a dweller in the Magic Castle. A combat is arranged to take -place after seven days. Upon his return to the damsel, named Orgellouse de -Logres, he is now well received by her. She hates Guiromelant for having -slain her lover, and has long sought a good knight to avenge her. -Guiromelant on his side hates Gauvain for having, as he says, -treacherously killed his father. Gauvain and Orgellouse return to the -Magic Castle. One of the queens who dwells there is mother to Arthur; the -second one, his daughter, mother to Gauvain. The latter gives his sister -Clarissant a ring Guiromelant had begged him, unknowing who he was, to -bring to her. He then sends a knight to Arthur to bid him and his whole -train come witness the fight 'twixt him and Guiromelant. The messenger -finds Arthur plunged in grief at Gauvain's absence.... - - * * * * * - -Here Chrestien's share breaks off abruptly in the middle of a sentence, -and the poem is taken up by - -(_b_) GAUTIER DE DOULENS.[9]--(1) Arthur and his court accept Gauvain's -invitation and make for the Castle of Wonders, the Queen whereof has -meantime made herself known to Gauvain as Ygène, Arthur's mother. The duel -between Gauvain and Guiromelant is hindered, and the latter weds Gauvain's -sister. (Montp. MS. here inserts a first visit of Gawain to Grail Castle, -which is substantially the same as the one it repeats afterwards in the -same place as the Mons MS.) Adventures of Arthur and Gauvain against Brun -de Branlant follow, of Gauvain with a maiden in a tent and her brother -Brandalis, of Carduel of Nantes, whose wife is beloved of the magician -Garahiet, and of their son Carados, and the magic horn (verses -11,000-15,800). (2) (A fresh series of adventures begins) Arthur sets -forth to seek Giflet, son of Dos; Gauvain meets again with Brandalis, -whose sister has meanwhile borne him a son; Castel Orgellous, where Giflet -is imprisoned, is captured; Gauvain's son by Brandalis' sister is lost. -(3) An unknown knight comes to Arthur's court; Keie, who demands his name, -is unhorsed; Gauvain brings the unknown to the court, but the latter is -slain by a javelin cast by invisible hands. Gauvain equips himself in the -unknown's armour and starts forth to learn the latter's name. After -praying in a chapel, in which he beholds a light on the altar quenched by -a black hand, he rides through Brittany and Normandy, and comes to a -castle where, owing to his armour, he is at first hailed as lord. In one -of the rooms stands a bier, whereon lies a knight, cross and broken sword -upon his body, his left hand bleeding. A crowned knight enters and goes to -battle with Gauvain; canons and clerks come and perform the Vigil of the -Dead; whilst at table Gauvain sees the rich Grail serving out bread and -wine to the knights. Gauvain remains alone after the meal; he sees a lance -which bleeds into a silver cup. The crowned knight again enters, bearing -in his hand a broken sword which had belonged to the unknown knight, over -whom he mourns. He hands the sword to Gauvain and asks him to put the -pieces together. Gauvain cannot, whereupon the knight declares him unfit -to fulfil the quest (_li besoin_) on which he came. Later he may try -again. Gauvain asks concerning lance, sword, and bier. The lance, he is -told, is the one wherewith the Son of God was pierced in the side, 'twill -bleed till Doomsday. The tale of the broken sword which brought so much -woe upon the kingdom of Logres will also be told, but here Gauvain falls -fast asleep.[10] On the morrow he wakes, and finds himself on the sea -strand. He rides off, and behold the country has burst into green leaf, -and the reason thereof is his having asked concerning the lance. The -countryfolk both bless and curse him for having so far delivered them and -for not having completed the deliverance by asking concerning the Grail. -(4) He meets a young knight who turns out to be his son. (5) (Adventures -in which Carahiès, Gauvain's brother, is chief actor.) (6) The story -returns to Perceval, who, after leaving the hermit, rides for three days -and comes to a castle, over the door of which hangs a horn. Perceval blows -therein, overcomes the knight who answers the challenge, and sends him to -Arthur's court. (7) On his way to the Castle of Mont Orgellous, to the -pillar of which only an accomplished knight might tie his horse, he comes -to the stream on whose banks he had previously met the Fisher King. -Seeking for a bridge he meets a damsel on a mule, who, under pretence of -showing a way across the river, tries to drown him. He then comes to a -castle, which entering he finds untenanted. In the hall stands a -chessboard. Perceval plays, is beaten, seizes the board and makes as if to -throw it in the moat. Hereupon a damsel rises from the water to stay his -hand, and coming into the room reproaches him. Overcome by her beauty he -asks her favours. She will grant them if he bring the head of the stag -which roams in the castle park. Thereto she lends him her hound, bidding -him be sure he return it. The hunt follows; Perceval overtakes the stag, -slays it, and cutting off its head prepares to bring it back, when a maid -of ill-chance (_pucelle de malaire_) takes and carries it off. Perceval -claiming it is reproached by her for having slain her stag, but told he -may win again the hound if he go to a mound whereon a knight is painted -and say, "Vassal, what doest thou here?" The combat with the Knight of the -Tomb follows, during which hound and stag's head are carried off by -another knight, whom Perceval can only follow when he has overcome the -Knight of the Tomb and driven him back therein. Now this knight, hight the -Black Knight, had dwelt there summer and winter five years, striving with -all-comers for the sake of his love. Perceval, following up the Robber -Knight, meets the damsel who had carried off the hound, but she only mocks -him for answer to his questions. (8) After an adventure with a -discourteous knight, Perceval meets at length a brother of the Red Knight -whom he had formerly slain, who tells him he had seen the daughter of the -Fisher King, and she had told him of a knight who had carried off a hound -and stag's head belonging to a good knight who had been at her court, and -had omitted to ask concerning the grail, for which reason she had taken -his hound and refused him help to follow the Robber Knight. (9) Perceval -is directed by the Red Knight's brother to the Fisher King's castle, but -misses his way, and after an adventure at a castle, where he slays a lion, -overcomes Abrioris and sends him to Arthur; finds a damsel mourning over a -knight slain by a giant, whom he kills, achieves the feat of the Ford -Amorous, meets and fights with Gauvain's son until they learn who each -other is, and at length comes to Belrepaire. (10) At first unrecognised by -Blanchefleur he makes himself known, stays with her three days, and then -rides off, in spite of her entreaties. (11) He meets Rosette (the loathly -damsel) and Le Biaus Mauvais, laughs at the former, is challenged by the -latter, whom he overcomes and sends to Arthur. (12) He comes to his -mother's house, enters without making himself known, learns from his -sister that his mother died at his departure ten years before, tells her -who he is, and both set forth to their uncle, the hermit. On the way -Perceval slays a knight who offers violence to his sister. They come to -their uncle, sleep there, and on the morrow Perceval reveals himself, -confesses, is reproved for having slain the knight the day before. -Perceval, after mentioning his desire to learn more concerning lance, -Grail, and sword, and receiving good advice from the hermit, leaves with -his sister, with whom he stays three days and then quits her, despite her -piteous entreaties. (12_a_) Perceval comes to the Castle of Maidens, where -he falls untimely asleep, and on the morrow finds himself in the forest, -far from any castle. (13) Perceval finds the damsel who had carried off -the hound, fights with her knight, Garalas, overcomes him, learns that the -Knight of the Tomb is his brother, who had lived for ten years with a fay -in a magic invisible castle, and had met no one to overcome him until -Perceval came. Perceval sends both knight and damsel to Arthur. (14) -Perceval meets with a white mule led by a damsel; he joins her, although -she entreats him not to do so. Suddenly struck by a great light in the -forest, he turns to ask his companion what it might mean, but finds her -gone. A violent storm comes on. The morrow he meets the damsel with the -mule, who had felt no storm. She tells him about the great light: it came -from the "Gréaus," which was given by the King of kings as He hung on the -Cross; the devil may not lead astray any man on the same day he sees it, -therefore the king has it carried about. Perceval asks further, but is -told only a holy man may speak of these mysteries. Perceval relates his -adventure with the lady of the chessboard, and the damsel gives him the -white mule, which will lead to her castle, together with a ring giving the -possessor power over the mule. He is to give both back when he meets her. -(16) The mule brings Perceval across a river, over a glass bridge, on the -other side of which he meets with Brios, who persuades him to join in a -tournament held by Arthur at the Castel Orguellous, as he must win the -prize of knighthood before coming to the castle of the Fisher King. -Perceval leaves stag's head and hound at Brios' castle, carries off the -prize at the tournament, remaining unknown. (17) Proceeding thence he -frees a knight imprisoned beneath a tombstone, who, in return, shuts him -up in the tomb, but, being unable to make the mule go forward, is obliged -to release him, and returns to his prison, telling Perceval he knows him -for the best knight in the world. (18) Perceval meets the damsel of the -mule, to whom he returns ring and mule, and who asks him if he has been at -the Fisher King's court; on his saying, No, she hurries off. Perceval -prays God to direct him to the Castle of the Chessboard. A voice tells him -to follow the hound; he does so, reaches the castle, is greeted by the -maiden, to whom he gives stag's head and hound, and who in return tells -him concerning the chessboard which _Morghe la fée_ had had made at -London, on the Thames, and grants him her favours as she had promised. On -the morrow Perceval rides forth, accompanied awhile by the damsel, who -will show him his onward way. (19) They come to a river, on which is a -boat tied to an oak tree. Perceval is to enter it, cross the river, and on -the other side he will find a road leading to the Fisher King. On his way -Perceval releases a knight whom he finds hanging by his feet from a tree; -'tis Bagommedes whom Keie had treated thus, and who returns to Arthur's -court, challenges Keie, and is only hindered by Arthur from slaying him. -All Arthur's knights then start forth for the Mont Dolorous and in search -of Perceval. The adventures of Gauvain alone are related in detail until -the tale returns to Perceval. (20) After freeing Bagommedes, Perceval, -wandering in the woods, comes to a tree, in whose branches sits a child, -who can tell nothing of the Fisher King, but tells Perceval he will come -on the morrow to the Mont Dolorous. This he does, and binds his horse to -the pillar. A damsel on a white mule tells him of Arthur's birth, and how -Merlin had made castle and pillar to prove who should be the best of -knights. She was Merlin's daughter. (21) Perceval rides on, and towards -evening sees afar off a tree upon which burn many lights; as he draws near -he finds only a chapel, upon the altar of which lies a dead knight. A -great and sudden light is followed by the appearance of a black hand, -which puts out the candle on the altar. On the morrow he meets first a -huntsman, who tells him he is near the castle, then a damsel, who explains -the child in the tree, the chapel, and the black hand as having connection -with the Holy Grail and the lance. (22) Perceval comes at last to the -castle of the Fisher King, whom he finds on a couch as heretofore. He -tells him his adventures, and asks concerning the child on the tree, the -tree full of lights, and the chapel with the dead knight. Meanwhile a -damsel enters a hall bearing the Grail, another follows with the bleeding -lance, then comes a squire with a sword broken in two. Again Perceval puts -his questions, and will not eat until they are answered. First, he is told -of the child which would not speak to him on account of his many sins, and -which climbed ever upwards to show man's thoughts should be raised to the -Creator. Before learning aught further Perceval is to try and weld the -broken sword together; none but a true knight lover of God, and of God's -spouse, Holy Church, may accomplish it. Perceval succeeds, save that a -little crack still remains. The Fisher King embraces him and hails him as -lord of his house. - -Here the section which goes under the name of Gautier ends. - -[A portion of Gautier's section of the Conte du Graal is found in the -Berne MS., partly edited, partly summarised, by Rochat in his work, _Ein -unbekannter Percheval li Gallois_ (_vide_ _infra_ p. 101). This version -offers some remarkable peculiarities. It has a short introduction of -thirteen lines; then follows line 21,930 of Gautier in Potvin's text (Mons -MS.). An incident follows, omitted in the Mons MS., but found in -Montpellier and in Paris, 794: Perceval meets a huntsman who upbraids him -for having been at the Fisher King's court, and failed to ask about Grail -and bleeding lance. Then follow Incidents 6, 7 (8 is absent so far as one -can judge from Rochat's summary), 9 to 13 (in which Perceval does not -apparently send Garalas and his love to Arthur), and 14 to end, the -following finish being then tacked on: The Fisher King is father to Alain -le Gros, husband to Enigeus, sister to that Joseph who, when Christ's body -was taken down from the Cross, had it from Pilate as a reward for his -services. Joseph had the vessel prepared to catch in it the blood from the -body; it was the same Jesus had made the Sacrament in on the Thursday -before. The Fisher King dies on the third day and Perceval reigns in his -stead.][11] - -The Conte du Graal is continued by-- - -(_c_) MANESSIER.--(1) Perceval, full of joy, sits down to table; after the -meal, lance, Grail, and a goodly silver dish pass before the royal table -away into the next room. Perceval, sighing, asks concerning these objects -and the maidens bearing them. (2) The King tells as follows: the lance is -that wherewith Longis pierced God's side that day he hung on the Cross -(Montpellier MS.: When Longis withdrew the spear the blood ran down to -feet, so that Joseph of Barimacie turned black from sorrow, and he -collected the blood in the holy vessel). On Perceval's asking further, the -Grail is the vessel wherein the holy precious blood of our Lord was -received. Then Perceval asks how it came thither; (3) Joseph brought it -when he departed from the prison whence he was freed by Vespasian. He -baptized forty of his friends, and wandered forth with them till they came -to Sarras, where, as the tale tells, they found the King in the Temple of -the Sun. Joseph helped the King against his enemies by means of a red -cross which he fixed on the King's shield. Evelac, such was the King's -name, won the battle thereby, was baptized, and renamed Noodrans. It went -so likewise with his brother-in-law, Salafrès, renamed Natiien. Joseph -departed thence, ever bearing the Grail with him, till at length he came -hither, converted the land, and I, of his seed, am keeping manor and -Grail, the which shall never dwell elsewhere, God willing. (Montpellier -MS. merely says, how Joseph was put into a dark prison, and kept there -forty years, but the Lord sent him the sweetness of the Grail twice or -thrice a day. Tiberius and Vespasian deliver him and bring him to Rome, -whence he carries away the lance.) (4) To Perceval's questions concerning -the damsels: the Grail-bearer is of royal blood, and pure maid, or God -might not let her hold it, she is my child; the dish-bearer is also of -high lineage, daughter to King Goon Desert. (5) The King would then go to -sleep, but Perceval would know about the broken sword: In Quiquagrant -dwelt Goon Desert, the King's brother. Besieged by Espinogre he made a -sally and slew him. Espinogre's nephew swore revenge; donning the armour -of a knight of Goon Desert, he slew him, but the sword broke when the -traitrous blow was struck. Goon Desert's body was brought to his brother's -castle, whither came, too, his daughter with the broken sword, foretelling -that a knight should come, rejoin the pieces, and avenge the foul blow. -The Fisher King taking up the fragments incautiously was pierced through -the thigh, and the wound might not be healed until his brother's death was -avenged. The murderer's name is Partiniaus, Lord of the Red Tower. -Perceval vows to avenge this wrong, but first, despite the King's strong -hints that it is bed-time, must learn (6) about the candles on the trees, -how they are fay trees, and the lights deceiving ones, but they might not -deceive Perceval, he being destined to achieve the wonders of the earth, -and he has put an end to this illusion; (7) how the black hand haunted a -chapel wherein Pinogres had slain his mother, and over four thousand -knights had been slain by it. (8) Perceval starting on the morrow in -search of Partinal meets with Saigremors, and with him delivers a damsel -from ten robber knights. Perceval, wounded, stays a month at the damsel's -castle, and (9) the story tells for some fifteen hundred verses -(36,100-37,400) of Saigremors; how he pursues the robber knights, comes to -the Castle of Maidens, delivers the dame thereof from a knight, Calides, -who wars upon her, and afterwards delivers another maiden, to whom two -knights were offering violence; (10) then, for over two thousand verses of -Gauvain; how he prepares to set forth again in search of the Fisher King; -how a maiden comes to him whose brother had been slain in his service, -reproaches Gauvain for his conduct at the Fisher King's castle, and -carries him off; how he saves a maid going to be burnt; how after other -adventures he slays King Margon, returns to Arthur's court, fights with -Kex to avenge the brother of the damsel, etc. (11) Meanwhile Perceval, -leaving the damsel who has tended him right well, rides forth into a wood, -where he is overtaken by a great storm of thunder and hail, after which he -comes to the chapel where lies the body of the knight slain by the black -hand. Perceval strives with the devil to whom this belongs, overcomes, and -with the help of a hermit who tells him the tale of all the knights who -had fallen there, buries the body. He then confesses to the hermit, who -warns him not to think of acquiring fame, but rather to save his soul. -(12) Perceval, riding forth on the morrow, is met by the devil, who throws -him from his horse; he finds another, mounts it, but coming to a stream -luckily crosses himself, when it disappears; it was the devil. (13) A -damsel passes by with a bark, wherein Perceval mounts; she minds him of -Blanchefleur, and desire masters him, but again he crosses himself in -time, and ship and damsel vanish. (14) A hermit comes who instructs him -concerning all these things, brings him where he finds a fresh steed, and -to a fair castle. Perceval overcomes a knight who would bar his passing, -delivers the lady love of Dodinel from a felon knight; is appealed to for -help by a damsel of Blanchefleur's, oppressed by Arides of Cavalon. (15) -Setting off to the succour of his lady love, his horse falls lame, he -comes to a smith who tells him his name is Tribuet, the forger of the -broken sword. Tribuet makes the sword whole, and bids Perceval guard it -well, never had king or conqueror a better one. (16) Perceval reaches Bel -Repaire, overcomes Arides, whom he sends to Arthur's court, bidding him -announce his own arrival for Whitsuntide. He then quits Blanchefleur, and -(17) meets with the Coward Knight, who will not fight even when he sees -two damsels carried off by ten knights. Perceval attacks the ravishers, -the Coward Knight is drawn into the struggle, and quits himself valiantly. -The rescued damsels bring the knights to their castle, where Perceval, -sore wounded, remains for two months. (18) Meanwhile Saigremors has -announced Perceval's arrival at Camelot. Whitsuntide passing, all the -knights set forth in search of him, and, amongst others, Boort; he meets -his brother Lyonel led, bound and naked, by six knights, who scourge him, -and at the same moment he hears the plaint of a maid to whom a knight is -doing violence. Her he succours, then hurries after his brother, whom, -meanwhile, Gauvain has rescued. Lyonel bitterly reproaches his brother for -abandoning him, and falls upon him, sword in hand; Boort offers no -defence, and would be slain but for a passing knight, Calogrinant, who -pays for his interference with his life. Finally, heavenly intervention -appeases Lyonel. Calogrinant is buried by a hermit. (19) Perceval, healed, -leaves the castle together with the Coward Knight, is present with him at -a tournament, at which he distinguishes himself above all others, leaves -his companion, to whom he gives the name Le Hardis, and (20) meets Hector, -who challenges him. The two fight, and well-nigh kill each other. To them, -lying on the field of combat, appears an angel with the Grail, and makes -them whole. (21) Perceval rides on to Partinal's castle, before which -stands a fir tree whereon hangs a shield. Perceval throws this down, -whereupon Partinal appears and a desperate combat ensues, ended by the -overthrow of Partinal, and, as he will submit to no conditions, his death. -Perceval cuts off his head and makes for the Grail Castle, but only after -a summer's seeking, lights upon it chancewise. (22) As he nears the -castle, the warders come to the King, telling him a knight is coming with -a head hanging at his saddle-bow; hereupon the King leaps to his feet and -is straightway made whole. Partinal's head is stuck on a pike on the -highest tower of the castle. After supper, at which the same mystic -procession of talismans takes place as heretofore, the King learns -Perceval's name, and thereby finds that he is his own sister's son. He -would hand him his crown, but Perceval has vowed not to take it, his uncle -living. (23) He returns to Arthur's court, overcoming on the way seven -knights, and tells his adventures, which Arthur has written down and kept -in a box at Salisbury. The Grail damsel appears and tells Perceval his -uncle is dead. Perceval goes to Corbière accompanied by all the court, who -assist at his crowning and remain with him a month, during which time the -Grail feeds all with the costliest foods. He marries his cousins, the two -Grail-bearers, to two valiant kings, and reigns in peace for seven years. -(24) After which time he follows a hermit into the wilderness, accompanied -by Grail, lance, and holy dish. He serves the Lord for ten years, and, -when he dies, Grail, lance, and dish were doubtless carried up to heaven, -for since that day no man saw them. - -(_d_) GERBERT.--(According to Birch Hirschfeld interpolated between -Gautier and Manessier, and joining on therefore to the last incident in -Gautier.)[12] - -(1) Perceval's sin in having indirectly caused the death of his mother -disables him from making whole the broken sword, and he must set forth -again in search of the Grail. In the night he dreams a danger threatens -his sister, and on the morrow he wakes up in open field, the Grail Castle -having vanished. (2) He comes to a fair castle in the midst of a meadow, -and, finding the door shut, knocks at it with his sword till the latter -breaks. An old man appears, and tells him the broken sword will cost him -seven years more wanderings until he come again to the Grail Castle. All -he can do for Perceval is to give him a letter which heals the wounded and -makes the wearer invincible. (3) Perceval riding thence through country -that the day before was waste and folkless, finds it now well cultivated -and peopled; all press round him and bless him for the change wrought by -his asking concerning the Grail. (4) He comes to a castle wherein is a -forge guarded by two serpents, and on it was a sword forged for a year, -and it might not be broken, save in a certain danger, or mended save at -the same forge. Perceval, after resisting the devil in the shape of a fair -maid, attacks and overcomes the two serpents, and has his sword mended by -the blacksmith, who tells him how he broke it at the gate of Paradise. -(5) After making whole by his letter two knights of the Round Table who -had lost their wits in Castle Dolorous, Perceval comes to Carlion, to -Arthur's court, and accomplishes the adventure of the Perillous Seat which -a fairy had sent to Arthur. Only the destined Grail-finder might sit in -it. Six knights who had previously essayed the feat had been swallowed up -by the earth; they reappear when Perceval is successful. (6) Perceval is -called away from the court by a forsaken damsel, whose false lover he -compels to marry her; then, after overcoming fresh temptation in -damsel-shape, he comes to his sister's castle, overcomes her adversary, -who turns out to be Mordret, and reaches the Castle of Maidens, where he -is healed of his wounds by the lady of the castle, his cousin. She tells -him of his mother, Philosofine, and how the Grail was taken from the ken -of man owing to the sinfulness of the world. Perceval leaves his sister in -this castle where dames are chaste and damsels maids. (7) Returning to -court, whither Mordret had preceded him in sorry plight, Perceval is -mocked at by Kex, whom he overcomes, and afterwards meets Gauvain and -Tristan. (8) Leaving the court, he meets with four knights carrying their -father, mortally wounded, accompanies them to their castle, recognises in -the wounded knight, Gornumant, who had knighted him, swears to avenge him, -tells all that has befallen himself, and learns that the cause of his -successive failures is his forsaking his betrothed, Blanchefleur, whom he -knows to be Gornumant's niece. He is told that if he listen heedfully to -mass and marry the damsel all will be well, and he will learn the secrets -of lance and Grail. But first Perceval overcomes a hideous hag, who by -night brings to life Gornumant's enemies slain during the day. She has a -potion, whereof Christ made use in the sepulchre, and with it she quickens -the dead. She recognizes Perceval and acknowledges him as her conqueror, -yet while she lives he shall know nought of the Grail; she works by order -of the King of the Waste City, who hates all Christian folk. Perceval -tries the virtue of the potion on the most valiant of his enemies, with -whom he engages in a fresh and desperate struggle, heals Gornumant with -it, and sets off to marry Blanchefleur, as he is wishful to live cleanly -and fly deadly sin. (9) She is overjoyed at his arrival; preparations are -made for the marriage; the night before, she comes to his bedside in smock -and mantle, and they pass the night side by side, but with the sheet -between them. The wedding follows, and then, fearful of losing the -heavenly joy for sake of carnal longing, they resolve to resist the devil -and live virgin-wise, for virginity surpasseth aught else, even as the -topaz does crystal. Perceval, in a dream, is assured that of his seed -shall be the Swan Knight and the deliverer of the Holy Sepulchre. -Meanwhile he is still to search after lance and Grail. (10) On the morrow -he quits Blanchefleur, "maid she laid her to bed, maid she arose;" frees a -maiden pursued by a brutal knight; (11) comes to a castle where the -wayfarer must first fight against four knights and then against the lord -of the castle; does away with this custom; (12) comes to cross roads, -whereof one is safe and easy, the other adventurous and full of danger; -meets a knight all on fire; sees two hermits, one kneeling at a cross, -the other scourging it; then a wonderful beast, a doe followed by fawns, -which assail and devour her; (13) is presented at a hermit's with a shield -none but the Grail-winner may wear, after which the table heretofore -meanly spread is covered with rich fare, and learns the meaning of the -mystic scenes he has witnessed. (14) He is summoned by a damsel, who tells -him of the Dragon King, lord of a heathen folk dwelling in mid-sea, -possessor of a shield whereon is painted a dragon that belches forth -flame. Perceval sets forth to attack him, resists the devil who dwells in -the dragon head, thanks to his miraculous shield whereon the cross is -painted, and forces him to flee; continues the fight against the Dragon -Knight without his shield, and slays him, but not till he has repented him -of his sins. (15) Meanwhile a thief has made off with the shield, in -pursuing whom Perceval comes to an abbey, where he learns the story of -Joseph of Arimathea. Some forty years after the Crucifixion lived a -heathen king, Evelac, in Sarras, wherefrom the Saracens have their name, -sore pressed by Tholomes, King of Syria. But Joseph of Barimaschie, who -had been five years in Pilate's service, comes to him, and with him his -brother-in-law, Seraphe; he promised the King victory if he would let -himself be baptized. The King consented, and received the name of -Mordrach. Joseph then came to this land, and with him sixty folk and two -fair ladies, whereof the one, Philosophine, bore a plate, the other an -ever-bleeding lance, whilst Joseph had a vessel, never saw man a fairer -one. But King Crudel flung Joseph and his companions into prison, where -they dwelt forty days, but it harmed them not, as through the Holy Grail -they were filled with great plenty and had every wish fulfilled. Now, -Mordrains, learning this, brought together a great host, invaded King -Crudel's lands, attacked and slew him. Mordrains, disarming, was found to -be covered with wounds, none of which he had felt. On the morrow Joseph -put up a table, altar-wise, and thereon laid the Grail, which Mordrains -seeing, pressed near to. But an angel with a fiery sword kept him back, -and a voice assured him he had laid such a burden on his shoulders as he -might not pass away, nor would his wounds be healed until should come the -true knight, loved of Christ, sinless, and in his arms he, Mordrains, -should die. And till then the Host should be his only food. Since then -three hundred years have passed, and the monks have heard that the knight -is in the land who shall ask concerning lance and Grail, and thereby heal -the king. (16) Perceval leaves on the morrow and comes to a castle wherein -is a coffin, brought thereto in a boat drawn by a swan; none save the best -knight in the world may open it. All have tried, even Gauvain, and failed. -Perceval succeeds, and finds in the coffin the body of a knight, former -lord of the castle, and a letter setting forth that he who should open the -coffin was his murderer. Perceval, attacked in consequence by the dead -man's sons, defends himself by making a buttress of the youngest son's -body. Afterwards he overcomes the folk of the castle, and delivers -Gauvain, held prisoner therein. (17) Perceval, after confessing his sins -to a hermit, has an adventure with the devil, who comes out of a tomb, -but whom he forces back therein. (18) He then succours a maiden whom her -jealous lover has thrown into a fountain; (19) punishes a damsel who -tempts him in traitrous-wise; (20) meets with and is sore pressed by a -giant, whom he overcomes; (21) has a fresh and victorious encounter with -Kex, and, finally, (22) arrives at crossways, is directed by the cross to -the Fisher King's court, reaches it, asks straightway for the Grail, is -questioned by the King and relates his allegorical adventures. At table -the Grail appears, followed by lance and sword. Perceval pieces together -the sword, and the King, full of joy, embraces him. - -=Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival.=--Gahmuret, Parzival's father, goes to -the East, takes service with Baruc, wins the love of the heathen queen -Belakane, but after remaining with her a short time forsakes her, -promising to return if she become Christian. She bears a son, and names -him Feirefiz. Gahmuret by his prowess at a tournament wins the love of -Herzeloyde, whom he marries on condition he may go a tourneying every -month. Hearing his old lord Baruc is in danger, he hastens to his aid, and -is slain. Herzeloyde on receipt of the news resolves to withdraw to the -wilderness, and bring up her son in ignorance of knighthood. - -[From this point up to and including the adventure with Orgeuilleuse, -where Chrestien's share of the Conte du Graal breaks off, Wolfram agrees -very closely with Chrestien. It has been much debated in Germany whether -he really had any other model but Chrestien, and whether his alleged model -Kyot be not a feigned source to justify his departure from the story as -found in the Conte du Graal. A brief outline of the arguments for and -against this view will be found in Appendix A. The chief points of -difference in the portion common to the two poets are: the more important -position in the narrative assigned to Perceval's cousin, whom Wolfram -names Sigune, who is fed from the Grail by the Grail messenger, the -loathly damsel, and about whose loves with Schianatulander Wolfram has -left fragments of another poem, Titurel. Parzival meets her immediately -after his adventure with the lady of the tent. Parzival's love is named -Condwiramur. On the first night of their marriage he leaves her maid (as -in Gerbert's version). But the most important peculiarity of Wolfram's -poem is his account of the Grail itself, a stone which yields all manner -of food and drink, the power of which is sustained by a dove, which every -week lays a Host upon it, given, after the fall of the rebel angels, in -charge to Titurel and his dynasty, by them preserved in the Grail castle, -Montsalvatch, guarded by a sacred order of knighthood whom it chooses -itself. The knights are vowed to virginity, the king alone being allowed -marriage. The cause of the maimed king's (Amfortas) hurt is his having -taken up arms in the cause of worldly and unlawful love. When Parzival -leaves the Grail castle after the first visit, he is mocked at by the -inmates for having omitted the question. More stress is laid on the broken -sword, connected with which is a magic spell Parzival must master before -he can become lord of the Grail castle. The "loathly damsel," Kundrie, is -also a much more important person with Wolfram than with Chrestien, and -she is brought into contact with Parzival's cousin, Sigune. Parzival's -love for his wife is dwelt upon at length, and he is urged by the hermit -rather to rejoin her than to seek the Grail.] - -After the adventure with Orgueilleuse, Wolfram continues as follows:--The -lord of the magic castle, wherein are kept prisoners Arthur's mother and -the other queens, is Clinschor, nephew of Virgilius of Naples, who took to -magic after his unmanning at the hands of King Ibert, whose wife, Iblis, -he loved. Gawain overcomes the magician, and, both unknowing, fights with -Parzival. The latter, after many lesser adventures, meets his half-brother -Feirefiz, and sustains with him the hardest of all his fights. At length -recognition is brought about, the two embrace, and repair to Arthur's -court. Cundrie nears once more, tells Parzival he has been chosen Grail -king, that his wife and twin sons, Loherangrin and Kardeiz, have been -summoned to the Grail castle, and that the question will now free Amfortas -and his land. With Cundrie and Feirefiz, Parzival rides to the Grail -castle, meets his wife, together they all behold the talismans, save -Feirefiz, to whom as a heathen the sight of the Grail is denied. But he is -baptised, weds Repanse de Schoie, the Grail damsel, the two return to -India, and from them is born Prester John. Parzival rules over his Grail -kingdom. Of his son Loherangrin it is told how he is led to the aid of the -Duchess of Brabant by a swan, how he marries her on condition she inquire -not as to his origin, and how, on her breaking the command, the swan -carries him away from her. - -=Heinrich von dem Türlin.=--_The Gawain Episodes of Diu Crône._--The -parallelism of Heinrich's poem with those of Wolfram and Chrestien begins -about verse 17,500 with an adventure of Gawain's corresponding to Inc. 13 -in Chrestien (Tournament for the hand of Tiebaut of Tingaguel's daughter, -episode of the two sisters, combat with Melians de Lis). In Heinrich the -father is named Leigamar, the eldest daughter Fursensephin, (Fleur sans -epine ?), the youngest Quebelepluz, where Heinrich has taken a French -phrase setting forth the greater fairness of the damsel for a proper name. -Inc. 14 in Chrestien then follows with these differences: the name of the -castle is Karamphi; Gawain and the facile damsel are surprised by the -latter's brother, and it is her father who, to avenge the wrong done his -house, makes Gawain swear that within a year he will either seek out the -Grail or return as prisoner to Karamphi. Chrestien's Inc. 15 is of course -missing, the story going straight on to Inc. 16, meeting with the wounded -knight (here Lohenis) and his lady love Emblie, who by treachery deprive -Gawain of his steed; then the arrival at the Castle of Wonders, and the -night passed in the enchanted bed, where the hero is overwhelmed with -crossbolts shot at him by invisible foes. The plucking of the flower from -the enchanted garden at the bidding of a damsel (Orgueilleuse in Chrestien -and Wolfram, here Mancipicelle), and the meeting with and challenge by -Giremelanz follow. Arthur's court comes to the Castle of Wonders to -witness the combat. Gawain and Giremelanz are reconciled, the latter -marries Gawain's sister, and Gawain himself sets off to search for the -Grail. [Adventures then follow which correspond to nothing in Chrestien or -Wolfram, in which Gawain wins talismans destined to aid him in his -search.] Gawain sets forth on his quest accompanied by Kay, Lancelot, and -Calocreant. They part at crossways. Gawain comes to the sister of the -magician (anonymous in Chrestien, Klinschor in Wolfram, here Gansguoter) -of the Castle of Wonders. She bids him take heed, if he wish to see the -Grail, he be not overcome by sleep, and for this that he drink not -overmuch; as soon as he saw it and its accompanying damsels, he was to ask -about it. If he neglected this, all his past and any future toil would be -useless. On his way to the Grail castle, the hero meets with all sorts of -dangers, and obstacles, and wonders; amongst others, passing the night in -a castle where he is tended by invisible hands. After month-long -wanderings he meets with Lancelot and Calocreant, and learns that Kay, in -a vain attempt to penetrate to the Grail, has been flung into prison. The -three comrades then come to the Grail castle. They are led into a hall -which passes in splendour aught earthly eye ever saw. The floor is strewn -with roses, on a bed lies an old man in gold-embroidered garments, and -watches two youths playing at chess. Towards night the hall fills with -knights and dames, a youth enters bearing a sword which he lays before the -old man. Gawain is pressed to drink; but refuses, not so his two -companions, who straightway fall asleep. Then enter two damsels bearing -lights, followed by two knights with a spear, and two more damsels with a -"toblier" (? tailleor, plate) of gold and jewels. After them comes the -fairest woman ever God created, and with her a maiden weeping. The spear -is laid on the table, by it the "toblier" wherein are three drops of -blood. In the box borne by the fair lady is a piece of bread, one third -part of which she breaks off and gives to the old man. Gawain recognising -in her Gansguoter's sister, stays no longer, but asks what these wonders -mean. Straightway knights and dames all with mighty shout leap from table, -and great joy arises. The old man says what he has seen is the Grail; none -saw it before save Parzival, and he asked not. By his question Gawain has -delivered from long waiting and suffering both those which are dead and -those which live. The old man himself and his companions are really dead, -though they seem it not, but the lady and her damsels are living; for -their unstained womanhood God has granted them to have the Grail, and -therewith yearly to feed the old man. All Gawain's adventures latterly -have come from the Grail. Now he has ended all, he is to take as prize of -his knighthood the sword which will help him in every danger. After him no -man shall see the Grail; further concerning it he must not ask, nor may -know more. At daybreak the old man's tale ends, and he with his whole -court vanish, leaving only the lady with her five damsels. [After -releasing Kay, and undergoing other adventures, Gawain returns to Arthur's -court.] - -=The Petit Saint Graal or Didot-Perceval.=[13]--_Prologue._--After the -choosing of Arthur to be King, Merlin comes to the court, and tells how -Arthur is Uther-Pendragon's son, brought up by Antor as his son. All -rejoice at this, especially Gauvain, son of Lot. After dinner the barons -bring Merlin to Arthur, and tell him how he was the prophet of -Uther-Pendragon, and had made the Round Table. Arthur promises to honour -Merlin. The latter calls him apart with Gauvain and Key, and tells him -how, in the time of Uther-Pendragon, the Round Table was made after the -pattern of one Joseph constructed when he separated the good from the -evil. Two Kings of Britain before had been Kings of France, and conquered -Rome; Queen Sibyl and Solomon had prophesied Arthur should be third, and -he, Merlin, was the third to assure him of it. But this could only be if -Arthur established the Round Table as Merlin directed. Now the Grail had -been given Joseph by our Lord himself, and at His command Joseph led a -great folk into the desert. And when evil befell them Joseph, at our -Lord's command, made a table; whereat one place was left empty in -remembrance of Judas. But Moyses, a false disciple, sat therein, but sank -into the abyss, whereout he shall not come until the time of Antichrist. -Our Lord made the first table; Joseph, the second; he, Merlin, the third. -The Grail was given into the keeping of the rich Fisher King; but he was -old, full of sickness, and should not win health till a knight came, -having sat at the Round Table, true man of God and of Holy Church, and the -best knight in the world for feats of arms. He must ask the rich fisher of -what use is the Grail; then the King would be cured of his infirmity, the -enchantments of Britain would cease, and the prophecy be fulfilled. Should -Arthur do this, great good would come of it; he, Merlin, must go, as he -could not often show himself to the people. Whereupon he departs to -Ortoberland, to Blaise, his master, who writes down these things, and by -his writings we know them. The son of Alein le Gros is a child named -Percevaux, and as Alein is dying he hears the voice of the Holy Ghost -saying, Know thou art near thy end, and wilt soon come into the fellowship -of Jesus Christ. Brons, thy father, dwells in these isles of Ireland, and -with him is the Grail. And he may not die until thy son finds him, to whom -he shall commend the grace of the vessel, and teach the secret words -Joseph taught him, then shall he be cured of his infirmities. And I -command thy son that he go to the court of Arthur, where he shall be -taught how he may find the house of his grandfather. Alein dies, and -Percevaux mounts his horse and comes to Arthur's court, and asks arms from -him, and stays there and is much loved. - -(1) Arthur proposes holding a tournament at Easter, the greatest the world -had seen, to honour the Round Table. Perceval at first takes no part in -the tournament; but afterwards, for love of Aleine, niece of Gauvain, who -incites him thereto, and sends him a suit of red armour, he enters the -lists unknown, and overbears all opponents, so that all say he should fill -the empty place at the Round Table. Perceval claims the empty place from -the King, and when refused threatens to return to his land and never visit -the court again. Arthur yields, and Perceval seats himself. Then the rocks -and the earth groan dolorously, and a voice reproaches Arthur with having -disobeyed Merlin's command. Were it not the goodness of Alein le Gros -Perceval had died the death of Moys. Now should Arthur know the vessel our -Lord gave Joseph was in the keeping of the rich fisher, and he was ill and -infirm, and until the best knight in the world should come might not die. -And when that knight should come to the rich fisher and ask concerning the -vessel, then should he be cured, but die within three days after giving -the vessel to that knight, and teaching him the secret words handed down -by Joseph. Thus the enchantments of Britain should cease. (2) Perceval -swears not to lie one night where he had lain the night before till he -find the rich fisher. Gauvain, Sagremors, Beduers, Hurgains, and Erec -swear the same. The knights set forth amid general lamentation. They part -at a chapel, and the story follows Perceval. (3) He comes, after two days, -upon a damsel weeping over a knight, Hurganet, one of the Round Table, who -had gone forth on the Grail Quest. He had delivered her from a giant, and -ridden with her into a tent where they found knights and ladies, who -warned them not to await the owner, the "Orgoillos Delandes," who would -kill him. And whilst speaking a dwarf entered, scourge in hand, who threw -down the tent. The Lord of the Tent then appeared, clad in red armour, and -slew Hurganet. Perceval determines to avenge his death; rides to the tent -with the damsel; is warned of its inmates; is surprised by the dwarf, who -smites the damsel with his scourge, whereupon Perceval fells him to the -ground. The Knight of the Tent appears; after a desperate struggle -Perceval overcomes him and sends him with the damsel to Arthur's court. -She had fain stayed with him, but he thought of other things. (4) Perceval -comes to the finest castle in the world, enters, and finds no inhabitant. -Only a chessboard he finds. He begins to move the pieces, and they play -against him, and he is checkmated three times running. Full of anger he -prepares to throw the chessmen into the castle moat--suddenly a damsel -shows herself and reproaches him. He will abstain if she comes to him. She -consents, and after her squires and maidens have disarmed Perceval he -joins her. Overcome by her beauty he requests her love. She will grant it -him if he capture the white stag of the wood. She lends him her hound, and -recommends him to take the utmost care of it. Perceval chases the stag, -captures it, and, having cut off its head, starts back. But meanwhile an -old woman has carried off the hound. She will only give it up if Perceval -will go to a grave whereunder is a knight painted, and say: "Felon, he -that put you there." Perceval complies; whereupon appears a knight on a -black horse armed in black. They strive, and Perceval overcomes him. But -meantime a second knight has carried off both the stag's head and the -hound from the old woman. Perceval's adversary flees to the tomb, which -closes upon him, and Perceval follows the second knight after a vain -attempt to get help from the old woman. (5) Him he found not; but after -feats longer than I can tell, comes to his father's house, where he was -born. He only finds his sister and a niece. The former tells him -concerning her brother, who went to Arthur's court; whereupon their mother -died of grief. Perceval reveals himself, and is amazed at what she relates -concerning the Grail and its guardian, and asks if he may come to behold -it. She answers, Yes; whereupon he vows not to rest till he have found it. -She attempts to dissuade him, but he remains firm. She then urges him to -go to their uncle, who is a hermit, to whom he may confess the sin of his -mother's death, and who will advise him concerning the Quest. (6) Both -proceed thither. He rejoices to see them, and asks if Perceval has been to -the house of his father, guardian of the vessel named Grail, and, on -hearing that he has not, tells him how at the table which Joseph and -himself had made, the voice of the Holy Ghost had come to them, telling -them to go westward, and ordering the rich fisher, his father, to come to -that land where the sun goes down (_avaloit_), telling him he should not -die till the son of Alein had become the best knight in the world. -Perceval had been chosen to do his Lord's service; he is to slay no knight -nor to lie with any woman, that being luxurious sin. His sins have -prevented his reaching Brons. He is to be careful to keep himself from sin -and felony, being of a race our Lord so loved that He committed His blood -to their keeping. Much else he says, and on the morrow Perceval and his -sister ride forth. (7) They meet a knight who challenges them. Perceval, -thinking of the damsel who had given him the hound, at first pays no -attention, but then overcomes and slays him. Perceval is much grieved at -having so soon broken his uncle's injunction. On the morrow he leaves his -sister, promising to return so soon as he may. (8) He meets a knight, -accompanied by a damsel the most wonderfully ugly nature ever made, -whereat he signs himself and laughs. The knight, indignant, challenges -him, but is overcome and sent with the damsel to Arthur's court. Kay makes -mock of them; but Arthur reproves him and receives them courteously. They -remain at the court, and know that she was the most beautiful woman in the -world! (9) Perceval comes to a ford and is challenged by its guardian, -whom he overcomes. His name is Urban of the Black Thorn; his lady had set -him to guard the ford. Her castle vanishes with a great noise, and she -comes to her lover's aid with her maidens in shape of birds. Perceval -slays one who becomes a woman, and is carried off by the others to -Avallon. (10) Perceval comes to a tree at the crossing of four roads, -among its branches he sees two naked children of seven years old. They -speak to him concerning the Grail, and direct him to take the road to the -right. They vanish, and a voice tells him to heed their counsel. (11) -Perceval comes to a river whereon are three men in a boat, and the master -of the boat bids him go down the stream till he should come to his house. -Perceval rides a whole day without finding it, and curses the fisher. At -last he comes to a castle with lowered drawbridge, enters, and is robed in -scarlet by two squires. Meanwhile four attendants have carried the Fisher -King, father of Alein, and grandfather of Perceval, into the hall. The -King wished to do Perceval what honour he might. They eat, and whilst at -table a squire comes out of a chamber, and brings in both hands a lance, -whence flows a drop of blood. Him follows a damsel bearing two silver -plates and clothes; then a squire with a vessel in which was our Lord's -blood. All bow as he passes, and Perceval had fain asked, but he fears to -displease the King, minding him of the worthy man to whom he had -confessed, and who forbade his speaking too much and enquiring -overmuch--for a man of idle words is displeasing to our Lord. All night -Perceval thinks of the lance and of the Grail, and in the morning, on -waking, finds neither man nor woman. He sets forth to seek some one, but -in vain, and is greatly distressed. (12) He finds a damsel weeping -bitterly, who, seeing him, cries out: "Percevaux le Gallois, be accursed, -unhappier art thou than ever, having been in the house of the rich Fisher -King, and not having asked concerning the Grail. Thy Lord hates thee; and -'tis wonder the earth do not open beneath thee." Had he not seen Grail and -lance pass? Had he asked what one did with them, the King, cured of his -infirmity, would have returned to his youth; our Lord's prophecy to Joseph -been fulfilled, and the enchantments of Britain undone. But Perceval is -neither wise, valiant, nor true man enough to have charge of the blood. -But he shall come again and ask concerning the Grail, and his grandfather -shall be cured. (13) The damsel departs, and Perceval, unable to find his -grandfather's house, rides on and comes to a tree under which a damsel is -sitting, and in whose branches the stag's head, which had been carried off -from him, is hanging. Perceval takes it, and when his hound following a -stag comes up, takes possession of it likewise. But the knight who had -taken them appears. Perceval fights with and overcomes him; learns that he -is the brother of the Knight of the Tomb, who lives therein with his love, -sister of the damsel for whose sake Perceval had hunted the stag. To her -Perceval now returns, gives her hound and stag's head, and then departs -refusing the offer of her love, even to stop one night with her. (14) -Perceval wanders for seven years achieving many feats, and sending more -than one hundred knights prisoners to Arthur; but, not being able to find -his grandfather's house, he falls into such melancholy as to lose his -memory, so that he minds him no more of God, and never enters Church. One -Good Friday, fully armed, he meets a knight and ladies in penitents' -dress, who reproach him for going armed on a day that our Lord was -crucified. Perceval repents; returns to his uncle, the hermit; learns that -his sister is dead, and does penitence. The songmen, in their pleasing -rhymes, say nothing of this; but we tell you of it as we find it in the -tale Merlin made Blaise write down. (15) Perceval rides forth and meets -seven squires of Melianz de Liz, who is going to a tournament at the White -Castle, the damsel of which is to be the victor's prize. All the knights -of the Round Table will be there, having returned that Whitsuntide from -the Quest of the Grail without achieving aught. Perceval leaves the -squires and come to a castle where he puts up. His host urges him to take -part in the tournament. The morrow they ride forth and look on; Melianz -wears the scarf of the lady of the castle; he and Gauvain prove themselves -the best knights, the onlooking ladies know not to whom to award the -prize. The next day, Perceval, having resolved upon taking part, accepts -the scarf of his host's daughter, overcomes all adversaries, and sends -steeds to the lady in return for her scarf. Being asked by his host if he -will not woo the damsel of the White Castle, Perceval answers he may not -take wife. Then appears an old man who reproaches Perceval for going to a -tournament, and with forgetting his vow to sleep no two nights in the same -house till the Quest be accomplished. He is Merlin, come from Hortoblande, -to say that owing to the prayers of Perceval's uncle, our Lord wills that -the latter may have his blood to keep. He is to go to his grandfather. -Perceval asks when he shall get there. "Before a year," is the answer. -"'Tis a long time." "Not so," says Merlin, who leaves him, and tells all -to Blaise, from whose writing we know of it. (16) That same night Perceval -comes to his grandfather's house, is received by the Fisher King, and as -they sit at table the Grail appears, and the relics with it, and when -Perceval sees it he asks to what use is the vessel put? Forthwith the King -is cured, and his being changed. Perceval must say first who he is before -learning such holy things. Upon learning it is his grandson before him, -the King leads him to the Grail, and tells him with this lance Longis -pierced the side of Jesus Christ, whom he knew in the flesh. In this -vessel is the blood, Joseph caught as it ran to the ground. It is called -Grail because it is agreeable to worthy men; none may sin in its presence. -Then Brons, kneeling, prays, and the voice of the Holy Ghost tells him the -prophecy will be fulfilled; and he is to teach Perceval the secret words -our Lord on the cross told Joseph, and Joseph told him. He does, but I -cannot and may not say what these words were. Then angels carry him off; -and Perceval remains, and the enchantments of Britain and of the whole -world cease. And that same day Arthur and his knights sitting at the Round -Table are aware of a great noise, and the seat is made whole again which -had broken under Perceval. Merlin appears to Blaise, tells him his work is -ended, and takes him to Perceval, who was right glad of his company. - -_Epilogue._--Merlin comes to Arthur's court and relates all that had taken -place. The knights, finding the Quest of the Grail is over, and mindful of -Merlin's former words, urge Arthur to invade the continent. He does so, -overcomes Frollo, King of France; refuses tribute to the Emperor of Rome, -overcomes him, but is recalled to England on learning Mordret's treachery. -The latter is slain; but Arthur, wounded mortally, is carried to Avallon -to be healed of Morguen, his sister. Lastly, Merlin tells Perceval how he -will withdraw from the world, and be no more seen of men. And the tale -says no more of Merlin and the Grail. - -=The Mabinogi of Peredur ab Evrawc.=--Evrawc, Earl of the North, has seven -sons, six of whom, like himself, fall in tournaments and combats. His wife -carries off her youngest son, Peredur, to the desert, and forbids horses -or arms being shown to him. He grows up strong and active, and can outrun -his mother's goats and hinds. (1) One day he sees three knights -passing--Gwalchmai, the son of Gwyar, and Geneir Gwystyl, and Owain, the -son of Urien. His mother declares them to be angels; whereupon he -determines to join them. He questions Owain concerning his accoutrements -and the use of his weapons. His mother swoons away at the thought of his -leaving her; but he picks out a horse and saddles it. Before leaving, his -mother counsels him to repeat his paternoster wherever he sees a church; -to take food and drink if none offer them; to aid when any outcry is, -especially a woman's; if he sees a fair jewel to take it and give it to -another; to pay his court to fair women whether they will or no. (2) After -two days and nights Peredur comes to a tent, where he finds a damsel. Half -of the food and drink she has he takes, half leaves to her; asks her for -her ring at leaving, which she gives him. Her lord returning, is jealous, -and sets forth to avenge his supposed wrong. (3) Peredur journeys on to -Arthur's court. A knight has been there before him, and grievously -insulted Gwenhwyvar by dashing a goblet of wine in her face, and carrying -the goblet out, and has dared any to avenge the insult; but all hang their -heads. Peredur enters the hall and demands knighthood. On Kai's protesting -he is too meanly equipped, a dwarf, who, with his female companion has -been a year at Arthur's court without speaking, salutes him as the flower -of knighthood. Kai strikes him for this, and kicks the female dwarf, who -repeats the salutation. Kai bids Peredur seek the knight and win back the -goblet, then shall he have knighthood. Peredur does so, and slays the -knight. Owain, who has followed, shows him how to undo the armour and to -clad himself in it, and bids him back to Arthur. But Peredur refuses, he -will not come back to the court till he have avenged the injury done by -Kai to the dwarf and dwarfess. (4) Peredur overcomes sixteen knights and -sends them to Arthur with the same message. (5) Peredur comes to a castle -by a lake, and sees a venerable man sitting by the lake and his attendant -fishing, and the old man is lame. And Peredur enters the castle, and is -practised in the use of weapons, and learns courtesy and noble bearing; -and the old man is his uncle--his mother's brother. He is to leave his -mother's habits and discourse, and if he sees aught to wonder at, not to -ask the meaning of it. (6) Peredur leaves his uncle and comes to a castle -where dwells a second uncle of his--brother likewise of his mother. His -strength is tested by his having to cut through an iron staple with a -sword. Twice he does it and the broken pieces re-unite, but the third time -neither would unite as before. He has arrived at two-thirds of his -strength, and when he attains his full power none will be able to contend -with him. Whilst talking, two youths enter the hall bearing a mighty spear -with three streams of blood flowing from the point to the ground. All -wail and lament; but as Peredur is not vouchsafed the meaning of what he -sees he forbears to ask concerning it. Then enter two maidens with a -salver in which a man's head swims in blood. The outcry redoubles. Peredur -retires to sleep. (7) On the morrow, with his uncle's permission, he rides -forth, finds a beautiful woman lamenting over the corpse of a knight. She -reveals herself as his foster-sister; calls him accursed for causing his -mother's death by leaving her; and tells him it is her husband she mourns -for, slain by the Knight of the Glade. Peredur meets the latter, overcomes -him, and makes him take his foster-sister in marriage. (8) Peredur comes -to a castle where are eighteen youths and five maidens, and he had never -seen one of so fair an aspect as the chief of the maidens. A flask of wine -and six loaves are brought by two nuns, and that must suffice for all. The -youths press the maiden to offer herself to Peredur as his wife or lady -love. She refuses; but consents when they threaten leaving her to her -enemies. She comes weeping to Peredur and relates how she is besieged by -an earl who seeks her hand. She implores his aid, and offers to place -herself in his hands. Peredur bids her go sleep, he will assist her, The -next day he overthrows the master of the household of the earl. To save -his life the latter must deliver up one-third of the besieged maiden's -lands. The second day it fares the same with the earl's steward; the third -with the earl himself. Peredur thus wins back all his hostess' lands, and -tarries with her three weeks; but for her love he would not have stayed so -long. (9) Peredur next meets the Lady of the Tent, ill-entreated of her -husband concerning him. Him he overcomes, compels to acknowledge her -innocence, and sends both to Arthur. (10) Peredur comes to the castle of a -tall and stately lady, who bids him escape from the sorceresses of -Gloucester, who will attack the castle that night; but he resolves to -remain, and defends one of the watch when overtaken by a sorceress. The -latter hails him by his name. She foreknows she is to suffer harm from -him. If he will go with her he shall learn chivalry and the use of arms. -Peredur consents on her promising to refrain from injuring the countess, -and stays with her three weeks. (11) Peredur comes to a hermit's cell. In -the morning it has snowed. A hawk has killed a fowl in front of the cell, -but is scared away by Peredur's horse; a raven has alighted on the bird. -Peredur likens the blackness of the raven and the whiteness of the snow -and the redness of the blood to the hair and the skin and the two red -spots on the cheeks of the lady he loves best. Whilst thus lost in -thought, Arthur and his household come up with him, but fail to recognise -him. A youth accosts him, but receives no answer; whereupon he thrusts at -Peredur but is struck to the ground. Twenty-four youths essay the same, -and are repulsed in like manner. Kai then comes and speaks angrily, but -Peredur breaks his arms for him. Gwalchmai then approaches him -courteously, learns his name, and brings him to Arthur, who does him -honour. Thus all return to Caerlleon. (12) Peredur solicits the love of -Angharad Law Eurawc, and when she denies him, vows to speak to no -Christian till she loves him. (13) Peredur comes to the castle of a huge -grey man, a heathen, after slaying a lion, his porter. The grey man's -daughter warns him of her father, and at his request brings his horse and -arms to his lodging. Peredur overcomes the vassals, and slays the sons of -the grey man, and sends the whole household to Arthur to be baptized. (14) -Peredur slays a serpent lying upon a gold ring, and wins the ring. For a -long time he speaks to no Christian, and loses colour and aspect through -longing for Arthur and his lady love. He returns to Arthur's court, but -none know him, and he suffers Kai to thrust him through the thigh without -his saying a word. He overcomes many knights, and at length Angharad Law -Eurawc confesses her love for him. He remains at Arthur's court. (15) -Peredur comes to the castle of a huge, black, one-eyed man. The latter's -daughter warns him against her father. But Peredur stays, overcomes the -latter, and learns how he lost his eye. On the Mound of Mourning is a -cairn, in the cairn a serpent with a stone in its tail, the virtue whereof -is to give as much gold to the possessor as he may desire. In fighting the -serpent he had lost his eye. He directs Peredur to the serpent, and is -slain by him. Peredur refuses the love of the maidens of the castle, and -rides forth. (16) He comes to the palace of the son of the King of the -Tortures. Every day the Addanc of the Lake slays them. Whilst at discourse -a charger enters the hall with a corpse in the saddle. They anoint the -corpse with warm water and balsam, and it comes to life. The same happens -with two other youths. The morrow they ride forth anew against the Addanc, -refusing Peredur, who would go with them; but he follows and finds seated -on a mound the fairest lady, who, if he will pledge her his love, will -give him a stone by which he may see the Addanc and be unseen of it. He -promises, and she gives him the stone, telling him to seek her in India. -Peredur passes through a valley wherein is a flock of white sheep, and one -of black, and when they cross the river flowing through the valley they -change colour. He learns of their shepherd the way to the Addanc's cave, -slays it, meets his three companions of the night before, who tell him it -was predicted that he should slay the monster, offers them its head, -refuses their sister whom they proffer him in marriage; accepts the -services of a youth, Etlym Gleddyv Coch, who wishes to become his -attendant, and rides forth. (17) He comes to the court of the Countess of -Achievements, overthrows her three hundred knights; but learning she loves -Etlym resigns her to him. (18) Peredur, accompanied by Etlym, comes to the -Mound of Mourning, slays two out of the three hundred knights he finds -guarding the serpent, slays the latter, repays the remaining hundred -knights all they have spent, gives Etlym the stone and sends him back to -his love. (19) Peredur comes to a valley wherein are many coloured tents, -lodges with a miller, from whom he borrows food and lodging, and learns -that a tournament is forward. He overcomes all the knights present, and -sends their horses and arms to the miller as repayment. The Empress of the -Tournament sends for him, he repels her messengers thrice, the fourth time -he yields. She reveals herself as the lady who had helped him against the -Addanc, and she entertains him for fourteen years. (20) Arthur is at -Caerlleon-upon-Usk, with him his knights, and among them Peredur. There -enters, riding upon a yellow mule, a maiden of hideous aspect. She greets -all save Peredur, to whom she reproaches his silence at the court of the -Lame King; had he asked the meaning of the streaming spear and of the -other wonders the King would have regained health and the dominions -peace--all his misfortunes are due to Peredur. She then tells of a castle -where are five hundred and seventy knights, each with the lady he loves -best--there may fame be acquired; and of a castle on a lofty mountain -where a maiden is detained prisoner, whoso should deliver her should -attain the summit of the fame of the world. Gwalchmai sets forth to -release the imprisoned maiden, Peredur to enquire the meaning of the -bleeding lance. Before they leave a knight enters and defies Gwalchmai to -single combat, for that he had slain his lord by treachery. (21) Gwalchmai -meets a knight who directs him to his own castle, where he is welcomed by -his sister. The steward of the castle accuses him to the knight of being -the slayer of his, the knight's, father. Gwalchmai demands a year to -acknowledge or deny the accusation. (22) Peredur, who, seeking tidings of -the black maiden, but finding none, has wandered over the whole island, -meets a priest who chides him for being in armour on Good Friday. Peredur -dismounts, asks the priest's blessing, and learns of a castle where he may -gain tidings of the Castle of Wonders. (23) Peredur proceeds thither, and -meets the King of the castle, who commends him to his daughter, by whom he -is well received. A little yellow page accuses him to the King of winning -his daughter's love, and advises that he should be thrown into prison. But -the damsel befriends him, and assists him to take part in a tournament, -where, for three days, he overthrows all opponents. The King at last -recognises him, and offers him his daughter; but he refuses and sets forth -for the Castle of Wonders. (24) On arriving there he finds the door open, -and in the hall a chessboard and chessmen playing by themselves. He -favours one side which loses, whereupon he casts the chessboard in the -lake. The black maiden comes in and reproaches him--he may find the -chessboard again at the Castle of Ysbidinongyl, where a black man lays -waste the dominions of the Empress. Him Peredur overcomes, but spares his -life; this the black maiden chides him for, and he slays him; but the -black maiden still refuses him access to the Empress unless he can slay a -stag, swift as the swiftest bird, with one sharp horn in his forehead. She -gives him a little dog belonging to the Empress which will rouse the stag. -With its aid he slays the latter, but a lady, riding by, carries off the -dog, and chides him for slaying the stag. He can only win her friendship -by going to a cromlech which is in a grove, and challenging to fight three -times a man who dwells there. Peredur complies, and fights with a black -man clad in rusty armour; but when he dismounts his adversary disappears. -(25) Peredur, riding on, comes to a castle where sits a lame grey-headed -man, and Gwalchmai by him. A youth enters the hall and beseeches Peredur's -friendship--he had been the black maiden who came to Arthur's court, and -who had chid Peredur concerning the chessboard; he was the youth who came -with the bloody head in the salver, and the head was that of Peredur's -cousin slain by the sorceresses of Gloucester, who also lamed Peredur's -uncle, and he, the speaker, was Peredur's cousin. Peredur seeks aid of -Arthur, and they start against the sorceresses. One of the latter slays -three of Arthur's men; whereupon Peredur smites her, and she flees, -exclaiming this was Peredur, who had learnt chivalry of them, their -destined slayer. She and all her companions are slain. Thus is it related -concerning the Castle of Wonders. - -=The Thornton MS. Sir Perceval.=--(1) PERCYVELLE is son of Percyvelle and -Acheflour, Arthur's sister. His father is slain in a tournament by the Red -Knight whom he had previously overcome in a former tournament. His mother -takes to the woods, brings up her son without instruction till he is -fifteen years, when she teaches him to pray to God. (2) He then meets with -three knights of Arthur's court--Ewayne, Gawayne, and Kay. He takes them -for gods. Learning that they are knights, he determines to go to Arthur's -court and become a knight himself, catches a wild horse, and, returning to -his mother, announces his attention. She counsels him to be always of -measure, to salute knights when he meets them, and at his departure gives -him a ring for token. (3) He sets forth, and finding on his way a house -makes himself free of it, eats, drinks, and finding a lady sleeping on a -bed takes from her her ring, leaving his mother's in its place. (4) Coming -to Arthur's hall he rides into it and up to the King so that his mare -kisses Arthur's forehead. He demands knighthood at Arthur's hands, -threatening to slay him if refused. Arthur sees the likeness to his -father, laments over the latter's untimely fate, and recalls that books -say the son should avenge the father's bane. Percyvelle bids him let be -his jangling and dub him knight. Whilst sitting down to table the Red -Knight comes in, carries off Arthur's cup (five years long had he done so) -none daring to hinder him. At the King's lament Percyvelle engages to slay -the Red Knight, and bring the cup back if knighthood be granted him. The -King promises, Percyvelle follows the ravisher, who scorns him, but is -slain by a dart flung at him. He captures the knight's steed, and not -being able otherwise to remove his armour, and recalling his mother's -injunction "out of the iron burn the tree" kindles a fire to burn the -body. Gawayne, who has followed him, shows him how to unlace the armour; -when that is removed Percyvelle casts the body into the fire to roast. He -refuses to return to Arthur, looking upon himself as great a lord as the -King, but sends the cup back through Gawayne and rides on. (5) He meets an -old witch, mother to the Red Knight, who addresses him as her son; her he -spears and casts into the fire. (6) He meets ten knights, who flee, taking -him for the Red Knight, but on his raising his vizor the oldest knight, -reassured, relates how the Red Knight bore him and his sons enmity, and -how, fifteen years before, he had slain his brother. Learning that -Percyvelle had burnt his enemy, he invites him to his castle. (7) Whilst -at meat a messenger comes in from the Maiden-land begging help from the -Lady Lufamour against a "Sowdane," who would have her to wife. Percyvelle -starts forth with three of the old knight's sons, whom, however, he sends -back each after a mile. Meanwhile, the King at Carebedd, mourning for -Percyvelle, receives Lufamour's messages, gains from him tidings of -Percyvelle, and sets forth with his court to follow him. Percyvelle, -coming to the Sowdane's camp, is set upon by the guard, but slays them -all, and then lays him down to rest under the castle wall. In the morning -Lufamour's men make her aware of the slaughter wrought upon her enemies. -She perceives Percyvelle and sends her chamberlain, Hatlayne, to bid him -to her chamber. Whilst at table together tidings are brought that the -enemy have nearly taken the town. Percyvelle sallies forth alone and soon -leaves not one alive. He is then ware of four knights--Arthur, Ewayne, -Gawayne, Kay. He pricks against them and Gawayne receives his onslaught. -They recognise each other, and all proceed to Lufamour's castle. The next -day the Sowdane challenges all comers; Percyvelle, dubbed knight by -Arthur, slays him, and thereafter weds Lufamour. (8) After a year he -thinks on his mother's loneliness, and sets forth to seek her. Hearing a -damsel lamenting in the wood, he finds her bound to a tree, for that a -year before, while sleeping, a stranger had robbed her of a ring leaving -his own in its stead. Now her ring was of a stone of such virtue that -neither death nor hurt could come to the wearer. He releases her, -overcomes the Black Knight who had bound her, reconciles them and claims -his own ring for the ring he had taken. But the Black Knight has given it -to the lord of the land--a giant. (9) Percyvelle slays the giant, and -claims the ring of the porter. The latter tells him how his master, loving -a fair lady, had offered her that same ring, but she, exclaiming that he -had killed her son, rushed into the forest and was since then bereft of -her senses. Percyvelle puts on a goat's skin, and after nine days search -finds her. A magic drink of the giant's throws her into a three days' -sleep, after which, restored to her right mind, she goes home with her -son. He afterwards goes to the Holy Land, and is there slain. - -=The Queste del Saint Graal.=--[_Furnivall's text (F.) has been taken as -the basis of the present summary. Words and passages not found in the -Welsh translation (W) are italicised; words or passages found in the Welsh -translation instead of those in Furnivall are in parentheses. The variants -from Birch-Hirschfeld's Summary (B. H.) are given in the notes._] - -(1) On Whitsun Eve the companions of the Round Table being assembled at -Camelot, a _damsel_ (youth) comes in great haste, asks for Lancelot and -bids him _from King Pelles_ (for the sake of whatever he loved most) -accompany her to the forest. Notwithstanding Guinevere's opposition he -does so, and comes to a nunnery where he finds his two cousins, Boort and -Lionel. Three nuns then bring Galahad, a child the like of whom might -scarce be found in the world; one asks Lancelot to knight him, he -consents, and on the morrow Lancelot and his companions return to -Camelot; his cousins think the child must be Lancelot's son, but Lancelot -answers no word. (2) At the Round Table the seat of each knight is marked, -but on the Seat Perillous it is written that _four hundred and fifty-four_ -(four hundred and fifty) years have passed since the Lord's Passion, and -that on this Whitsun Day the seat shall find its master. Lancelot covers -these words, and, whilst at Kay's reminding, the court awaits an adventure -before sitting down to meat, a youth tells them of a stone floating on the -water. It is a block of red marble, in which sticks a sword, and upon it -written that none may draw the sword save the best knight in the world. -Lancelot declares that the wonders of the Holy Grail are about to begin, -and refuses to essay the adventure; Gawain, Perceval, and others try, but -fail; they then sit down to table served by twelve kings; an old man -enters, leading a knight in vermeil armour, whom he proclaims the desired -knight, of the seed of David and kin of Joseph of Arimathea, who shall -achieve the adventures of the Holy Grail. He draws near the Seat -Perillous, on which is now written, "This is Galahad's seat," sits himself -therein, dismisses the old man, _and bids him greet_, "_My uncle, King -Pelles, and my grandfather, the rich fisher_."[14] (3) Great honour is -done to the new knight, whom Lancelot recognises as his son, and Bors and -Lionel as the youth begot by Lancelot upon the daughter _of the Fisher -King_ (King Pelles). The Queen is told that the knight is come, and her -ladies say he _shall end the wonders of Great Britain, and through him the -Maimed King shall be healed_. Galahad is then urged by Arthur to essay the -adventure of the sword, consents, easily draws out the sword, and asks for -a shield. (4) A damsel appears, weeps for Lancelot as having lost his -place as the best knight in the world, and tells the King from Nasciens, -the hermit, that on that day he would send the Holy Grail to feed the -companions of the Round Table. A tournament is ordered, in which Galahad -is held the best, as he overthrows all save Lancelot and Perceval. After -vespers the court sits down to table, a clap of thunder is heard, followed -by the brightest of sunbeams, so that all are as if lighted by the Holy -Ghost. None know whence the light comes, and none has power to say a word. -The Holy Grail enters, covered with white samite, but none may see who -carries it; the hall is filled with sweet odours, and as the Grail passes -along the tables each seat is filled with such meat as each one longs for. -Then it departs, none may say how, and those can now speak who before -could say no word. (5) All return thanks to God for the grace vouchsafed -them, and Gawain tells them that heretofore no man had been served with -whatever he might desire save _at the Maimed King's_ (at the court of King -Peleur). But they could not behold the Grail openly, and Gawain declares -he will go on quest of it for a year and a day. The knights of the Round -Table make a like vow. Arthur is much distressed, as he knows many will -die on the quest. The Queen and her ladies weep likewise, and propose to -join their knights, but an old priest tells them from Nasciens, the -hermit, that no knight entering on the quest of the Holy Grail is to have -with him his lady or damsel--the quest is no earthly one. On the morrow, -at King Bandamagus' suggestion, all the questers, Galahad first, swear to -maintain the quest for a year and a day and longer if need be. After the -Queen has taken leave of Lancelot, and Arthur has vainly tried to force a -shield on Galahad, the questers set off together and pass the first night -at Vagan's Castle. On the morrow they ride forth and separate. (6) After -five days Galahad comes to an abbey where he finds King Bandamagus and -Ywain "li aoutres." The abbey contains a shield which no knight save the -destined one may take and go unslain or unhurt. King Bandamagus would take -it, but is overthrown by a White Knight; Galahad then takes it, and his -right to do so is admitted by the White Knight, who tells him as follows -concerning it:--Forty-three years after our Lord's Passion, Joseph of -Arimathea, who took our Lord's body down from the Cross,[15] came to the -city Sarras, where dwelt King Evelac, then a Saracen, who was at war with -his neighbour, Tholomes. Josephes, Joseph's son, warned Evelac against -going forth to battle unprepared, and, in answer to the King's questions -what he should do, told him of the new law and Gospel truth and the -Saviour's death, and fixed on his shield a cross of sandal. He was to -uncover this on the fourth day's fighting, and to call on the Lord. When -he did so he beheld a bleeding, crucified figure. He won the battle, and -on his telling the story his brother-in-law, Nasciens, received baptism. -The shield then restored to a man his lost hand. Evelac was baptized, and -guarded the shield in lordly fashion. Josephes came with his father to -Great Britain, where King Crudel threw them with many other Christians -into prison. Mordrains[16] and Nasciens then invaded Great Britain, -released Josephes and remained with him in the land. When Josephes was on -his deathbed, and Evelac asked him for a remembrance, then he bade King -Mordrains bring his shield, and with the blood streaming from his nose -marked on it a cross; this would always remain red, and no knight should -with impunity unhang the shield till Galahad should come, last of -Nasciens' line. Where Nasciens lay buried, there the shield was to be -kept. (7) Galahad draws near a tomb in the abbey graveyard, whence issues -a voice telling him not to approach and drive it out. But he does so, and -a smoke in man's form comes out; on opening the tomb a dead knight's body -is found lying therein, this is cast out. These things are a symbol: the -hard tombstone signifies the _hard-heartedness of the world_ (the hardship -which Jesus Christ had in this world);[17] the dead body those dead in -sin, and as in Christ's time when they slew Him and were harried out of -their land by Vespasian as a punishment; the smoke was a devil who fled -from Galahad because he was a virgin. (8) On the morrow Galahad rides -forth accompanied by Melians, a youth who had begged to be allowed to -serve him, and whom he had knighted. They separate at a cross road, -Melians takes the left hand road in spite of warning, comes to a tent -where hangs a golden crown, seizes it, meets a strange knight who -overthrows and had slain him but for Galahad coming to the rescue and -overcoming first one, then a second assailant. Melians is taken to an -abbey to be tended, and learns that the two knights who almost overpowered -him were his pride in taking the left hand path, his covetousness in -carrying off the crown of gold. (9) Galahad enters a hermitage to pray -there, and hears a voice bidding him proceed to the Castle of Maidens and -rid it of its bad customs. He encounters on the way seven knights whom he -must overcome, such was the custom of the castle. He forces them to -flight, and an old priest brings him the keys of the castle. He finds -therein numberless maidens, and learns that the former lord of the castle -had been, with his son, slain by the seven knights, who had striven -beforehand to carry off his daughter. She foretold that as they had gained -the castle for a maiden's sake, they would lose it through a maiden, and -be overcome by a single knight, whereupon they determined to make prisoner -every maiden passing that way. Galahad delivers the captives, and puts a -daughter of the former duke in possession of the castle. He learns then -that the seven brothers have been slain by Gawain, Gheriot, and Ywain. -(10) The story now returns to Gawain. He passes by the abbey where Galahad -found the shield, then that where Melians lay ill, is reproached by a -friar with being too sinful to be with Galahad, meets Gheheries, his -brother, meets Ywain on the morrow, meets the seven brothers who attack -them and are slain; then Gawain comes alone to a hermitage, confesses for -the first time since fourteen years, is admonished by the hermit, learns -that the Castle of Maidens signifies hell, the captives the good souls -wrongfully therein confined before Christ's coming, the seven knights the -seven sins. Gawain is pressed, but vainly, to make penitence. (11) The -story returns to Galahad. After wandering for awhile without adventures he -meets Lancelot and Perceval. They do not recognise him, not knowing his -_arms_ (shield),[18] and attack him. He overcomes them, but learning from -the words of a recluse, who sees the combat, that she really knows him, -and, fearing recognition, he hurries off.[19] (12) Perceval stays with the -recluse, and Lancelot starts in pursuit of the Unknown Knight. He comes -in the night to a stone cross near which stands (an old)[20] chapel. He -dismounts and enters, but an iron rail hinders his progress; through it he -sees an altar whereon _burn seven candles_ (a silver candlestick, a wax -taper).[21] He leaves the chapel, unsaddles his horse, and lies down to -sleep by the cross. Then comes a sick knight on a bier drawn by two -horses, dolourously lamenting. He looks at Lancelot, but says no word, -thinking him asleep, nor does Lancelot say aught, but remains half asleep. -And the sick knight laments, "_When may I have solace from the holy vessel -for the pain I suffer for such a small fault_ (was ever so much pain as is -upon me who have done no evil at all)?"[22] But Lancelot says no word, nor -when the candlestick comes towards the cross and the Holy Grail approaches -the sick knight, who prays he may be made whole to join likewise the -quest. Then crawling to the table whereon the vessel stands, and _touching -his eyes with_ (kissing) it, feels relief and slumbers. The Grail -disappears and Lancelot still says never a word, for which aftertimes much -mischance was his. The sick knight arises well, a squire appears and -_arms_ him (with Lancelot's sword and helm),[23] and brings him Lancelot's -steed, and the knight swears never to rest till he knows why the Holy -Grail appears in so many places of the Kingdom of Logres, and by whom it -was brought to England. So he departs, and _his squire carries off -Lancelot's armour_. Lancelot awakes wondering whether what he has seen be -dream or truth. And he hears a voice saying--harder than stone, bitterer -than wood, more despised than the fig tree--he must away, not pollute the -spot where is the Holy Grail. He wanders forth weeping, comes to a hermit, -confesses his great sin, his love for Guinevere, is admonished to tear it -from his heart, when there may still be hope for him. Lancelot promises, -and has the adventure at the chapel explained to him, and stays with the -hermit for penance and instruction. (13) The story now returns to -Perceval. The recluse orders he be well taken care of, she loves him well, -he is her nephew. She dissuades him from fighting Galahad as he wishes, -does he wish to die and be killed as his brothers _for their outrages_ (in -their combats and tournaments)? He and Galahad and Bors will achieve the -Quest. She is his aunt, formerly Queen of the Waste Land. _He asks about -his mother whom he fears he has badly treated, and learns she died when he -went to Arthur's court._[24] He asks further concerning the knight with -the red arms, and is told as follows:--Since Christ's coming were three -chief tables; first, the table at which Christ often ate with his -Apostles; second, the table of the Holy Grail, established in semblance -and remembrance of the first, by which so many miracles were wrought in -this land in the time of Joseph of Arimathea, in the beginning when -Christianity was brought to this country. He came with four thousand poor -companions. One day, wandering in a forest, they had nothing to eat, but -an old woman brought _twelve_ (ten) loaves, these they bought and they -were wroth with one another when they came to divide them. Joseph angry, -took the twelve loaves, made the people sit, and by virtue of the Holy -Grail multiplied the loaves to their need. At that table was a seat where -Josephes, son of Joseph, might sit, but none other, for, as the history -tells, the place was blessed by our Lord himself. Now two brothers, -relatives of Josephes, envied him his leadership, saying they were of as -good seed as he, and one sat in Josephes' seat, and was straightway -swallowed up by the earth, whence the seat was called the Dreaded Seat. -Last came the Round Table, made by Merlin's counsel, to show the roundness -of the world and of the firmament. And Merlin foretold that by companions -of this table should the truth of the Grail be known, and that three -should achieve it, two virgins and one chaste, and the one should surpass -his father as man surpasses wolf, and he should be master, and for him -Merlin made a great and wonderful seat, wherein none might sit unharmed -save he, and it was known as the Seat Perillous. And as at Whitsuntide the -Holy Spirit came to the Apostles in guise of fire, so at Whitsuntide -Galahad came clad in red armour. And on the day he came the questing for -the Grail began, which might not cease till the truth concerning it _and -the lance_ was known. To find Galahad, Perceval must first try Castle -_Gher_ (Goth) where dwells a cousin of Galahad, _and then Castle Corbenic -where dwells the Maimed King_. (14) His aunt then tells how after that her -husband fell in war against King Laban she withdrew into that wild place. -And her son went to serve King Pelles, their relative, and since two years -she only knows of him that he is following tournaments throughout Great -Britain. (15) On the morrow Perceval comes to a monastery, and seeing mass -being performed would enter but cannot, and sees a sick bed with a man or -woman lying on it, whom, as he rises when the body of our Lord is raised, -he sees to be an old man crowned, with his body full of wounds and crying -out, "Father, forget me not." He seems as if he were over _four hundred_ -(one hundred and four) years old. Perceval asks concerning these wonders, -and is told as follows:--When Joseph of Arimathea came to this land, the -Saracen, King Crudel, hearing of the Grail by which he lived, threw him -and his son Josephes and some hundred others into prison for forty days, -and forbade food to be given them. But they had the holy vessel with them. -When Mordrains and his brother-in-law, Seraphe, heard these things, they -assembled their host, landed in Britain, overcame Crudel, and freed -Joseph. On the morrow Evelac, as he was called before he became Christian, -desired to see the Holy Grail plainly, and though warned to desist pressed -forward to do so, and was struck blind and helpless. He accepted his -punishment submissively, but only prayed to Christ that he might survive -till _the good knight should come, the best[25] of his seed_ (the knight -who is to achieve the adventures of the Holy Grail). A voice answered his -prayer should be granted, and then he should receive the light of his eyes -and his wounds should be made whole. This happened _four hundred_ (one -hundred and four) years before, and it was that King Evelac whom Perceval -had seen, and during that while he had fed on nought else save the Lord's -body. (16) Perceval riding forth on the morrow is attacked by twenty -knights, sore pressed, and only rescued by the Red Knight's help, who then -disappears. (17) Perceval, having lost his horse, asks one vainly from a -passing squire, from whom it is shortly afterwards carried off by another -knight, whom Perceval, mounted on the squire's cob, attacks but is -overthrown. (18) At night a woman appears and offers him a horse if he -will do her will--she is, in truth, the enemy. He agrees, she mounts him, -he comes to a river, and, before essaying to ford it, makes the sign of -the cross, whereupon the horse rushes howling into the water. (19) -Perceval, rescued from this peril, finds himself on a wild island -mountain, full of savage beasts; he helps a lion against a snake and wins -its service. He is ill at ease on his island, but he trusts God, and is -not like those men of Wales where sons pull their fathers out of bed and -kill them to save the disgrace of their dying in bed. (20) That night, -sleeping by the lion's side, Perceval dreams of two women visiting him, -one mounted on a lion, the second on a serpent; this one reproaches him -for killing the serpent. On the morrow an old man comes ship-borne, -comforts Perceval with good counsel, and interprets his dream: the dame on -the lion was Christ's new law, she on the serpent the old law. (21) A -damsel then appears, warns Perceval against the old man, prepares for him -a rich banquet with good wine, not British, as in Great Britain they only -drink cervoise and other home-made drinks, and excites his passion. He is -on the point of yielding, but seeing the cross-handled pommel of his sword -crosses himself, and the damsel disappears in flames. Perceval pierces his -thigh with his sword in his contrition. The old man reappears, exhorts, -explains the various features of his temptation, and finally takes him -away with him in his ship. (22) The story now returns to Lancelot. After -three exhortations from the hermit he sets forth, and first meets a -servant, who assails him bitterly as an unfaithful traitorous knight, in -that having openly seen the Holy Grail doing its wonders before him, he -yet moved not from his seat. (23) He comes to a hermit's hut and finds the -hermit lamenting over the dead body of his companion, who, at his nephew, -Agaran's, request, had left the hermitage to aid him against his enemies, -and had been treacherously slain by the latter. These things are told by a -devil, which had entered into the dead hermit's body. Lancelot is -admonished at great length, receives stripes, puts on the dead hermit's -hair shirt, and finally leaves with the advice that he should confess -every week. (24) He meets a damsel who encourages him, but tells him he -will find no lodging for the night. _He dismounts at the foot of a cross -at the cross-ways, and has a vision of a man surrounded with stars, -crowned and accompanied by seven Kings and two knights, who pray to be -taken to heaven; a man descending from heaven orders one of the knights -away, whilst to the other he gives the shape of a winged lion, so that he -flies up to heaven and is admitted._[26] (25) Lancelot meets the knight -who had carried off his arms, and who attacks, but is overthrown by him. -(26) _He comes to a hermitage, confesses, tells his vision, and learns -that it has a great meaning in respect of his lineage, which must be -expounded at much length: forty-two years after the Passion of Christ, -Joseph of Arimathea left Jerusalem, came to Sarras, helped Evelac, who -received baptism at the hands of Josephes, together with his -brother-in-law, Seraphe (who took the name Nasciens), and who became a -pillar of the holy faith, so that the great secrets of the Holy Grail were -opened to him, which none but Joseph had beheld before, and no knight -after save in dream. Now Evelac dreamed that out of his nephew, son of -Nasciens, came forth a great lake, whence issued nine streams, eight of -the same size, and the last greater than all the rest put together; our -Lord came and washed in the lake which King Mordrains thus saw flowing -from Celidoine's belly. This Celidoine was the man surrounded by stars in -Lancelot's vision, and this because he knew the course of the stars and -the manner of the planets, and he was first King of Scotland, and the nine -streams were his nine descendants, of whom seven Kings and two -knights:--first, Warpus; second, Chrestiens;[27] third, Alain li Gros; -fourth, Helyas; fifth, Jonaans, who went to Wales and there took to wife -King Moroneus' daughter; sixth, Lancelot, who had the King of Ireland's -daughter to wife; seventh, Bans. These were the seven Kings who appeared -to Lancelot. The eighth stream was Lancelot himself, the elder of the -knights of the vision. The ninth stream was Galahad, begot by Lancelot -upon the Fisher King's daughter, lion-like in power, deepest of all the -streams._[28] (27) Lancelot comes to a castle with a meadow before it, -whereon a throng of black armoured knights is tourneying against knights -in white armour. Lancelot goes to the help of the former,[29] but is -captured, and on being released rides off lamenting. At night, as he -sleeps, a man comes from heaven and reproaches him with his ill faith. A -hermitess expounds the allegorical meaning of the adventure. The white -knights are those of Eliezer, son of King Pelles, the black those of -Argastes, son of King Helain; this symbolised the Quest, which was a -tournament between the heavenly knights and the earthly ones, and in that -Quest none might enter who was black with sin; and Lancelot though sinful, -having entered thereon had joined the black knights, and his capture by -the others was his overthrow by Galahad, and his lamentation his return -to sin, and it was our Lord who reproached him in his vision; let him not -depart from truth. (28) Lancelot comes to Lake Marchoise, is attacked by a -knight in black armour, who kills his horse and rides off; he lays down on -the shore and awaits trustfully God's help. (29) The story returns to -Gawain. After journeying many days adventureless, he meets Hector de -Mares. Neither has heard aught of Lancelot, Galahad, or Bohors. Travelling -together they come to a deserted chapel, where, passing the night, Gawain -dreams he sees in a meadow one hundred and fifty bulls all spotted, save -three, one being dingy, the two others being pure white. Of the one -hundred and forty-seven who set off to find better pasture many die and -some return, of the three one returns, but two remain between whom strife -arises and they separate. Hector dreams that he and Lancelot, being -companions, are attacked by a man who knocks Lancelot off his horse and -sits him on an ass, after which Lancelot, coming to a fair fountain, would -drink of it, but it vanishes; he, Hector, keeping his horse comes to a -castle, the lord of which refuses him admission for that he is too high -mounted. Whilst telling one another their dreams, a hand with a taper -appears and vanishes, and a voice tells them that, poor of belief as they -are, they cannot attain the Holy Grail. On their way to find a hermit who -may explain these wonders, Gawain is attacked by and kills a knight, -Ywains the Adulterer, son of King Urien. They then come to the hermit, -Nasciens, who explains the bulls as the companions of the Round Table, the -spotted ones those stained by sin, the three unspotted ones are the -achievers, two white, virgins--Galahad and Perceval--one dingy, having -once sinned carnally, Bors. The last part of the dream may not be -explained, as evil might come of it. In Hector's dream the two horses are -Pride and Ostentation. Lancelot's being seated on an ass signifies the -putting off of pride, the fountain is the Holy Grail. Both knights are too -full of sin to continue in the quest of the Grail. They ride forth and -meet with no adventure worth notice. (30) The story returns to Bors. After -first coming to a hermit, who exhorts him to abandon the Quest if he do -not feel himself free from sin, to whom he confesses, from whom he -receives absolution, and to whom he vows to eat nought save bread and -water till the Quest be achieved, he comes to a castle whose mistress is -sore oppressed by her sister, against whose champion, Priadam the Black, -she has vainly sought a defender. Bors promises to come to help. He passes -the night at the castle and will not sleep in the rich bed she offers him, -though in the morning he tumbles it as if he had lain in it. He overcomes -Priadam, and reinstates the lady in her lordship. (31) On the morrow he -meets his brother, naked, bound on a hack, being beaten with thorns by two -knights. At the same moment passes a very fair maiden being carried off by -a knight, and she cries to him for help. He is in anguish, but goes to the -maiden's help, wounds her would-be ravisher, and restores her to her -friends. (32) He then hurries after his brother, but meets a seeming monk -who makes him believe his brother is dead, and gives him an explanation of -dreams he has had. He then comes to a tower and is welcomed by its -inmates. A damsel offers him her love, and when he refuses threatens with -twelve other damsels to throw herself from the tower. Bors is full of -pity, but thinks they had better lose their souls than he his. They fall -from the tower, Bors crosses himself, and the whole vanishes, being a -deceit of the devil. His brother's corpse that had been shown him is also -gone. (33) On the morrow he comes to an abbey, where he learns that his -brother lives, and where all his dreams and adventures are allegorically -explained. He then meets Lionel, his brother, who reproaches him bitterly -for his conduct, and falls upon him with intent to kill. First a hermit, -then a passing knight, Calogrenant, would stop him, but he slays both. -Bors is at length, in spite of prayers and entreaties, compelled to draw -in self defence, but a voice tells him to flee, and a fiery brand comes -from heaven between them. Bors follows the command of the voice directing -him towards the sea, where Perceval awaits him. He comes to a ship covered -with white samite, and finds therein Perceval, who at first does not know -him again, and who tells him all that he has passed through. (34) The -story returns to Galahad. After countless adventures he finds himself one -day opposed to Gawain and Hector de Mares in a tournament; he deals the -former such a blow as knocks him out of his saddle. (35) He is brought to -the ship wherein are Perceval and Bors by a damsel, who accompanies them -until, fourteen days' sail from Logres, they come to a desert isle off -which is another ship, on which is written[30] that those who would enter -should see they were full of faith. The damsel then tells Perceval she is -his sister, _daughter of King Pellehem_. They enter the ship and find a -rich bed with a crown at its head, and at its foot a sword six inches out -of the scabbard, its tip a stone of all the colours in the world, its -handle of the bones of two beasts, the serpent Papagast, the fish -Orteniaus; it is covered with a cloth whereon is written that only the -first of his line would grasp the sword. Perceval and Bors both essay -vainly. Galahad, on being asked, sees written on the blade that he only -should draw who could strike better than others. The damsel tells the -story of the sword as follows:--When the ship came to the Kingdom of -Logres there was war between King Lambar, father to the Maimed King, and -King Urlain, heretofore Saracen, but newly baptised. Once Urlain, -discomfited, fled to the ship, and, finding therein the sword, drew it and -slew King Laban[31] with it, and that was the first blow struck with the -sword in the Kingdom of Logres, and there came from it such pestilence and -destruction in the land of the two kingdoms that it was afterwards called -the Waste Land. When Urlain re-entered the ship he fell down dead. (36) -Galahad, further examining the sword, finds the scabbard of serpent's -skin, but the hangings of poor stuff. On the scabbard is written that the -wearer must surpass his fellows, and the hangings be changed only by a -King's daughter and she a maid; on turning the sword over, the other side -is found black as pitch, and bearing words that he who should praise it -most should blame it most in his greatest need. Perceval's sister explains -this as follows: Forty years after our Lord's Passion, Nasciens, -Mordrains' brother-in-law, came to the Turning Isle, and found this ship, -and therein bed and sword, this last he coveted, but had not the hardihood -to draw it, though he stayed eight days food and drinkless longing for it; -on the ninth day a tempest drove him to another island, where, assailed by -a giant, he drew the sword, and though it snapped in two and thus -fulfilled the inscription, yet he overcame the giant. He afterwards met -Mordrains and told him of these wonders; Mordrains reunited the fragments, -then, in obedience to a voice, they left the ship, but in going Nasciens -was wounded for having dared to draw a sword of which he was not worthy, -thus he who praised it most had most reason to blame it. As for the other -words, _King Pelles,[32] called the Maimed King_ (a lame King who was my, -_i.e._, the damsel's, uncle) once came to this ship on the shore of the -sea over against Ireland, and entering it found the sword, drew but was -wounded through the thighs by a lance, _and might not be healed till -Galahad come_.[33] (37) They then examine the bed and find it has three -spindles; that in front, snow white; that behind, blood red; that above, -emerald green, and lest this be thought a lie the story turns from its -straight path to explain about these spindles. After Eve, yielding to the -devil's advice, had caused Adam to sin, and both knew themselves carnal -and were ashamed, and were driven forth from Paradise, Eve kept the branch -of the Tree of Life which she had plucked, and planted it and it grew to a -tree with branches and leaves white in token that Eve was a virgin when -she planted it. Sitting one day beneath the tree, God commanded them to -know one another carnally, and when they were ashamed to set about such -foul work sent darkness over them. Abel was thus begotten, and the Tree of -Life turned green. Afterwards Cain slew Abel underneath that same tree and -it turned red. At the Deluge it remained unharmed and lasted till -Solomon's time. Whilst the wise King was pondering over the malice of his -wife and of all women, a voice told him a woman of his line should bring -men more joy than her sex had caused sorrow, and that a virgin knight -should be the last of his lineage. His wife, whom he consults as to how he -shall let this knight know he had foreknowledge of his coming, advised the -building of the ship, and the taking of David's sword to be fitted with a -new hilt of precious stones, and a new pommel and scabbard, and placed in -the ship together with Solomon's crown on a rich bed; she furthermore had -three spindles made from the Tree of Life and from trees grown from it. -And when all was ready Solomon saw in dreams angels coming from heaven and -putting the different inscriptions on the sword and ship. (38) The story -speaks now of other things. New hangings had not been put on the sword, -this was to be done by a damsel. Perceval's sister supplies hangings made -of her own hair, and names the sword "The Sword of Strange Hangings," and -the scabbard "Memory of Blood," and Galahad girds on the sword. (39) On -the morrow they set sail and come to Castle Carchelois, in the March of -Scotland, the inmates whereof attack them but are all slain. Galahad is -sorry for those he has killed, but a priest tells him they are heathens, -and he has done the best work in the world, as the three knights who held -the castle had ravished their own sister and wounded their father, Count -Ernous, to death. Before the latter dies he urges Galahad _to go to the -assistance of the Maimed King_ (to undertake other adventures).[34] (40) -On the morrow they meet a white stag led by four lions; these come to a -hermitage, hear mass, the stag becomes a man and sits on the altar, the -lions a man, an eagle, a lion, and an ox, all winged. (41) On the morrow -Perceval takes Galahad's sword, which he will wear from henceforth. They -come to a castle, the inmates of which demand that Perceval's sister -should pay the custom of the castle, which is to give a dishful of blood -from her right arm. The three companions protect Perceval's sister against -overwhelming odds till nightfall, when, learning that the blood is asked -to heal the Lady of the Castle suffering from leprosy, Perceval's sister -sacrifices herself. Before dying she gives directions that her body is to -be put in a ship and buried in the Palace Spiritual in Sarras. Bors then -leaves his two companions to succour a wounded knight pursued by a knight -and a dwarf;[35] and Perceval and Galahad, after seeing the castle they -had thus left destroyed by fire from heaven in vengeance of the blood of -the good maidens which had there been shed, likewise separate. (42) The -story returns to Lancelot. He is at the Water of Marcoise, surrounded by -the forest and high rocks, but he does not lose faith in God; in obedience -to a voice he goes on board a passing ship and finds therein Perceval's -sister, whose story he learns from the letter at her head. After a month's -journeying a knight joins them who proves to be Galahad, and they pass -together half a year achieving marvellous adventures. After Easter, at the -new time when the birds sing their sweet and varied songs, they come to -land, and a knight in white arms bids Galahad leave his father, which he -does. (43) After a month's further wandering on the sea, Lancelot comes to -a castle guarded by two lions,[36] against whom he would at first defend -himself, but is reproved for trusting his strength rather than his -Creator. Entering, he comes to a room wherein are the Holy Vessel, and a -priest celebrating mass; Lancelot is warned not to enter, but when he sees -that the priest about to raise the body of God has a man put into his -hands, he cannot refrain from pressing forward to his aid, but is struck -down by a fiery wind and remains fourteen days dumb, food- and drinkless. -He finds he is in Castle Corbenic, and a damsel tells him his quest is -ended. King Pelles rejoices to see him, at dinner the Holy Grail fills the -tables so that living man could not think of greater plenty; whilst at -dinner Hector de Mares comes to the castle door, but is ashamed to enter, -hearing that Lancelot is within, and rides off pursued by the reproaches -and taunts of those of the castle. Lancelot returns to Arthur's court, -passing on the way the tomb of Bandamagus, whom Gawain had slain. (44) The -story returns to Galahad. He comes to an abbey wherein is King Mordrains, -who knows his approach, and asks that he may die in his arms; Galahad -takes him on his breast, Mordrains dies and all his wounds are found -healed. (45) Galahad cools the boiling fountain by putting his hand in it. -(46) Galahad delivers from the tomb where he had been burning three -hundred and fifty-four years his relative, Symeu, who thus expiated his -sin against Joseph of Arimathea. (47) Galahad rides five years before he -comes to the _house of the Maimed King_ (the court of King Peleur), and -during all the five years Perceval bears him company, and within that time -they _achieve the great adventures of the Kingdom of Logres_ (cast out the -evil adventures of the Island of Britain). (48) One day they met Bors, who -in the five years had not been in bed four times. The three come to -_Castle Corbenic_[37] (the court of King Peleur) _where they are greeted -by King Pelles, and where Eliezer, King Pelles' son, brings the broken -sword with which Joseph had been pierced through the thighs; Bors cannot -rejoin the pieces, Perceval can only adjust them together, Galahad alone -can make the sword whole, and it is then given to Bors_. (50) At -vesper-time a hot wind strikes the palace, and a voice orders all unfit to -sit at Christ's table to depart, as the true knights were to be fed with -Heaven's food. All leave save _King Pelles, Eliezer, his son, and his -niece, the most religious maid on the earth_ (a young maiden); to them -enter nine knights[38] and salute Galahad: three are from _Gaul_ (Wales), -three from Ireland, three from Denmark. _Then four damsels bring in on a -wooden bed a man, crowned, in evil plight, who greets Galahad as his -long-expected deliverer._ A voice orders out of the room him who has not -been a companion of the Quest, and straightway _King Pelles and Eliezer -and_ the damsel depart. From heaven comes a man clad like a Bishop and -borne in a chair by four[39] angels, who place him before the table upon -which stands the Holy Grail. Upon his forehead is written that he was -_Joseph_ (son of Joseph of Arimathea) first Bishop of Christendom, whereat -they wonder, as they know that man lived three hundred years before. He -kneels before the altar and opens the door of the _ark_ (chamber), and -four angels[39] issue, _two bearing burning lights, the third a cloth of -red samite, the fourth a lance bleeding so hard that the drops run into a -box he holds in his other hand_ (two with torches, the third with the -lance, the fourth holding the box into which the blood drops); the candles -are placed on the table, the cloth is placed on the holy vessel so that -the blood fell into it. Joseph then celebrates the Sacrament, and on his -raising the wafer, as it were a child descends from heaven and strikes -itself into the wafer, so that it takes man's form. Joseph then kisses -Galahad and bids him be fed by the Saviour's own hand, and vanishes. But -there comes out of the holy vessel, a man with hands bleeding and feet and -body, and says He will reveal His secrets, and give the high food so long -desired and toiled for. He gives the Sacrament to Galahad and his -companions, and explains that the Grail is the dish of the Last Supper, -and Galahad shall see it more fully in the City of Sarras, whither it is -going, Britain being unworthy of it, and whither he is to follow it with -Perceval and Bors; _but as he must not leave the land without healing the -Maimed King he is to take some of the blood of the lance and therewith -anoint his legs_.[40] Galahad asks why all may not come with him; but -Christ says they are twelve who have eaten as the Apostles were twelve, -and they must separate as the Apostles separated. _Galahad then heals the -Maimed King, who goes into an abbey of white monks._ (51) The three -companions, after sending messages to Arthur's court _through Estrois de -Gariles and Claudius, son of King Claudas_,[41] coming to Solomon's ship, -herein they find the Holy Grail, set sail; on landing bury Perceval's -sister, heal a cripple to help them carry the Grail-table, are cast in -prison by King _Escorant_ for a year, are fed by the Holy Grail; at -_Escorant's_ death Galahad is made King, fashions a tree of gold and -precious stones over the Grail and prays before it every morning as do his -companions. (52) On the anniversary of Galahad's crowning the three see -before the holy vessel a man clad like a Bishop, who begins mass and calls -Galahad to see what he has so longed to see, and at the sight Galahad -trembles very greatly, and he thanks God for letting him see that which -tongue may not describe nor heart think, and he begs that he may pass away -from this earthly life to the heavenly one. The Bishop then gives him the -body of God, and reveals himself as Josephus, son of Joseph of Arimathea. -Galahad kisses Perceval and Bors, and sends greetings to Lancelot through -Bors, his soul then leaves his body and angels take it away. A hand from -heaven then comes to the vessel and takes it and the lance, and bears it -heavenwards, so that since there was no man bold enough to say he has seen -the Holy Grail (except Gwalchmai once). (52) _Galahad's body is buried. -Perceval goes into a hermitage, where Bors stays with him for a year and -two months; Perceval dies, and is buried by Bors in Galahad's tomb; Bors -left alone in a place as strange as Babylon, sets sail for Britain, and -comes to Camelot, when all are greatly joyed to see him; he tells the -adventures of the Holy Grail; they are written down and kept in the Abbey -of Salisbury, and from these Master Walter Map drew to make his book of -the Holy Grail for the love of King Henry his lord, who had the story -translated from Latin into French. The story now is silent and tells no -more concerning the adventures of the Holy Grail._[42] - -=Grand St. Graal.=--(1) The writer salutes all who have faith in the Holy -Trinity. He does not name himself for three reasons: lest his declaration -that he received the story from God Himself be a stumbling block; lest his -friends pay less honour to the book if they know the author; lest if he -have made any blunder all the blame fall upon him. - -(2) In the year 717 after the Passion of Christ, as the writer lies in his -hut in one of the wildest parts of White Britain, on Good Friday Eve and -doubts of the Trinity, Christ appears to him and gives him a little book -not larger than a man's palm, and this book will resolve all his doubts; -He Himself has written it, and only he who is purified by confession and -fasting may read it. On the morrow the writer opens it and finds therein -four sections, headed each as follows: This is the book of thy lineage; -here begins the book of the Holy Grail; here is the beginning of the -terrors; here begin the marvels. As he reads lightning and thunder come -and other wonders. On Good Friday, as he is celebrating the service, an -angel raises him in spirit to the third heaven, and his doubts concerning -the Trinity are set at rest. When his spirit returns to his body he locks -up the book; but on Easter Sunday, when he would read further, finds it -gone; a voice says he must suffer to have the book back again, must go to -the plains of Walescog, follow a wonderful beast to Norway, and there find -what he seeks. He obeys, the beast leads him first to a hermit's, then -past the pine of adventures to a knight's castle, on the third day to the -queen's lake and a nunnery. After exorcising a hermit possessed of the -devil, he finds the book, and on his return Christ commands him to make a -fair copy before Ascension Day. He sets to work at once, on the fifteenth -day after Easter.[43] The book begins as follows: Few believe on Christ -at His crucifixion, among whom is Joseph of Arimathea, as the Holy -Scripture of the Grail testifies. He is in all things a good man. He lives -in Jerusalem with his wife and a son, Josephes (not the same Josephes who -so often quotes the Scripture, but not less learned than he), he it was -who passed his father's kin across sea to White Britain, since called -England, without rudder or sail, but in the fold of this shirt. Joseph, -having much loved the Lord, longs after His death to possess somewhat -having belonged to Him; goes to the house of the Last Supper, and carries -off the dish wherein He had eaten. Having been a knight of Pilate's for -seven years, he craves a boon of him, which is Christ's body. Pilate -grants it; Joseph descends the body from the Cross, places it in a -sepulchre, and, fetching the dish from his house, collects in it the blood -flowing from the body,[44] and finishes laying the body in the tomb. The -Jews hear of this, are angered, seize Joseph, throw him into prison in the -most hideous and dirtiest dungeon ever seen, feed him at first on bread -and water, but when Christ is found to have arisen, Caiaphas, Joseph's -jailor, lets him starve. But Christ brings the holy dish that Joseph had -sent back to his house with all the blood in it. Joseph is overjoyed. -Christ comforts him, and assures him he shall live and carry His name to -foreign parts. Joseph thus remains in prison. Meanwhile his wife, though -often pressed to marry, refuses until she shall have had sure tidings of -her husband; as for his son he will only marry Holy Church. (3) Forty -years go by; after Christ's death Tiberius Cæsar reigned ten years, then -Caius, one year; then Claudius, fourteen years; then Noirons, in whose -reign S.S. Peter and Paul were crucified, fourteen years; then Titus, and -Vespasian, his son, a leper. The freeing of Joseph befalls in the third -year of Titus' reign and in this wise: Titus has vainly sought a leech to -heal Vespasian. At last a strange knight from Capernaum promises his help -and tells how he in his youth had been healed of the leprosy by a prophet. -The Emperor on hearing this sent to Judea to seek out that prophet; his -messenger comes to Felix, and orders him to have proclamation made for -aught Christ has touched; hereupon an old woman, Marie la Venissienne, -brings the cloth upon which the Saviour's likeness had painted itself when -she wiped His face. The messenger returns to Rome with this cloth and the -mere sight of it heals Vespasian, who straightway resolves to avenge -Christ's death. He goes to Jerusalem, Joseph's wife appears before him, -accuses the Jews of having made away with her husband; none of the Jews -know where he is save Caiaphas, who reveals the secret on condition that -he is to be neither burnt or slain. Vespasian himself goes down into the -prison and finds it as light as though one hundred candles had burnt in -it. He tells Joseph who he is, whereat the latter wondered, not thinking -he had been longer than from Friday to Sunday, not once had it been dark. -A voice tells Joseph not to fear, and that he will find the Holy Vessel at -his home. Joseph returns to Jerusalem with Vespasian, and points out to -him the abettors of Christ's death, whom Vespasian has burnt. Caiaphas is -set adrift in a boat. (4) The night before Vespasian returns to Rome, -Christ appears to Joseph and commands him to go forth and fill foreign -lands with his seed; he must be baptised, and must go forth without money -or aught but the dish; all heart can want or wish he shall have, all who -accompany him must be baptised likewise. Joseph is baptised by St. Philip, -then Bishop of Jerusalem, as is also Vespasian, concerning whom the story -is now silent. (5) Joseph preaches to his friends and relatives and -converts seventy-five of them. They leave Jerusalem and come to Bethany, -where the Lord appears to Joseph, promises him aid as once to the Jews in -the wilderness, commands him to make a wooden ark for the dish, which he -is to open when he wants to speak to Him, but no one is to touch it save -Joseph and his son Josephes; Joseph does as commanded, his troop is -miraculously fed, and on the eleventh day they come to the town of Sarras, -between Babilone and Salavandre, whence the Saracens have their name, and -not from Sara. (6) Joseph and his seventy-five companions enter the city -and go to the Temple of the Sun, to the seat of judgment, where the -Saracens are assembled with their lord, Evalach the Unknown: he had been a -man of prowess in his youth, but was now old; seven days before, the -Egyptians had beaten his army, and the council is now devising how -vengeance may be taken therefor. Joseph is greatly joyed at these events, -and when the council advises peace assures the King of victory, but he -must destroy his images and believe on Him who died on the Cross. Evalach -asks how one who could not save himself could save another. Joseph, in -answer, tells of Christ's birth, life, death, descent into hell, -resurrection, ascension, and of the sending of the Holy Ghost. Evalach -cannot understand either the Incarnation or the Trinity, and although -Joseph explains that the Virgin conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy -Ghost through her ear, and that her virginity was no more hurt than is -water when a sunbeam enters it, remains stubborn and calls his learned men -to his aid, but Joseph confounds these, and Evalach lodges the Christians -for the night and gives them good beds. (7) Evalach dreams of a tree-stock -whence spring three equal trunks and though three yet are truly one, also -of a room with a secret door of marble, through which a child passes -without opening it; a voice tells him this is a type of the miraculous -conception of Christ. (8) Meanwhile, Joseph, unable to sleep, prays for -comfort and adjures the Lord by all His mercies to help Evalach; he is -told by a voice he shall be sent for to explain the King's dream. Joseph -then goes to sleep with his wife, Helyab, but not as lustful folk do, for -there was nothing between them till the Lord commanded the begetting of -Galahad, and then, so full of love to the Saviour were they that they had -no desire. From Galahad came the high race which honoured the land of -White Britain, now called England. (9) The morrow morning Joseph and his -company worship before the ark (now the place wherein they were had been -called the Spiritual Palace by Daniel) when a soft sweet wind comes and -the Holy Ghost descends and Christ speaks and urges all to love Him; He -tells Josephes to draw near and take charge of His flesh and blood; -Josephes opens the door of the ark and sees a man all in red, and with him -five angels, each six winged, all in red, each with a bloody sword in his -left, and in their rights severally, a cross, nails, lance, sponge, and -scourge; Josephes sees Christ nailed to the Cross, and the blood running -down from His side and feet into the dish; he would enter the ark but -angels restrain him. Joseph, wondering at his son's state, kneels before -the ark and sees therein an altar covered with white cloths, under which -is a red samite one, covering three nails, a lance head all bloody, and -the dish he had brought, and in the middle of the altar an exceeding rich -vessel of gold and precious stones; seven angels issue from the ark with -water and watering pot (2), gold basins and towels (2), and gold censers -(3), an eighth carrying the holy dish, a ninth a head so rich and -beautiful as never mortal eye saw, a tenth a sword, three more with -tapers, lastly Jesus. The company of angels go over the house sprinkling -it with holy water, because it had heretofore been dwelt in by devils. -Christ tells Josephes he is to receive the sacrament of His flesh and -blood, and be made sovran shepherd over His new sheep; bishop's vestments -are brought out of the ark. Josephes is seated in a chair, which -afterwards made a Saracen King's eyes fly out of his head, is consecrated, -an angel keeps the holy oil wherewith all Kings of Britain were anointed -till the time of Uther Pendragon, of whom none of the many that have told -his history have rightly known why he was so called; the meaning of the -episcopal vestments is explained to Josephes, and his duties set forth. -(10) Josephes then goes into the ark and celebrates the sacrament using -Christ's words only, whereat bread and wine become flesh and blood, and in -place of the bread a child, which, though as bidden, he divides into three -parts yet is eaten as one whole; an angel puts patina and chalice into the -dish; Joseph and his company receive the sacrament in the form of a child; -Christ bids Josephes celebrate the sacrament daily; tells him that he and -Joseph are to go with Evalach's messengers now nigh at hand. Leucans, -Josephes' cousin, is appointed guardian of the ark. (11) Joseph and his -son go before the King and overcome all the heathen clerk's objections; -Josephes tells Evalach he will be given over to his enemies for three -days, and shall only escape by believing on Christ; the heathen idols are -smashed by a devil at the compelling of Josephes' two angels. A messenger -brings the news that King Tholomes has entered and is capturing the land, -and he will not rest till he be crowned at Sarras. Josephes tells the King -this ill-hap is to mind him of his lowly origin, he is son of a shoemaker -in an old city of France, Meaux, and was one of a tribute of one hundred -youths and one hundred maidens claimed by Augustus Cæsar from France, as -here dwelt a prouder folk than elsewhere, and the two daughters of the -Count of the Town, Sevain, were among the tribute, and Evalach was among -their servants. When Felix was named Governor of Syria by Tiberius he had -taken Evalach with him, and held him in high honour until one day, angry -with Felix's son, Evalach slew him and had to fly, after which he entered -the service of Tholome Cerastre, King of Babylon, who had given him the -land he now ruled. Josephes further explains the King's dreams, and when -the latter declares himself willing to believe, asks for his shield, upon -which he fixes a red cross and tells him to look on it in his need and -pray to God and he shall be saved. (12) Evalach marches with his army -against Tholomes, is joined by his brother-in-law, Seraphe (whom he -thought hated him most of any man in the world) at the Queen's entreaty; -numerous combats ensue between the two armies; Seraphe performs prodigies -of valour; Evalach is taken prisoner, and in his need looks on the shield, -sees thereon Christ crucified, prays to God for help, a White Knight -appears, overcomes Tholomes, who is taken prisoner, and Evalach's army is -victorous. (13) Meanwhile Josephes, remaining in Sarras, has been -counselling Queen Sarraquite, secretly a Christian, since her mother was -cured of a bloody flux, and since Christ appeared to her when she was -afraid of the hermit her mother had led her to for baptism because he had -such a long beard; she dares not avow her faith for fear of her husband. -Josephes tells her of the battle which has taken place and of the White -Knight. (14) Evalach and Seraphe return; the King asks at once after the -Christians, and learns that he owes his victory to the Lord to whom also -Seraphe owed his strength in battle; the shield is uncovered, a man with a -wounded arm is healed by it, and then the cross vanishes; Seraphe turns -Christian, is baptised and receives the name Nasciens, he is straightway -healed of his wounds, exhorts Evalach to believe, and tells of Tholomes' -death. Evalach is baptised, and re-christened Mordrains, or -Slow-of-Belief. After baptising the town and destroying all images, -Josephes leaves three of his companions in charge of the Grail Ark, and -goes with the rest to Orcanz, turns out of an image a devil who had slain -Tholomes, and converts more of the heathen folk. (15) Meanwhile Mordrains -has ordered his people to be baptised or to leave his land; many take the -latter course and are met outside the town by a devil who wounds them -grievously, whereupon Josephes hurries to their aid, but is met by an -angel with a lance and smitten through the thigh for having left his -baptising work to trouble himself about contemners of God's law, and the -mark of the wound should stay with him all his life, and the iron spear -head remain in the wound so that ever after he limped, and he had later to -smart for it, as the tale will show in due season. Many more people are -converted, Bishops are left in the land and holy relics at Sarras. (16) -Josephes brings Mordrains, Sarraquite, and Nasciens to the holy shrine, -and shows them the vessel wherein is Christ's blood. Nasciens thinks he -has never seen aught to match it, and he gives it a name that since it has -never lost. For, says he, nothing he had seen before but somewhat -displeased him (li degraast), but this pleases him (li grée) entirely; he -further tells how once when a young man, hunting, as he stood deep in -thought a voice made itself heard, saying "Thou shall't never accomplish -what thou thinkest on until the wonders of the Grail are disclosed," and -he knows now this must be the Grail as every wish of his heart is -accomplished. And he draws nearer and lifts the vessel's lid and looks -therein, but straightway falls to trembling, feeling he can no longer see. -And he knew that the blindness was to punish his curiosity, and turning to -Josephes tells him that the iron shall not be drawn out of that wound -inflicted by the angel at Orcanz, nor he himself recover his sight until -Josephes, wounded, himself comes to draw out the iron. - -So they stand lost in thought, till a voice is heard, "After my vengeance -my healing" and an angel appears, touches Josephes' thigh with the lance -shaft, whereupon the head comes out, and from it drop great drops of blood -which the angel collects in a vessel, and wherewith he anoints Josephes' -wound, making it whole, and Nasciens' eyes, restoring to him his sight. -And the angel tells them that the meaning of the lance is that of the -beginning of the wonderful adventures which shall befall in lands whither -God purposes leading them; when the true knights should be separated from -the false ones, and the earthly knighthood become a heavenly one. And at -the beginning of those adventures the lance would drop blood as then, but -beforehand none; and then wonders would happen all over the world where -the lance was, great and terrible wonders, in recognition of the Holy -Grail and of the lance; and the marvels of the Grail should never be seen -save by one man alone; and by the lance wherewith Josephes was struck -should but one other man be struck, and he a King of Josephes' kin, and -the last of the good men; he should be struck through the two thighs, and -only healed when the Grail wonders were disclosed to the Good Knight, and -that one should be last of Nasciens' kin. Thus, as Nasciens was the first -to behold the wonders of the Grail, that one should be the last; so saith -the true crucified one, adding, "Upon the first and last of My new -ministers will I spend the vengeance of the adventurous lance in token of -Myself having received the lance stroke whilst on the Cross." And so many -days as Josephes had born the lance head in his wound so many days should -the marvellous adventures last. Now these days (_years_)[45] were -twenty-two. (17) Josephes explains Mordrains' vision, and makes him -destroy the image of a woman he had kept in a secret chamber, known, so he -thought, only to himself. (18) Josephes and his company go forth from -Sarras, but the tale tells nothing of them in this place, but keeps -straight on. On the following night Mordrains dreams that, sitting in -Sarras at table, of a sudden a thunderbolt strikes crown from his head and -the first mouthful from his lips; a great wind carries him up into a far -land where he is fed by a lion and lioness, and after a while an eagle -carries off Nasciens' son to a land whereof the inhabitants bow down -before him, and out of this nephew's belly comes a great lake giving rise -to nine streams, eight of equal breadth and depth, the ninth as wide and -deep as the remainder put together, and rushing and turbulent, and at -first foul and muddy, but afterwards clear and pure as a precious stone; -then comes down from heaven a man in likeness of one crucified, who bathes -hands and feet in the lake and eight streams, but in the ninth his whole -body. (19) Mordrains tells his vision to Nasciens and confesses to former -treacherous and jealous feelings he had against him; they seek counsel of -the priests, but none can expound the vision, and as they sit together a -great tumult is heard and the sound of a horn announcing "the beginning of -dread," and they fall senseless to the ground; but Mordrains is caught up -by the Holy Ghost and borne off. (20) Meanwhile Nasciens is accused by -Kalafier, a Christian-hater, of having made away with Mordrains, and is -cast into prison with Kalafier for gaoler. (21) Meanwhile Mordrains has -been carried off by the Holy Ghost to an island lying between Babylon, -Scotland, and Ireland, a high land from which the western sea can be -looked over as far as Spain; it was once a pirates' lair, but Pompey drove -them thence. To Mordrains comes a noble man who gives his name as -Tout-entour, comforts him, and exhorts him to steadfastness in the faith; -when he leaves a fair woman appears and tempts the King, who luckily does -not pay heed to her, and well for him, as he learns from the noble man -that she is Lucifer in disguise. He is assailed by many temptations; -storm, thunder, and lightning affright him; the wonderful bird Phoenix -attacks him and snatches the bread from his lips; Lucifer again visits him -and shows him Nasciens' dead body, but it is only an invention; finally, -all these trials withstood, the noble man comes again and expounds the -dream of the nine streams: the lake is a son of Nasciens, from whom -descend nine Kings, all good men and true, but the ninth surpassing all in -every virtue; he is the knight to whom the wonders of the Grail shall be -shown, and Christ shall bathe Himself wholly in him. (22) Meanwhile -Nasciens has been kept in prison together with his son, Celidoine -(Heaven-given) by Kalafier. But a miraculous hand appearing from out a -cloud strikes off Nasciens' fetters, and carries him out of the dungeon; -Kalafier pursues but is struck down by the hand; on his death bed he -orders that Celidoine be cast from the battlements, but nine hands bear -him up in mid air, whilst Kalafier, slain by fire from heaven, goes to -eternal death. Sarraquite, overjoyed to hear of her brother's escape, -sends out messengers to meet them. Meanwhile Nasciens' wife, Flegentyne, -has set out in search of her husband accompanied by the old knight, -Corsapias, and his son, Helicoras. (23) Now Nasciens has been carried -fourteen days journey off to the Turning Isle (concerning which many -wonders are told); all of these things are true, as Christ Himself has -written the book of the Holy Grail, and He never wrote aught else save the -Lord's Prayer for the disciples and the judgment upon the woman taken in -adultery. And no man is bold enough to say that since the Resurrection -Christ wrote aught else save this "haute escripture del S. Graal." (24) A -ship comes to Nasciens' isle which he would enter but for words warning -him against it unless he be full of faith. However, crossing himself he -enters [and finds therein the same wonders as those described in Queste, -Inc. 35, 36, 37, viz.:--the sword and the three spindles, precisely the -same story about which is told as in the Queste]. (25) Nasciens deeming -there must be magic in this, the ship splits in twain, and had well nigh -drowned him, but he regains the isle swimming, and on the morrow an old -man comes in a ship and gives him an allegorical explanation of what has -befallen him. (26) Meanwhile Celidoine, carried off by the hands to the -land of the heathen King Label, wins his favour by expounding a dream, -converts him, but at his death is cast adrift by the heathen barons in a -boat with a lion, and after three days comes to Nasciens' island. (27) The -two rejoice on their meeting, and leave the island together in Solomon's -ship, come after four days to another island, where Nasciens, attacked by -a giant, seizes Solomon's sword but it breaks in his hand, nevertheless, -with another sword he overcomes the giant. He chides Solomon's sword, but -Celidoine says it is some sin of his made it break. Thereafter they see a -ship approaching wherein is Mordrains. There is rejoicing between the -three, and much telling of past adventures. Nasciens shows the broken -sword to Mordrains, who, taking it in his hands, joins it together, -whereupon a voice bids them leave the ship; Nasciens, not obeying fast -enough, is wounded in the shoulder by a fiery sword in punishment of his -having drawn Solomon's sword. (28) The messengers sent out by Sarraquite -in search of Nasciens have, meantime, had many adventures, have come -across the daughter of King Label, suffered shipwreck, and been thrown -upon a desert isle formerly the home of the great physician, Ypocras (of -whom a long story is told how he was tricked by a Roman lady), been -tempted in divers fashions, but at last they are led to Mordrains, -Nasciens, and Celidoine. (29) On the third night a priest clad in white -comes walking on the sea, heals Nasciens' wound, and sends off Celidoine -in another ship. The remainder come to land, Mordrains and Sarraquite are -reunited; Nasciens' wife, Flegentyne, is sent for; and Label's daughter is -christened by Petrone, a holy man and kinsman of Joseph. She was after -Celidoine's wife, as my lord Robert of Borron testifies, who translated -this history from Latin into French after the holy hermit to whom our Lord -first gave it. (30) Nasciens sets forth in search of his son, his knights -follow on his track, and two are struck dead for their sins. Nasciens -comes again to Solomon's ship, is tempted by the devil in the shape of a -fair damsel, goes on board the ship and dreams as follows:--Celidoine is -in the promised land with all those who had left Sarras; he, Nasciens, -shall go thence likewise and never depart thence, nor shall the ship until -it take back the last of his line to Sarras, together with the Holy Grail, -and that shall be after three hundred years; and thereafter Celidoine -leads before him nine persons, all in guise of Kings, save the eighth who -was like a dog, and the ninth turns into a lion, and at his death the -whole world mourns over him. And the names of these, Nasciens' -descendants, are: Celidoine, Marpus, Nasciens, Alains li Gros, Ysaies, -Jonans, Lancelot, Bans, Lancelot, like unto a dog until his end, Galahad, -foul at the source, but afterwards clear, in whom Christ shall bathe -Himself wholly, and who shall end all the adventures. On the morrow it is -explained to Nasciens that the eighth of his descendants likens a dog on -account of his sins, and the ninth is foul at the beginning as engendered -in fornication and not as Holy Church wills. (31) The story, after -touching on Flegentyne, who retires to her own land, returns to Joseph, -who, with his son, Josephes, and his companions, has been wandering about. -Joseph is ordered by a voice from heaven to beget a son, whose name shall -be Galaad. At length the company comes to the sea shore and laments that -it has no ships; Joseph rebukes them, and says those may pass who have -kept chaste, whereupon four hundred and sixty come forward to confess -their lechery. Josephes is told to put forward the Grail-bearers, to take -the shirt off his back, and having spread it on the water, all the pure -companions shall find place on it. This happens, and all find place save -Symeu and his son, who are not as they should be, and who sink and are -well nigh drowned. The chosen company arrive on the morrow in Great -Britain, then full of Saracens and infidels. Josephes then prays for the -remainder of the company; a heavenly voice says they shall come in good -time, and that this is the promised land in which they shall multiply and -become the worthiest race anywhere. (32) Meantime Nasciens has been led in -Solomon's ship to those of Joseph's followers who had been left behind, as -the history of the Holy Grail testifies. After being warned against fresh -falling into sin they are brought over to Joseph, and are fed with as much -meat as they could want. But the fifth day the company, not having eaten -for a day, come to the tent of a poor woman, wherein are twelve loaves -about which they dispute. Josephes, referred to, breaks each loaf in -three, and having placed the Holy Grail at the head of the table by its -power the bread suffices for more than five hundred people. (33) Hereafter -the company comes to Castle Galafort, where Celidoine is found disputing -with the Saracen wise men. The Christians are well received by Ganort, and -shortly afterwards he and his people are baptised, one hundred and fifty -who refuse being drowned. Over their bodies a tower is built, the Tower of -Marvels, and thereafter, it is prophesied, a King named Arthur should -reign, and from one blow of a sword adventures should arise, lasting -twelve years, until the last descendant of Nasciens should end them, and -till that time no knight of Arthur's house should enter the tower without -having to fight as good a man as himself; thus should it be till he who -was to end the adventures appeared. So they build the tower, and it lasts -until Lancelot destroys it, as the "Tale of Arthur's Death" relates. (34) -Joseph's wife bears a son, who receives the name of Galahad, of the Castle -of Galafort. (35) The King of Northumberland, hearing of Ganort's -conversion, summons him to the court, and on his refusal attacks him, but -is defeated and slain by the Christians. (36) Josephes, his father, and -one hundred and fifty of the Christians, leaving Galafort, come to -Norgales, and are thrown into prison by King Crudel, who says, "Let them -be for forty days, and see if their vessel will feed them." Our Lord comes -to comfort them, and bids them be of good cheer, He will send an avenger -to slay these dogs. (37) Our Lord, in the likeness of one crucified, then -appears to Mordrains, bids him set forth with wife and children and King -Label's daughter and Nasciens' wife and go to Great Britain, there to -avenge him on King Crudel. Mordrains hearkens, and shortly after sets -forth with all his household, leaving his land in charge of Duke Ganor. On -the way a devil carries off the captain of the ship, who had lusted after -Queen Flegentyne. They arrive in Britain and rejoin their friends; great -is the joy; Nasciens' queen is like to have died of joy, and swoons twelve -times. (38) Mordrains sends word to Crudel to set the Christians free, and -on his refusal marches against, overthrows, and slays him, but is -grievously wounded, though he suffers no pain. Josephes and his companions -are freed, and thanksgivings are made before the Grail. On the morrow, as -Josephes is officiating before the holy vessel, Mordains presses near to -see it, in spite of a warning voice; he loses his sight and the power of -his body; he confesses his folly, but prays he may not die till the Good -Knight's coming, the ninth of Nasciens' descendants. A voice promises him -this, and that when the Good Knight comes he shall recover his sight and -his wounds be healed; but three hear this promise beside Mordrains -himself, Joseph, Josephes, and Nasciens. (39) Mordrains is brought to -Galafort, where Celidoine marries King Label's daughter and begets a son, -Nasciens. Mordrains then, after giving his wife and shield into Nasciens' -keeping, retires to a hermitage, and builds a monastery of the White -Monks, and stays there till Perceval sees him and Galahad, too, as the -"Tale of the Holy Grail" tells. (40) Josephes leaves Galafort, and, coming -to Camelot, converts many of the people, whereat King Agrestes, being -grieved, is baptised with false intent, and after Josephes' departure -persecutes the Christians, and is punished by madness and death. Josephes -returning, buries the martyrs, whose blood had blackened a cross, which -keeps the name of the "Black Cross," till the Good Knight, Lancelot of the -Lake's son comes. (41) Josephes comes to a hill called Hill of the Giant; -'tis a Friday, and Brons is sitting next him at the Grail-table, but -between the two is space for a man to sit, and Brons, Josephes' kinsman, -asks him why he does not invite some one to fill it. Josephes answers, -only he who is a holier man than any present can fill that place, as it -typifies Christ's seat at the Last Supper, and is empty waiting His -coming, or whom He shall send. Such of the company as are in mortal sin -take this saying as presumption and fable, and Moys declares his -willingness to sit in it if his companions will ask Josephes' leave. They -do so, and though Josephes minds them how Moys might hardly come to -Britain, and though he solemnly warns Moys himself, he gives his leave. -Moys takes the seat, and at once seven flaming bands from heaven seize -upon him and carry him off to a far place burning like a dry bush. The -people repent, and, in answer to their enquiries, Josephes tells them the -day shall come when they shall know where Moys is. (42) After the meal -Josephes, at Brons' request, has the latter's twelve sons up before him, -and asks them whether they will be wedded or not. Eleven choose wedding, -but the twelfth virginity and the service of the Holy Grail. Josephes, -overjoyed, having married the other eleven, appoints him guardian of the -Grail at his death, and he might leave the guardianship afterwards to whom -he would. (43) Josephes and his companions pass through Britain converting -the heathen. Now the Grail only gives food to such as are not in sin, and -once as the troop is encamped by a lake, Peter, a kinsman of Josephes', -bears it through the ranks, and all are fed with the best food, save the -sinners; these complain, and beg Josephes to pray for them, whereupon he -bids Brons' youngest son, the same he had chosen as Grail-keeper, Alains -le Gros (not that Alains, Celidoine's son, _he_ was king and wore a crown, -but this one never) take the net from the Grail-table and fish with it in -the pond. Alains does so and catches one fish, a big one, but say they, -'Twill not be enough; however, Alains, having shared it in three, and -having prayed it might suffice, all are fed. Alains is called in -consequence the Rich Fisher, and all the Grail-keepers after him bear this -name, but they were more blessed than he, being crowned Kings whereas he -never wore crown. (44) Joseph, leaving his companions, comes into the -Forest of Broceliande, meets a Saracen who would lead him to his sick -brother, but is himself slain by a lion. Joseph is thrown in prison and -wounded in the thigh by the men of the sick knight's castle, but, -obtaining leave to visit the sick knight, heals him, and brings back to -life the Saracen slain by the lion; both brothers are baptised; a fragment -of the sword remaining in the wound, Joseph draws it out, and laying it -with the remainder of the sword prophecies it shall not be made whole till -he come who shall achieve the adventures of the Holy Grail. (45) Joseph, -returning to his companions, finds them in doubt as to how they shall -cross a great water, they pray for guidance, and a white hart appears, -followed by four stags, and leads them across, all save Chanaan, who -crosses later in a fisherman's boat. Josephes, in answer to Alain and -Pierron, explains the hart and lions as Christ and the Evangelists, and -Christ would appear in that wise afterwards to Arthur, Mordred, and -Lancelot. (46) The Christians come to a house where burns a great fire, -out of which is heard a lamentable voice; it is that of Moys; at Josephes' -prayer rain falls from heaven and quenches half the flames, but he may not -be wholly delivered until the Good Knight, Galahad, come. (47) The -Christians come into the land of King Escos, whence Scotland has its name. -The Holy Grail refuses meat to Chanaan and to Symeu, Moys' father, whereat -enraged, Symeu attacks Pierre and wounds him, and Chanaan slays his -twelve brethren. Symeu is carried off by devils, whilst Chanaan's grave -bursts out in flames, which may not quench till Lancelot come. (48) -Meanwhile Pierre's wound having become worse, he is left behind with a -priest, who leads him to the sea shore, and, at his request, places him in -a boat; this carries him to the isle of the heathen king, Orcanz, whose -daughter finding him on the sea shore dying, has pity on him and tends him -secretly till he is healed. Her father requires a champion, Pierre offers -himself, conquers, converts, and baptises Orcanz, who takes the name -Lamer, and marries his daughter, and King Luces comes to the wedding and -is overjoyed. From him came Gauvain, son of King Lot of Orcanie. Mordred -was no true son of Lot's, but of Arthur's. Gauvain is thus of the seed of -Joseph of Arimathea. (49) Josephes after fifteen years' wanderings comes -back to Galafort, and finds his brother Galahad grown up; by Josephes' -advice the men of Hocelice take Galahad for their king, and he became the -ancestor of Ywain, son of Urien. Once whilst riding he comes to Symeu's -fiery grave, which may not be quenched till Galahad, the Good Knight, -comes. At Galahad's death he is buried in an abbey he founds to allay -Symeu's pains, and the tombstone of his grave may not be lifted until by -Lancelot. (50) Joseph dies shortly after Galahad's crowning, and Josephes, -feeling death near, pays a last visit to Mordrains, who begs for a token -from him. Josephes asks for the king's shield, and with blood gushing from -his nose marks on it a red cross, gives it to Mordrains, and says no one -shall hang it on his neck without rue till Galahad do so; the shield is -placed on Nasciens' tomb. On the morrow Josephes dies; his body is carried -afterwards into Scotland to still a famine, and is buried in the Abbey of -Glays. (51) Before his death he has confided the Grail to Alain. The -latter comes with his brethren, one of whom, Josue, is unmarried, to the -Terre Foraine, converts the King and people, and marries Josue to his -daughter. Here is the resting-place of the Holy Grail; a lordly castle is -built for it, hight Corbenic, which is Chaldee, and signifies "holy -vessel." At Josue's wedding, such is the power of the Holy Grail, that all -present are as filled as if they had eaten the finest meats they could -think of. And that night the King, baptized Alfasem, sleeping in the -castle, beholds the holy vessel covered with crimson samite, and a man all -flaming tells him no mortal may sleep where the Holy Grail rests, and -wounds him through both thighs, and bids others beware of sleeping in the -Palace Adventurous. And afterwards many a knight essayed the adventure, -but lost his life, till Gauvain came, and he, though he kept his life, had -such shame and mischance as he had not had for the Kingdom of Logres' -sake. (58) Alain and Alfasem die; Josue becomes King and Grail-keeper, and -after him Aminadap, Catheloys, Manaal, Lambor, all Kings and known as the -Fisher, and Lambor fighting with his enemy, Bruillant, pursues him to the -sea shore, and Bruillant finds there Solomon's ship and enters it, and -finds the sword with which he slays Lambor, and this was the first blow -struck with that sword in Great Britain, and such great woes sprang -therefrom that no labourers worked, nor wheat grew, nor fruit trees bore, -nor fish was found in the waters, so that the land was known as the Waste -Land. But Bruillant falls dead for drawing the sword. After Lambor, -Pelleans, wounded in the two thighs in a battle of Rome, whence he was -always called the Maimed King, and he might not heal till Galahad the Good -Knight come; and from him descends Pelles, and on his daughter does -Lancelot of the Lake beget Galahad. (59) Nasciens, Flegentyne, and -Sarraquite die on the self-same day. Celidoine reigns, and is followed by -Marpus, he by Nasciens, Alain li Gros, Ysaies, Jonas, Lancelot, Bans, -Lancelot of the Lake. Here the story ends of all the seed of Celidoine, -and returns to speak of Merlin, which my lord Robert of Borron thus -begins.[46] - - In making up the slips, the summary of Borron's poem dropped out. In - order not to disturb the page form, which was fixed before the - omission was noticed, it has been inserted after the Grand St. Graal - with a subpagination. - -=Robert de Borron's Poem: Joseph of Arimathea.=--(1) Before Christ's -coming all folk went to Hell, but He came born of a Virgin that He might -bring them out of Hell. He took flesh what time Judæa was under Rome and -Pilate governed it. Now a soldier of Pilate's loved Christ but dared not -show it. Of Christ's few disciples one was bad, his chamberlain, and he -betrayed Him to the Jews. (2) On Thursday Jesus gathers His disciples; -Judas' question, the washing of the feet, the kiss of betrayal follow. -When the Jews carry off Jesus, one of them takes the very fair vessel -wherein He made His sacrament, and gave it to Pilate, who keeps it till he -learns Jesus' death. (3) Joseph is angry hereat, and claims pay for his -and his five knights five years' free service, and his pay is Christ's -body. Pilate grants it him, and Joseph hastens to the Cross, but the -guards deny him, whereon he complains to Pilate, who sends Nicodemus to -see he obtain it, and also gives Joseph the vessel. (4) Joseph and -Nicodemus descend the body, and wash it, which makes the blood flow -afresh. Joseph puts the blood in the vessel, wraps the body in a fine -cloth and entombs it. The descent into Hell and the Resurrection follow. -(5) The Jews are incensed against Joseph and Nicodemus; the latter -escapes, but Joseph is thrust into a horrible and dark prison. To him -Christ appears with His vessel, in a great light, and instructs Joseph, -telling him for his love to Him he shall have the symbol of His death and -give it to keep to whom he would; He then gives Joseph the great, precious -vessel wherein is His holiest blood. Joseph wonders, having hidden it in -his house. Joseph is to yield the vessel to three persons only, who are to -take it in the name of the Trinity. No Sacrament shall ever be celebrated -but Joseph shall be remembered. But Joseph must be taught concerning the -Sacrament; the bread and wine are Christ's flesh and blood, the tomb is -the Altar; the grave-cloth the Corporal, the vessel wherein the blood was -put shall be called Chalice, the cup-platten signifies the tombstone. All -who see Joseph's vessel shall be of Christ's company, have fulfilment of -their heart's wish and joy eternal. (_The author adds_: I dare not, nor -could not, tell this but that I had the great book wherein the histories -are written by the great clerks, therein are the great secrets written -which are called the Graal.) Christ leaves Joseph, who remains in prison, -no man heeding him (6) until, when Vespasian, the Emperor's son, was a -leper, a pilgrim comes to Rome and tells of Christ's cures, and lays his -head Vespasian could be cured could anything of Christ's be brought to -Rome. The Emperor sends messengers, who hear Pilate's story of the -Crucifixion and about Joseph. The Jews are called together, and one tells -of Verrine, who is brought before the messengers, and she relates how she -wiped Christ's face and thus got the likeness of Him. They take her to -Rome, Vespasian is healed, and sets forth to revenge Christ's death. He -kills many Jews, burning some. One Jew offers to find Joseph, and tells -the story of his imprisonment. Vespasian is let down into the prison and -finds Joseph alive, who, to his amazement, welcomes him by name, and -reads him a lecture on Biblical history and Christian Faith. Vespasian is -converted, and sells the Jews at the rate of thirty for a penny. (7) -Joseph exhorts his kin, among them his sister, Enygeus, and -brother-in-law, Hebron. They agree to believe, and to follow him. He sets -off with them and they dwell for long in far-off lands. For awhile things -go well, but then all the host does turns to naught; 'tis on account of -carnal sin. The host complains to Hebron that they and their children die -of hunger. (8) Hebron reports this to Joseph, who goes weeping and kneels -before the vessel and asks why his followers suffer? A voice from the Holy -Ghost answers he is not in fault, but he is to set the vessel before the -people, and to mind him how He, Christ, had eaten with His disciples, and -how the false disciple was detected. In the name of that table whereat -Christ last ate, Joseph is to prepare another, and then to call his -brother-in-law, Brons, and make him go into the water to catch a fish, and -the first he catches Joseph is to put it on the table, and then to take -the vessel, put it on the table, cover it with a towel, and then place -Hebron's fish opposite it. The people are then to be called, who will soon -see wherein they have sinned. And Joseph is to sit where Christ sat at the -Last Sacrament, with Brons at his right. And Brons is to draw back one -seat, to signify the seat of Judas, and the seat thus left empty is not to -be filled until Enygeus have a child by Brons, her husband, and when that -child is born there shall be his seat. The people is then to be bidden sit -down to the grace of our Lord. Joseph does all this; part of the people -sit, part do not, the sitters are filled with sweetness and the desire of -their heart, the others feel nought. One of the sitters, named Petrus, -asks if they feel nothing, and tells them it is because they are defiled -with sin. The sinners then depart, but Joseph bids them come back day by -day. Thus Joseph detects the sinners, and thus is the vessel first proved. -(9) Joseph tells the sinners it severs them from the others, as it holds -no company with nor has love towards any sinner. The sinners ask the name -of the vessel: it is called _Graal_, as it is agreeable to all who see it. -Now all this is verity, hence we call this the Story of the Grail, and it -shall be henceforth known as the Grail. (10) One sinner remains, Moyses, a -hypocrite (here a gap which can be filled up from the prose versions: -Moyses seats himself in the empty seat, whereupon the earth opens and -swallows him). (11) Joseph prays to Christ that as He came to him in -prison, and promised He would come to his aid when in trouble, so now He -would show him what has become of Moyses. The voice tells Joseph again -about the empty seat, and how that the one at Joseph's table was not to be -filled until the third man come, whom Hebron should beget and Enygeus -bear, and _his_ son should fill the seat. Moyses had stayed behind only to -deceive, he had his deserts, no more should be heard of him in fable or -song until _he_ come who should fill the empty seat. (12) In course of -time Brons and Enygeus have twelve sons and are greatly bothered with -them, and ask Joseph what is to be done with them. Joseph prays before the -vessel; eleven will marry, one remain single; this one is Alain. Joseph -is told by the voice when he consults the vessel about this nephew, to -relate all about Christ's death and about the vessel, to tell Alain that -from him shall issue an heir who is to keep the vessel; Alain is to take -charge of his brethren and sisters and go westwards. An angel will bring a -letter for Petrus to read, telling him to go whither he lists; he will -say: the vale of Avaron; thither shall he go and wait for the son of -Alain, and shall not pass away until that one come, and to him shall -Petrus teach the power of the vessel, and say what has become of Moyses, -and then may he die. (13) All happens as foretold by the voice; the letter -comes for Petrus, who declares his intention of departing for the vale of -Avaron, bidding the host pray God he may never go against His will. Alain -leaves with his brethren, and, as Joseph taught him, preaches the name of -Jesus Christ. (14) Petrus stays one day more; it is, says an angel, the -Lord sends to Joseph, that he may see and hear the things of the vessel. -The angel continues: The Lord knows Brons for a worthy man, and 'twas, -therefore His will he should go fishing; he is to keep the vessel after -Joseph, who must instruct him properly especially concerning the holy -words which God spake to Joseph in the prison, which are properly called -the Secrets of the Grail; Brons is to be called the Rich Fisher from the -fish he caught; all the people are to go westwards; Brons is to wait for -the son of his son, and to give him the vessel, then shall the meaning of -the blessed Trinity be made known; after the vessel has been given to -Brons, Petrus is to go, as he may then truly say he has seen Hebron, the -Rich Fisher, put in possession of the vessel; when all this is done, -Joseph is to go to perfect joy and life pardurable. (15) On the morrow -Joseph tells them the angel's message, save the words of Christ in the -prison, which he tells to the Rich Fisher alone. The latter is then put in -possession of Grail and headship; Joseph stays three days with him, then -the Good Fisher goes away--in the land where he was born--and Joseph -remains.[47] - -Master Robert de Borron should doubtless tell where Alain went, Hebron's -son, and what became of him; what life Petrus led, and what became of him; -what became of the long-lost Moyses; where the Rich Fisher went, and where -he stayed. It were well to assemble these four things, but this no man -could do save he had first heard tell the greatest history of the Grail, -which is all true; and in this time I tell it to my Lord Walter, never had -the great history of the Grail been told by mortal man. If God gives me -strength I will assemble these four parts if I can find them in a book, -meanwhile I must go on to the fifth and forget the four. (Then follows the -Merlin). - -=Robert de Borron's Poem: Merlin.=--(In order to give all the materials -for the discussion of Birch-Hirschfeld's theory of the Grail legend in the -next chapter, a brief summary of the Merlin is added. A full one may be -found in Birch-Hirschfeld, pp. 166, _et seq._) - -The devil, incensed at Christ's victory over him, in revenge begets by -fraudful malice upon a virgin, a son, who is to be the wisest of mankind, -and to oppose Christ's teaching. This is Merlin, who at eighteen months is -able to save his mother, threatened with the doom of unchastity. -Afterwards he is brought to King Vortigern, to whom he expounds the -mystery of the unfinished tower. Vortigern is driven from his throne by -Pendragon, with whom Merlin stands in high honour; equally so with his -successor, Uter Pendragon, for whom he builds the Round Table, leaving one -place empty to be filled in the time of Uter's successor. He then helps -the King to satisfy his passion for Yguerne, and takes charge of Arthur, -their son. When the latter grows up to be a youth he fulfils the adventure -of the sword in the anvil, and is proclaimed King. "And I, Robert of -Borron, writer of this book, may not speak longer of Arthur till I have -told of Alain, son of Brons, and how the woes of Britain were caused; and -as the book tells so must I what man Alain was, and what life he led, and -of his seed and their life. And when I have spoken of these things I will -tell again of Arthur." - -(Then follows in one solitary MS., the Didot-Perceval summarised above, p. -28. As will be seen, it does not tell what man Alain was, nor does it -refer to him at all save in the most passing way). - - - - -CHAPTER III. - - The legend formed of two portions: Early History of Grail, Quest--Two - forms of each portion distinguished--Grouping of the various - versions--Alternative hypotheses of development--Their bearing upon - the alleged Celtic origin of the Grail--Closer examination of the - various accounts of the Grail: The first use made of it and its first - possessor; its solace of Joseph; its properties and the effect - produced by it; its name; its arrival in England; the Grail-keeper and - his relationship to the Promised Knight--Three different stages in the - development of the Queste--The work and the qualification of the - Promised Knight--Conclusions: Priority over Early History of - Quest--Chronological arrangement of the versions. - - -The information afforded by the summaries enables us to take a general -view of the legend as a whole, and to attempt a more accurate -chronological classification of its varying forms. It will have been seen -that the legend is formed of two distinct portions: the one dealing with -the origin and wanderings (Early History) of the Grail, the other with its -Quest. The two portions are found combined in the Joseph and -Didot-Perceval and in the Grand St. Graal and Queste considered each as -one organic whole. Versions A, Chrestien and his continuators; C, -Didot-Perceval taken by itself; D, Queste; F, Wolfram, and G, Perceval le -Gallois, treat only of the Quest. Versions B, Metrical Joseph, and E, -Grand St. Graal, only of the Early History. But in nearly all the -versions, no matter of which portion, references are to be found to the -other, and when the versions are carefully examined, it is found that of -each portion there exist two entirely different forms. Taking the Early -History first, versions A, B, C, D, E, and G, in so far as they deal with -it at all, relate much as follows: the Grail is the vessel which our Lord -used at the Last Supper, which, given by Pilate to Joseph, served the -latter to receive the blood flowing from the body of the dead Christ, -sustained him miraculously during his captivity, was, after his release, -used by him to test the faith of his followers, and was brought to England -by Joseph (A, D, E), by Brons (B, C), and was finally confided by Joseph -to his brother-in-law, Brons, to be kept until the coming of the latter's -grandson (versions B and C), or was left in charge of Alain, son of Brons, -from whom it passed to his brother Josue, in whose line it remained until -the Good Knight should come (version E). But F, Wolfram makes the Grail a -vessel of "lapsit exillit" (_i.e._, lapis herilis, or lapsus ex coelis, or -lapis electrix), which, after the fall of the rebel angels, was given in -charge to Titurel and his dynasty, and by them preserved in the Grail -Castle, Montsalvatch, guarded by a sacred order of Knighthood whom it -chooses itself. So far, therefore, as the Early History is concerned all -the versions, save one, are in the main of the same class, the differences -between them being, apparently, ones of development and not of origin. - -Turning now to the Quest, two classes are likewise to be distinguished: in -the first the hero is Perceval, in the second there are three heroes, -Galahad, Perceval, and Bors, chief of whom is Galahad. To the first class -belong versions A, Chrestien, etc., C, Didot-Perceval; F, Wolfram; and G, -Perceval le Gallois; whilst D, Queste, alone of the versions which recount -the Quest only, belongs to the other class. It is followed, however, by E, -Grand St. Graal, in so far as the latter has any reference to the Quest. -In the other Early History version, namely B, Metrical Joseph, the name of -the hero who is to achieve the Quest is not mentioned, but the indications -concerning him agree more closely with the march of the story in C, -Didot-Perceval, than with those of D, Queste; it must therefore be ranged -in the first class. The main incident in the versions of this class is the -hero's visit to the castle of a sick king, his beholding there the Grail -in company with other relics, his neglect on the first visit to ask the -meaning of what he sees, his punishment, second visit to the Grail Castle, -and attainment of his end, whether healing of the Sick King or winning of -the Grail kingship. The two versions, H, Peredur, and I, Sir Perceval, -which belong to the Grail cycle, though they do not mention the Grail, and -although I, Sir Perceval, does not contain the above-mentioned incident, -must likewise be placed in this class, as must also the Gawain episodes -of Diu Crone. In the second class this main incident is missing, though -several of its less important features are present in altogether different -connection. The story in D, Queste, is largely made up of adventures -tallying often detail for detail with those in the Early History version, -E, Grand St. Graal, with which it shares similarity in the Quest form. - -Whilst each portion of the legend exists in two forms, the great majority -of versions in both cases belong to one form. Looking for the moment upon -D and E as one whole, there is in both cases only one minority-version, -viz., for the Early History, F, Wolfram, for the Quest D-E, Queste, Grand -St. Graal. And each of these is only in a minority as far as one portion -of the legend is concerned, D-E, agreeing with the majority in the Early -History, and F in the Quest. Taking the average of all the versions there -results what may be called the _Joseph of Arimathea form_ as the type of -the Early History; the _Perceval form_ as the type of the Quest. As a -rule, it may be confidently assumed that the larger number of versions -represent an older form, an assumption strengthened so far as the Early -History is concerned by the fact that the minority version, F, Wolfram, -can historically be proved to be one of the latest in date of all the -versions, and, so far as the Quest is concerned, by the following -considerations:--The minority version, D-E, has three heroes, of whom -Perceval is second in importance only to the chief hero, Galahad, indeed -he occupies as large a space in the narrative. This position can be due -only to his being the original achiever of the Quest. It is obviously -inadmissible that seven or eight versions should have conspired to pick -out one only, and that one the second, of the three heroes of the Queste, -and should have made him the sole hero, whilst it is easy to understand -that the author of D, Queste, dissatisfied for certain reasons with the -older forms of the story, yet not daring to alter it so far as to entirely -burke the original hero, should have taken the course he did. - -Two alternative hypotheses now naturally suggest themselves. The two parts -of the legend may really form one organic whole, although more frequently -found asunder than combined, or the one part may be an explanatory and -supplementary after-thought. If the first hypothesis be accepted, it is -natural to look upon the Metrical Joseph and the Didot-Perceval as the -first and last parts of a trilogy, which, as presenting the legend in its -fullest and most orderly shape, has a claim to being the oldest form of -the story, and the main, if not the only, source of all other versions. -If, on the other hand, the second hypothesis be exact, if one part of the -legend be later than the other, and has been artificially welded into one -with it, that version in which this fusion is most perfect, instead of -being the earliest is, with greater likelihood, one of the latest forms. -How do these alternative hypotheses affect the special object of these -studies--the investigation of the alleged Celtic element in the Grail -romances? In this way. If the Early History be an integral part of the -romance, the probabilities in favour of a purely Christian legendary -origin for the Grail itself are immensely increased, and the utmost the -Celtic partisan could hope to show was that a Christian legend had somehow -or other been strongly influenced by Celtic popular traditions. But if the -reverse be true the probabilities are at once in favour of the Christian -legendary element being the intruding one, and the chief aim of the Celtic -partisan will be to disengage the present versions of the Quest from the -traces left upon them by the Early History, and to accumulate as many -parallels as possible between the residuum and admittedly genuine Celtic -tradition. It by no means follows, however, that the acceptance of the -second hypothesis involves the acceptance of the Celtic origin of the -Grail. The romance as we have it--Quest, Early History--may be the fusion -of two elements, one of which, the Christian legendary, may claim _all_ -that is connected with the mystic vessel. Were it otherwise our task would -be greatly simplified. For the mere fact that what may be called the -non-Grail members of the cycle, _i.e._, H, Peredur, and I, Sir Perceval, -know nothing of the Early History, gives no uncertain hint as to which -portion of the romance is the original, and which the accretion. Two -points have then to be investigated--the relationship one to the other of -Early History and Quest; and, if the Quest is found to be the older -portion, whether the Grail really belongs to it, or whether its presence -in the various forms of the story as we now have them may not be due to -the Early History. An examination of the various passages in which the -Grail is mentioned will furnish material towards settling the first point. -Such an examination may profitably omit all reference to Wolfram, to the -prose Perceval le Gallois, from which little is apparently to be gained -respecting the oldest forms of the legend, and to Heinrich von dem -Türlin's version of the Gawain episodes. It must also neglect for the -nonce the two non-Grail members of the cycle (the Mabinogi and Sir -Perceval) as their testimony is either of little or of the highest value -according as the Quest is or is not found to be the oldest portion of the -romance. With these exceptions all the versions furnish elements of -comparison, though little is to be got, as far as the point under -discussion is concerned, from what is apparently the latest section of the -Conte du Graal, Gerbert's poem. - -The consideration of the second point will necessitate comparison of the -various Quest forms among themselves, and the examination of numerous -Celtic stories which present analogies with them. - - -_The Grail: the first use made of it and its first Possessor._ - -We learn nothing from Chrestien respecting the early history of the Grail, -nor is Gautier more communicative if the Mons MS. version be followed. The -intercalation, A IIA, however, and Manessier give full details. According -to the former: - - ... c'est icel Graal por voir - Que nostre Sires tant ama - Que de son saint sanc l'anora - Au jor que il fu en croix mis. (16-19) - -According to the latter: - - C'est li vassiaus, ce saciés-vous, - Ù ens li sains sans présious - Nostre Segnor fu recéus - Quant de la lance fu férus. (35,017-20) - -We learn from the former that "Josep le fist fère" (v. 22), and that he -used it to collect the blood that flowed from each foot of our Lord as He -hung on the Cross (verses 30-39), whilst the latter leaves it uncertain -who the first possessor was, and who held the Grail to receive our Lord's -blood. The information given in versions B, is as might be expected, much -fuller. B I, Metr. Jos., which calls it "un veissel mout gent," tells how -Christ used it, He "feisoit son sacrement" in it; how it was found by a -Jew, who delivered it up to Pilate, by whom it was given to Joseph, and by -him used to receive the blood which bursts forth again from Christ's -wounds when the body has been taken down from the Cross.--C, -Didot-Perceval: Brons, after relating how Longis pierced the Lord's body -as it hung on the Cross, says of the Grail, "en cest vessel gist le sanc -que Joseph recueilli qui decoroit par terre" (p. 483).--E, Grand St. -Graal: Joseph himself finds the vessel out of which Christ had eaten, -takes it home, and when he has received the body from Pilate, fetches the -vessel and collects in it all the blood flowing from the wound he can (I, -pp. 23, 24). Curiously enough, the very MS. which gives this version has -an illustration of Joseph sitting under the Cross and collecting the blood -as it drops from the wounds in side and feet. Three different accounts of -how the Grail came into Joseph's possession and to what use he put it thus -exist:-- - - (1) The Grail is the vessel in which Christ's blood was received as He - hung upon the Cross (Pseudo-Gautier, Manessier, Didot-Perceval, and an - illustration in a MS. of the Grand St. Graal); Joseph had had it made - (Pseudo-Gautier). - - (2) The Grail is the vessel which had been used by Christ at the Last - Supper. It is used as a receptacle for the blood of Christ after His - body has been taken down from the Cross (Metr. Jos.). - - (3) Same as No. 2, with minor alterations, such as that it was Joseph - who found the holy vessel himself (Grand St. Graal). - - -_The Grail: its Solace of Joseph._ - -Chrestien and Gautier are again silent, but from A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, we -learn that Joseph was wont to pray before the Grail, that he was, in -consequence, imprisoned in a high tower by the Jews, delivered thence by -the Lord, whereupon the Jews resolve to exile him with Nicodemus, and -that sister of his who had a likeness of Christ (verses 60-110). -Manessier, in the Mons MS. version, passes this over, but A IIIA, has the -following important passage:-- - - En une charte orrible et lède - Fu mis Joseph sanz nul arreste; - - * * * * - - XL ans ilecques estut - C'onques ne menja ne ne but; - Mais Damediex li envoioit - Le Saint Graal que il véoit - II foiées ou III le jor; (V. pp. 153-4.) - -In the B versions this episode is one of capital importance. B I., Joseph -is put into prison, because the Jews suspect him of having stolen away -Christ's body. To him in the dungeon, "qui estoit horrible et obscure" (v. -703), appears Christ, who hands him the Grail, whereat he is surprised, as -he had hidden it in a house where none knew of it (v. 860), and addresses -him as follows:-- - - En ten povoir l'enseigne aras - De ma mort et la garderas - Et cil l'averunt à garder - A cui tu la voudras donner. (847-50) - -These will be three-- - - Joseph, bien ce saras garder, - Que tu ne le doiz commander - Qu'a trois persones qui l'arunt. - Ou non dou Père le penrunt - Et dou Fil et dou Saint-Esprit (871-75) - -The offices Joseph rendered to Christ's body were symbolical of the -Sacrament: the sepulchre is the altar; the sheet in which the body was -wrapped the corporal; the vessel in which the blood was received shall be -called chalice; and by the patina upon which it rests is signified the -tombstone (v. 901-912). Finally Christ promises Joseph that:-- - - Tout cil qui ten veissel verrunt, - En ma compeignie serunt; - De cuer arunt emplissement - Et joie pardurablement. (917-20) - -The prose versions repeat this account in the main, but with some -important additions, thus: B II, Cangé MS., adds after Christ's last -words, "Lors li aprant Jhésu Christ tex paroles que jà nus conter ne -retraire ne porroit," etc. (I, 227); when Christ hands the vessel to -Joseph, "Tu tiens lou sanc as trois personnes en une déité, qui degota des -plaies de la char au fil," etc. (I, 225-26); after the description of the -Grail, "lou Graal c'est à dire sor lou caalice."... In C, Didot-Perceval, -the Holy Ghost, speaking to Brons, commands him to reveal to Perceval, -"icelles paroles segroies qu'il (_i.e._, Christ) aprist à Joseph en la -prison," which, adds the narrator, "je ne vous puis dire ne ne doi" (I, -483). E, Grand St. Graal: The Jews, angry at Joseph's having taken -Christ's body down from the Cross, throw him into "la plu hideuse chartre -qui onques fust veue" and when they hear of the Lord's resurrection -propose to starve him; but Christ comes to him, brings him for comfort "la -sainte esceuele que ostoie en sa maison a tot le sanc qu'il Auoit -requelli," and comforted him much, and assured him that he should not die -in prison but come out safe and sound, and his name be glorified. And -Joseph "fu en la prison ... tant qu'il demoura xlii ans" (pp. 25-26).[48] -Here again are three distinct accounts:-- - - (1) That of Pseudo-Gautier, which merely mentions Joseph's devotions - to the Grail, and does not connect that devotion with any solace - during his captivity. - - (2) That of the B versions, in which Christ Himself brings the holy - vessel to the captive, and connects it with certain promises and - recommendations which He makes to him; the vessel shall remain with - his seed, but it is to be in charge of three persons, a symbol of the - Trinity. The services rendered by Joseph to Christ's body are - connected with the Mass. The late (prose) drafts of this version - insist still more upon the sacramental nature of the Grail. - - (3) The Grand St. Graal and Pseudo-Manessier introduce a fresh - element--the Grail is the material means by which Joseph is sustained - (forty years according to the one, forty-two years according to the - other version) without food or drink. - -The great importance of the incident in the B versions is most remarkable -when contrasted with the comparative indifference displayed by the other -versions, and notably by the Grand St. Graal, which, at the first blush, -looks so like a mere amplification of B, still more remarkable the -agreement between the prose versions of B, with C, Didot-Perceval, -respecting Christ's words to Joseph against B I, Metr. Jos. It is -difficult to decide which of the two versions is the older; B I, after -Christ's words, has the following important passage:-- - - Ge n'ose conter ne retreire, - Ne je ne le pourroie feire, - Neis, se je feire le voloie, - Se je le grant livre n'avoie - Où les estoires sunt escrites, - Par les granz clers feites et dites: - Lá sunt li grant secré escrit - Qu'en numme le Graal et dit. - -which may either have been the reason why the prose versions, followed by -the Didot-Perceval, speak as they do about the secret words, or may be the -versifier's excuse for giving those secret words themselves, _i.e._, the -explanation of the mysteries of the Grail in its relation to the -Sacrament, in which case the verse would be later than the prose -forms.[49] Finally, it would seem that Pseudo-Manessier, A IIIA, and the -Grand St. Graal drew their information one from the other or from a common -source. - - -_Properties and Effect of the Grail._ - -In Chrestien these seem to be of a purely physical nature; the Grail is -borne uncovered through the hall at every meal (4,470-79), it feeds the -Fisher King's father-- - - D'une seule oiste li sains hom - Quant en ce Greal li aporte - Sa vie sostient et conforte - Tant sainte cose est li Graaus. (7,796-99) - -the most direct testimony in Chrestien to its sacred nature. In Gautier, -likewise, the physical properties are insisted upon in the following -passages:-- - - Lors vit parmi la sale aler - La rice Gréail ki servoit - Et mist le pain a grant esploit. (20,114-16) - - Moult mangièrent à grant loisir; - Adonques véissiés servir - Le Gréail moult honestement. (20,142-43) - -but in verses 28,078-81 a remarkable spiritual effect is attributed to -it-- - - Car li diables ne deçoit - Nul homme ki le jor le voie, - Ne ne le met en male voie - Por faire pécié creminal. - -In A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, the physical side alone is insisted upon-- - - Et de quanqu'il lor ert mestiers - Les fornissoit à tel plenté - Com s'il n'eust néant cousté; (12-14) - - Et li Graaux par tot aloit - Et pain et vin par tot portoit - Et autres mès a grant planté. (171-74) - -Manessier makes no special reference to the properties of the Grail. - -In the B versions it is the spiritual power of the Grail which is dwelt -upon. Christ's words to Joseph have already been quoted (_supra_, p. 71), -and the use which the latter puts the Grail to, and which is specially -indicated to Joseph by the Holy Ghost, is in accordance with them. The -Grail is to serve him as a touchstone to distinguish the sinners of his -company-- - - Car il n'a à nul pecheour - Ne compaignie ne amour; (2,629-30) - -whereas to those who have not defiled themselves with sin it brings - - La douceur, l'accomplissement - De leur cueurs tout entièrement; (2,565-67) - -so that according to them-- - - ... Cuers ne pourroit, - A pourpenser ne soufiroit - Le grant delit que nous avuns - Ne la grant joie en quoi nous suns. (2,609-12) - -This testing power of the Grail is especially brought into play when the -vessel is placed on the table in connection with the fish which Brons -caught, and which won him the name of the Rich Fisher. - -C, Didot-Perceval, has only one reference, "ne il ne covient mie en sa -compagnie pechier" (I, 483), agreeing with B and with Gautier's lines -28,079-80. - -In D, Queste, we revert to the physical gifts of the Grail. "And as soon -as it entered the door of the hall the whole court was filled with -perfumes ... and it proceeded to every place in the hall. And as it came -before the tables it filled them with every kind of meat that a man would -wish to have." When it comes in, "Every one looked at each other, and -there was not one that could say a single word;" when it goes out, "Every -one recovered his speech" (D II, pp. 442-43). There is no allusion to a -gathering at which the Grail is used to test the state of grace of its -devotees. E, Grand St. Graal, shows a curious mixture of the two ideas; -the Grail feeds its worshippers, but only those who are "de sainte vie," -to them it bring "toutes le boines viandes ke cuers d'omme pourroit -penser," but "li pecheour n'auoient ke mangier." This version shows itself -here, as in so many other passages, one of the latest in date, embodying -and reconciling as it does the conceptions of the older -versions--conceptions which it is difficult to derive, either from a -common source or from one another. If it were not for the solitary phrase -of Gautier's, lines 28,079, etc. (a passage which affords the strongest -proof against the homogeneity of that part of the Conte du Graal which -goes under Gautier's name), there would be an unbroken chain of testimony -as to the food-giving power of the Grail on the part of the earlier A -versions, supported by the Queste in opposition to the spiritual gifts -insisted on by the B and E, Grand St. Graal, forms. It is in any case -difficult to believe that if the writer of the Queste, with his strong -tendency to mystic allegory, had had before him the highly spiritual -presentment of the Grail-power found in B, he would have neglected it in -favour of the materialistic description he uses. In one point this version -differs from all others, the dumbness with which the Grail strikes those -to whom it appears.[50] - - -_Name of Grail._ - -Whilst the majority of versions afford no explanation of the name of the -Grail, B and C attach a curious punning meaning to it, thus B I, Metr. -Jos.: - - Par droit Graal l'apelera; - Car nus le Graal ne verra, - Ce croi-je, qu'il ne li agrée; (2,659-61) - -and C, Didot-Perceval, "Et por ce l'anpelon-nos Graal, qu'il agrée as -prodes homes" (p. 483). E, Grand St. Graal, seems to follow these versions -in Nasciens' words, "Car tout mi pense sont accompli, puis ke ie voi chou -qui en toutes choses me plaist et m'agrée" (I, 212). Is such a punning -explanation more consonant with the earliness or the lateness of the -versions in which it is found? If the meaning of "Gréal" as cup or vessel -was a perfectly well-established one, it is difficult to see why in the -first treatment of the subject it should have been necessary to explain -the word at all. - - -_Arrival of the Grail in England._ - -Neither A I, Chrestien, nor A II, Gautier, give any indication how the -Grail came to England; not until we come to A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, do we -learn anything on the subject. It is there related (v. 139-48) how Joseph -and his companions take ship and sail till they come to the land promised -Joseph by God--the White Isle, namely, a part of England; and how (v. -161-66) Joseph, finding that "sa vitaille li falloit," prays God to lend -him that Grail in which he had collected the holy blood. The prayer is -granted and the Grail appears and feeds the company. A III, Manessier, -simply says that Joseph, after leaving Sarras, carried the Grail about -with him, then in a singularly enigmatic passage (the Fisher King is -speaking):-- - - Et, quant il furent départis, - Il s'en ala en son païs, - Et tout partout ù il aloit - La loi Jhésucrist essauçoit. - Puis vint en cest païs manoir, - Od lui le saint Gréal, por voir. - Josep qui en Dieu se fia - Icest païs édéfia. (35,123-30) - -The B versions account is much more elaborate, and demands the most -careful analysis. In B I, Metr. Jos., the first mention of the West is -found in Christ's words to Joseph concerning his nephew, Alain, who is to -keep the Grail, to take charge of his brothers and sisters, and - - Puis s'en ira vers occident - Es plus loiteins lius que pourra; (3,100-01) - -further that Petrus is likewise to go "ès vaus d'Avaron" (3,123), it being -added that-- - - Ces terres trestout vraiement - Se treient devers occident. (3,125-26) - -Effectively we learn (v. 3,262, etc.) that Alain leads his brothers into -strange lands. But the Grail remains behind, and in v. 3,353, etc., an -angel declares it necessary that all the people should go to the West, -that Brons should have the vessel, that he should go straight to the West, -and that Petrus, after seeing the Grail safe in Brons' keeping, is to go -likewise. Joseph follows the angel's command, and three days after he has -committed the Grail to Brons' hands. - - Ainsi Joseph se demoura. - Li boens Pescherres s'en ala - (Dont furent puis meintes paroles - Contées, ki ne sunt pas foles) - En la terre lau il fu nez, - Et Joseph si est demourez. (3,455-60) - -A puzzling passage, as it is difficult to be sure whether line 3,459 -refers to the Fisher or to Joseph, a point of obvious importance, as in -the latter case it would indicate that Joseph in this version does not go -West. On turning to the prose versions, some remarkable variations are -found in the corresponding passages; thus B II, Cangé MS. (I, 265) after -relating how Brons finds wives for his children, adds, "Mais ancor estoit -la crestientez moult tenue et moult novele en ce païs que l'an apeloit la -bloe Bretaigne que Joseph avoit novellement convertie à la créance de -Jhésu-Christ," words which would seem to indicate that the writer imagined -Joseph and his company _already_ in England. The corresponding passage to -v. 3,445-60 runs thus: Ensinc se departirent, si s'en ala li riches -peschierres dont maintes paroles furent puis, en la grant Bretaigne et -ensinc remest Joseph et fina en la terre et ou païs où il fu envoiez de -par Jhésu-Crist (275). B III, Didot MS, accentuates the punning reference -to Avalon in the angel's message to Joseph, "Come li monde ... va en -avalant covient-il que toute ceste gent se retraie en occident" (p. 330). -The final passage runs thus: "Eynsi se despartirent Joseph et Bron: et -Joseph s'en ala en la terre et el pais où il fust nez et ampris la terre" -(p. 332). Thus the testimony of these versions favours the application of -v, 2,459 in Metr. Jos. to Joseph. From C, Didot-Perceval, we obtain an -account similar in parts to that of the B versions, the most direct -reference being in the speech of the hermit, Perceval's uncle, "Biaus -niès, sachès que à la table là où Joseph fist et je meismes oïmes la voiz -de saint esperit qui nos comenda venir en loingteines terres en occident, -et comenda le riche péchéor mon père que il venist en cestes parties, là -ou li soleil avaloit" (449-50), where the punning reference to Avalon is -again prominent, and where, apparently, the passage of Joseph himself to -England is not indicated. An entirely different form of the legend is -found in D and E. In the former (D II, 450) it is briefly stated, "And -afterwards it happened to Joseph, and Joseph his father, and a number of -his family with them, to set out from the city of Sarras, and they came as -far as Great Britain"; again, p. 467, Perceval's aunt relates how when -Joseph of Arimathea came, and his son Joseph with him, to Great Britain, -there came with them about 4,000 people, all of whom are fed by ten -loaves, placed on the table, on the head of which is the Grail. E, Grand -St. Graal, dwells specially upon Josephe; he is referred to in I, p. 22, -as having passed "le lignage ioseph son père outre mer iusqu'en la bloie -bertaigne qui ore a nom engleterre," and II, 123, etc., gives a full -account of how the passage is effected; how the Grail-bearers are sent -first, and supported through the water by its power; how, when Josephe -takes off his shirt, and his father Joseph puts his foot upon it, it -swells until it holds 250 persons. These two accounts agree better with -that of A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, than with any of the others; indeed, a -passage in the latter (v. 125-29), which tells how Joseph committed the -portrait of our Lord, made by Verrine, to the mercy of the sea, may have -given the hint for the miraculous shirt story of the Grand St. Graal. In -this version, too, as in D, Queste, we first hear of the passage to -England, and then the Grail appears at the miraculous feeding of the -travellers. The versions thus fall into two clearly-defined groups, Joseph -being the Grail-bearer in the one, Brons in the latter. The latter class -is represented by the Metrical Joseph and the Didot-Perceval alone, if we -except the Berne MS. form of a portion of the Conte du Graal, which, in -its finish, has obviously copied the Metrical Joseph. To the former class -belong all the other versions. Nay, more, one of the prose forms of -Borron's poems is interpolated, so as to countenance the Joseph-account of -the bringing of the Grail to England. Moreover, Borron's account of the -whole transaction is ambiguous and obscure; at first Alain is the destined -hero, long passages being devoted to him, and the keeping of the mystic -vessel being expressly reserved to him. Yet he leaves, quite quietly, -nothing more being heard of him, and the same machinery of angelic -messages is set in motion for Brons, to whom, henceforth, the chief _rôle_ -is assigned. Does not this show that there were from the outset two -accounts of the evangelisation of Britain, one, attributing it to Joseph, -of wider popularity, and followed solely by the majority of the romances, -whilst Borron, who gave greater prominence to the other account, has -maladroitly tried to fuse the two into one? In any case it would be -remarkable were the legend of purely Christian origin, and were the -Metrical Joseph its earliest form, and source of the other forms, that its -testimony on such an important point should be contradicted by nearly -every other version. - -Do the foregoing facts throw any light upon the question whether the two -sections of the romance are originally independent, and which is the -earlier? It is the later forms of the Quest alone which mention Joseph. -But if he be really the older of the two personages to whom, in the Early -History, the evangelisation of Britain is attributed, this would of itself -go a long way to proving that the two portions of the romance only came -into contact at a late stage of their development, and that the Quest is -the older. It is otherwise if Brons be looked upon as the original -Grail-bringer; the same causes which led to his exclusion from the other -versions of the Early History might have kept him out of most versions of -the Quest, and his presence in one Quest version could be claimed as a -proof of the homogeneity of the romance. For the present, it is sufficient -to mark the fact that what may be called the Brons form of the Early -History is in a minority. - - -_The Grail-Keeper and his relationship to the Promised Knight._ - -In the A versions the Grail-keeper is the Fisher King, uncle to the hero -of the Quest, Perceval. The relationship is first plainly put in -Chrestien, where the hermit, speaking to Perceval of the Grail, says-- - - Cil qui l'en sert, il est mes frere - Ma soeur et soie fu ta mère, - Et del rice Pescéour croi - Que il est fius à celui roi - Qui del Graal servir se fait. (7,789-94) - -The origin of his name is fully explained in the passage (v. 4,685-98), -which tells of his being wounded in battle by a lance-thrust through his -two thighs, of his sufferings, and of his only solace being fishing from -a boat. How the Grail came into his possession C does not say. Gautier has -no occasion to mention these facts, but from Manessier we learn that -Joseph, having converted the land, died therein; that the Fisher King is -of his seed, and that if God wills the Grail will never have its dwelling -elsewhere than with him (35,130-36); that he, the Fisher King, had a -brother, Goon Desert, treacherously slain by Partinal, who broke his sword -in the murderous act. Goon's body and the fragments of the sword being -brought by his niece to the Fisher King, he wounds himself with them, -"parmi les gambes en traviers," and may not be healed until a knight -should come to weld the fragments together and avenge his brother's death. - -Pseudo-Gautier tells how Joseph, dying, prays that the Grail may remain -with his descendants-- - - Si fist il, c'est verité fine, - Qu' après sa mort n'en ot sésine - Nus hom, tant fust de son lignage - Se il ne fu del haut parage. - Li riches Peschéor, por voir, - En fu estret et tuit si oir - Et des suens fu Greloguevaus - Ausi en réfu Percevaus. (183-90) - -Manessier disagrees, it will have been noticed, with Chrestien respecting -the cause of the Fisher King's wound, and neither he nor the other -continuators of Chrestien make any mention of that enigmatic personage the -Fisher King's father, so casually alluded to by Chrestien (v. 7,791-99). -Perceval according to them is a direct descendant of Joseph, Brons being -as entirely ignored here as in the transport of the Grail to England. - -In the B versions the Grail-keeper is Brons, and the Promised Knight is -his son or grandson, for a close examination again shows that two varying -accounts have been embodied in one narrative. In the passage where the -Holy Ghost, speaking to Joseph, tells him of the empty place to be left at -the table he is to make, the following lines occur:-- - - Cil lius estre empliz ne pourra - Devant qu' Enygeus avera - Un enfant de Bron sen mari, - Que tu et ta suer amez si; - Et quant li enfès sera nez, - La sera ses lius assenez; (2,531-37) - -followed closely by the prose versions: B II, Cangé MSS., "ne icil leux ne -pourra estre ampliz tant que le filz Bron et Anysgeus ne l'accomplisse" -(I, 254); B III, Didot MS., "Cist leus ne porra mie estre ampliz devant ce -que li fist Bron l'ampleisse" (I, 316). But afterwards a fresh account -appears; in the second message of the Holy Ghost, Joseph is told: - - Que cist luis empliz ne sera - Devant que li tierz hons venra - Qui descendra de ten lignage - Et istera de ten parage, - Et Hebruns le doit engenrer - Et Enygeus ta sueur porter; - Et cil qui de sen fil istra, - Cest liu méismes emplira. (2,789-96) - -In the corresponding passages both B II and III have the following -significant addition, "et I. autre (_i.e._, place) avoc cestui qui el nom -de cestui sera fondé" (I, 261), "raemplira ce leu et I. autre qui en leu -decestu isera fondez" (I, 322), which effectually disposes of M. Hucher's -attempt (I, 254, note) to harmonise the two accounts by the remark that in -the first one "il ne s'agit pas de la Table ronde où c'est Perceval qui -remplit le lieu vide." Henceforth the legend follows the second account. -To Alain, son of Brons, is revealed that - - ... de lui doit oissir - Un oir malle, qui doit venir. (3,091-92) - -Petrus is to wait for "le fil Alein," Brons is to wait for "le fil sen -fil," and when he is come to give him the vessel and Grail (3,363-67). B -II, Cangé MS., again makes a characteristic addition to the promise to -Alain "et si li di que de lui doit issir un oirs masles, à cui la grace de -mon veissel doit repairier" (I, 267). - -C, Didot-Perceval, follows the second account of B. Perceval is son to -Alain li Gros, grandson to Brons, the rich Fisher King, "et cil rois -péchéors est en grant enfermetez, quar il est vieil home et plains de -maladies" (I, 418), and nephew to the hermit, "un des fiz Bron et frère -Alein" (I, 448), though curiously enough when he tells Brons that he knows -him to be father of his father, the latter addresses him as "bieaux niès" -(I, 483). In any case whether B and C do or do not afford proof of a -nearer relationship than that of grandson and grandfather between the -Grail-keeper and the achiever of the Quest, the chronology which bridges -over 400 years in two generations is equally fantastic. - -In D, Queste, no less than three different accounts are to be -distinguished, corresponding certainly to three stages in the development -of this version due to the influence of other versions of the legend. The -earliest is that preserved in D II, the Welsh translation of a now lost -French original. The Promised Knight is Galahad, son of Lancelot, -grandson, on the mother's side, of King Pelles (ch. iv). The Grail is kept -at the court of King Peleur (ch. lxvii), the name of which is apparently -Corbenic (ch. lxiv). The Lame King is mentioned by Perceval's sister (ch. -xlix), as a son of King Lambar, who fought with King Urlain and slew him, -and in consequence of that blow the country was wasted; afterwards (ch. -l.) his lameness is set down to his folly in attempting to draw the magic -sword, for which, though there was not in Christendom a better man than -he, he was wounded with a spear through the thigh. She also speaks of him -here as her uncle. The Grail quest is not connected in any way with the -healing of this Lame King. In the text printed by Furnivall, Galahad is -first introduced as Lancelot's son and Pelles' grandson, but when he comes -to Arthur's court he bids his returning companion, "salues moi tous chiaus -del saint hostel et mon _oncle le roi pelles_ et mon _aioul le riche -peschéour_." Guinevere's ladies, according to this version, prophesy that -Galahad will heal the Lame King. A long account, missing in D I, is given -by the hermit to Lancelot of his ancestry as follows (p. 120):--Celidoine, -son of Nasciens, had nine descendants, Warpus, Crestiens, Alain li Gros, -Helyas, Jonaans, Lancelot, Ban, Lancelot himself, Galahad, in whom Christ -will bathe himself entirely. Perceval is son of a King Pellehem (p. 182). -The Lame King is Pelles, "que l'on apièle lo roi mehaignié" (p. 188); he -is at Corbenic when Lancelot comes there. When Galahad and his companions -arrive at his court a sick man wearing a crown is brought in, who blesses -Galahad as his deliverer. After the appearance of the Grail, Galahad heals -him by touching his wound with the spear. The third account, from the -version of the Queste printed with the Lancelot and the Mort Artur in -1488, at Rouen, by Gaillard le Bourgeois,[51] makes Galahad send greetings -to the Fisher King and to his _grandfather, King Pelles_; it adds to -Perceval's sister's account of how Pelles was wounded, the words, "he was -Galahad's grandfather;"[52] it adds to the account of Lancelot's visit to -the Grail Castle, the words, "this was Castle Corbenic, where the Holy -Grail was kept." Before discussing these differences it is advisable to -see what the Grand St. Graal says on these points. Here Alain, the Fisher -King, son of Brons, is a virgin, and when Josephe commits the Grail to his -care he empowers him to leave it to whom he likes (II, 360--39.) In -accordance with this Alain leaves the Grail to his brother Josue, with the -title of Fisher King. Josue's descendants are Aminadap, Catheloys, Manaal, -Lambor (who was wounded by Bruillans with Solomon's sword, whence arose -such a fierce war that the whole land was laid desert).[53] Pelleans, -wounded in battle in the ankle, whence he had the name Lame King, Pelles, -upon whose daughter Lancelot begets Galahad, who is thus, on the mother's -side, ninth in descent from Brons, brother to Joseph. Galahad's descent is -likewise given from Celidoine, son of Nasciens, as follows: Marpus, -Nasciens, Alains li Gros, Ysaies, Jonans, Lancelot, Bans, Lancelot, -Galahad, who in thus counting Celidoine is tenth in descent from Nasciens, -Joseph's companion, (vol. ii, ch. xxxix.) So far the story is fairly -consistent, although there is a difference of one generation between -father's and mother's genealogy. But ch. 17, in a very important passage, -introduces a different account. The angel is expounding to Josephe and -Nasciens the marvels of the lance; to Josephe he says, "de cheste lance -dont tu as este ferus; ne sera iamis ferus ke vns seus hom. Et chil sera -rois, et descendra de ton lignaige, si serra li daerrains des boins. Chil -en sera ferus parmi les cuisses ambedeus," and will not be healed till the -Good Knight come, "et chil ... serra li daerrains hom del lignaige -nascien. Et tout ausi com nasciens a este li premiers hom qui les -meruelles du graal a veues; autresi sera chil li daerrains qui les -verra.[54] Car che dist li urais crucefis. 'Au premier home du precieus -lignaige, et au daerrain, ai iou deuise à demonstrer mes meruelles.' Et si -dist enchore après. 'Sour le premier et sour le daerrain de mes menistres -nouuiaus qui sont enoint et sacre a mon plaisir, espanderai iou la -venianche de la lanche auentureuse'" (I, 216-17), _i.e._, the last of -Josephe's line shall be the only man wounded by the lance, the last of -Nasciens' line shall be the deliverer. But according to Galahad's -genealogy, given above, it is _not_ the last of Josephe's line -(represented by his cousin Josue) who is the Wounded King, for Galahad -himself is as much the last in descent from Josephe as from Nasciens, and -even if we take the words to apply only to the direct male descendants of -Josue, there is still a discrepancy, as not Pelles, but Pelleant, his -father, is the "roi mehaigniés." If the Wounded King were really the last -of Josephe's line, _i.e._, Pelles, Galahad would be his grandson, as -Percival is to Brons. Taking the two versions D. and E. together, some -idea may be gathered from them of the way in which the legend has grown, -and of the shifts to which the later harmonisers were put in their -attempts to reconcile divergent accounts. In the first draft of the -Queste, Galahad has nothing to do with the Lame King, the latter remains -Perceval's uncle, the very relationship obtaining in Chrestien. Galahad -has supplanted Perceval, but has not stepped into the place entirely. The -second draft of the Queste endeavours to remedy this by clumsily -introducing the Lame King and his healing, missing in the first draft, -into the great Grail scene at the end, an idea foreign to the original -author of the Queste, who, having broken with Perceval as chief hero, also -broke with the distinctive Quest incident as far as the chief hero is -concerned. But a strange blunder is committed; the second draft, anxious -to make Galahad's grandfather both Fisher and Lame King, actually speaks -of Pelles as Galahad's uncle, in direct contradiction to its own -indication. The third draft corrects this mistake, and tries by different -explanatory interpolations to confirm the relationship of Galahad to the -Lame King, and the identity of his castle with the Grail Castle. The -author of the Grand St. Graal now appears on the scene, appropriates the -story about King Lambar, father to the Lame King, Percival's uncle, makes -him an ancestor of Galahad, and gives a name to his son, Pelleant (which -name creeps back into the second draft of the Queste as that of Perceval's -father), and thus derives Galahad on the mother's side from Brons, -although it escapes him that he thus gives the lie to the prophecy which -he puts in the angel's mouth, that it is the last of Josephe's seed who is -to be lamed by the lance, and that he has not given his Lambor fictitious -ancestors enough to equalize the genealogies. - -We are thus led back to the relationship of uncle and nephew as the -earliest subsisting between the Grail King and the achiever of the Quest, -and we find in those versions which supplant Perceval by Galahad a story -told of the former's great uncle, King Lambar, by no means unlike that -told of his uncle in the A versions, and that there, as here, the cause of -the woe brought upon the hero's family is one of the magic talismans which -the hero is in quest of and by means of which he is to achieve his quest. -We further notice that in so far as the Early History influences the Quest -forms, it is the later versions in which its influence is apparent, and it -is the Joseph, not the Brons form, which exercises this influence. Not -until we come to the Grand St. Graal, an obvious and bold attempt to -embody previous versions in one harmonious whole, does the Brons form make -itself felt. - - -_Work of the Promised Knight._ - -In Chrestien we can only guess at what the results of the successful -achievement of the Quest would have been by the reproaches addressed to -the hero upon the failure of his first visits to the Grail Castle; he -would have mended all things, and-- - - Le bon roi ki est mehaigniés; - Que tous eust regaengniés - Ses membres, et tière tenist, - Et si grans bien en avenist; (4,763-67) - -many evils will flow from his failure, and the cause of it is the sin he -has committed in leaving his mother, who thereupon died of grief -(4,768-71); again the Loathly Damsel reproaches him that the Rich King -would have been healed of his wound, he would have kept in peace his land, -which he never may again, for now - - Dames en perdront lor maris - Tières en seront essilies, - Et pucièles deconsellies; - Orfenes, veves en remanront - Et maint Chevalier en morront. (6,056-60) - -Gautier de Doulens gives a vivid description of the effect of Gawain's -partially successful visit to the Grail King; the character of the -landscape changes at once-- - - N'estoit pas plus que mienuis, - Le soir devant, que Dex avoit - Rendu issi com il devoit - As aiges lor cors el païs; - Et tout li bos, ce m'est avis, - Refurent en verdor trové, - Si tos com il ot demandé - Por coi si sainnoit en l'anstier - La lance; si devoit puplier - Li règnes; mais plus ne pupla - Por tant que plus ne demanda. (20,344-55) - -All the country folk both bless and curse Gawain. - - Sire, mors nous as et garis, - Tu dois estre liés et maris; - Car grant aise nos as doné, - S'en devons tout mercier Dé; - Et si te devons moult hair - Pour con que nel vosis öir - Le Greail, por coi il servoit, - Ne de la joie ki devoit - Là venir ne poroit nus dire, - Si en doit avoir duel et ire. (20,357-66) - -In Manessier, when Perceval has finally accomplished the Quest by the -slaying of Partinal, and has come for the third time to the Grail Castle -(though even then he only reaches it after long wanderings and lights upon -it by chance), news whereof is brought to the King;-- - - Li rois, à grant joie et grant feste - Est maintenant salis en piés - Et se senti sain et haitiés. (44,622-24) - -Perceval is crowned King after his uncle's death, and reigns for seven -years. - -Thus, in the A versions, the healing of the Maimed King, and the -consequent restoration to fertility and prosperity of his land, such are -the tasks to be achieved by the hero of the Quest. In the B versions an -entirely different series of conceptions is met with. Brons, the Fisher -King, is to wait for his grandson, and to hand him the vessel which he -received from Joseph. When this is done the meaning of the Trinity is to -be known--[55] - - Lors sera la senefiance - Accomplie et la demonstrance - De la benoite Trinité, - Qu'avons en trois parz devisée. (3,371-74) - -Besides this, the Promised Knight is to visit Petrus, who may not pass -away till he comes, and from whom he is to learn the power of the vessel, -and the fate of Moys (v. 3,127-36). Finally, when he comes he is to fill -the empty seat, and to find Moys, of whom it is said-- - - De lui plus ne pallera-on - Ne en fable ne en chançon, - Devant que cil revenra - Qui li liu vuit raemplira: - Cil-méismes le doit trouver. (2,815-19) - -Here the only indication which can possibly be tortured into a hint of the -waiting of a sick king for his deliverer is the reference to Petrus. It is -not a little remarkable that when the latter is leaving for England, he -asks for the prayers of the company that he may not fall into sin, and -lose the love of God (v. 3320-35) Does this presuppose a version in which -he _does_ sin, and is consequently punished by disease, from which only -the Promised Knight may heal him? - -On turning to C, a totally distinct account of what the Quest achiever is -to do presents itself. He seats himself, it is true, in the empty seat, -but it goes nigh with him that he suffers the fate of Moys, from which he -is only preserved by the great goodness of his father, Alain (p. 427). He -does not find Moys; Petrus is not once mentioned by name, nor does -Perceval visit anyone who may not die till he come, and from whom he -learns the power of the vessel, saving always the Fisher King, for the -references to whom see _supra_, p. 83. This Fisher King is "veil home et -plains de maladies, ne il n'aura james santé devant un chevalier que yà à -la Table ronde aserra, sera prodons vers Deu et vers sainte eglise et ait -fait tant d'armes que il soit le plus alosez del monde. Et lors vendra à -la maison au riche roi péchéor et quant il aura demandé de quoi li Graus -sert, tantost sera li roi gariz de de sa'nfermeté et cherront li -enchentement de Bretaigne et sera la prophétic accomplie" (p. 419). Again, -p. 427 "li riches rois péchéors est chéuz en grant maladie et en grant -enfermeté, ne il peust morir devant que uns de XXX chevalier, qui ci sunt -asis, ait tant fait d'armes et de chevalerie qu'il soit li mieudres -chevalier del monde." Again, p. 427, "Et quant il (_i.e._, the Fisher -King) sera gariz, si ira, dedanz li III jorz, de vie à mort, et baillera à -celui chevalier, le vesseau et li aprendra le segroites paroles qui li -aprist Joseph; et lors ampliz de la grace du Sainct Esprit et cherront li -enchentement de la Bretaigne et les afaires." Again, when Perceval has -come for the second time to the Fisher King's, and has asked the question -and learnt the secret words, he remained there "et moult fust prodons et -chéirent les enchentement de la terre de Bretaigne et par tout le monde." -Here, then, are the Sick King, the mysterious question, the healing, and -the effect upon the land (note how the enchantments of Britain are -insisted upon), as in the A versions. The only points of contact with B -are that Brons is like Petrus in not being able to die till Perceval come, -and that his infirmity seems to be ascribed mainly to his age, and not to -a wound, which at first sight seems to agree better with the vague -indications of B than with the positive statement of A. - -Two accounts, each fairly definite and consistent, are thus forthcoming -respecting the object of the Quest, the one represented by A and C, the -other by B. What light is thrown upon the matter by the remaining -versions, and which of these two accounts do they support? Neither from -the Queste, D, nor from the Grand St. Graal, E, can any clear conception -of the Quest be gathered. Both have a great deal to say about the -adventures and the wonders of the Grail, but absolutely nothing comes of -the achievement so far as the Grail itself, or as Galahad and his two -companions are concerned. It goes to the East, they with it, they become -hermits and die. But in proportion as the main object of the Quest becomes -less definite, the number of secondary objects increases. In D, Queste, -Galahad is to achieve the adventure of the Seat Perillous (ch. iii, iv); -he is to wear the shield left by Joseph to Mordrains (ch. x); he is to -release from life Mordrains himself, struck with blindness for approaching -too near the Grail (ch. xxiii); he (according to the second draft of the -Queste), is to release King Pelles (his grandfather, according to draft -3), wounded through both ankles for trying to draw the sword; he is to -release Simei, burning in a fiery grave for that he once sinned against -Joseph of Arimathea (ch. lxvi). To this sufficiently long list the Grand -St. Graal adds the resoldering of the sword broken by Joseph--"Ha espée, -iamais ne sera resaudée deuant ke chil te tenra qui les hautes auentures -del Saint Graal devra asoumir" (II, 264); the delivery of Moys from out -the furnace where he burns, not for always "ains trouuera enchore merchi -et pardon. Mais che qu'il a mesfait, espanira il en tel manière qu'il en -sera en fu iusc' a tant ke li boines chiualiers uenra" (II, 277). Moys -likewise speaks of Galahad as one who "achieura les auentures de la grant -bertaigne" (II, 279-80). Finally, Pelleur wounded (mehaigniés de ii -cuisses) "en vne bataille de rome" is to be released, "il ne peut garir de -la plaie deuant ke galaad, li tres boins chiualers, le vint visiter. Mais -lors sans faille gari il" (II, p. 373). - -The Queste knows nothing of Petrus, but in the Grand St. Graal he turns -up at the end in the same casual way as Brons, and converts King Luces -(II, 3356-3), _i.e._ is thus brought into connection with Geoffrey of -Monmouth's form of the conversion of Britain legend. - -The foregoing statement confirms all that has previously been urged as to -the lateness of both Queste and Grand St. Graal. The author of the former -again shows himself a daring, but not over skilful, adapter of older -legends, the author of the latter an unintelligent compiler, whose sole -aim it is to lengthen out his story by the introduction of every incident -he can lay his hands upon. But although late, they may nevertheless throw -light upon the question which, of the two strongly differentiated accounts -of the object of the Grail quest which have been noted, has the better -claim to be looked upon as the older one. The Conte du Graal and the -Didot-Perceval agree, as has been seen, against the Metrical Joseph, in -making the main object of the Grail-seeker the healing of a maimed or the -release from life of a supernaturally old King. This _motif_, it is not -too much to say, is the pivot upon which in the Conte du Graal all turns; -in the Metrical Joseph it is barely hinted at. - -The Queste, if looked at closely, is found to bear witness to the Conte du -Graal form. As is seen from the summary (_supra_, p. 41, Inc. 12) it has -the very incident upon which so much stress is laid in Chrestien's poem, -the visit to the Sick King, the omitted question, the consequent -misfortune. True, all this has been transferred from the original hero, -Perceval, to the father of the new hero Galahad, and, true, the final -object which the Queste proposes, in so far as it proposes any definite -object, to its Grail-seeker is of a different character. But the fact that -this object is not stated in the same way as in the Metrical Joseph, -whilst that found in the Conte du Graal _is_ embodied though in a -different connexion, points unmistakably to what may be called the healing -_motif_ as the older one. Here, again, the Metrical Joseph is in a -minority, and it is not even followed by that very version, the -Didot-Perceval, which has been ascribed to the same author, and claimed as -an integral portion of the same trilogy.[56] - - -_Qualifications of the Promised Knight._ - -Neither Chrestien, Gautier, nor Manessier lay any stress upon special -qualifications in the quest-hero for the achievement of his task. In -Chrestien, as already stated, (_supra_, p. 87), it is exclusively the sin -of which Perceval has been guilty in leaving his mother which prevents his -achieving the Quest at his first visit to the Grail Castle (v. 4,768-71 -and 7,766-74), whilst the continuator makes no attempt at any explanation -of the hero's repeated failures. Not until Gerbert does a fresh _motif_ -show itself in the poem, but then it is a remarkable one; if Perceval has -been hitherto unable to attain the goal he has so long striven for, it is -because he has been unfaithful to his first love, Blanchefleur (VI, p. -182); he must return and wed her before he is fit to learn the full secret -of the Grail.[57] - -The other Quest versions are on this point in striking contrast to -Chrestien. The words of C, Didot-Perceval, have already been noted, -(_supra_, p. 89). Again the damsel, reproaching the hero after his first -failure, addresses him thus:--"Mès je sai bien por quoi tu l' ás perdu, -por ceque tu ni es pas si sage ne si vaillant, ne n'as pas fet tant -d'armes; ne n'ies si prodons que tu doies avoir le sanc nostre (sire) en -guarde" (p. 467). - -It is significant to note in this connection that it is only after -Perceval has overcome all the best knights of the Round Table, including -Gawain (the companion hero, as will be shown later, of the oldest form of -the story), and thereby approved himself the best knight of the world, -that Merlin appears and directs him to the Grail Castle.[58] The talk -about Holy Church would seem to be an addition, and the original ideal a -purely physical one. - -In the Queste the qualification of the hero has become the main feature -of the legend, the pivot upon which everything turns. The one thing -necessary is that the hero should be a virgin, and the story is one long -glorification of the supreme virtue of chastity. Yet even here the warlike -deeds of Galahad are dwelt upon in a way that points to a different ideal. -Traces, though slight ones, may be found in C, Didot-Perceval, of the -importance attached to the chastity of the hero; thus his hermit uncle -admonishes him, "ne vous chaille de gésir aveuc fame, quar cest un peché -luxurious et bien sachiez, que la pichié que vous avez fait, vous ont neu -à trover la maison Bron," and in the adventure with the damsel of the -hound, although he had (p. 440) solicited her favours, and she had -promised them if he brought her the head of the white stag, yet (p. 470) -when he returns to her and she offers herself to him, he pleads his quest -as a reason for not even passing one night with her. In Gautier de -Doulens, on the contrary, everything passes in accordance with the -orthodox custom of the day--when knights were as punctual in demanding as -ladies scrupulous in granting the fulfilment of such bargains. But here, -again, references to chastity seem to be additions, and rather unskilful -ones, whilst in the Queste they are the vital spirit of the story. - -What results from the foregoing is much as follows:-- - -The Perceval form of the Quest is certainly the older of the two, and -underlies in reality the Galahad form. When cleared from the admixture of -Christian mystic elements it appears as a coherent and straightforward -story, in which nothing necessarily presupposes the Early History. The -influence of the latter is, however, distinctly traceable. As far as -Chrestien himself is concerned, nothing can be asserted with certainty as -to the origin, extent, and nature of that influence; in the case of his -continuators it can be definitely referred to that form of the Early -History which is represented by the Queste and the Grand St. Graal (save -in the solitary instance of the Berne fragment of Gautier de Doulens). The -later in date the sections of the Conte du Graal, the more strongly marked -is the influence of the Early History, and _pari passu_ the increasing -prominence given to the Christian mystic side of the Grail. - -Of the Early History two forms can be distinguished. In the one, Joseph -and the group of persons whom he converts in the East are made the means -of bringing Christianity to Britain. The Grail is dwelt upon almost solely -in its most material aspect. This form is closely connected with the -Galahad Quest, and its chronology has been elaborately framed to correctly -bridge over the difference in time between the Apostolic and Arthurian -ages. It has also affected, as remarked above, the later versions of the -Perceval Quest. The second or Brons form knows nothing of the companions -of Joseph, who is only indirectly the means of the conversion of Britain, -the real evangelists being kinsmen of his who bear decided Celtic names. -These kinsmen are related as grandfather and father (or simply father or -uncle), to a hero whose exploits are to be dealt with in a sequel. There -is strong insistence upon the spiritual character of the Grail, which is -obviously intended to play an important part in the promised sequel. No -traces of this form are to be found in any version (saving always the -above-mentioned fragment of Gautier), until we come to the Grand St. -Graal, with which such portions as do not conflict with the Joseph form -are embodied. - -The Didot-Perceval, although formally in contact with the Brons Early -History, is not really the sequel announced in that work. It differs -profoundly from it in the most essential feature of the story, the nature -of the task laid upon the hero. Upon examination this appears to be of the -same nature as that of the Conte du Graal, with a seasoning of the -Christian mystic element. It was, however, _intended_ for a sequel to the -Metrical Joseph, a fact which may be taken as a proof that Borron never -completed his plan of a Joseph-Merlin-Grail trilogy of which we possess -the first two parts. - -The first of the two points marked for investigation at the outset of this -chapter may thus be considered settled. The Quest is originally -independent of and older than the Early History. And although in no -instance can the versions of the former be said to be entirely free from -the influence of the latter, yet in the older forms the traces are such as -to be easily separated from the primitive elements of the story. - -The versions which have been examined may now be arranged in the following -order:-- - - (1) Chrestien's portion of the Conte du Graal. The oldest form of the - Perceval Quest, but presupposing an Early History. - - (2) Gautier de Doulens followed Chrestien, in all probability, almost - immediately. Even less can be gathered from him than from Chrestien - respecting the earliest form of the Early History, but this is - probably represented by - - (3) Pseudo-Gautier, which in all likelihood gives the outline of the - work made use of by Queste and Grand St. Graal. Pseudo-Gautier is - almost certainly some years later than Gautier, as the Berne MS. - scribe found it necessary to seek for information in - - (4) Borron's poem, probably written towards the end of the twelfth - century, but which for some reason remained unknown for a time, - although it afterwards, as evidenced by the number of MSS., became - popular. There is every reason to believe that Borron knew nothing of - any other Early History. His work, as we have it, is abridged and - arranged. Meanwhile - - (5) Queste had appeared. The author probably used the same Early - History as Pseudo-Gautier. He knew the Conte du Graal, and wrote in - opposition to it with a view to edification. He certainly knew nothing - of Borron's poem, or he could not have failed, with his strong - mystical tendencies, to dwell upon the spiritual and symbolic - character of the Grail. - - (6) The Grand St. Graal, an earlier draft of the work, now known under - that title. Probably an enlarged version of the hypothetical original - Early History; wanting all the latter portions relating to Brons and - his group, which were added to it when Borron's poem became known. - This work must have appeared before 1204 (in which year it is referred - to by Helinandus), and, as Chrestien wrote his poem about 1189-90, it - follows that at least half-a-dozen works belonging to the Grail cycle - came out in the last twelve years of the twelfth century. - - (7) Manessier and - - (8) Gerbert brought out independent endings to the Conte du Graal from - 1216 to 1225. It was probably shortly after this time that Borron's - poem became known, and that it was incorporated with the Grand St. - Graal, which assumed the shape under which it has come down to us. - - (9) The Didot-Perceval is probably the latest in date of all the - members of the cycle. - -Before proceeding to examine our second point, which is whether the Grail -itself really belongs to the original form of the Quest, or has been -introduced into the Quest versions from the Early History, it will be -advisable to summarise the opinions and researches of previous -investigators. Light will thus be thrown upon many points of interest -which have not received special examination in these pages. A theory of -the origin and development of the cycle, which is in many respects -directly opposed to the conclusions we have reached, will also be fully -set forth, and an opportunity will thus be given for testing by adverse -criticism the soundness of our method of investigation, and of the results -to which it has led us. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -SKETCH OF THE LITERATURE CONNECTED WITH THE GRAIL CYCLE. - - Villemarqué--Halliwell--San Marte (A. Schulz)--Simrock--Rochat-- - Furnivall's reprint of the Grand St. Graal and of Borron--J. F. - Campbell--Furnivall's Queste--Paulin Paris--Potvin's Conte du - Graal--Bergmann--Skeat's Joseph of Arimathea--Hucher: Grail Celtic, - date of Borron--Zarncke, Zur Geschichte der Gralsage; Grail belongs - to Christian legend--Birch-Hirschfeld develops Zarncke's views: Grand - St. Graal younger than Queste, both presuppose Chrestien and an - earlier Queste, the Didot-Perceval, which forms integral part of - Borron's trilogy; Mabinogi later than Chrestien; various members of - the cycle dated--Martin combats Birch-Hirschfeld: Borron later than - Chrestien, whose poem represents oldest stage of the romance, which - has its roots in Celtic tradition--Hertz--Criticism of - Birch-Hirschfeld. - - -Monsieur Th. de la Villemarqué's researches form a convenient starting -point, both on account of the influence they exercised upon later -investigation, and because he was the first to state with fulness and -method the arguments for the Celtic origin of the legend. They appeared -originally in the volume entitled "Contes populaires des anciens Bretons -précédés d'un essai sur l'origine des épopées chevaleresques de la Table -Ronde" (Paris, 1842), and comprising a French translation of the -Mabinogion of Geraint and Peredur, with introductory essays and detailed -explanatory notes. The translation of Peredur is preceded by a study of -Chrestien's poem, in which the following conclusions are stated: The Grail -is Celtic in origin, the French term being equivalent to the Welsh _per_, -and having a like meaning, basin. It is the Druidic basin alluded to by -Taliessin, the same which figures in the Mabinogi of Branwen, which -appears in the oldest folk-tales of Brittany, and which is sought for in -the twelfth century Mabinogi by Peredur, _i.e._, the Basin-Seeker. The -original occult character of the Druidic basin, and of the lance, the -bardic symbol of undying hatred to the Saxon, disappears in the Mabinogi, -the tone and character of which are purely romantic. Composed among a -people comparatively unused to the chivalrous ideal, it breathes, however, -a rude and harsh spirit. But such as it is, it forms the groundwork of -Chrestien's poem. Comparison between the two demonstrates the simple -character of the Welsh romance, and shows how the French poet sought to -transform it by an infusion of feudal courtliness and religious mysticism. -In its last stage of development the story reverts to its pristine, -occult, and mystic character. - -Much of what M. de la Villemarqué says is sound and telling; but, -unfortunately, although well aware that the French poem is the work of -three men and not of one, he yet treats it as an organic whole, and thus -deprives the larger part of his comparison of all value. Moreover, he -supports his thesis by arguments based upon a Breton poem (the story of -which is similar to that of Perceval's youth), ascribed without the shadow -of evidence to the end of the tenth century. - -In 1861 M. de la Villemarqué reprinted his work with extensive additions, -under the title of "Les Romans de la Table Ronde et les Contes des Anciens -Bretons." The section summarised above remained substantially unaltered, -but considerable extension was given to the author's views concerning the -mode of development of the romances. The points chiefly insisted upon are: -the similarity of metre between the Welsh poem and the French metrical -romances; the delight of the Plantagenet kings in the Welsh traditions and -the favour showed them; and the early popularity of the Welsh and Breton -singers. Villemarqué's last word upon the subject is that the Welsh -storytellers received from the ancient bards a pagan tradition, which, -changed in character and confounded with the Mystery of the Sacrament, -they handed on to the romance writers of Northern France and Germany, who -gave it a fresh and undying life. - -Villemarqué's views were worked up by Mr. Baring Gould in his essay on the -Sangreal ("Curious Myths of the Middle Ages," 1867) and in this form or in -their original presentment won wide acceptance as the authoritative -exposition of the Celtic origin of the cycle. - -In England, Mr. Halliwell, when editing, in 1844, the Thornton Sir -Perceval, derived it from Chrestien and his continuators, in spite of the -omission of Lance and Grail, on account of the sequence of incidents being -the same. The Mabinogi is alluded to as an adaptation of Chrestien. The -supposition that Perceval's nick-name, "le Gallois," implies the Welsh -origin of the story is rejected as absurd. - -In Germany the Grail-cycle formed the subject of careful investigation on -the part of San Marte (A. Schulz) for some years prior to 1840. From 1836 -to 1842 he brought out a modern German translation of Wolfram von -Eschenbach's Parzival, accompanied by an elaborate essay on the genesis of -the legend, and in 1841, "Die Arthur-Sage und die Mährchen des rothen -Buchs von Hergest." In the latter work a careful analysis of the Mabinogi -leads to the following conclusions:--Locale and persons are purely Welsh; -tone and character are older than the age of the Crusades and Knighthood; -it may be looked upon with confidence as the oldest known source of the -Perceval _sage_. In comparing the Mabinogi with Kiot's (_i.e._, Wolfram's) -version, stress is laid upon the task imposed upon Peredur, which is held -to be different in character and independent in origin from the Grail -Quest in Kiot. The Thornton Sir Perceval is claimed as the representative -of an early Breton _jongleur_ poem which knew nothing of the Grail story. -In the former work Wolfram von Eschenbach's poem is accepted, so far as -its framework is concerned, as a faithful echo of Kiot's, the Provencal -origin of which is proved by its Oriental and Southern allusions. The -Provencals may have obtained the Peredur _sage_ direct from Brittany, they -at any rate fused it with the Grail legend. Their version is an artistic -whole, whereas the North French one is a confused string of adventures. -Chrestien's share in the latter is rightly distinguished from that of his -continuators, and these are dated with fair accuracy. Robert de Borron is -mentioned, but as a thirteenth century adapter of earlier prose versions; -the Grand St. Graal is placed towards the middle of the thirteenth -century. In analysing the Joseph of Arimathea form of the legend, the -silence of the earlier British historians concerning Joseph's -evangelisation of Britain is noted, and 1140 is given as the earliest -date of this part of the legend. The captivity of Joseph arises probably -from a confusion between him and Josephus. There is no real connection -between the Joseph legend and that of the Grail. Wolfram's Templeisen -agree closely with the Templars, one of the main charges against whom was -their alleged worship of a head from which they expected riches and -victuals, and to which they ascribed the power of making trees and flowers -to bloom.[59] - -San Marte's translation of Wolfram was immediately (1842) followed by -Simrock's, whose notes are mainly directed against his predecessor's views -on the origin and development of the Grail legend. The existence of Kiot -is contested; the _differentia_ between Wolfram and Chrestien are unknown -to Provençal, but familiar to German, poetry. The Grail myth in its oldest -form is connected with John the Baptist. Thus in the Mabinogi the Grail is -represented by a head in a platter; the head the Templars were accused of -worshipping has probably the same origin; the Genoese preserved the Sacro -Catino, identified by them with the Grail, in the chapel of St. John the -Baptist; Chrestien mentions with especial significance, St. John's Eve -(Midsummer Eve). The head of St. John the Baptist, found, according to the -legend, in the fourth century, was carried later to Constantinople, where -in the eleventh century it is apparently used to keep an emperor from -dying (even as of the Grail, it is told, no one could die the day he saw -it). If Wolfram cuts out the references to the Baptist, _en revanche_ he -brings Prester John into the story. The essential element in the Grail is -the blood in the bowl, symbol of creative power as is the Baptist's head, -both being referable to the summer equinox. Associated with John the -Baptist is Herodias, who takes the place of an old Germanic goddess, -Abundia, as John does of Odin or Baldur.[60] The essence of the myth is -the reproductive power of the blood of the slain god (Odin-Hackelberend, -Baldur, Adonis, Osiris). As the Grail may only be seen by those to whom -God's grace is granted, so in the German folk-tale the entrance to the -hollow mounds wherein lies treasure or live elves is only visible to -Sunday children or pure youths. Thus, too, no man may find the grave of -Hackelberg (Odin). Such caves, when entered, close upon the outgoing -mortal as the Grail Castle portcullis closes upon Parzival. Many of -Gauvain's adventures appear in German folk-tradition. As to Parzival's -youth "it cannot be doubted that we have here a variation of the Great -Fool folk-tale (Dummling's Märchen) found among all people. It is hard to -say what people possessing this tale brought it into contact, either by -tradition or in writing, with the Grail story, but that people would have -the first claim among whom it is found in an independent form." The -Mabinogi explanation of the Grail incident is unacceptable, and the -Mabinogi itself is later than Chrestien, as is shown by its foolish -invention of the witches of Gloucester, and by its misrendering the -incident of the dwarves greeting Peredur. In the original folk-tale the -ungainly hero was _laughed at_, not greeted. The Thornton Sir Perceval may -possibly contain an older version of Perceval's youth than any found -elsewhere. Wolfram's poem represents, however, the oldest and purest form -of the Grail myth, which, originally pagan, only became fully -Christianised in the hands of the later North French poets. - -Simrock's speculations, though marred by his standing tendency to claim -over much for German tradition, are full of his usual acute and ingenious, -if somewhat fanciful, learning. His ignorance of Celtic tradition -unfortunately prevented his following up the hint given in the passage -quoted above which I have adopted as one of the mottoes of the present -work. - -In 1855 Rochat published ("Ueber einen bisher unbekannten Percheval li -Gallois," Zurich) selections from a Berne MS. containing part of Gautier -de Doulens' continuation of Chrestien (v. 21,930 to end, with thirteen -introductory and fifty-six concluding original lines, _cf._ p. 19), and -entered at some length into the question of the origin and development of -the Grail legend. The Mabinogi, contrary to San Marte's opinion, is placed -after Chrestien. Villemarqué's ballad of Morvan le Breiz is the oldest -form of the Perceval _sage_, then comes the Thornton Sir Perceval, a -genuine popular production derived probably from a Welsh original. In -spite of what San Marte says, the Grail incident is found in the Mabinogi, -and it might seem as if Chrestien had simply amplified the latter. On San -Marte's theory of the (Southern) origin of the Grail myth, this, however, -is impossible, and the fact that the Mabinogi contains this incident is a -proof of its lateness. - -Up to 1861 all writers upon the Grail legend were under this disadvantage, -that they had no complete text of any part of the cycle before them,[61] -and were obliged to trust largely to extracts and to more or less -carefully compiled summaries. In that year Mr. Furnivall, by the issue for -the Roxburghe Club of the Grand St. Graal, together with a reprint of -Robert de Borron's poem (first edited in 1841 by M. Franc. Michel), -provided students with materials of first-rate importance. His -introductory words are strongly against the Celtic origin of the story, -and are backed up by a quotation from Mr. D. W. Nash, in which that -"authority who really knows his subject" gives the measure of his critical -acumen by the statement that the Mabinogi of Peredur can have nothing to -do with the earliest form of the legend, because "in Sir T. Malory, -Perceval occupies the second place to Galahad." In fact, neither the -editor nor Mr. Nash seems to have tried to place the different versions, -and their assertions are thus of little value, though they contributed, -nevertheless, to discredit the Celtic hypothesis. San Marte, in an essay -prefixed to the first volume, repeated his well-known views respecting the -source of Wolfram's poems, and, incidentally, protested against the idea -that the Mabinogi is but a Welshified French romance. - -In 1862 the accomplished editor of the "Popular Tales of the West -Highlands," Mr. J. F. Campbell, published in his second volume (p. 152) -some remarks on the Story of the Lay of the Great Fool, which ended thus, -"I am inclined ... to consider this 'Lay' as one episode in the adventures -of a Celtic hero, who, in the twelfth century became Perceval le -chercheur du basin. He too, was poor, and the son of a widow, and half -starved, and kept in ignorance by his mother, but, nevertheless ... in the -end he became possessed of that sacred basin, le Saint Graal, and the holy -lance, which, though Christian in the story, are manifestly the same as -the Gaelic talismans which appear so often in Gaelic tales, and which have -relations in all popular lore--the glittering weapon which destroys, and -the sacred medicinal cup which cures." I have taken these words as a motto -for my studies, which are, indeed, but an amplification of Mr. Campbell's -statement. Had the latter received the attention it deserved, had it, for -instance, fallen into the hands of a scholar to whom Simrock's words -quoted on p. 101 were familiar, there would, in all probability, have been -no occasion for the present work. - -The publication of texts was continued by Mr. Furnivall's issue, in 1864, -for the Roxburghe Club, of the Quête del Saint Graal from a British Museum -MS. The opening of twelve MSS. from the Bibliothèque Nationale is likewise -given, and shows substantial unity between them and Mr. Furnivall's text. -In 1868 Mons. Paulin Paris published, in the first volume of his "Romans -de la Table Ronde," a general introduction to the Round Table cycle, and a -special study upon the Metrical Joseph and the Grand St. Graal. A large -share of influence is assigned to Celtic traditions through the medium of -Breton _lais_. The Early History of the Grail is a British legend, and -embodies the national and schismatic aspirations of the British Church. -The date given in the prologue to the Grand St. Graal, and repeated by -Helinandus, is accepted as the genuine date of a redaction of the legend -substantially the same as that found later in the Grand St. Graal. The -word "Grail" is connected with the Latin _gradale_, modern gradual, and -designated the book in which the tradition was first written down. The -Grand St. Graal is anterior to Chrestien's poem, and Robert de Borron's -poem in the first draft preceded the Grand St. Graal, and was written -between 1160 and 1170, but he subsequently revised it towards 1214, as is -shown by his alluding, l. 3,490, "O mon seigneur, Gauter _en peis_" (where -the underlined words are equivalent to the Latin _in pace_) to Gautier of -Montbeliard in the past tense. From 1868 to 1870 M. Potvin brought out -his edition of the Conte du Graal, and of the prose Perceval le Gallois -from Mons MSS. In the after-words priority is claimed for the latter -romance over all other members of the cycle, and three stages are -distinguished in the development of the legend--Welsh national--militant -Christian--knightly--the prose romance belonging to the second stage, and -dating substantially from the eleventh century. The lance and basin are -originally pagan British symbols, and between the lines of the Grail -legend may be read a long struggle between heretic Britain and orthodox -Rome. The Perceval form of the Quest is older than the Galahad one. The -Joseph of Arimathea forms are the latest, and among these the Grand St. -Graal the earliest. - -Conclusions as paradoxical as some of these appear in Dr. Bergmann's "The -San Grëal, an Enquiry into the Origin and Signification of the Romance of -the S. G.," Edinburgh, 1870. The idea of the Grail is due entirely to -Guyot, as also its connection with the Arthurian cycle. Chrestien followed -Guyot, but alters the character of the work, for which he is reproved by -Wolfram, who may be looked upon as a faithful representative of the -earlier poet. Chrestien's alterations are intended to render the poem more -acceptable in knightly circles. On the other hand Walter Map found Guyot -too secular and heretical, and wrote from a purely ecclesiastical -standpoint the Latin version of the legend in which the Grail is -associated with Joseph of Arimathea. This version forms the basis of -Robert de Borron, author of the Grand St. Graal and of the continuators of -Chrestien. Although Bergmann denies the Celtic origin of the Grail itself, -he incidentally accepts the authenticity of the Mabinogi of Peredur, and -admits that the whole framework of the story is Celtic. - -In the endeavour to prove the paradox that one of the latest, most highly -developed, and most mystic of all the versions of the legend (viz., -Wolfram's) really represents the common source of them all, Bergmann is -compelled to make the most gratuitous assumptions, as a specimen of which -may be quoted the statement that the _roi-pecheur_ is originally the -_sinner_ king, and that it is by mistake that the North French _trouvères_ -represent him as a _fisher_. - -Bergmann's views passed comparatively unnoticed. They are, indeed, -alluded to with approval in Professor Skeat's edition of Joseph of -Arimathea, a fourteenth century alliterative abridgement of the Grand St. -Graal (E. E. Text Soc., 1871). In the editor's preface the Glastonbury -traditions concerning the evangelisation of Britain by Joseph are taken as -a starting point, two parts being distinguished in them, the one -_legendary_, tallying with William of Malmesbury's account, and, perhaps, -of considerable antiquity, the other _fabulous_, introducing the -personages and incidents of the romances and undoubtedly derived from -them. Some twenty years after the publication of the "Historia Britonum" -Walter Map probably wrote a Latin poem, from which Robert de Borron, the -Grand St. Graal, and, perhaps, the other works of the cycle were derived. -"Grail" is a bowl or dish. Chrestien may have borrowed his Conte du Graal -from Map; the "Quest" is probably an after-thought of the romance writers. - -Speculations such as these were little calculated to further the true -criticism of the Grail cycle. Some few years later, in 1875, the then -existing texts were supplemented by M. Hucher's work, so often quoted in -these pages. In an introduction and notes displaying great research and -ingenuity, the following propositions are laid down:--The Grail is Celtic -in origin, and may be seen figured upon pre-Christian Gaulish coins. -Robert de Borron's poem may be called the Petit St. Graal, and its author -was a lord of like-named territory near Fontainebleau, who between 1147 -and 1164 made large gifts to the Abbey of Barbeaux, which gifts are -confirmed in 1169 by Simon, son of said Robert. About 1169 Robert came to -England, met Walter Map, and was initiated by him into the knowledge of -the Arthurian romance, and of the legend of the Holy Grail. Between 1170 -and 1199 he entered the service of Walter of Montbeliard and wrote (in -prose) the Joseph of Arimathea and the Merlin. At a later period he -returned to England, and wrote, in conjunction with Map, the Grand St. -Graal. This is shown by MS. 2,455 Bibl. Nat. (of the Grand St. Graal): "Or -dist li contes qui est estrais de toutes les ystoires, sî come Robers de -Borons le translatait de latin en romans, à l'ayde de maistre Gautier -Map." But Hélie de Borron, author of the Tristan and of Guiron le -Courtois, calls Robert his friend and kinsman. Hélie has been placed -under Henry III, who has been assumed to be the Henry to whom he dedicates -his work; if so can he be the friend of Robert, who wrote some fifty years -earlier? Hélie should, however, be placed really under Henry II. Robert -wrote originally in prose; the poem contains later etymological and -grammatical forms, though it has occasionally preserved older ones; -besides in v. 2,817 etc. (_supra_, p. 83) it refers to the deliverance of -Moys by the Promised Knight, and thus implies knowledge of the Grand St. -Graal; this passage is omitted by most of the prose versions, thus -obviously older. Then the poem is silent as to the Christianising of -Britain mentioned by one prose version (C.). We may accept Borron's -statement as to his having dealt later with the histories of Moys and -Petrus, and as to his drawing his information from a Latin original. -Merlin is the pivot of Borron's conception. In comparing the third part of -his trilogy (Joseph of Arimathea, Merlin, Perceval) with Chrestien it must -be born in mind that Chrestien reproduces rather the English -(Joseph--Galahad), than the French (Brons--Perceval) form of the Quest, -and this, although the framework of Chrestien and Robert's Perceval is -substantially the same. Chrestien's work was probably preceded by one in -which the Peredur story as found in the Mabinogi was already adapted to -the Christianised Grail legend. There are frequent verbal resemblances -between Robert and Chrestien (_i.e._, Gautier, Hucher never distinguishing -between Chrestien and his continuators) which show a common original for -both. It is remarkable that Chrestien should never mention Brons, and that -there should be such a difference in the stories of the Ford Perillous and -the Ford Amorous. It is also remarkable that Robert, in his Perceval, -should complain that the _trouvères_ had not spoken of the Good Friday -incident which is to be found in Chrestien. - -M. Hucher failed in many cases to see the full significance of the facts -he brought to light, owing to his incorrect conception of the development -of the cycle as a whole, and of the relation of its component parts one to -the other. He made, however, an accurate survey of the cycle possible. The -merit of first essaying such a survey belongs to Zarncke in his admittedly -rough sketch, "Zur Geschichte der Gralsage," published in the third -volume (1876) of Paul and Braune's Beitraege.--The various forms may be -grouped as follows: (1) Borron's poem, (2) Grand St. Graal, (3) Quête, (4) -Chrestien, (5 and 6) Chrestien's continuators, (7) Didot MS. Perceval, (8) -Prose Perceval li Gallois. Neither the Spanish-Provencal nor the Celtic -origin of the legend is admissible; it has its source wholly in the -apocryphal legends of Joseph of Arimathea, in which two stages may be -distinguished; the first represented by the Gesta Pilati and the Narratio -Josephi, which tell how Christ appeared to Joseph in prison and released -him therefrom; the second by the Vindicta Salvatoris, which combines the -legends of the healing of Tiberius with that of Titus or Vespasian. Joseph -being thus brought into contact with Titus, the space of time between the -two is accounted for by the forty years captivity, and the first hint was -given of a miraculous sustaining power of the Grail. Borron's poem is -still purely legendary in character; the fish caught by the rich fisher is -the symbol of Christ; the incident of the waiting for the Promised Knight -belongs, however, not to the original tradition but to a later style of -Christian mysticism. The Grand St. Graal and the Quête extend and develop -the _donnée_ of the poem, whilst in Chrestien tone, atmosphere, and -framework are profoundly modified, yet there is no reason to postulate for -Chrestien any other sources than Nos. 1-3, the differences being such as -he was quite capable of deliberately introducing. As for No. 7 (the -Didot-Perceval) it is later than Chrestien and his continuators, and has -used both. Wolfram von Eschenbach had only Chrestien for his model, Kiot's -poem being a feigned source. The legend of the conversion of Britain by -Joseph is no genuine British tradition; William of Malmesbury's account of -Glastonbury is a pamphlet written to order of the Norman Kings, and -incapable of serving as a representative of Celtic tradition. The passages -therein relating to Joseph are late interpolations, disagreeing with the -remainder of his work and disproved by the silence of all contemporary -writers. - -Zarncke's acute article was a praiseworthy attempt to construct a working -hypothesis of the growth of the cycle. But it is full of grave -misconceptions, as was, perhaps, inevitable in a hasty survey of such an -immense body of literature. The versions are "placed" most incorrectly. -The argumentation is frequently marred by _a priori_ reasoning, such as -that Chrestien, the acknowledged leading poet of the day, could not have -copied Kiot, and by untenable assertions, such as that Bran, in the -Mabinogi of Branwen, the daughter of Llyr, is perhaps a distant echo of -Hebron in Robert de Borron's poem. He had, however, the great merit of -clearing the ground for his pupil, A. Birch-Hirschfeld, and urging him to -undertake what still remains the most searching and exhaustive survey of -the whole cycle: "Die Sage vom Gral," etc. As Birch-Hirschfeld's analysis -is at present the only basis for sound criticism, I shall give his views -fully:--The Grand St. Graal, as the fullest of the versions dealing with -the Early History of the Grail, is the best starting-point for -investigation. From its pronounced religious tone monkish authorship may -be inferred. Its treatment of the subject is not original as is shown by -(1) the repetition _ad nauseam_ of the same motive (_e.g._, that of the -lance wound four times), (2) the pedigrees, (3) the allusions to -adventures not dealt with in the book, and in especial to the Promised -Knight. The testimony of Helinand (see _supra_, p. 52), which is of -first-rate importance, does not allow of a later date for the Grand St. -Graal than 1204. On turning to the Queste it is remarkable that though -sometimes found in the MSS. in conjunction with the Grand St. Graal it is -also found with the Lancelot, and, when the hero's parentage is -considered, it seems more likely that it was written to supplement the -latter than the former work. This supposition is adverse to any claim it -may lay to being held the earliest treatment of the subject, as it is -highly improbable that the Grail legend occupied at the outset such an -important place in the Arthurian romance as is thus accorded to it. Such a -claim is further negatived by the fact that the Queste has three heroes, -the second of whom is obviously the original one of an older version. In -estimating the relationship between the Grand St. Graal and the Queste it -should be borne in mind that the latter, in so far as it deals with the -Early History, mentions only Joseph, Josephe, Evelach (Mordrain) and -Seraphe (Nascien), from whom descends Galahad; that it brings Joseph to -England, and that it does not give any explanation of the nature of the -Grail itself. It omits Brons, Alain, the explanation of the name "rich -fisherman," the name of Moys, although his story is found in substantially -the same shape as in the Grand St. Graal, and is silent as to the origin -of the bleeding lance. If it were younger than and derived from the Grand -St. Graal alone, these points, all more important for the Early History -than the Mordrain episodes would surely have been dwelt upon. But then if -the Grand St. Graal is the younger work, whence does it derive Brons, -Alain, and Petrus, all of whom are introduced in such a casual way? There -was obviously a previous Early History which knew nothing of Josephe or of -Mordrain and his group, the invention of the author of the Queste, whence -they passed into the Grand St. Graal, and were fused in with the older -form of the legend. There is, moreover, a positive reference on the part -of the Grand St. Graal to the Queste (vol. ii., p. 225). The author of the -Queste introduced his new personages for the following reasons: He had -already substituted Galahad for the original hero, and to enhance his -importance gives him a fictitious descent from a companion of Joseph. From -his model he learnt of Joseph's wanderings in the East, hence the Eastern -origin of the Mordrain group. In the older form the Grail had passed into -the keeping of Joseph's nephew, in the Queste the Promised Knight descends -from the nephew of Mordrain; Brons, as the ancestor of the original Quest -hero necessarily disappears in the Queste, and his place is in large -measure taken by Josephe. The priority of the Queste over the Grand St. -Graal, and the use of the former by the latter may thus be looked upon as -certain. But if Mordrain is the invention of the Queste, what is the -meaning of his illness, of his waiting for the Promised Knight, of the -bleeding lance, and of the lame king whom it heals? These seem to have no -real connection with the Grail, and are apparently derived from an older -work, namely, Chrestien's Conte du Graal. - -Chrestien's work, which ended at v. 10,601, may be dated as having been -begun not later than 1189 (_vide_ _supra_, p. 4). Its unfinished state -accounts for its having so little positive information about the Grail, as -Chrestien evidently meant to reserve this information for the end of the -story. But this very freedom with which the subject is handled is a proof -that he had before him a work whence he could extract and adapt as he saw -fit; moreover we have (Prologue, v. 475, etc.) his own words to that -effect. With Chrestien's account of the Grail--a bowl bejewelled, of -wondrous properties, borne by a maiden, preceded by a bleeding lance, -accompanied by a silver plate, guarded by a king wounded through both -ankles (whose only solace is fishing, whence his surname), ministering to -the king's father, sought for by Perceval, nephew to the fisher king, its -fate bound up with a question which the seeker must put concerning it--may -be compared that of the Queste, in which nothing is known of a question by -which the Grail kingship may be obtained (although it relates the same -incident of Lancelot), which knows not of one wounded king, centre of the -action, but of two, both of secondary importance (though possibly -Chrestien's Fisher King's father may have given the hint for Mordrain), in -which the lance is of minor importance instead of being on the same level -as the Grail. Is it not evident that the Queste took over these features -from Chrestien, compelled thereto by the celebrity of the latter's -presentment? The Queste thus presupposes the following works: a Lancelot, -an Early History, a Quest other than that of Chrestien's, and finally -Chrestien as the lame king and lance features show. It thus falls between -1189 (Chrestien begun) and 1204 (Grand St. Graal ended). - -With respect to the three continuators of Chrestien it would seem that -Gautier de Doulens' account of the Grail, as found in the Montpellier MS., -knowing as it does only of Joseph, and making the Fisher King and Perceval -descendants of his, belongs to an older stage of development than that of -Manessier and Gerbert, both of whom are familiar with the Mordrain group, -and follows that of the original version upon which both the Queste and -the Grand St. Graal are based. There is nothing to show that Gautier knew -of the Queste, whilst from Gautier the Queste may have possibly have taken -Perceval's sister and the broken sword. Gautier would thus seem to have -written immediately after Chrestien, and before the Queste, _i.e._, about -1195. As for the date of the other two continuators, the fact of their -having used the Queste is only one proof of the lateness of their -composition (as to the date of which see _supra_, p. 4). It must be noted -that whilst in their account of the Grail Chrestien's continuators are in -substantial accord with the Queste versions, and yet do not contradict -Chrestien himself, they add considerably to his account of the lance. This -is readily explained by the fact that as Chrestien gave no information -respecting the origin of either of the relics, they, the continuators, had -to seek such information elsewhere; they found all they could wish -respecting the Grail, but nothing as to the lance, the latter having been -first introduced by Chrestien, and the Queste versions knowing nothing -respecting it beyond what he told. Thus, thrown upon their own resources, -they hit upon the device of identifying the lance with the spear with -which Jesus was pierced as He hung on the Cross. This idea, a most natural -one, may possibly have been in Chrestien's intent, and _may_ have been -suggested to him by the story of the discovery of the Holy Lance in -Antioch half a century before. It must, however, be admitted that the -connection of the lance with the Grail legend in its earliest form is very -doubtful, and that Celtic legends may possibly have furnished it to -Chrestien, and indicated the use to which he intended putting it. The -analysis, so far, of the romances has resulted in the presupposition of an -earlier form; this earlier form, the source or basis of all the later -versions of the legend, exists in the so-called Petit St. Graal of Robert -de Borron. Of this work, found in two forms, a prose and a poetic one, the -poetic form, _pace_ Hucher, is obviously the older, Hucher's proofs of -lateness going merely to show that the sole existing MS. is a recent one, -and has admitted new speech-forms;[62] moreover the prose versions derive -evidently from one original. The greater simplicity of the poem as -compared with the Grand St. Graal proves its anteriority in that case; -Paulin Paris' hypothesis that the poem in its present state is a second -draft, composed after the author had made acquaintance with the Grand St. -Graal, is untenable, the poem's reference (v. 929 etc.) to the "grant -livre" and to the "grant estoire dou Graal," written by "nul home qui -fust mortal" (v. 3,495-6) not being to the Grand St. Graal, but having, -on the contrary, probably suggested to the writer of the latter his -fiction of Christ's being the real author of his work. The Grand St. Graal -used the poem conjointly with the Queste, piecing out the one version by -help of the other, and thereby entirely missing the sequence of ideas in -the poem, which is as follows: Sin, the cause of want among the people; -the separation of the pure from the impure by means of the fish (symbol of -Christ) caught by Brons, which fish does not feed the people, but, in -conjunction with the Grail, severs the true from the false disciples; -punishment of the self-willed false disciple; reward of Brons by charge of -the Grail. In the Grand St. Graal, on the contrary, the fish is no symbol, -but actual food, a variation which must be laid to the account of the -Queste. In a similar way the two Alains in the Grand St. Graal may be -accounted for, the one as derived from the poem, the second from the -Queste. As far as conception is concerned, the later work is no advance -upon the earlier one. To return to Borron's work, which consists of three -sections; there is no reason to doubt his authorship of the second, -Merlin, or of the third, Perceval, although one MS. only of the former -mentions the fact, and it is, moreover, frequently found in connection -with other romances, in especial with the Lancelot; as for Perceval, the -silence of the unique MS. as to Borron is no argument, as it is equally -silent in the Joseph of Arimathea section. All outward circumstances go to -show that Borron divided his work into three parts, Joseph, Merlin, -Perceval. But, if so, the last part must correspond in a fair measure to -the first one; recollect, however, that we are dealing with a poet of but -little invention or power of giving unity to discordant themes, and must -not expect to find a clearly traced plan carried out in every detail. Thus -the author's promise in Joseph to speak later of Moses and Petrus seems -not to be fulfilled, but this is due to Borron's timidity in the invention -of new details. What _is_ said of Moses does not disagree with the Joseph, -whereas a later writer would probably follow the Grand St. Graal account; -as for Petrus he is to be recognised in the hermit Perceval's uncle. There -may be some inconsistency here, but Borron _can_ be inconsistent, as is -shown by his treatment of Alain, who at first vows to remain virgin, and -afterwards marries. But a graver argument remains to be met; the lance -occurs in Perceval--now _ex hypothesi_ the first introduction of the lance -is due to Chrestien. The lance, however, only occurs in two passages, both -obviously interpolated. The identity of authorship is evident when the -style and phraseology of the two works are compared; in both the Grail is -always _li graaux_ or else _li veissel_, not as with the later versions, -_li saint graaux_; both speak of _la grace dou graal_; in both the Grail -is _bailli_ to its keeper, who has it _en guarde_; the empty seat is _li -liu vit_, not the _siège perilleux_. The central conception, too, is the -same--the Trinity of Grail-keepers symbolising the Divine Trinity. The -secret words given by Christ with the Grail to Joseph in prison, by him -handed on to Brons, are confided at the end of the Perceval by Brons to -the hero--and there is no trace of the Galahad form of the Quest, as would -inevitably have been the case had the Perceval been posterior in date to -the Queste. As the Perceval is connected with the Joseph, so it is equally -with the Merlin; it is remarkable that neither Merlin nor Blaise play a -prominent part in the Queste versions, but in Borron's poem Merlin is the -necessary binding link between the Apostolic and Arthurian ages. Again the -whole character of the Perceval speaks for its being one of the earliest -works of the cycle; either it must have used Chrestien and Gautier or they -it; if the former, is it credible that just those adventures which were -necessary to supply the ending to the Joseph could have been picked out? -But it is easy to follow the way in which Chrestien used the Perceval; -having the three-part poem before him he took the third only for his -canvas, left out all that in it related to the first two parts, all, -moreover, that related to the origin and early history of the Grail; the -story of the childhood is half indicated in the Perceval, and Chrestien -may have had Breton lays with which to help himself out; all relating to -the empty seat is left out as reaching back into the Early History; the -visit to Gurnemanz is introduced to supply a motive for the hero's conduct -at the Grail Castle; the wound of the Fisher King is again only an attempt -of Chrestien's to supply a more telling motive; as for the sword Chrestien -invented it; as he also did the Grail-messenger, whose portrait he copied -from that of Rosette la Blonde. The order of the last episodes is altered -by Chrestien sensibly for the better, as, with him, Perceval's doubt comes -first, then the Good Friday reproof, then the confession to and absolution -by the hermit; whereas in the Perceval the hero after doubt, reproof, and -absolution rides off again a-tourneying, and requires a second reproof at -Merlin's hands. It is easy to see here which is the original, which the -copy. Chrestien thus took with clear insight just what he wanted in the -Perceval to fit out his two heroes with adventures.[63] As for Borron's -guiding conception, his resolve to have nothing to do with the Early -History made him neglect it entirely; he only cared to produce a knightly -poem, and we find, in consequence, that he has materialised all the -spiritual elements of his model. Gautier de Doulens' method of proceeding -was much simpler: he took over all those adventures that Chrestien -purposely left out, and they may be found brought together (verses -22,390-27,390) with but few episodes (Perceval's visit to Blanchefleur, -etc.) entirely foreign to the model amongst them.[64] The Perceval cannot -be later than Gautier, as otherwise it could not stand in such close -relationship to the Joseph and Merlin; it must, therefore, be the source -of the Conte du Graal, and a necessary part of Borron's poem, which in its -entirety is the first attempt to bring the Joseph of Arimathea legend into -connection with the Arthur _sage_. The question as to the origin of the -Grail would thus seem answered, the Christian legendary character of -Borron's conception being evident; but there still remains the possibility -that that conception is but the Christianised form of an older folk-myth. -Such a one has been sought for in Celtic tradition. The part played by -Merlin in the trilogy might seem to lend colour to such an hypothesis, but -his connection with the legend is a purely artificial one. Nor is the -theory of a Celtic origin strengthened by reference to the Mabinogi of -Peredur. This knows nought of Merlin, and is nearer to Chrestien than to -the Didot-Perceval, and may, indeed, be looked upon as simply a clumsy -retelling of the Conte du Graal with numerous additions. A knowledge of -the Didot-Perceval on Chrestien's part must be presupposed, as where could -he have got the Fisher King and Grail Castle save from a poem which dealt -with the Early History of the Grail, a thing the Mabinogi does not do. -But, it may be said, Chrestien used the Mabinogi conjointly with Borron's -poem. That the Welsh tale is, on the contrary, only a copy is apparent -from the following considerations:--It mixes up Gurnemanz and the Fisher -King; it puts in the mouth of Peredur's _mother_ an exclamation about the -knights, "Angels they are my son," obviously misread from Perceval's -exclamation to the same effect in Chrestien's poem; _Perceval's_ -love-trance over the three blood drops in the snow is explained in -Chrestien by the hero's passion for Blanchefleur, but is quite -inexplicable in the Mabinogi; again, in the Welsh tale, the lance and -basin episode is quite a secondary one, a fact easily explained if it is -looked upon as a vague reminiscence of Chrestien's unfinished work; -moreover the Mabinogi lays great stress upon the lance, which has already -been shown to belong to a secondary stage in the development of the -legend. Again the word Graal occurs frequently in old Welsh literature, -and invariably in its French form, never translated by any equivalent -Welsh term. As for the name Peredur, it is understandable that the Welsh -storyteller should choose the name of a national hero, instead of the -foreign name Perceval; the etymology Basin-Seeker is untenable. There is -no real analogy between the Grail and the magic cauldron of Celtic fable, -which is essentially one of renovation, whereas the Grail in the second -stage only acquires miraculous feeding, and in the third stage healing -powers. It is of course not impossible that such adventures in the -Mabinogi, as cannot be referred directly to Chrestien, may belong to a -genuine Peredur _sage_. - -The question then arises--was Robert de Borron a simple copyist, or is the -legend in its present form due to him, _i.e._, did _he_ first join the -Joseph of Arimathea and Grail legends, or had he a predecessor? Now the -older Joseph legends know nothing of his wandering in company of a -miraculous vessel, Zarncke having shown the lateness of the one commonly -ascribed to William of Malmesbury. Nor is it likely Borron had before him -a local French legend as Paulin Paris (Romania, vol. i.) had supposed; -would he in that case have brought the Grail to England, and left Joseph's -fate in uncertainty? The bringing the Grail to England is simply the -logical consequence of his conception of the three Grail-keepers (the -third of British blood), symbolising the Trinity, and of the relation of -the Arthurian group to this central conception; where the third -Grail-keeper and the third of the three wondrous tables were, there the -Grail must also be. What then led Borron to connect the sacramental vessel -with the Joseph legend? In answering this question the later miraculous -properties of the Grail must be forgotten, and it must be remembered that -with Borron it is only a vessel of "grace;" this is shown in the history -of (Moys) the false disciple, which obviously follows in its details the -account of the Last Supper, and of the detection of Judas by means of the -dish into which Jesus dips a sop, bidding the betrayer take and eat. -Borron's first table being an exact copy of the Last Supper one, _his_ -holy vessel has the property of that used by Christ. In so far Borron was -led to his conception by the story as told in the canonical books; what -help did he get from the Apocrypha? His mention of the Veronica legend and -certain details in his presentment of Vespasian's vengeance on the Jews -(_e.g._, his selling thirty for a penny) show him to have known the -Vindicta Salvatoris, in which Joseph of Arimathea appears telling of his -former captivity from which Christ Himself had delivered him. Thus Borron -knew of Joseph's living when Vespasian came to Jerusalem. From the Gesta -Pilati he had full information respecting the imprisonment of Joseph; he -combined the accounts of these two apocryphal works, substituting a simple -visit of Christ to Joseph for the deliverance as told in the Gesta Pilati, -and making Vespasian the deliverer, whereto he may have been urged by -Suetonius' account of the freeing of _Josephus_ by Vespasian (Vesp. ch. -v.). But why should Joseph become the Grail-keeper? Because the fortunes -of the vessel used by the Saviour symbolise those of the Saviour's body; -as _that_ was present at the Last Supper, was brought to Pilate, handed -over to Joseph, was buried, and after three days arose, so with the Grail. -Compare, too, Christ's words to Joseph (892, etc.) in which the symbolical -connection of the laying in the grave and the mass is fully worked out. -Thus Joseph who laid Christ's body in the grave is the natural guardian of -the symbol which commemorates that event, thus, too, the Grail is the -natural centre point of all the symbolism of mass and sacrament, and thus -the Grail found its place in the Joseph legend, ultimately becoming its -most important feature. Need Perceval's question detain us? May it not be -explained by the fact that as Joseph had to apply twice for Christ's body, -so his representative, the Grail-seeker, had to apply twice for the symbol -of Christ's body, the Grail? But it is, perhaps, best to consider the -question and the Fisher King's weakness as inventions of Borron's, -possibly derived from Breton sources, the ease with which the hero fulfils -a task explained to him beforehand favouring such a view. Borron, it must -be noticed, had no great inventive power; in the Joseph he is all right so -long as he has the legend to follow; in the Merlin and the Perceval he -clings with equal helplessness to the Breton sagas, confining himself to -weaving clumsily the adventures of the Grail into the regular Arthur -legend. - -The question as to the authorship of the Grand St. Graal and the Queste, -the latter so confidently attributed to W. Map, may now profitably be -investigated. Map, who we know flourished 1143-1210 (see _supra_, p. 5), -took part in all the political and social movements of his time. If we -believe the testimony of the MSS. which ascribe to him the authorship of -the following romances: (1) the Lancelot, in three parts; (2) the Queste; -(3) the Mort Artur; (4) the Grand St. Graal, he would seem to have shown a -literary activity quite incompatible with his busy life, when it is -remembered how slow literary composition was in those days. Nor can it be -reconciled with the words of Giraldus Cambrensis,[65] although Paulin -Paris (Rom. i. 472) has attempted such a reconciliation by the theory that -the words _dicere_ and _verba dare_ referred to composition in the -vernacular, and that Map was opposing not his _oratorical_ to Gerald's -_literary_ activity, but his _French_ to Gerald's _Latin_ works. Against -this initial improbability and Gerald's positive testimony must be set, it -is true, the witness of writers of the time and of the MSS. The most -important is that of Hélie de Borron in his prologue to Guiron le -Courtois.[66] After telling how Luces de Gast was the first to translate -from the Latin book into French, and he did part of the story of Tristan, -he goes on: "Apriés s'en entremist maistre Gautiers Map qui fu clers au -roi Henry et devisa cil l'estoire de monseigneur Lancelot du Lac, que -d'autre chose ne parla il mie gramment en son livre. Messiers Robers de -Borron s'en entremist après. Je Helis de Borron, par la prière monseigneur -de Borron, et pour ce que compaignon d'armes fusmes longement, en -commençai mon livre du Bret." Again in the epilogue to the Bret,[67] "Je -croi bien touchier sor les livres que maistres Gautiers Maup fist, qui fit -lou propre livre de monsoingnour Lancelot dou Lac; et des autres granz -livres que messires Robert de Berron fit, voudrai-je prendre aucune flor -de la matière ... en tel meniere que li livres de monsoingnour Luces de -Gant et de maistre Gautier Maapp et ciz de monsoingnour Robert de Berron -qui est mes amis et mes paranz charnex s'acourderont au miens livres--et -je qui sui appelex Helyes de Berron qui fui engendrez dou sanc des gentix -paladins des Barres qui de tous tens ont été commendeour et soingnor -d'Outres en Roménie qui ores est appelée France." Now Hélie cannot -possibly belong to the reign of Henry II (+ 1189) as asserted by Hucher -(p. 59), as he speaks of Map in the past tense (_fu_ clers), and Map -outlived Henry, moreover the mention of Romenie proves the passage to have -been written after the foundation of the Latin Empire in 1304. Hélie's -testimony is thus not that of an immediate contemporary, and it only shows -that shortly after Map's death the Lancelot was ascribed to him. It is, -moreover, in so far tainted, that he speaks with equal assurance -respecting the great Latin book which of course never existed; nor can we -believe him when he says that he was the comrade of Robert de Borron, as -this latter wrote before Chrestien, and must have been at least thirty -years older than Hélie, who in the Guiron (written about 1220) calls -himself a young man. How is it with the testimony of the MSS.? Those of -the Lancelot have unfortunately lost their colophon, owing to the Queste -being almost invariably added; those of the Queste show as a rule a -colophon such as the one quoted by Paulin Paris from the Bibl. Nat., MS. -6,963 (MSS. Franç II., p. 361): "Maistre Gautiers Map les estrait pour son -livre faire dou Saint-Graal, pour l'amor del roy Henri son seignor, qui -fist l'estore translater dou latin en françois." A similar statement -occurs in a MS. of the Mort Artur (Bib. Nat. 6,782.). Both are equally -credible. Now as the King can only be Henry II (+ 1189) and as the Queste -preceded the Mort Artur it must be put about 1185, and Chrestien's Conte -du Graal about 1180, an improbably early date when it is recollected that -the Conte du Graal is Chrestien's last work. The form, too, of these -colophons, expressed as they are in the third person, so different from -the garrulous first person complacency with which Luces de Gast and Hélie -de Borron announce their authorship, excites the suspicion that we have -here not the author's own statement, but that of a copyist following a -traditional ascription. Whether or no Map wrote the Lancelot, it may -safely be assumed that he did not write the Queste, or _a fortiori_ the -Grand St. Graal. The tradition as to his authorship of these romances may -have originated in Geoffrey's mention of the Gualterus archidiaconus -Oxenfordensis, to whom he owed his MS. of the Historia Regum Britanniae. A -similar instance of traditional ascription on the part of the copyist may -be noted in the MSS. of the Grand St. Graal, the author of which is -declared to be Robert de Borron. The ordinary formulæ (quoted _supra_, p. -5) should be compared with Borron's own words in the Joseph (_supra_, p. -5) and the difference in form noted. What proves these passages to be -interpolations is that the author of the Grand St. Graal especially -declares in his prologue that his name must remain a secret. The colophons -in question are simply to be looked upon as taken over from the genuine -ascription of Borron's poem, and there is no positive evidence as to the -authorship of either the Queste or the Grand St. Graal; both works are -probably French in origin, as is shown by the mention of Meaux in the -Grand St. Graal. As for the date of Borron's poem, a _terminus ad quem_ is -fixed by that of the Conte du Graal (1180); and as the poem is dedicated -to Gautier of Montbeliard, who can hardly have been born before 1150, and -who must have attained a certain age before he could become Robert's -patron, it must fall between the years 1170 and 1190. - -The results of the investigation may be summed up as follows: the origin -of the Grail romances must be sought for in a Christian legend based -partly upon the canonical, partly upon the uncanonical, writings. This -Christian legend was woven into the Breton sagas by the author of the -oldest Grail romance; the theories of Provençal Spanish, or Celtic origin -are equally untenable, nor is there any need to countenance the fable of a -Latin original. Chronologically, the versions arrange themselves thus:-- - - (1) Between 1170 and 1190 (probably about 1183) Robert de Borron wrote - his trilogy: Joseph of Arimathea--Merlin--Perceval. Sources: Christian - legend (Acta, Pilati, Descensus Christi, Vindicta Salvatoris) and - Breton sagas (Brut?). Here the Grail is simply a vessel of grace. - - (2) About 1189 Chrestien began his Conte du Graal, the main source of - which was the third part of Borron's poem. Marvellous food properties - attributed to the Grail; introduction of the bleeding lance, silver - dish, and magic sword. - - (3) Between 1190 and 1200 Gautier de Doulens continued Chrestien's - poem. Main sources, third part of (1) and first part of same for Early - History--introduction of broken sword. - - (4) Between 1190 and 1200 (but after Gautier?) the Queste du St. Graal - written as continuation to the Lancelot. Sources (1) and (2) (for - lance) and perhaps (3). New personages, Mordrain, Nascien, etc., - introduced into Early History. - - (5) Before 1204 Grand St. Graal written, mainly resting upon (4) but - with use also of first part of (1). - - (6) Between 1214 and 1220. Manessier's continuation of the Conte du - Graal. For the Early History (5) made use of. - - (7) Before 1225 Gerbert of Montreuil's additions to Manessier. Both - (4) and (5) used. - - (8) About 1225 Perceval li Gallois; compiled from all the previous - versions.[68] - -That part of Birch-Hirschfeld's theory which excited the most attention in -Germany bore upon the relationship of Wolfram to Chrestien (see _infra_, -Appendix A). In other respects his theory won very general acceptance. The -commendatory notices were, however, of a slight character, and no new -facts were adduced in support of his thesis. One opponent, however, he -found who did more than rest his opposition upon the view of Wolfram's -relationship to Chrestien. This was E. Martin, who ("Zeitschrift für d. -Alterthumskunde," 1878, pp. 84 etc.) traversed most of Birch-Hirschfeld's -conclusions. Whilst accepting the priority of Queste over Grand St. Graal -he did not see the necessity of fixing 1204 as a _terminus ad quem_ for -the latter work as we now have it, as Helinandus' statement might have -referred to an older version; if the Grand St. Graal could not be dated -neither could the Queste. As for the Didot-Perceval there was nothing to -prove that it was either Borron's work or the source of Chrestien and -Gautier. Birch-Hirschfeld's arguments to show the interpolation of the -lance passages were unsound; it was highly improbable either that -Chrestien should have used the Perceval as alleged, or that Borron, the -purely religious writer of the Joseph, should have changed his style so -entirely in the Perceval. Moreover, Birch-Hirschfeld made Borron dedicate -a work to Gautier of Montbeliard before 1183 when the latter must have -been quite a young man, nor was there any reason to discredit Hélie de -Borron's testimony that he and Robert had been companions in arms, a fact -incredible had the one written forty years before the other. The work of -Chrestien and his continuators must be looked upon as the oldest we had of -the Grail cycle. It was likely that older versions had been lost. A Latin -version might well have existed, forms such as Joseph de Barimaschie -(_i.e._, ab Arimathea) pointed to it. Martin followed up this attack in -his "Zur Gralsage, Untersuchungen," Strasburg, 1880. A first section is -devoted to showing that Wolfram must have had other sources than -Chrestien, and that in consequence such portions of his presentment as -differ from Chrestien's must be taken into account in reconstructing the -original form of the romance. The second and third sections deal with -Heinrich von dem Türlin's "Die Crone," and with the earliest form of the -tradition. Gawain's second visit to the Grail Castle, as told of by -Heinrich (_supra_, p. 26) has features in common with the widely-spread -traditions of aged men slumbering in caves or ruined castles, unable to -die until the right word is uttered which breaks their spell. This -conception differs from the one found in all the other versions inasmuch -as in them the wonder-working question releases, not from unnaturally -prolonged life, but from sore disease. Can a parallel be found in Celtic -tradition to this sufferer awaiting deliverance? Does not Arthur, wounded -well nigh to death by his nephew Modred, pass a charmed life in Avalon, -whither Morgan la Fay carried him for his healing, and shall he not return -thence to free his folk? The original conception is mythic--the summer god -banished by the winter powers, but destined to come back again. The _sage_ -of Arthur's waiting, often in some subterranean castle, is widely spread, -two of the earliest notices (those of Gervasius of Tilbury, in the "Otia -Imperialia," p. 12 of Liebrecht's edition, and of Caesarius of -Heisterbach) connect it with Etna--the tradition had followed the Norman -Conquerors of Sicily thither--and from Sicily it would seem to have -penetrated to Germany, being first found in German tradition as told of -Frederick II. Again Gerald (A.D. 1188) in the "Itinerarium Cambriae" -(Frankfort, 1603, p. 827, L. 48) tells of a mountain chain in the -South-East of Wales: "quorum principalis Cadair Arthur dicitur i. Cathedra -Arthuri, propter gemina promontorii cacumina in cathedrae modum se -praeferentia. Et quoniam in alto cathedra et in ardua sita est, summo et -maximo Britonum Regi Arthuro vulgari nuncupatione est assignata." The -Eildon Hills may be noted in the same connection, "in which all the -Arthurian chivalry await, in an enchanted sleep, the bugle blast of the -adventurer who will call them at length to a new life" (Stuart Glennie, -"Arthurian Localities," p. 60). If the Grail King is Arthur, the bleeding -lance is evidently the weapon wherewith he was so sorely wounded. And the -Grail? this is originally a symbol of plenty, of a joyous and bountiful -life, hence of Avalon, that land of everlasting summer beyond the waves, -wherein, as the Vita Merlini has it, they that visit Arthur find -"planitiem omnibus deliciis plenam." Of those versions of the romance in -which the Christian conception of the Grail is predominant, Robert de -Borron's poem (composed about 1200) is the earliest, and in it, _maugre_ -the Christianising of the story, the Celtic basis is apparent: the Grail -host go a questing Avalonwards; the first keepers are Brons and Alain, -purely Celtic names, the former of which may be compared with Bran; the -empty seat calls to mind the _Eren stein_ in Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's -Lanzelot, whereof (verse 5,178) _ist gesaget daz er den man niht vertruoc -an dem was valsch oder haz_. Admitting the purely Christian origin of the -Grail leads to this difficulty: the vessel in which Christ's blood was -received was a bowl, not an open or flat dish like that used in -commemoration of the Last Supper. Evidently the identification of the -Grail with the Last Supper cup is the latest of a series of -transformations. Nor can the Christian origin of the legend be held proved -by the surname of Fisher given to the Grail-keeper. True, neither -Chrestien nor Wolfram explains this surname, whilst in Borron's poem there -is at least a fish caught. But if the fish had really the symbolic meaning -ascribed to it would not a far greater stress be laid upon it? In any case -this one point is insufficient to prove the priority of Borron, and it is -simpler to believe that the surname of Fisher had in the original Celtic -tradition a significance now lost. Birch-Hirschfeld's theory supposes, -too, a development contrary to that observed elsewhere in mediæval -tradition. The invariable course is from the racial-heathen to the -Christian legendary stage. Is it likely that in the twelfth century, a -period of such highly developed mystic fancy, an originally Christian -legend should lose its mystic character and become a subject for minstrels -to exercise their fancy upon? In the earlier form of the romance there is -an obvious contrast between the task laid upon the Grail quester and that -laid upon Gawain at Castle Marvellous. The first has suffered change by -its association with Christian legend; but the second, even in those -versions influenced by the legend, has retained its primitive Celtic -character. The trials which Gawain has to undergo may be compared with -those imposed on him who seeks to penetrate into the underworld, as -pictured in the Purgatorium S. Patricii, in the Visio Tnugdali, etc. This -agrees well with the presentment of Castle Marvellous, an underworld realm -where dwell four queens long since vanished from Arthur's court, and -which, according to Chrestien (verse 9,388), Gawain, having once found, -may no longer leave. One of these queens is Arthur's mother, whom a -magician had carried off, a variant it would seem of the tradition which -makes Arthur's father, Uther, win Igerne from her husband by Merlin's -magic aid. Many other reminiscences of Celtic tradition may be found in -the romances--Orgeleuse, whom Gawain finds sitting under a tree by a -spring, is just such a water fairy as may be met with throughout the whole -range of Celtic folk-lore, and differs profoundly from the Germanic -conception of such beings. - -W. Hertz, in his "Sage vom Parzival und dem Gral" (Breslau, 1882) -following, in the main, Birch-Hirschfeld, lays stress upon the two -elements, "_legend_" and "_sage_" out of which the romance cycle has -sprung. He does not overlook many of the weak points in Birch-Hirschfeld's -theory, _e.g._, whilst fully accepting the fish caught by Bron as the -symbol of Christ, he notices that the incident as found in Robert de -Borron, whom he accepts as the first in date of the cycle writers, is not -of such importance as to justify the stress laid upon the nickname "rich -fisher," by all the _ex hypothesi_ later writers. The word "rich" must, he -thinks, have originally referred to the abundant power of conversion of -heathen vouchsafed to the Grail-keeper, but even Robert failed to grasp -the full force of the allusion. Against Birch-Hirschfeld he maintains that -the connection of Joseph with the conversion of Britain in all the -versions shows that the legend must have assumed definite shape first on -British soil, and he looks upon the separatist and anti-papal tendencies -of the British Church as supplying the original impulse to such a legend. -The Grail belongs originally wholly to the "Legend;" only in the later -versions and in Wolfram, owing to the latter's ignorance of its real -nature, does it assume a magic and popular character. The lance, on the -other hand, is partly derived from the Celtic _sage_. The boyhood of -Perceval is a genuine folk-story, a great-fool tale, and had originally -nothing to do with the Grail, as may plainly be seen by reference to the -Thornton Sir Perceval, the most primitive form of the story remaining, the -Mabinogi, and the modern Breton tale of Peronnik, deriving directly or -indirectly from Chrestien. As for the question, although it presented much -that seemed to refer it to folk-tradition, as for instance in Heinrich von -dem Türlin's version, where Gawain's putting the question releases the -lord of the castle and his retainers from the enchantment of -life-in-death, yet the form of the question, "Je vos prie que vous me diez -que l'en sert de cest vessel," shows its original connection with the -Grail cultus, and necessitates its reference to the "Legend." Existing -versions fail, however, to give any satisfactory account of the question. -It is a matter of conjecture whether in the earliest form of the legend -(which Hertz assumes to have been lost) it was found in the same shape as -in the Didot-Perceval. - -Birch-Hirschfeld's theory has already been implicitly criticised in -Chapter III. The considerations adduced therein, as well as Martin's -criticisms and Hertz's admissions, preclude the necessity of examining it -in further detail. Formally speaking, the theory rests upon the assumption -that we have Borron's work substantially as he wrote it, an assumption -which, as shown by the difference in _motif_ between the Metrical Joseph -and the Didot-Perceval, is inaccurate. Again, the theory does not account -for the silence of all the other versions respecting Brons and that -special conception of the Grail found in Borron's poem. Nor does it offer -any satisfactory explanation of the mysterious question which -Birch-Hirschfeld can only conjecture to have been a meaningless invention, -_eine harmlose Erfindung_, of Borron's. In fact, only such, portions of -the cycle are exhaustively examined as admit of reference to the alleged -originating idea, and a show of rigorous deduction is thus made, the -emptiness of which becomes apparent when the entire legend, and not one -portion only, is taken into account. Despite the learning and acuteness -with which it is urged, Birch-Hirschfeld's theory must be rejected, if it -were only because, as Martin points out, it postulates a development of -the legend which is the very opposite of the normal one. We cannot admit -that this vast body of romance sprang from a simple but lofty spiritual -conception, the full significance of which, unperceived even by its -author, was totally ignored, not only, were that possible, by Chrestien -and his continuators, but by the theologising mystics who wrote the Grand -St. Graal and the Queste--aye, and even by the latest and in some respects -the most theologically minded of all the writers of the cycle, the author -of the Prose Perceval le Gallois and Gerbert. We must say, with Otto Küpp -(Zacher's Zeitschrift, XVII, 1, p. 68), "die jetzt versuchte christliche -Motivierung ist ganz unglücklich geraten und kann in keiner Weise -befriedigen." - -The field is thus clear for an examination of the Quest with a view to -determining whether the Grail really belongs to it or not. The first step -is to see what relationship exists between the oldest form of the Quest -and what have been called the non-Grail members of the cycle--_i.e._, the -Mabinogi of Peredur ab Evrawc and the Thornton MS. Sir Perceval. As -preliminary to this inquiry, an attempt must be made to determine more -closely the relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du -Graal--whether it be wholly derived from the latter, or whether it may -have preserved through other sources traces of a different form of the -story than that found in Chrestien.[69] - - - - -CHAPTER V. - - Relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du Graal--The former - not the source of the latter--Relationship of the Conte du Graal and - the Mabinogi--Instances in which the Mabinogi has copied - Chrestien--Examples of its independence--The incident of the blood - drops in the snow--Differences between the two works--The machinery of - the Mabinogi and the traces of it in the Conte du Graal--The - stag-hunt--The Mabinogi and Manessier--The sources of the Conte du - Graal and the relation of the various parts to a common original--Sir - Perceval--Steinbach's theory--Objections to it--The counsels in the - Conte du Graal--Wolfram and the Mabinogi--Absence of the Grail from - the apparently oldest Celtic form. - - -In examining the relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du Graal, -the sequence of the incidents is of importance. This is shown in the -subjoined table (where the numbers given are those of the incidents as -summarized, chapter II), in which the Didot-Perceval sequence is taken as -the standard. - - --------------------------------------------------------------- - DIDOT-PERCEVAL. | CHRESTIEN. | - --------------------------------|-----------------------------| - Inc. |Inc. | - 2. Perceval sets forth in |11. Only after the reproaches| - quest of the rich fisher. | of the loathly damsel | - | does Perceval first set | - | forth in quest of the | - | Grail. | - | | - 3. Finds a damsel weeping over | 8. In so far as finding a | - a knight. Adventure with | damsel weeping over a | - dwarf and the Orgellos | dead knight, and (9) for | - Delande. | overcoming the Orgellous | - | de la Lande. | - | | - 4. Arrival at the Chessboard | ... ... ... ... | - Castle. Adventure of the | | - stag hunt and loss of the | | - hound. | | - | | - 5. Meeting with sister; | ... ... ... ... | - instruction concerning the | | - Grail; vow to seek it. | | - | | - 6. Meeting with, confession |15. _After_ the Good Friday | - to, and exhortation from | incident. | - hermit uncle. | | - | | - 7. Disregard of uncle's | ... ... ... ... | - exhortations (slaying a | | - knight), through thinking | | - of damsel of the | | - Chessboard. | | - | | - 8. Meeting with Rosette and | ... ... ... ... | - Le Beau Mauvais (the | | - loathly damsel). | | - | | - 9. Adventure at the Ford with | ... ... ... ... | - Urbains. | | - | | - 10. The two children in the | ... ... ... ... | - tree. | | - | | - 11. First arrival at Grail | 7. ... ... ... ... | - Castle. | | - | | - 12. Reproaches of the wayside | 8. In so far as in both the | - damsel. | hero is reproached by a | - | wayside damsel. | - | | - 13. Meeting with the damsel who | ... ... ... ... | - had carried off the stag's | | - head and hound, and second | | - visit to Castle of the | | - Chessboard. | | - | | - 14. Period (7 years) of despair |15. ... ... ... ... | - ended by the Good Friday | | - incident. | | - | | - 15. Tournament at Melianz de |13. But told of Gawain not | - Lis. Merlin's reproaches. | of Perceval. | - | | - 16. Second arrival at Grail | ... ... ... ... | - Castle Achievement of Quest.| | - --------------------------------------------------------------- - - --------------------------- - GAUTIER DE DOULENS. - --------------------------- - Inc. - ... ... ... ... - - - - - - 9. In so far as a damsel - is foundlamenting over - a knight. - - - - 7 and 8. - - - - - 12. - - - - 12. - - - - 12. In so far as a knight - is slain, but _before_ - the meeting with the - hermit. - - - 11. - - - - 9. Ford Amorous; _entirely - different adventure_. - - 20. _One_ child. - - - ... ... ... ... - - - ... ... ... ... - - - - 13 and 18. Many adventures - being intercalated. - - - - - ... ... ... ... - - - - ... ... ... ... - - - 22. - - --------------------------- - -The different sequence in the Didot-Perceval and Chrestien may be -explained, as Birch-Hirschfeld explains it, by the freedom which Chrestien -allowed himself in re-casting the work; but why should Gautier, who, _ex -hypothesi_, simply took up from Chrestien's model such adventures as his -predecessor had omitted, have acted in precisely the same way? If the -theory were correct we should expect to find the non-Chrestien incidents -of the Didot-Perceval brought together in at least fairly the same order -in Gautier. A glance at the table shows that this is not the case. In one -incident, moreover, the Didot-Perceval is obviously right and Gautier -obviously wrong, namely, in his incident 12, where the slaying of the -knight before the hero's meeting the hermit takes away all point from the -incident. An absolutely decisive proof that that portion of the Conte du -Graal which goes under Gautier's name (though it is by no means clear that -all of it is of the same age or due to one man), cannot be based upon the -Didot-Perceval as we now possess it, is afforded by the adventure of the -Ford Amorous or Perillous, which in the two versions is quite dissimilar. -This incident stands out pre-eminent in the Didot-Perceval for its wild -and fantastic character. It is a genuine Celtic _märchen_, with much of -the weird charm still clinging to it that is the birthright of the Celtic -folk-tale. It is inadmissible that Gautier could have substituted for this -fine incident the commonplace one which he gives. - -If, then, it is out of the question that Gautier borrowed directly from -the Didot-Perceval, how are the strong resemblances which exist in part -between the two versions to be accounted for? Some of these resemblances -have already been quoted (_supra_, p. 75), the remainder may be usefully -brought together here.[70] - -First arrival at the Castle of the Chessboard-- - - DIDOT-PERCEVAL. GAUTIER. - - Li plus biaux chasteaux del monde Le bel castiel que je vos dis - et vit le pont abeissié et la . . . . . - porte deffermé (p. 439). Et vit si bièles les entrées - Et les grans portes desfremées - (22,395, etc.); - -The damsel exhorts him not to throw the chessman into the water-- - - Votre cors est esmeuz à grant Car çou serait grans vilonie (22,503). - vilainie faire (p. 440). - -Perceval having slain the stag, sees its head carried off-- - - Si vint une veille sor un palestoi Une pucièle de malaire - grant aléure et prist le brachet Vint cevauçant parmi la lande - et s'en ala or tot (p. 442). Voit le braket, plus ne demande - Par le coler d'orfrois le prist - . . . . . . - Si s'en aloit grant aléure - (22,604, etc.). - -On Perceval threatening to take it away from her by force she answers-- - - Sire Chevalier, force n'est mie Force à faire n'est mie drois - droit et force me poez bien Et force me poés vos faire (22,640). - faire (p. 443). - -In the subsequent fight with the Knight of the Tomb, he, overcome-- - - Se torna vers le tonbel grant Que fuiant vait grant aléure - aléure et li tombeaux s'enleva Vers l'arket et la sepouture - contre moultet chevalier s'en Si est entrés plus tost qu'il pot - feri enz (p. 444). (22,723, etc.). - -In the description of Rosette (the loathly damsel)-- - - Ele avoit le col et les mains plus Le col avoit plus noir que fer - noires et le vier, que fer... (25,409). - (p. 453). - -When the loathly damsel and her knight come to Arthur's court, Kay jests -as follows:-- - - Lors pria (_i.e._, Kay) le chevalier Biaus sire, - par la foi que il devoit, le roi, Dites moi, si Dex le vos mire, - qui li déist où il l'avoit prise et Si plus en a en vostre terre, - si en porroit une autre tele avoir, Une autèle en iroie querre - si il l'aloit querre (p. 457). Si jou le quidoie trover - (25,691 etc.). - -These similarities are too great to be accidental. It will be noticed, -however, that they bear chiefly upon two adventures: that of the -chessboard and stag hunt, and that of the loathly maiden. As to the -latter, it is only necessary to allude to Birch-Hirschfeld's idea that -Rosette is the original of the damsel who reproaches Perceval before the -court with his conduct at the Grail Castle, a theory to state which is to -refute it. The former adventure will be closely examined in the following -section. There is no need to suppose direct borrowing on the part of one -or the other versions to account for the parallel in these two incidents; -a common original closely followed at times by both would meet the -requirements of the case. It is difficult to admit that the author of the -Didot-Perceval used Gautier's continuation and not Chrestien's original, -especially when the following fact, strangely overlooked by both -Birch-Hirschfeld and Hucher, is taken into account: Perceval on his first -arrival at the Grail Castle keeps silence (as will be seen by a reference -to the summary, _supra_, p. 31), because, "li souvenoit du prodome qui li -avoit deffandu que ne fust trop pallier," etc. As a matter of fact, the -"prodome" had forbidden nothing of the sort, and this casual sentence is -the first allusion to the motive upon which Chrestien lays so much stress -as explaining his hero's mysterious conduct at the Grail Castle. Evidently -the Didot-Perceval, which, to whoever considers it impartially, is an -obvious abridgment and piecing together of material from different -sources, found in one of its sources an episode corresponding to that of -Gonemans in Chrestien. But its author, influenced probably by the Galahad -version of the Quest, substituted for the "childhood" opening of this -hypothetical source the one now found in his version, and the Gonemans -episode went with the remainder of that part of the story. When the hero -comes to the Grail Castle, the author is puzzled; his hero knows -beforehand what he has to do, sets out with the distinct purpose of doing -it, and yet remains silent. To account for this silence the author uses -the motive belonging to a discarded episode, but applies the words to his -hermit, forgetting that he had put no such words into his mouth, and that, -attributed to him, the injunction to keep silence became simply -meaningless. Is the model treated in this way by the Didot-Perceval -Chrestien's poem? Hardly, for this reason. After the Good Friday incident -occurs the remarkable passage, quoted (_supra_, p. 31), as to the silence -of the _trouvères_ respecting it. Chrestien gives the incident in full, -and the author of the Perceval could have had no reason for his stricture, -or could not have ventured it had he been using Chrestien's work. Two -hypotheses then remain; the unknown source may have been a version akin to -that used by Chrestien and Gautier, or it may have been a summary -abridgment of the Conte du Graal, in which, _inter alia_, the Good Friday -incident was left out. In either case the presence of the passage in the -Perceval is equally hard of explanation; but the first hypothesis is -favoured by the primitive character of the incident of the Ford Perillous, -and several other features which will be touched upon in their place. The -Didot-Perceval would thus be an attempt to provide an ending for Borron's -poem by adapting to its central _donnée_ a version of the Perceval _sage_ -akin to that which forms the groundwork of the Conte du Graal, its author -being largely influenced by the Galahad form of the Quest as found in the -_Queste_. If this view be correct, the testimony of Perceval (wherever not -influenced by Borron's poem or the _Queste_) is of value in determining -the original form of the story, the more so from the author's evident want -of skill in piecing together his materials. It will, therefore, be used in -the following section, which deals with the relationship of the Conte du -Graal and the Mabinogi of Peredur ab Evrawc. - -_Relationship of the Conte du Graal and the Mabinogi._--As was seen in -Chapter IV, opinion began with Monsieur de Villemarqué by accepting the -Mabinogi as the direct source of the Conte du Graal, and has ended with -Zarncke and Birch-Hirschfeld in looking upon it as a more or less direct -copy. The most competent of living scholars in this matter, M. Gaston -Paris, has expressed himself in favour of this opinion in his recent -article on the Lancelot story (Romania, 1886).[71] Before dealing with the -question as presented in this form, Simrock's view, differing as it does -from that of all other investigators, deserves notice. He, too, looks upon -the Mabinogi as derived from Chrestien, and yet bases his interpretation -of the myth underlying the romance upon a feature, the bleeding head in -the dish, found only in it. But if the Mabinogi have really preserved here -the genuine form of the myth, it must represent an older version than -Chrestien's, and if, on the other hand, Chrestien be its only source, the -feature in question cannot belong to the earliest form of the story. -Simrock's theory stands then or falls in this respect by the view taken of -the relationship between the two versions, and need not be discussed until -that view has been stated. - -To facilitate comparison, the incidents common to the two stories are -tabulated as under, those of the Mabinogi being taken as the standard:-- - - MABINOGI. CONTE DU GRAAL. - - Inc. Inc. _Chrestien._ - 1. Encounter with the knights. 1. - - 2. Adventure with the damsel of 2. - the tent. - - 3. Avenging of the insult to 3 and 4. - Guinevere; incident of the - dwarves; departure from Court. - - 5. Arrival at house of first uncle 5. Gonemans. - (found fishing); instruction in - arms. - - 6. Arrival at house of second uncle 7. Uncle found fishing; - (Grail Castle). First sight of talismans, Grail and lance. - the talismans (head in basin and - lance). - - 7. Reproaches of foster-sister whom 8. Reproached by his cousin; also - he finds lamenting over a dead instructed by her about the - knight. magic sword. - - 8. Adventure with the damsel of the 6. Blanchefleur, Gonemant's - besieged castle who offers niece. - herself to hero. - - 9. Second meeting with the lady of 9. - the tent. - - 10. First encounter with the - sorceresses of Gloucester, who - are forced to desist from - assailing hero's hostess. - - 11. Adventure of the drops of blood 10. - in the snow. - - 20. Reproaching of Peredur before 11. - the Court by the loathly damsel. - - 21. Gwalchmai's adventure with the 14. - lady whose father he had slain. - - 22. Peredur's meeting the knight on 15. Hermit, hero's uncle. - Good Friday, and confession to - priest. - _Gautier._ - 24. Arrival at the Castle of Wonders Inc. 7, 8, and partly 13 and 18. - (Chessboard Castle); stag hunt; - loss of dog; fight with the - black man of the cromlech. - - 25. Second arrival at the (Grail) 22. In so far as Gautier ends his - castle; achievement of the Quest part of the story here with - by destruction of sorceresses of the hero's second arrival at - Gloucester. "Thus it is related the Grail Castle, but no - concerning the Castle of similarity in the incidents. - Wonders." - -The sequence is thus exactly the same in the Mabinogi and in Chrestien, -with the single exception of the Blanchefleur incident, which, in the -French poem precedes, in the Welsh tale follows, the first visit to the -Grail Castle. The similarity of order is sufficient of itself to warrant -the surmise of a relation such as that of copy to original. If the -Mabinogi be examined closely, much will be found to strengthen this -surmise. Thus, Birch-Hirschfeld has pointed out that when Peredur first -sees the knights, and on asking his mother what they may be, receives the -answer, "Angels, my son"; this can only be a distorted reminiscence of -Perceval's own exclamation, - - ... Ha! sire Dex, Merchi! - Ce sont angle que je voi ci! (1,349-50). - -as the hero's mother would be the last person to describe thus the knights -whom she has done her best to guard her son from knowledge of. Again, -Simrock has criticised, and with reason, the incident of Peredur's being -acclaimed by the dwarf on his arrival at Arthur's court as the chief of -warriors and flower of knighthood. In the corresponding incident in -Chrestien, the hero is told laughingly by a damsel that he should become -the best knight in the world, and she had not laughed for ten years, as a -fool had been wont to declare. This is an earlier form than that of the -Mabinogi, and closer to the folk-tale account. Thus, to take one instance -only, in Mr. Kennedy's Giolla na Chroicean Gobhar (Fellow with the -Goat-skin) [Fictions of the Irish Celts, p. 23], the hero comes to the -King of Dublin, as Peredur to Arthur, clad in skins and armed with a club. -"Now, the King's daughter was so melancholy that she didn't laugh for -seven years, but when she saw Tom of the Goat-skin knock over all her -father's best champions, then she let a great sweet laugh out of her," and -of course Tom marries her, but not until he has been through all sorts of -trials, aye, even to Hell itself and back. In Chrestien, the primitive -form is already overlaid; we hear nothing further of the damsel moved to -laughter nor of the prophetic fool; and in the Mabinogi it seems obvious -that the hailing of the hero, added in Chrestien to the older laughter, -has alone subsisted. Birch-Hirschfeld takes exception likewise to the way -in which Peredur's two uncles are brought upon the scene, the first one, -corresponding to Gonemans in Chrestien, being found fishing instead of the -real Fisher King, the lord of the Castle of the Magic Talismans, whilst at -the latter's, Peredur has to undergo trials of his strength belonging -properly to his stay at the first uncle's. Evidently, says -Birch-Hirschfeld, there has been a confusion of the two personages. Again, -when Peredur leaves his second uncle on the morrow of seeing the bleeding -head and spear, it is said, "he rode forth with his uncle's permission." -Can these words be a reminiscence of Chrestien's? - - Et trueve le pont abaiscié, - Con li avoit ensi laissié - Por ce que rien nel detenist, - De quele eure qu'il venist - Que il ne passat sans arriest (4,565-69). - -We shall see later on that in the most primitive form of the unsuccessful -visit to the Castle of the Talismans the hero finds himself on the morrow -on the bare earth, the castle itself having vanished utterly. The idea of -permission being given to leave is diametrically opposed to this earliest -conception, and its presence in the Mabinogi seems only capable of -explanation by some misunderstanding of the story-teller's model. - -The Blanchefleur incident shows some verbal parallels, "The maiden -welcomed Peredur and put her arms around his neck." - - Et la damosele le prent - Par le main débonnairement (3,025-26) - Et voit celi ajenouillie - Devant son lit qui le tenoit - Par le col embraciet estroit (3,166-68). - -Can, too, the "two nuns," who bring in bread and wine, be due to the "Il -Abéies," which Perceval sees on entering Blanchefleur's town? It may be -noticed that in this scene the Welsh story-teller is not only more chaste, -but shows much greater delicacy of feeling than the French poet. Peredur's -conduct is that of a gentleman according to nineteenth century standards. -Chrestien, however, is probably nearer the historical reality, and the -conduct of his pair-- - - S'il l'a sor le covertoir mise - - * * * * - - Ensi giurent tote la nuit. - -is so singularly like that of a Welsh _bundling_ couple, that it seems -admissible to refer the colouring given to this incident to Welsh sources. -Another scene presenting marked similarities in the two works is that in -which the hero is upbraided before the court by the loathly damsel. In the -Mabinogi she enters riding upon a _yellow_ mule with _jagged thongs_: in -Chrestien-- - - Sor une _fauve mule_ et tint - En sa main destre une escorgie (5,991-2). - -"Blacker were her face and her two hands than the blackest iron covered -with pitch." - - Ains ne véistes si noir fer - Come ele ot les mains et le cor (5,998-99). - -"And she greeted Arthur and all his household except Peredur." - - Le roi et ses barons salue - Tout ensamble comunalment - Fors ke Perceval seulement (6,020-3). - -In the Mabinogi, Peredur is reproached for not having asked about the -streaming spear; in Chrestien "la lance qui saine" is mentioned first -although the Grail is added. Had Peredur asked the meaning and cause of -the wonders, the "King would have been restored to health, and his -dominions to peace." - - Li rices rois qui moult s'esmaie - Fust or tos garis de sa plaie - Et si tenist sa tière en pais (6,049-51). - -Whereas now "his knights will perish, and wives will be widowed, and -maidens will be left portionless"-- - - Dames en perdront lor maris, - Tières en seront essilies, - Et pucièles desconsellies; - Orfenes, veves en remanront - Et maint chevalier en morront (6,056, etc.). - -In the "Stately Castle" where dwells the loathly damsel, are five hundred -and sixty-six knights, and "the lady whom he loves best with each," in -"Castle Orguellos" five hundred and seventy, and not one "qui n'ait s'amie -avoeques lui." "And whoever would acquire fame in arms and encounters and -conflicts, he will gain it there if he desire it." - - Que la ne faut nus ki i alle, - Qui la ne truist joste u batalle; - Qui viout faire chevalerie, - Si là le quiert, n'i faura mie (6,075, etc.). - -"And whoso would reach the summit of fame and honour, I know where he may -find it. There is a castle on a lofty mountain, and there is a maiden -therein, and she is detained a prisoner there, and whoever shall set her -free will attain the summit of the fame of the world." - - Mais ki vorroit le pris avoir - De tout le mont, je quie savoir - Le liu et la pièce de terre - U on le porroit mius conquerre; - - * * * * - - A une damoisièle assise; - Moult grant honor aroit conquise, - Qui le siège en poroit oster - Et la pucièle délivrer (6,080, etc.). - -In this last case certainly, in the other cases probably, a direct -influence, to the extent at least of the passages quoted, must be -admitted. But before concluding hastily that the Welsh story-teller is the -copyist, some facts must be mentioned on the other side. Thus the incident -of the blood drops in the snow, which Birch-Hirschfeld sets down as one of -those taken over by the Mabinogi, with the remark that the Welsh story -contains no trace of a passion as strong as Perceval's for Blanchefleur, -has been dealt with by Professor H. Zimmer in his "Keltische Studien," -vol. ii, pp. 200. He refers to the awakening of Deirdre's love to Noisi by -similar means, as found in the Irish saga of the Sons of Usnech (oldest -MS. authority, Book of Leinster, copied before 1164 from older MSS.) as -evidence of the early importance of this _motif_ in Celtic tradition. The -passage runs thus in English: "As her foster-father was busy in winter -time skinning a calf out in the snow, she beheld a raven which drank up -the blood in the snow; and she exclaimed, 'Such a man could I love, and -him only, having the three colours, his hair like the raven, his cheeks -like the blood, his body like the snow.'" - -Now the Mabinogi says, almost in the same words--the blackness of the -raven and the whiteness of the snow, and the redness of the blood he -compared to the hair and the skin and the two red spots upon the cheek of -the lady that best he loved. In Chrestien there is no raven, and the whole -stress is laid upon the _three_ drops of blood on the snow, which put the -hero in mind of the red and white of his lady's face. As Zimmer justly -points out, the version of the Mabinogi is decidedly the more primitive -of the two; and that, moreover, as the incident does not figure at all in -what Birch-Hirschfeld presumes to be Chrestien's source, the -Didot-Perceval, the following development of this incident must, _ex -hypothesi_, have taken place. In the Didot-Perceval the hero is once upon -a time lost in thought. To explain this, Chrestien invents the incident of -the three drops of blood in the snow; the Mabinogi, copying Chrestien, -presents the incident in almost as primitive a form as the oldest known -one! Here, then, the Mabinogi has preserved an older form than Chrestien, -alleged to have been its source in all those parts common to both. Nor is -it certain that the fact of Peredur's undergoing the sword-test in the -Talisman Castle _does_ show, as Birch-Hirschfeld maintains, that the Welsh -story-teller confused the two personages whom he took over from Chrestien, -Gonemans and the Fisher King. The sword incident will be examined later -on; suffice here to say that no explanation is given in the Conte du Graal -of the broken weapon; whereas the Mabinogi does give a simple and natural -one. But these two instances cannot weaken the force of the parallels -adduced above. In determining, however, whether these may not be due to -Chrestien's being the borrower, the differences between the two versions -are of even more importance than the similarities. - -What are these? The French romances belonging to the Perceval type of the -Grail quest give two versions of the search for the magic talismans, that -of the Conte du Graal and that of the Didot-Perceval. The latter -pre-supposes an early history which, as already shown, cannot be looked -upon as the starting point of the legend without postulating such a -development of the latter as is inadmissible on _a priori_ grounds, and as -runs counter to many well-ascertained facts. The former is not consistent -with itself, Manessier's finish contradicting Chrestien's opening on such -an essential point as the cause of the maimed king's suffering. Still the -following outline of a story, much overlaid by apparently disconnected -adventures, may be gathered from it. A hero has to seek for magic -talismans wherewith to heal an uncle wounded by his brother, and at the -same time to avenge him on that brother. What, on the other hand, is the -story as told in the Mabinogi? A hero is minded by talismans to avenge -the death of a cousin (and the harming of an uncle); it is not stated that -the talismans pass into his possession. It is difficult to admit that -either of these forms can have served as direct model to the other. If the -Mabinogi be a simple copy of the Conte du Graal, whence the altered -significance of the talismans? whence also the machinery by means of which -the hero is at last brought to his goal, and which is, briefly, as -follows? The woe which has befallen Peredur's kindred is caused by -supernatural beings, the sorceresses of Gloucester; his ultimate -achievement of the task is brought about by his cousin, who, to urge him -on, assumes the form (1) of the black and loathly damsel; (2) of the -damsel of the chessboard, who incites him to the Ysbydinongyl adventure, -reproves him for not slaying the black man at once, and then urges him -into the stag hunt; (3) of the lady who carries off the hound and sends -him to fight against the black man of the cromlech; "and the cousin it was -who came in the hall with the bloody head in the salver and the lance -dripping blood." The whole of the incidents connected with the Castle of -the Chessboard, which appear at such length in both the Conte du Graal and -the Didot-Perceval, but without being in any way connected with the main -thread of the story, thus form in the Mabinogi an integral portion of that -main thread. Would the authors of the Conte du Graal have neglected the -straight-forward version of the Welsh tale had they known it, or could, on -the other hand, the author of the Mabinogi have worked up the disconnected -incidents of his alleged model into an organic whole? Neither hypothesis -is likely. Moreover the Conte du Graal and the Didot-Perceval, if examined -with care, show distinct traces of a machinery similar to that of the -Welsh story. Thus in Chrestien, Perceval, on arriving at the Fisher -King's, sees a squire bringing into the room a sword of such good steel -that it might break in but one peril, and this the King's niece (_i.e._, -Perceval's cousin) had sent her uncle to bestow it as he pleased; and the -King gives it to the hero for-- - - ... biaus frère ceste espée - Vous fu jugie et destineé (4,345-6). - -After Perceval's first adventure at the Grail Castle it is his "germaine -cousine" (4,776) who assails him with her reproaches; she knows all about -the sword (4,835-38) and tells him, how, if it be broken he may have it -mended (4,847-59). So far Chrestien, who furthermore, be it noted, makes -Blanchefleur Perceval's lady-love, likewise his cousin, she being niece to -Gonemans (3,805-95). A cousin is thus beloved of him, a cousin procures -for him the magic sword, a cousin, as in the Mabinogi, incites him to the -fulfilment of the quest, and gives him advice which we cannot doubt would -have been turned to account by Chrestien had he finished his poem. Turning -now to Gautier, in whose section of the poem are to be found the various -adventures growing out of the chessboard incident, this difference between -the Mabinogi and himself may be noted. In the former, these adventures -caused by Peredur's cousin serve apparently as tests of the hero's -strength and courage. The loss of the chessboard is the starting-point of -the task, and the cousin reappears as the black maiden. Nothing of the -sort is found in Gautier. True, the damsel who reproaches Perceval is in -so far supernatural, as she is a kind of water-nix, but it is love for her -which induces the hero to perform the task; she it is, too, who lends him -the dog, and she is not identified with the "pucelle de malaire" who -carries it off (22,604, etc.). But later on Perceval meets a knight who -tells him that a daughter of the Fisher King's (thus also a cousin of -Perceval) had related to him how a knight had carried off a stag's head -and hound to anger another good knight who had been at her father's court, -and had not asked as he should concerning the Grail, for which reason she -had taken his hound and had refused him help to follow the robber knight -(23,163, etc.). This makes the "pucelle de malaire" to be Perceval's -cousin, and she plays the same _rôle_ as in the Mabinogi. True, when later -on (Incident 13) Perceval finds the damsel, nothing is said as to her -being the Fisher King's daughter; on the contrary, as will be seen by the -summary, a long story is told about the Knight of the Tomb, brother to her -knight, Garalas, and how he lived ten years with a fay. She is here quite -distinct from the lady of the chessboard to whom Perceval returns later. -The version found in the Didot-Perceval agrees with the Mabinogi as -against Gautier in so far that the hero is in love with the mistress of -the castle, and not with the damsel who reproaches him for throwing away -the chessmen. This reproaching damsel is not in any way identified with -the lady who carries off the hound, who is described as "une vieille," and -of whom it is afterwards told "elle estoit quand elle voloit une des plus -belles damoiselles du monde. Et est cele meismes que mon frère (the -brother of the Knight of the Tomb, who here, as in Gautier, is the lover -of a fay) amena à la forest," _i.e._, she is the fay herself, sister to -the lady of the Chessboard Castle, who hated her and wished to diminish -her and her knight's pride (p. 469). Here, again, a connection can be -pieced out between the various personages of the adventure; and it appears -that the hero is driven to his fight against the Knight of the Tomb by a -fair damsel transformed into a mysterious hag.[72] The Mabinogi thus gives -one consistently worked-out conception--transformed hag = Peredur's -cousin--which may be recovered partly from that one of the two discordant -versions found in Gautier which makes the pucelle de malaire to be the -Fisher King's daughter, hence Perceval's cousin, and connects the stag -hunt with the Grail incident, partly from the Didot-Perceval, which tells -how the same pucelle de malaire is but playing a part, being when she -wills one of the fairest maids of the world. Now we have seen that the -stag hunt is just one of those portions of the story in which are found -the closest verbal similarities between Gautier de Doulens and the -Didot-Perceval. It is, therefore, perplexing to find that there is not -more likeness in the details of the incident. But the similarities pointed -out concern chiefly the first part of the incident, and are less prominent -in the latter part (the hero's encounter with the Knight of the Tomb). -This, taken together with the difference in the details of the incident -just pointed out, strengthens the opinion expressed above, that the -Didot-Perceval and Gautier are not connected directly but through the -medium of a common source, the influence of which can be seen distinctly -in certain portions of either story, and that when this source fails they -go widely asunder in their accounts. That such an hypothesis is not -unreasonable is shown by the fact that Gautier has two contradictory forms -of this very story, one of which, that which makes the hound-stealing -damsel a daughter of the Fisher King, is on all fours with the Mabinogi, -whilst the other is more akin to, though differing in important respects -from, that of the Didot-Perceval. In this case, at least, Gautier must -have had two sources, and if two why not more? - -It may be urged in explanation of the similarities between Gautier and the -Mabinogi, that the author of the latter used Gautier in the same free way -that he did Chrestien, but that getting tired towards the close of his -work he abridged in a much more summary fashion than at first. If the -comparison of the versions of the stag hunt found in either work be not -sufficient to refute this theory, the following consideration may be -advanced against it: if the Mabinogi derives entirely from the Conte du -Graal, how can the different form given to the Grail episode be accounted -for?--if it only knew Chrestien, where did it get the chessboard adventure -from, and if it knew Gautier as well as Chrestien why did it not finish -the Grail adventure upon the same lines as it began, _i.e._, partly in -conformity with its alleged model? - -Is Manessier any nearer than Gautier to the Mabinogi in the later portion -of the tale? The chief points of the story told by him may be -recapitulated thus:--The Grail damsel is daughter of the Fisher King, the -damsel of the salver, daughter of King Goon Desert, his brother (_i.e._, -both are cousins to Perceval); Goon Desert, besieged by Espinogre, defeats -him, but is treacherously slain by his nephew Partinal, the latter's sword -breaking in the blow. Goon's body is brought to the Fisher King's castle, -whither the broken sword is likewise brought by Goon's daughter to be kept -until a knight should come, join together the pieces, and avenge Goon's -death. In receiving the sword the Fisher King wounds himself through the -thighs, and may not be healed until he be avenged on Partinal. Perceval -asks how he may find the murderer, the blood vengeance (faide = O.H.G. -Fehde) being on him. Perceval fights with Partinal, slays him, cuts off -his head as token of his victory, returns to the Fisher King's castle, -lighting upon it by chance, heals the Fisher King by the mere sight of the -head, which is fixed on a pike on the highest battlements. At the death of -his uncle Perceval succeeds him as King of the Grail Castle. Here, then, -as in the Mabinogi, the story turns definitely upon a blood feud; the same -act which brings about the death of one relative of the hero, also causes, -indirectly, it is true, the laming of another, even as in the Mabinogi the -same supernatural beings kill Peredur's cousin and lame his uncle; the -cousin reappears again, bringing the magic sword by whose aid alone the -hero can accomplish the vengeance, and uttering the prediction the -fulfilment of which will point out the destined avenger. Finally, if the -Mabinogi seems to lay special stress upon the head of the murdered man, -Manessier lays special stress upon the head of the murderer. Now it is -quite evident that the Mabinogi cannot have copied Manessier. It has been -alleged that the Welsh story-teller, adapting Chrestien to the taste of -his fellow countrymen, substituted a blood feud for the Grail Quest, but -what reason would he have had for thus dealing with Manessier? He had -simply to leave out the Christian legendary details, which in Manessier -are, one can hardly say, adapted to the older form of the story, to find -in that older form a clear and straightforward account with no admixture -of mystical elements. It is impossible to explain the strong general -similarity of outline with the equally marked divergences of detail -(Sorceresses of Gloucester instead of Partinal, etc.,) except by saying -that both, though going back to a common legendary source, are unconnected -one with another. - -The facts thus dealt with may be recapitulated as follows:--There is -marked similarity in general outline between the Mabinogi and the Conte du -Graal in the adventures common to both; in that portion of the Conte du -Graal due to Chrestien there occur, moreover, many and close verbal -parallels, and the corresponding part of the Mabinogi is told at greater -length than the remainder of the incidents common to both works. That -which answers in the Mabinogi to the Grail Quest forms a clear and -straightforward whole, the main features of which may be recovered from -the Conte du Graal, but in varying proportions from the various sections -of that work. Thus the indications of this Mabinogi talisman quest, the -central intrigue, as it may be called, of the tale, are in Chrestien of -the slightest nature, being confined to passing hints; in Gautier they are -fuller and more precise, though pointing to a version of the central -intrigue different, not only in details but in conception, from that of -the Mabinogi; in Manessier alone is there agreement of conception, -although the details still vary. Finally, those portions of the Mabinogi -which are in closest verbal agreement with Chrestien contain statements -which cannot easily be reconciled with this central intrigue. - -These facts seem to warrant some such deductions as these. Bearing in mind -that the Mabinogi is an obvious piecing together of all sorts of incidents -relating to its hero, the only connecting link being that of his -personality, its author may be supposed, when compiling his work, to have -stretched out his hand in all directions for material. Now a portion of -the Peredur _sage_ consisted of adventures often found elsewhere in the -folk-tale cycles of the Great Fool and the Avenging Kinsman--cycles which, -in Celtic tradition, at least, cover almost the same ground as the one -described by J. G. von Hahn under the title, "Die Arische Aussetzung und -Rückkehr-Formel." In the original of the Mabinogi this portion probably -comprised the childhood and forest up-bringing, the visit to Arthur with -the accompanying incidents, the training by the uncle (who _may_ have been -the Fisher King), the arrival at the (bespelled) castle, where the hero is -to be minded of his task by the sight of certain talismans and of his -cousin's head, the reproaches of the loathly damsel, her subsequent -testing of the hero by the adventures of the chessboard, stag hunt, etc., -the hero's final accomplishment of the task, vengeance on his kindred's -enemies, and removal of the spells. There would seem to have been no such -love story as that frequently found in stories of the Great Fool class, -_e.g._, in the Irish one (_supra_, p. 134). This original was probably -some steps removed from being a genuine popular version; the incidents -were presented in a way at once over-concise and confused, and some which, -as will be seen in the next chapter, the living folk-tale has preserved -were left out or their significance was not recognized. What more natural -than that the author of the Mabinogi in its present form, knowing -Chrestien, should piece out his bare, bald narrative with shreds and -patches from the Frenchman's poem? The moment Chrestien fails him, he -falls back into the hurried concision of his original. His adaptation of -Chrestien is done with singularly little skill, and at times he seems to -have misunderstood his model. He confines his borrowing to matters of -detail, not allowing, for instance, Chrestien's presentment of the Grail -incident to supersede that of his Welsh original. In one point he may, -following Chrestien, have made a vital change. It seems doubtful whether -the Welsh source of the Mabinogi knew of a maimed king, an uncle to be -healed through the hero's agency; the sole task may have been the avenging -the cousin's death. True the "lame uncle" appears at the end, but this may -be due to some sudden desire for consistency on the arranger's part. But -whether or no he was found in the Welsh story preserved in the Mabinogi, -he certainly played no such leading part as in the Conte du Graal. The two -stories deal with the same cycle of adventures, but the object of the hero -is not the same in both, and, consequently, the machinery employed is not -quite the same. The present Mabinogi is an unskilful fusion of these two -variations upon the one theme.[73] - -Light is also thrown by this investigation upon the question of -Chrestien's relationship to his continuators. Birch-Hirschfeld's theory -that the Didot-Perceval was the source of Chrestien and Gautier has -already been set aside. Apart from the reasons already adduced, the fact -that it does not explain from whence Manessier got his ending of the story -would alone condemn it. It must now be evident that Chrestien and two of -his continuators drew from one source, and this a poem of no great length -probably, the main outlines of which were nearly the same as those of the -Welsh proto-Mabinogi given above, with this difference, that the story -turned upon the healing of the uncle and not the avenging the cousin's -death. This poem, which seems also to have served, directly or indirectly, -as one of the sources of the Didot-Perceval, had probably departed from -popular lines in many respects, and _may_, though this would be an -exceedingly difficult question to determine, have begun the incorporation -of the Joseph of Arimathea legend with its consequent wresting to purposes -of Christian symbolisms of the objects and incidents of the old folk-tale. - -Such an incorporation had almost certainly begun before Chrestien's time, -and was continued by him. There can be little doubt that he dealt with his -model in a free and daring spirit, altering and adding as seemed best to -him. This alone explains how Manessier, slavishly following the common -original, tells differently the cause of the lame king's wound. Gautier, -who lacked Chrestien's creative power, though he often equals him in the -grace and vivacity of his narrative, seems to have had no conception of a -plan; the section of Conte du Graal which goes under his name is a mere -disorderly heap of disconnected adventures brought together without care -for consistency. But for this very reason he is of more value in restoring -the original form of the story than Chrestien, who, striving after -consistency, harmony, and artistic development of his tale, alters, adds -to, or retrenches from the older version. Gautier had doubtless other -sources besides the one made use of by Chrestien. This does not seem to be -the case with Manessier, who, for this portion of the story, confined -himself to Chrestien's original, without taking note of the differences in -_motif_ introduced by his predecessor. What is foreign to it he drew from -sources familiar to us, the Queste and Grand S. Graal, from which more -than two-thirds of his section are derived. - -In working back to the earliest form of the Perceval-_sage_, Mabinogi and -Conte du Graal are thus of equal value and mutually complementary. Both -are second-hand sources, and their testimony is at times sadly corrupt, -but it is from them chiefly that information must be sought as to the -earlier stages of development of this legendary cycle. They do not by -themselves give any satisfactory explanation of the more mysterious -features of the full-blown legend, but they do present the facts in such a -way as to put out of court the hypothesis of a solely Christian legendary -origin. Before proceeding further it will be well to see if the English -Sir Perceval has likewise claims to be considered one of the versions -which yield trustworthy indications as to the older form of the story. - -This poem, described by Halliwell as simply an abridged English version of -the Conte du Graal, has, as may be seen by reference to Ch. IV, been -treated with more respect by other investigators, several of whom, struck -by its archaic look, have pronounced it one of the earliest versions of -the Perceval _sage_. It has quite lately been the object of elaborate -study by Paul Steinbach in his dissertation: "Uber dem Einfluss des -Crestien de Troies auf die altenglische literatur," Leipzig, 1885. The -results of his researches may be stated somewhat as follows: the two works -correspond incident for incident down to the death of the Red Knight, the -chief differences being that Perceval is made a nephew of King Arthur, -that the death of his father at the hands of the Red Knight is explained -as an act of revenge on the part of the latter, that Arthur recognizes his -nephew at once, and tells him concerning the Red Knight, and that the -burning of the Red Knight, only hinted at in Chrestien's lines-- - - Ains auroie par carbonees. - Trestout escarbellié le mort, etc. (2,328-9). - -is fully told in the English poem. After the Red Knight incident the -parallelism is much less close. The English poem has incidents to itself: -the slaying of the witch, the meeting with the uncle and nine cousins, the -fight with the giant for the ring, the meeting with and restoring to -health the mother. Of the remaining incidents, those connected with -Lufamour are more or less parallel to what Chrestien relates of his hero's -adventure with Blanchefleur, and that of the Black Knight, with that of -the Orgellous de la Lande in Chrestien. Of the 2,288 verses of the English -poem the greater part may be paralleled from Chrestien, thus:-- - - P. of G. Cr. - 1-160 485-940 - 161-188 941-1,206 - 189-256 1,207-82 - 257-320 1,283-1,554 - 321-432 1,555-1,828 - 433-80 1,829-1,970 - 481-600 2,091-2,170 - {2,055-90 - 601-56 {2,135-59 - {2,171-2,225 - 657-740 2,268-2,312 - 741-820 2,313-2,398 - 1,061-1,108 4,000-4,060 - 1,109-1,124 5,511-553 - 1,381-1,540 5,600-5,891 - 953-1,012} - 1,125-1,380} {2,900-3,960 - 1,541-1,760} {4,088-94 - 1,761-1,808 4,095-4,150 - 1,809-1,951 4,865-5,375 - -the incidents comprised v. 821-952 and 1,953-2,288, being the only one -entirely unconnected with Chrestien. This general agreement between the -two works shows the dependence of the one on the other. But while -evidently dependent, the English poem, as is shown by the differences -between it and its French original, belongs at once to a less and to a -more highly developed stage of the Perceval _sage_. The differences are -thus of two kinds, those testifying to the writer's adherence to older, -probably Breton, popular traditions and those due to himself, and -testifying to the skill with which he has worked up his materials and -fitted portions of Chrestien's poem into an older framework. Of the first -kind are: the statement that Perceval meets with three knights instead of -five as in Chrestien, the English poem agreeing here with the Mabinogi; -the mention of his riding on a _mare_ and of his being clad in goat-skins, -the English poem again agreeing rather with the Mabinogi than with -Chrestien, and showing likewise points of contact with the Breton ballads -about Morvan lez Breiz, printed by Villemarqué in the Barzaz Breiz. The -combat with the giant may likewise be paralleled from the Lez Breiz cycle -in that hero's fight with the Moorish giant. These points would seem to -indicate knowledge on the author's part of popular traditions concerning -Perceval forming a small cycle, of which the departure from, and return to -the mother were the opening and closing incidents respectively. This form -of the story must have been widely spread and popular to induce the author -to leave out as much as he has done of Chrestien's poem in order to bring -it within the traditional framework. He accomplished his task with much -skill, removing every trace of whatever did not bear directly upon the -march of the story as he told it. In view of this skill differences which -tend to make the story more consequent and logical may fairly be ascribed -to him. Such are: the making Perceval a nephew of Arthur, the mention of a -feud between the Red Knight and Perceval's father, the combat with the -witch arising out of Perceval's wearing the Red Knight's armour, and the -other adventures which follow eventually from the same cause, the feature -that the ring taken by Perceval from the lady in the tent is a magic one, -endowing its wearer with supernatural strength, the change made between -this ring and his mother's which prepares the final recognition, etc. The -original poem probably ended with the reunion of mother and son, the last -verse, briefly mentioning the hero's death, being a later addition. To sum -up, Sir Perceval may be looked upon as the work of a folk-singer who -fitted into the old Breton framework a series of adventures taken partly -from Chrestien, partly from the same Breton traditions which were -Chrestien's main source, and with remarkable skill avoided all such -incidents as would not have accorded with the limits he had imposed upon -himself. - -Against this view of Steinbach's it might be urged that a writer as -skilful as the author of Sir Perceval is assumed to be could easily have -worked Chrestien's Grail episode into his traditional framework. A more -plausible explanation, assuming the theory to be in the main correct, -might be found in the great popularity in this country of the Galahad form -of the Quest, and the consequent unwillingness on the author's part to -bring in what may have seemed to him like a rival version. Steinbach has -not noticed one curious bit of testimony to the poem's being an abridgment -of an older work, more archaic in some respects than Chrestien. When the -hero has slain the Red Knight he knows not how to rid him of his armour, -but he bethinks him-- - - ... "My moder bad me - Whenne my dart solde brokene be, - Owte of the irene brenne the tree, - Now es me fyre gnede" (749-52). - -Now the mother's counsel, given in verses xxv-vi are solely that he should -be "of mesure," and be courteous to knights; nothing is said about burning -the tree out of the iron, nor does any such counsel figure either in -Chrestien or in the Mabinogi, which in this passage has copied, with -misunderstandings, the French poet.[74] The use of Chrestien by the author -of Sir Perceval seems, however, uncontestable; and, such being the case, -Steinbach's views meet the difficulties of the case fairly well. It will -be shown farther on, however, that several of the points in which the -German critic detects a post-Chrestien development, are, on the contrary, -remains of as old and popular a form of the story as we can work back to. -Accepting, then, the hypothesis that Sir Perceval, like the Mabinogi, has -been influenced by Chrestien, what is the apparent conclusion to be drawn -from the fact that the former omits the Grail episode altogether, whilst -the latter joins Chrestien's version to its own, presumably older one, so -clumsily as to betray the join at once? May it not be urged that -Chrestien's account is obviously at variance with the older story as he -found it? may not the fact be accounted for by the introduction of a -strange element into the thread of the romance? This element would, -according to Birch-Hirschfeld, be the Christian holy-vessel legend, and it -would thus appear that the Grail is really foreign to the Celtic -tradition. Let me recapitulate briefly the reasons already urged against -such a view. The early history of the Grail, that part in which the -Christian element prevails, must certainly be regarded as later than the -Quest, to which it could not have given rise without assuming such a -development of the romance as is well nigh incredible--the Quest versions, -moreover, all hang together in certain respects, and point unmistakably to -Celtic traditions as their source. These traditions must then be examined -further to see if they contain such traces of the mystic vessel as are -wanting in the Mabinogi and the English poem, and as may have given rise -to the episode as found in the French romances. As Perceval is the oldest -hero of the Quest, and as the boyhood of Perceval, forming an integral -part of all the oldest Quest versions presents the strongest analogies -with the folk-tale of the Great Fool, it is this tale which must now be -examined. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - - The Lay of the Great Fool--Summary of the Prose Opening--The Aryan - Expulsion and Return Formula--Comparison with the Mabinogi, Sir - Perceval, and the Conte du Graal--Originality of the Highland - tale--Comparison with the Fionn legend--Summary of the Lay of the - Great Fool--Comparison with the stag hunt incident in the Conte du - Graal and the Mabinogi--The folk-tale of the twin brethren--The fight - against the witch who brings the dead to life in Gerbert and the - similar incident in the folk-tale of the Knight of the Red - Shield--Comparison with the original form of the Mabinogi--Originality - of Gerbert. - - -One of the most popular of the poetic narratives in the old heroic -quatrain measure still surviving in the Highlands is the "Lay of the Great -Fool" (Laoidh an Amadain Mhoir), concerning which, according to Campbell, -vol. iii., p. 150, the following saying is current:--"Each poem to the -poem of the Red; each lay to the Lay of the Great Fool; each history to -the history of Connal" (is to be referred as a standard). This Lay, as -will be shown presently, offers some remarkable similarities with the -central Grail episode of the quest romances, but before it is investigated -a prose opening often found with it must be noticed. This prose opening -may be summarised thus from Campbell, vol. iii., pp. 146, _et seq._ - -There were once two brothers, the one King over Erin, the other a mere -knight. The latter had sons, the former none. Strife broke out between the -two brothers, and the knight and his sons were slain. Word was sent to the -wife, then pregnant, that if she bore a son it must be put to death. It -was a lad she had, and she sent him into the wilderness in charge of a -kitchen wench who had a love son. The two boys grew up together, the -knight's son strong and wilful. One day they saw three deer coming towards -them; the knight's son asked what creatures were these--creatures on which -were meat and clothing 'twas answered--it were the better he would catch -them, and he did so, and his foster-mother made him a dress of the deer's -hide. Afterwards he slew his foster-brother for laughing at him, caught a -wild horse, and came to his father's brother's palace. He had never been -called other than "Great fool," and when asked his name by his cousin, -playing shinty, answered, "Great Fool." His cousin mocked at him, and was -forthwith slain. On going into the King's (his uncle's) presence, he -answered in the same way. His uncle recognised him, and reproaching -himself for his folly in not having slain the mother with the father, went -with him, as did all the people. - -In my article on the Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula among the Celts -("Folk-Lore Record," vol. iv.), I have shown that this tale is widely -distributed in the Celtic Heldensage as well as in the Celtic folk-tale. -Before noticing the variants, a word of explanation may be necessary. The -term, Arische Aussetzungs-und Rückkehr-Formel, was first employed by J. G. -v. Hahn in his Sagwissenschaftliche Studien (Jena, 1876), to describe a -tale which figured in the heroic literature of every Aryan race known to -him. He examined fourteen stories, seven belonging to the Hellenic -mythology, Perseus, Herakles, Oedipus, Amphion and Zethos, Pelias and -Neleus, Leukastos and Parrhasius, Theseus; one to Roman mythic history, -Romulus and Remus; two to the Teutonic Heldensage, Wittich-Siegfried, -Wolfdietrich; two to Iranian mythic history, Cyrus, Key Chosrew; two to -the Hindu mythology, Karna, Krishna. I was able to recover from Celtic -literature eight well-defined variants, belonging to the Fenian and -Ultonian cycles of Irish Heldensage (heroes, Fionn and Cu-Chulaind); to -Irish mythic history, Labraidh Maen; to the folk-tale still living in the -Highlands, Conall and the Great Fool; to the Kymric Heldensage, -Peredur-Perceval, Arthur, and Taliesin. An examination of all these tales -resulted in the establishing of the following standard formula, to the -entirety of which it will of course be understood none of the tales -answer:-- - - I. Hero born-- - (_a_) Out of wedlock. - (_b_) Posthumously. - (_c_) Supernaturally. - (_d_) One of twins. - - II. Mother, princess residing in her own country. - - III. Father-- - (_a_) God } - (_b_) Hero } from afar. - - IV. Tokens and warning of hero's future greatness. - - V. He is in consequence driven forth from home. - - VI. Is suckled by wild beasts. - - VII. Is brought up by a (childless couple), or shepherd, or widow. - - VIII. Is of passionate and violent disposition. - - IX. Seeks service in foreign lands. - - IXA. Attacks and slays monsters. - - IXB. Acquires supernatural knowledge through eating a fish, or other - magic animal. - - X. Returns to his own country, retreats, and again returns. - - XI. Overcomes his enemies, frees his mother, seats himself on the - throne. - -I must refer to my article for a full discussion of the various Celtic -forms of this widely-spread tale, and for a tabular comparison with the -remaining Indo-European forms analysed by J. G. von Hahn. Suffice to say -here that the fullest Celtic presentment of the _motif_ is to be found in -the Ossianic Heldensage, the expelled prince being no other than Fionn -himself. The Celtic form most closely related to it is that of the Great -Fool summarised above, the relationship of Peredur-Perceval with which is -evident. In both, the father being slain, the mother withdraws or sends -her son into the wilderness; in both he grows up strong, hardy, ignorant -of the world. Almost the same instances of his surpassing strength and -swiftness are given; in the Mabinogi by celerity and swiftness of foot he -drives the goats and hinds into the goat-house; in the Highland folk-tale -he catches the wild deer, and seeing a horse, and learning it is a beast -upon which sport is done, stretches out after it, catches and mounts it; -in Sir Perceval he sees-- - - ... A fulle faire stode - Offe coltes and meres gude, - Bot never one was tame (v. xxi.). - -and "smertly overrynnes" one.--The Great Fool then comes to his uncle, in -whom he finds the man who has killed his father. Sir Perceval likewise -comes to his uncle, and gets knowledge from him of his father's slayer; in -Chrestien and the Mabinogi no relationship is stated to exist between -Arthur and the hero. The manner of the coming deserves notice. In the -Conte du Graal, entering the hall the hero salutes the King twice, -receives no answer, and, turning round his horse in dudgeon, knocks off -the King's cap. - -In the English poem-- - - At his first in comynge, - His mere withowtenne faylynge, - Kiste the forehevede of the Kynge, - So nerehande he rade (v. xxxi.). - -He then demands knighthood or-- - - Bot (unless) the Kyng make me knyghte, - I shall him here slaa (v. xxxiii.). - -In the Great Fool the horse incident is wanting, but the hero's address to -his uncle is equally curt: "I am the great fool ... and if need were it is -that I could make a fool of thee also." The incident then follows of the -insult offered to Arthur by the Red Knight. Here, be it noted, the -Mabinogi version is much the ruder of the three, "the knight dashed the -liquor that was in the goblet upon her (Gwenhwyvar's) face, and upon her -stomacher, and gave her a violent blow in the face, and said," &c.; in -Chrestien the incident is not directly presented, but related at -second-hand, and merely that the discourteous knight took away the goblet -so suddenly that he spilt somewhat of its contents upon the queen, and -that she was so filled with grief and anger that well nigh she had not -escaped alive; in Sir Perceval the knight takes up the cup and carries it -off. Now it is a _lieu commun_ of Celtic folk-tales that as a King is -sitting at meat, an enemy comes in mounted, and offers him an insult, the -avenging of which forms the staple of the tale. A good instance may be -found in Campbell's lii., "The Knight of the Red Shield." As the King is -with his people and his warriors and his nobles and his great gentles, one -of them says, "who now in the four brown quarters of the Universe would -have the heart to put an affront on the King?"--then comes the rider on a -black filly, and, "before there was any more talk between them, he put -over the fist and he struck the King between the mouth and the nose." It -is noteworthy that this tale shows further likeness to the Mabinogi-Great -Fool series, generally, in so far as it is the despised youngest who out -of the three warriors that set off to avenge the insult succeeds, even as -it is the despised Peredur who slays the Red Knight, and specially in what -may be called the prophecy incident. With the exception of the opening -incidents, this is the one by which the "formula" nature of the Perceval -_sage_ is most clearly shown. In the Mabinogi it is placed immediately -after the hero's first encounter with the sorceresses of Gloucester: "by -destiny and foreknowledge knew I that I should suffer harm of thee," says -the worsted witch. The Conte du Graal has only a trace of it in the Fisher -King's words as he hands the magic sword to Perceval-- - - ... Biaus frère, ceste espée - Vous fu jugie et destinée (4345-6), - -whilst in Sir Perceval a very archaic turn is given to the incident by -Arthur's words concerning his unknown nephew-- - - The bokes say that he mone - Venge his fader bane (v. xxxvi.). - -This comparison is instructive as showing how impossible it is that -Chrestien's poem can be the only source of the Mabinogi and Sir Perceval. -It cannot be maintained that the meagre hint of the French poet is the -sole origin of the incident as found in the Welsh and English versions, -whilst a glance at my tabulation of the various forms of the Aryan -Expulsion and Return formula ("Folk-Lore Record," vol. iv.) shows that the -foretelling of the hero's greatness is an important feature in eight of -the Celtic and five of the non-Celtic versions, _i.e._, in more than -one-third of all the stories built up on the lines of the formula. It is -evident that here at least Mabinogi and Sir Perceval have preserved a -trait almost effaced in the romance. In the above-mentioned Highland tale -the incident is as follows: the hero finds "a treasure of a woman sitting -on a hill, and a great youth with his head on her knee asleep"; he tries -to wake the sleeper, even cuts off his finger, but in vain, until he -learns how it was in the prophecies that none should rouse the sleeping -youth save the Knight of the Red Shield, and he, coming to the island, -should do it by striking a crag of stone upon his breast. This tale, as -already remarked, shows affinity to the Perceval saga in two incidents, -and is also, as I have pointed out ("Folk-Lore Record," vol. v., -Mabinogion Studies), closely allied to a cycle of German hero and -folk-tales, of which Siegfried is the hero. Now Siegfried is in German -that which Fionn is in Celtic folk-lore, the hero whose story is modelled -most closely upon the lines of the Expulsion and Return formula. We thus -find not only, as might be expected, affinity between the German and -Celtic hero-tales which embody the formula, but the derived or allied -groups of folk-tales present likewise frequent and striking -similarities.[75] - -Another Highland tale (Campbell, lviii., The Rider of Grianaig) furnishes -a fresh example of this fact. Here, also, the deeds to be done of the hero -were prophesied of him. But these deeds he would never accomplish, save he -were incited thereto and aided therein by a raven, who in the end comes -out as a be-spelled youth, and a steed, a maiden under spells, and the -spells will not go off till her head be off. Even so Peredur is urged on -and helped by the bewitched youth. In other respects, there is no likeness -of plan and little of detail[76] to the Mabinogi, certainly no trace of -direct influence of the Welsh story upon the Highland one. - -It may, however, be asserted that all of these tales are derived more or -less directly from the French romance. This has been confidently stated of -the Breton ballad cycle of Morvan le Breiz (Barzaz Breiz) and of the -Breton Märchen, Peronik l'idiot (Souvestre, Foyer Breton), and I have -preferred making no use of either. In the matter of the Scotch and Irish -tales a stand must be made. The romance, it is said, may have filtered -down into the Celtic population, through the medium of adaptations such as -the Mabinogi or Sir Perceval. Granted, for argument sake, that these two -works are mere adaptations, it must yet follow that the stories derived -from them will be more or less on the same lines as themselves. Is this -so? Can it be reasonably argued that the folk-tale of the Great Fool is a -weakened copy of certain features of the Mabinogi, which itself is a -weakened copy of certain features of the French poem? Is it not the fact -that the folk-tale omits much that is in the Mabinogi, and on the other -hand preserves details which are wanting not alone in the Welsh tale but -in Chrestien. If other proof of the independent nature of these tales were -needed it would be supplied by the close similarity existing between the -Great Fool opening and the Fionn legend. This is extant in several forms, -one of which, still told in the Highlands (Campbell's lxxxii.), tells how -Cumhall's son is reared in the wilderness, how he drowns the youth of a -neighbouring hamlet, how he slays his father's slayer, and wins the magic -trout the taste of which gives knowledge of past and to come, how he gets -back his father's sword and regains his father's lands, all as had been -prophesied of him. Another descendant of the French romance it will be -said. But a very similar tale is found in a fifteenth century Irish MS. -(The Boyish Exploits of Finn Mac Cumhall, translated by Dr. J. O'Donovan -in the Transactions of the Ossianic Society, vol. iv.); Cumhall, slain by -Goll, leaves his wife big with a son, who when born is reared by two -druidesses. He grows up fierce and stalwart, overcomes all his age-mates, -overtakes wild deer he running, slays a boar, and catches the magic salmon -of knowledge. An eighteenth century version given by Kennedy ("Legendary -Fictions," p. 216) makes Cumhall offer violence to Muirrean, daughter of -the druid Tadg, and his death to be chiefly due to the magic arts of the -incensed father. It will hardly be contended that these stories owe their -origin to adaptations of Chrestien's poem. But in any case no such -contention could apply to the oldest presentment of Fionn as a formula -hero, that found in the great Irish vellum, the Leabhar na h'Uidhre, -written down from older materials at the beginning of the twelfth century. -The tract entitled "The cause of the battle of Cnucha" has been translated -by Mr. Henessey ("Revue Celtique," vol. ii., pp. 86, _et seq._). In it we -find Cumhall and Tadhg, the violence done to the latter's daughter, the -consequent defeat and death of Cumhall, the lonely rearing of Fionn by his -mother, and the youth's avenging of his father. I must refer to my paper -in the "Folk-Lore Record" for a detailed argument in favour of the L.n.H. -account being an euhemerised version of the popular tradition, represented -by the Boyish Exploits, and for a comparison of the Fionn _sage_ as a -whole with the Greek, Iranian, Latin, and Germanic hero tales, which like -it are modelled upon the lines of the Expulsion and Return formula. I have -said enough, I trust, to show that the Fionn _sage_ is a variant (a far -richer one) of the theme treated in the boyhood of Perceval, but that it, -and _a fortiori_ the allied folk-tales are quite independent of the French -poem. It then follows that this portion of Chrestien's poem must itself be -looked upon as one of many treatments of a theme even more popular among -the Celts than among any other Aryan race, and that its ultimate source is -a Breton or Welsh folk-tale. - -The genuine and independent nature of the Great Fool prose opening being -thus established, it is in the highest degree suggestive to find in the -accompanying Lay points of contact with the Grail Legend as given in -Chrestien. Three versions of this Lay have been printed in English, that -edited by Mr. John O'Daly (Transactions of the Ossianic Society, vol. vi., -pp. 161, _et seq._); Mr. Campbell's (West Highland Tales, vol. iii. pp. -154, _et seq._) and Mr. Kennedy's prose version (Bardic Stories of -Ireland, pp. 151, _et seq._). O'Daly's, as the most complete and -coherent, forms the staple of the following summary, passages found in it -alone being italicised.[77] - -_Summary of the Lay of the Great Fool._--(1) There was a great fool who -subdued the world by strength of body; (2) _He comes to the King of -Lochlin to win a fair woman, learns she is guarded by seven score heroes, -overthrows them, and carries her off_; (C. and K. plunging at once _in -medias res_, introduce the Great Fool and his lady love out walking); (3) -The two enter a valley, are meet by a "Gruagach" (champion, sorcerer), in -his hand a goblet with drink; (4) The Great Fool thirsts, and though -warned by his lady love drinks deep of the proffered cup; the "Gruagach" -departs and the Great Fool finds himself minus his two legs; (5) The two -go onward, and ("swifter was he at his two knees than six at their -swiftness of foot;" C.) A deer nears them followed by a white hound, the -Great Fool slays the deer and seizes the hound; (6) whose owner coming up -claims but finally yields it, and offers the Great Fool food and drink -during life; (7) The three fare together (the glen they had passed through -had ever been full of glamour) till they come to a fair city filled with -the glitter of gold, dwelt in solely by the owner of the white hound and -his wife, "whiter than very snow her form, gentle her eye, and her teeth -like a flower"; (8) She asks concerning her husband's guests, and, -learning the Great Fool's prowess, marvels he should have let himself be -deprived of his legs; (9) The host departs, leaving his house, wife, and -store of gold in the Great Fool's keeping, he is to let no man in, no one -out should any come in, nor is he to sleep; (10) Spite his lady love's -urgings the Great Fool yields to slumber, when in comes a young champion -and snatches a kiss from the host's wife, ("She was not ill pleased that -he came," C.); (11) The Great Fool's love awakening him reproaches him for -having slept--he arises to guard the door, in vain does the intruder offer -gold, three cauldrons full and seven hundred townlands, he shall not get -out; (12) _At the instigation of the host's wife_ the intruder restores -the Great Fool's legs, but not then even will the hero let him go--pay for -the kiss he must when the host returns; threats to deprive him of his legs -are in vain, as are likewise the entreaties of the host's wife (All this -is developed with great prolixity in O'Daly, but there is nothing -substantial added to the account in C.); (13) Finally the intruder -discloses that he himself is the host, and he was the Gruagach, whose -magic cup deprived the Great Fool of his legs, and he is, "_his own gentle -brother long in search of him, now that he has found him he is released -from sorcery_." The two kiss (C. and K. end here). (14) The two brothers -fare forth, encounter a giant with an eye larger than a moon and an iron -club, wherewith he hits the Great Fool a crack that brings him to his -knees, but the latter arising closes with the giant, kills him and takes -his club, the two then attack four other giants, three of whom the Great -Fool slays with his club, and the fourth yields to him. The brothers take -possession of the giant's castle and all its wealth. - -There are obvious similarities between the Lay and the story found in the -Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal. A stag hunt is prominent in both, and -whilst engaged in it the hero falls under "illusion," in both too the -incident of the seizure of the hound appears, though in a different -connection. Finally in the Lay, as in the Mabinogi, the mover in the -enchantment is a kinsman whose own release from spells depends upon the -hero's coming successfully out of the trials to which he exposes him. But -while the general idea is the same, the way in which it is worked out is -so different that it is impossible to conceive of the one story having -been borrowed from the other. What can safely be claimed is that the -Great Fool, counterpart of Peredur-Perceval in the adventures of his youth -and up-bringing, is also, to a certain extent, his counterpart in the most -prominent of his later adventures, that of the stag hunt. It is thus -fairly certain that all this part of the Conte du Graal is, like the -_Enfances_, a working up of Celtic folk-tales. The giant fight which -concludes the Lay may be compared with that in Sir Perceval and in Morvan -le Breiz, and such a comparison makes it extremely likely that the -incident thus preserved by independent and widely differing offshoots from -the same folk-tale stem, belongs to the oldest form of the story. - -The analogies of the Lay with the Perceval _sage_ are not yet exhausted. -In virtue of the relationship between the two chief characters, the Lay -belongs to the "twin-brother cycle." This group of folk-tales, some -account of which is given below,[78] is closely related on the one hand -to the "dragon slayer" group of _märchen_, on the other hand to the -Expulsion and Return formula tales. In many versions of the latter (the -most famous being that of Romulus and Remus) the hero is one of twins, -and, after sharing for a while with his brother, strife breaks out between -them. In the folk-tale this strife leads to final reconciliation, or is -indeed a means of unravelling the plot. In the hero-tale on the other hand -the strife mostly ends with the death or defeat of the one brother. It -would seem that when the folk-tale got associated with a definite hero -(generally the founder and patron of a race) and became in brief a -hero-tale, the necessity of exalting the race hero brought about a -modification of the plot. If this is so the folk-tale group of the "two -brothers" must be looked upon as older than the corresponding portion of -the Expulsion and Return hero-tales, and not as a mere weakened echo of -the latter. To return to the twin-brother features. The Peredur-Perceval -_sage_ has a twin-sister, and is parallel herein to the Fionn _sage_ in -one of its forms ("How the Een was set up"), though curiously enough not -to the Great Fool folk-tale (otherwise so similar to "How the Een was set -up"), which, as in the Lay, has a brother. But beyond this formal -recognition of the incident in the Perceval _sage_, I am inclined to look -upon the Perceval-Gawain dualism as another form of it. This dualism has -been somewhat obscured by the literary form in which the _sage_ has been -preserved and the tendency to exalt and idealise _one_ hero. In the -present case this tendency has not developed so far as to seriously -diminish the importance of Gawain; _his_ adventures are, however, left in -a much more primitive and _märchenhaft_ shape, and hence, as will be shown -later on, are extremely valuable in any attempt to reach the early form of -the story.[79] - -If Simrock's words quoted on the title page were indeed conclusive--"If -that race among whom the 'Great Fool' folk-tale was found independent of -the Grail story had the best claim to be regarded as having wrought into -one these two elements"--then my task might be considered at an end. I -have shown that this race was that of the Celtic dwellers in these -islands, among whom this tale is found not only in a fuller and more -significant form than elsewhere, but in a form that connects it with the -French Grail romance. But the conclusion that the Conte du Graal is in the -main a working up of Celtic popular traditions, which had clustered round -a hero, whose fortunes bore, in part, a striking resemblance to those of -Fionn, the typical representative of the Expulsion and Return formula -cycle among the Celts, though hardly to be gainsaid, does not seem to help -much towards settling the question of the origin of the Grail itself. The -story would appear to be Celtic except just the central incident upon -which the whole turns. For the English Sir Perceval, which undoubtedly -follows older models, breathes no word of search for any magic talisman, -let alone the Grail, whilst the Mabinogi, which is also older in parts -than the Conte du Graal, gives a different turn to and assigns a -different _motif_ for the hero's conduct. The avenging of a kinsman's harm -upon certain supernatural beings, and the consequent release from -enchantment of another kinsman, supply the elements of a clear and -consistent action to which parallels may easily be adduced from -folk-tales, but one quite distinct from the release of a kinsman through -the medium of certain talismans and certain magic formulæ. Numerous as -have been the points of contact hitherto established between Celtic folk -belief and the French romance, the parallel would seem to break down at -its most essential point, and the contention that the Grail is a foreign -element in the Celtic legend would still seem to be justified. Before, -however, this can be asserted, what I have called the central episode of -the romance requires more searching and detailed examination than it has -had, and some accessory features, which, on the hypothesis of the -Christian legendary origin of the Grail, remain impenetrable puzzles must -be commented upon. And another instructive point of contact between -romance and folk-tale must be previously noticed, connected as it is with -stories already dealt with in this chapter. - -In the latest portion of the Conte du Graal, the interpolation of Gerbert, -the following incident occurs:--The hero meets four knights carrying their -wounded father, who turns out to be Gonemans, the same who armed him -knight. He vows vengeance upon Gonemans' enemies, but his efforts are at -first of no avail. As fast as in the daytime he slays them, at night they -are brought back to life by "Une vieille" who is thus described:-- - - La poitrine ot agüe et sèche; - Ele arsist ausi come une esche - Si on boutast en li le fu.[80] - - * * * * - - La bouche avoit grant à merveilles - Et fendue dusqu'as oreilles, - Qu'ele avoit longues et tendans; - Lons et lez et gausnes les dans - Avoit. (Potvin vi., 183, 184.) - -She carries with her - - II. barisiax d'ivoire gent; - -containing a "poison," the same whereof Christ made use in the Sepulchre, -and which serves here to bring the dead back to life and to rejoin heads -cut off from bodies. She goes to work thus:-- - - A la teste maintenant prise, - Si l'a desor le bu assise; - -then taking the balm - - Puis en froie celui la bouche - À cui la teste avoit rajointe; - Sor celui n'ot vaine ne jointe - Qui lues ne fust de vie plaine. - -Perceval stops her when she has brought back three of her men to life; she -recognises in him her conqueror: - - Bien vous connois et bien savoie - Que de nului garde n'avoie - Fors que de vous; car, par mon chief - Nus n'en péust venir à chief - Se vous non ... - -So long as she lives, Perceval shall be powerless to achieve his Quest. -She wars against Gonemant by order of the King of the Waste City, who ever -strives against all who uphold the Christian faith, and whose chief aim it -is to hinder Perceval from attaining knowledge of the Grail. Perceval gets -possession of somewhat of the wonder-working balm, brings to life the most -valiant of his adversaries, slays him afresh after a hard struggle, in -which he himself is wounded, heals his own hurt, and likewise Gonemant's, -with the balsam. Compare now Campbell's above-cited tale, the Knight of -the Red Shield. The hero, left alone upon the island by his two -treacherous companions, sees coming towards him "three youths, heavily, -wearily, tired." They are his foster-brothers, and from the end of a day -and a year they hold battle against the Son of Darkness, Son of Dimness, -and a hundred of his people, and every one they kill to-day will be alive -to-morrow, and spells are upon them they may not leave this (island) for -ever until they kill them. The hero starts out on the morrow alone -against these enemies, and he did not leave a head on a trunk of theirs, -and he overcame the Son of Darkness himself. But he is so spoilt and torn -he cannot leave the battle-field, and he lays himself down amongst the -dead the length of the day. "There was a great strand under him below; and -what should he hear but the sea coming as a blazing brand of fire, as a -destroying serpent, as a bellowing bull; he looked from him, and what saw -he coming on the shore of the strand, but a great toothy carlin ... there -was the tooth that was longer than a staff in her fist, and the one that -was shorter than a stocking wire in her lap." She puts her finger in the -mouth of the dead, and brings them alive. She does this to the hero, and -he bites off the finger at the joint, and then slays her. She is the -mother of the Son of Darkness, and she has a vessel of balsam wherewith -the hero's foster-brothers anoint and make him whole, and her death frees -them from her spells for ever.[81] This "toothy carlin" is a favourite -figure in Celtic tradition. She re-appears in the ballad of the -Muilearteach (probably Muir Iarteach, _i.e._, Western Sea), Campbell, -iii., pp. 122, _et seq._, and is there described as "the bald russet one," -"her face blue black, of the lustre of coal, her bone tufted tooth like -rusted bone, one deep pool-like eye in her head, gnarled brushwood on her -head like the clawed-up wood of the aspen root." In another version of the -ballad, printed in the Scottish Celtic Review, No. 2, pp. 115, _et seq._, -the monster is "bald red, white maned, her face dark grey, of the hue of -coal, the teeth of her jaw slanting red, one flabby eye in her head, her -head bristled dark and grey, like scrubwood before hoar."[82] The editor -of this version, the Rev. J. G. Campbell, interprets the ballad, and -correctly, no doubt, "as an inroad of the Personified Sea." There is no -connection, save in the personage of the "toothy carlin," between the -ballad and the folk-tale.[83] - -It is impossible, I think, to compare Gerbert's description of the witch -with that of the Highland "Carlin" without coming to the conclusion that -the French poet drew from traditional, popular Celtic sources. The wild -fantasy of the whole is foreign in the extreme to the French temperament, -and is essentially Celtic in tone. But the incident, as well as one -particular feature of it, admits of comparison: the three foster-brothers -of the Highland tale correspond to the four sons of Gonemant, who be it -recollected, represents in the Conte du Graal, Peredur-Perceval's uncle in -the Mabinogi; in both, the hero goes forth alone to do battle with the -mysterious enemy; the Son of Darkness answers to the King of the Waste -City; the dead men are brought back to life in the same way; the release -of the kinsman, from spells, or from danger of death, follows upon the -witch's discomfiture. And yet greater value attaches to the incident as -connected with the Mabinogi form of the story; in Gerbert, as in the -Mabinogi, the hero's uncle is sick to death, his chief enemy is a -monstrous witch (or witches), who foreknows that she must succumb at the -hero's hands.[84] Something has obviously dropped out from the Mabinogi. -May it not be those very magic talismans, the winning of which is the -chief element of the French romances, and may not one of the talismans -have been the vessel of life-restoring balsam which figures in Gerbert and -the Highland tales?[85] The study of subsidiary versions and incidents may -thus throw upon the connection of the Grail with the Perceval romance a -light which the main Celtic forms of the latter have not hitherto yielded. - -The Thornton MS. Sir Perceval differs in this incident from both Manessier -and Gerbert. As in Gerbert and the Highland Tale the hero meets his uncle -and cousins; there is the same fight with the mother of the enemy of his -kin, the hideous carlin, but it precedes, as does also the slaying of that -enemy, the meeting of uncle and nephews. There is thus no room for the -healing _motif_ for which the unconscious avenging of the father's death -is substituted. These differences bear witness both to the popular and -shifting nature of the traditions upon which the romances are based, and -to the fact that the avenging of a blood feud was the leading incident of -its earliest form. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - - The various forms of the visit to the Grail Castle in the - romances--Conte du Graal: Chrestien; Gautier-Manessier; - Gautier-Gerbert--Didot-Perceval--Mabinogi--Conte du Graal: Gawain's - visit to the Grail Castle--Heinrich von dem Türlin--Conte du Graal: - Perceval's visit to the Castle of Maidens--Inconsistency of these - varying accounts; their testimony to stories of different nature and - origin being embodied in the romances--Two main types: feud quest and - unspelling quest--Reasons for the confusion of the two types--Evidence - of the confusion in older Celtic literature--The Grail in Celtic - literature: the gear of the Tuatha de Danann; the cauldron in the - Ultonian cycle; the Mabinogi of Branwen; vessel of balsam and glaive - of light in the contemporary folk-tale--The sword in Celtic - literature: Tethra; Fionn; Manus--Parallels to the Bespelled Castle; - the Brug of Oengus, the Brug of Lug, the Brug of Manannan Mac Lir, - Bran's visit to the Island of Women, Cormac Mac Art, and the Fairy - Branch; Diarmaid and the Daughter of King Under the Waves--Unspelling - stories: The Three Soldiers; the waiting of Arthur; Arthur in Etna; - the Kyffhäuser Legend, objections to Martin's views concerning - it--Gawain's visit to the Magic Castle and Celtic parallels; The Son - of Bad Counsel; Fionn in Giant Land; Fionn in the House of Cuana; - Fionn and the Yellow Face--The Vanishing of the Bespelled - Castle--Comparison with the Sleeping Beauty cycle--The "Haunted - Castle" form and its influence on Heinrich's version--The Loathly - Grail Messenger. - - -The analysis of the various versions has shown that the Conte du Graal is -the oldest portion of the vast body of French romance which deals with the -Grail, and that it presents the earliest form of the story. The -examination of the theories put forward to explain the genesis and growth -of the legend has shown how untenable is that hypothesis which makes the -Christian legend the starting point of the cycle. The comparison of the -Conte du Graal with Celtic legends and folk-tales has shown that the -former is in the main a North French retelling of tales current then, as -now, among the Celtic peoples of Britain, and probably of Brittany. One -thing alone remains unexplained, the mysterious Grail itself. Nor has any -light been thrown from Celtic sources upon the incident of the hero's -visit to the Castle of Talismans, his silence, and the ensuing misfortune -which overtakes him. Where this incident does appear in a Celtic version, -the Mabinogi, it is not brought in connection with the Grail, and it bears -obvious traces of interpolation. The utmost we have been able to do is to -reconstruct from scattered indications in different Celtic tales a -sequence of incidents similar to that of the French romance. Let us, then, -return to what may be called the central incident of the Grail legend in -its older and purer form. And let us recall the fact that the hypothesis -which finds a Christian origin for the whole legend has no explanation to -offer of this incident. Birch-Hirschfeld can merely suggest that -Perceval's question upon which all hinges is "eine harmlose Erfindung -Borron's," a meaningless invention of Borron's. It is, indeed, his failure -to account for such an essential element of the story that forms one of -the strongest arguments against his hypothesis. - -In the first place it must be noticed that the incident of a hero's visit -to a magic castle, of his omission whilst there to do certain things, and -of the loss or suffering thereby caused, occurs not once, but many times; -not in one, but in many forms in the vast body of Grail romance, as is -seen by the following list, which likewise comprises all the occasions on -which one or other of the questers has come near to or succeeded in seeing -the Grail:-- - - (1) CHRESTIEN: (Inc. 7). Perceval's first visit to the Grail Castle. - Question omitted. - - (2) GAUTIER: (Inc. 22). Perceval's second visit to the Grail Castle. - Question put-- - - _Incident breaks off in middle, and is continued in one version by_:-- - - (2A) MANESSIER, who sends off the hero on a fresh quest, which is - finished in - - (3) MANESSIER: (Inc. 21). Perceval's third visit to Grail Castle. - The question is not mentioned. Hero's final success. - - _In another version by_:-- - - (4) GERBERT: (Inc. 1-3). Perceval is sent forth anew upon Quest. He - has half put the question and been partially successful. - - (5) GERBERT: (Inc. 21). Perceval's third visit to Grail Castle. - Question not mentioned. Hero's success. - - _Besides these forms of the episode in the Conte du Graal of which - Perceval is the hero, we have_:-- - - (6) GAUTIER: (Inc. 3). Gauvain's first visit according to one, second - visit according to another version. Question half put, partial - success. - - _And finally a somewhat similar incident of which Perceval is the hero - in_:-- - - (7) GAUTIER: (Inc. 12). Visit to the Castle of Maidens. Untimely sleep - of hero. - - So far the Conte du Graal. Of the versions closely connected with it - we have: - - (8 & 9) WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH: Two visits of Perceval to Grail - Castle. Question omitted at first, put in second, and crowned with - success. - - (10 & 11) MABINOGI OF PEREDUR: (Inc. 6-25). Two visits of hero to - Grail Castle. Question omitted at first. Second visit successful. No - mention of question. - - (12 & 13) DIDOT-PERCEVAL: (Inc. 11-16). Two visits of Perceval to - Grail Castle. Question omitted at first, put at second, and crowned - with success. - - In a German romance, which presents many analogies with that portion - of the Conte du Graal which goes under Gautier's name: - - (14) HEINRICH VON DEM TÜRLIN: Gawain's first visit to Grail Castle. - Question put. Success. Allusion to previous unsuccessful visit of - Perceval. - - Finally in the QUESTE versions we have four variants of the incident-- - - (15) QUESTE: (Inc. 12). Lancelot at the cross-road, omission to ask - concerning the Grail. - - (15) QUESTE: (Inc. 15). Perceval heals Mordrains. - - " (Inc. 43). Lancelot comes to Grail Castle. Partial - fulfilment of his Quest. - - " (Inc. 48). The three questers come to the Grail Castle. - -On looking at the list we notice that the Conte du Graal knows of three -visits on the part of the principal hero to the Castle of Talismans: 1, 2, -3, or 1, 2-4, 5, and of one visit (or two) of the secondary hero; whilst -Wolfram, the Mabinogi, and the Didot-Perceval know of two only. Heinrich -von dem Türlin gives only one visit to _his_ chief hero, though he -mentions a former one by the secondary hero. In Wolfram, and the -Didot-Perceval, the incident may be compared in the Conte du Graal with 1 -and 2; in the Mabinogi with 1 and 5; in Heinrich with 6. The Queste forms -of the incident are obviously dependent upon those of the Conte du Graal, -although they have been strongly modified. As for 7, it would seem to be a -form of the incident which has been entirely unaffected by the Christian -symbolism which has influenced all the others. - -It will be advisable to recapitulate the leading features of the incident -as found in the different versions. Where the summaries in Chapter II -afford detailed information about it, the recapitulation will be brief, -but it will be necessary to give at least one version at much greater -length than heretofore. - -In the Conte du Graal (1) the hero finds a King fishing, who directs him -to his castle. Just as he deems the fisher has deceived him the castle -bursts upon his sight. He enters, is led into a square room wherein is a -bed sitting on which is an old man wrapped in sables; before him is a -great fire of dry wood; 400 men might sit in the hall. The King rises to -greet him; as they sit, a squire enters with a sword which had but two -fellows, sent by the King's niece for the hero to whom it was destined. -The hall is light as it may be. A squire enters holding a lance by the -middle; all can behold the drop of blood which flows from the point upon -the holder's hand. There follow him two squires with candlesticks, each -with ten candles, in either hand; a damsel holding a Grail, which gives -out a light as greater than that of the candles as the sun outshines the -stars; and another damsel with a plate of fine gold. The procession passes -from one into the other room. The hero refrains from asking who is served -by the Grail. After playing at chess with the King they dine, and again -the Grail passes, uncovered, at each dish. The hero would fain ask what -was done with it, and is about to do so, but puts off the question. On the -morrow he sees no one in the castle, the doors of the rooms he had been in -the eve before are shut, no one answers; and, mounting his horse, which he -finds ready saddled, he sets forth over the drawbridge, which closes of -itself behind him, without learning why lance bleeds or whither the Grail -is borne. (2) At the second visit the hero comes into a magnificent room, -ornamented with fine gold and stars of silver, wherein on a vermeil couch -the rich King is sitting. The hero is fain forthwith to ask about Grail -and bleeding lance, but must sit him down by the rich King and tell of his -adventures, about the chapel in which lay the dead Knight, and the black -hand, the child in the tree and the tree full of candles. The King makes -him eat before answering his questions. Whilst at meat a damsel, fairer -than flowers in April, enters with the Holy Grail, another with the lance, -a squire with the broken sword. The hero asks about these talismans. But -first the King answers the questions about the earlier wonders; the -talismans he will tell of after meat. The hero insists to know about the -sword. The King bids him put it together--can he do so he will learn about -the Knight in the Chapel, and after that about the talismans. Save for one -flaw the hero succeeds, whereupon the King says he knows no one in the -world better than he, embraces him, and yields him up all in his house. -The squire who brought the sword returns, wraps it in a cendal, and -carries it off. - - 2A. The King bids the hero eat. 4. The hero would hold it sin if - Lance and Grail, and a fair silver he did not ask concerning the - dish pass before them, the latter Grail. The King first submits him - held by a damsel. The hero sighs to the sword test.[86] The - and begs to learn about these existence of the flaw is - three. He is told about lance, apparently held to constitute - Grail, Grail-bearing damsel, failure, due to the hero's sin in - dish-bearing damsel, and in quitting his mother so abruptly. - answer to further questions, In the night the hero has a - learns the history of the broken vision, which warns him to hasten - sword, and of the chapel haunted to his sister's aid. On the morrow - by the black hand. After sleeping the Grail Castle has vanished. - in a splendid bed[87] he sets Mounting his horse, which stands - forth on the morrow on the sword ready saddled, he rides forth. - quest (the slaying of Partinal). After a vain essay to gain - entrance to a magnificent castle, - 3. Having accomplished which, and in which he breaks his sword, and - lighted chancewise upon the Grail thereby loads upon himself seven - Castle, the King, apprised by a further years of adventure, but - squire and forthwith healed, meets learns how the sword may be made - the hero who shows him head and whole again, he finds the land - shield. At table lance and Grail which the day before was waste - pass, borne by two maidens; fertile and peopled. The peasants - delectable meats fill the dishes-- hail him: the townsmen come forth - all are filled and satisfied who in his honour--for through him the - behold the Holy Grail and the lance folk have won back lands and - that bleeds. Thereafter enters a riches. A damsel tells him how: at - squire holding a silver dish the Court of the Fisher King he - covered with red samite; the had asked about the Grail. At her - talismans pass thrice; the King castle he has his sword mended. - thanks the hero for having slain (Later the hero learns that his - his enemy and thereby rid him of failure to win the Grail comes - great torment. Asks his name, from his not having wedded his - learns that he is his nephew, and lady-love). - offers him his kingdom. - 5. Hero is directed by a cross to - the Court of the Fisher King. The - latter makes him sit by his side - and tell his adventures, when he - would fain learn about the Grail. - The same procession then passes - as in (2), save that sword instead - of being broken is simply - described as not resoldered. The - hero says he has been twice before - with the King, and reproaches him - for not having answered his - questions, although he had - resoldered the sword to the King's - great joy. The King then bids him - shake the sword, which he does, - and the flaw disappears. The King - is overjoyed, and the hero is now - worthy of knowing everything.[88] - -In comparing with these versions of the incident that found in the -Didot-Perceval, we find that the hero at his first visit is welcomed by -the squires of the castle, clad in a scarlet cloak, and placed upon a -rich bed, whilst four sergeants apprise Brons of his arrival, and the -latter is carried into the hall where sits the hero, who rises to greet -him. Brons questions him before they sit down to meat. The mystic -procession is formed by squire with lance bleeding, damsel with silver -dish, squire with the vessel holding our Lord's blood. On the morrow the -hero sees no one, and finds all the doors open. At his second visit there -is no mention of difficulty in finding the castle. This time the King -rises to greet him; they talk of many things and then sit down to meat. -Grail and worthy relics pass, and the hero asks who is served by the -vessel which the squire holds in his hands. Straightway the King is healed -and changed; overjoyed he first asks the hero who he is, and, on learning -it, tells him concerning lance and Grail, and afterwards, at the bidding -of a heavenly voice, the secret words which Joseph taught him, Brons. - -In the Mabinogi the castle lies on the other side of a meadow. At his -first visit the hero finds the gates open, and in the hall a hoary-headed -man sits, around whom are pages who rise to receive the hero. Host and -guest discourse and eat, seated beside one another. The sword trial -follows, and the hero is declared to have arrived at two-thirds of his -strength. The two youths with the dripping spear enter, amid the -lamentation of the company, are followed by the two maidens with the -salver wherein is a man's head, and the outcry redoubles. On the morrow -the hero rides forth unmolested. - -At the second visit the castle is described as being in a valley through -which runs a river. The grey-headed man found sitting in the hall with -Gwalchmai is described as lame. - -So far we have recapitulated the leading features of Perceval's dealings -at the Talismans Castle in the Conte du Graal and in the most closely -allied versions. But Perceval, the chief hero, has, as we have already -seen, an under-study in Gauvain. And the Gauvain form of the incident -deserves as close examination as the Perceval form. - -(6) Gauvain has met a knight, stranger to him, with whom he travels to -Caerleon. Whilst in his company the stranger is slain by a dart cast by -whom no one knows. Before dying he bids Gauvain take his arms and his -horse; he knows not why he has been slain, he never harmed anyone. Gauvain -suspects and accuses Kex, upon whom he vows to prove the murder, and sets -forth to learn the unknown's name. After affronting the adventure of the -black hand[89] in the chapel and long wanderings, he finds himself one -evening at the opening of a dark, tree-covered road at whose further end -he spies a light. Tired and fasting he lets his horse go at its will, and -is led to a castle where he is received with great honour as though he -were expected. But when he has changed his dress the castle folk see it is -not he whom they thought. In the hall is a bier whereupon lie cross and -sword and a dead knight. Canons and priests raise a great lamentation over -the body. A crowned knight enters and bids Gauvain sit by his side. Then -the Grail goes through the room, serving out meats in plenty, and acting -the part of a steward, whereat Gauvain is astounded. He next sees a lance -which drips blood into a silver cup. From out the same room whence come -the talismans, the King issues, a sword in his hand, the sword of the dead -knight, over whom he laments--on his account the land languishes. He bids -Gauvain essay to make the sword whole, but Gauvain cannot, and is told his -quest may not be accomplished. After his toils and wanderings Gauvain is -sleepy, but he struggles against sleep, and asks about bleeding lance and -sword and bier. Whilst the King is answering him he goes to sleep. On -awakening he is on the sea shore, arms and steed by his side.[90] He then -meets with the peasantry, and is told of the changed condition of the -land in a passage already quoted (p. 87). Had he asked about the Grail -"por coi il servoit," the land had been wholly freed. - -Heinrich von dem Türlin's account of Gauvain's visit to the Grail Castle -differs, as will be seen by the Summary, p. 27, which it is unnecessary to -repeat, more from that of Gautier than from the Perceval visit of the -Conte de Graal, with which it has the common feature, that the person -benefitted by the transaction is the Lord of the Magic Castle. As will -already have been noticed it stands alone in the conception that the -inmates of the castle are under the enchantment of death-in-life from -which the question frees them. - -There still remains to be noticed (7) the incident of Perceval's visit to -the Castle of Maidens, so closely analogous in certain details to the -Grail Castle visit, and yet wholly disassociated from it in the conduct of -the story. Perceval, wandering, sees across a river in fair meadow land a -rich castle built of marble, yellow and vermeil. Crossing a bridge he -enters, and the door at once closes behind him. No one is in the hall, in -the centre of which is a table, and hanging to it by a steel chain a -hammer. Searching the castle he still finds no one, and no one answers to -his call. At length he strikes upon the table three blows with the hammer. -A maiden appears, reproaches him, and disappears. Again he waits, and -again he strikes three blows. A second damsel appears, and tells him if he -strike afresh the tower will fall, and he be slain in its fall. But as he -threatens to go on, the damsel offers to open the door and let him forth. -He declares he will stay till morning, whereupon the damsel says she will -call her mistress. The hero bids her haste as he is not minded to wait -long, and warns her that he still holds the hammer. Other damsels then -show themselves, disarm and tend the hero, and lead him through a splendid -hall into a still more splendid one, wherein a hundred fair and courteous -maidens, all of like age and mien, and richly dressed, rise at his -approach and hail him as lord. The hero deems himself in paradise, and -"sooth 'tis to be in paradise to be with dames and maids; so sweet they -are, the devil can make naught of them, and 'tis better to follow them -than to hearken to sermons preached in church for money." The dame of the -castle bids the hero sit him down by her. "White she is as a lily, rosier -than on a May morn a fresh blown rose when the dew has washed it." She -asks him his name, and on hearing how he had wandered lonely three days -ere meeting with the castle, tells him he might have wandered seven ere -finding where to partake of bread and meat. He is well feasted. In reply -to his questions about the castle, and how is it no man may be seen in it, -he learns he is in the Maidens' Castle, all the inmates of one kin and -land, of gentle birth; no mason put his hand to the castle, no serf toiled -at it. Four maids built it, and in this wise: Whatever knight passed, and -entering, beheld the door closed, and no man meeting him--if craven he -struck no blow with the hammer, and on the morrow he went forth unheeded; -but if wise and courteous he struck the table, and was richly entertained. -As the lady tells this tale the hero, overcome with much journeying, falls -asleep and is laid to bed by the maidens. On the morrow he wakes beneath a -leafy oak, and never a house in sight. - -It is surely superfluous to point out that the foregoing recapitulation of -the various forms under which this incident has come down to us gives the -last blow to the theory which makes Christian symbolism the starting -point, and the Didot-Perceval the purest representative of the legend. We -should have to admit not only that the later romance writers entirely -misunderstood the sense of their model, but that, whilst anxiously casting -about in every direction for details with which to overlay it, they -neglected one of its most fertile hints--that of the secret words handed -down through Joseph from Christ Himself to the successful Grail quester. -What a mine of adventures would not Gautier, Gerbert, and all the other -unknown versifiers, who added each his quota to the Conte, have found in -those "secret words?" Nay, more, we must admit that so much in love were -they with this incident they misunderstood, that they repeated it in -half-a-dozen varying forms, and finally eliminated from it every trace of -its original element. There are theories which ask too much and which must -be set on one side, even if one has nothing equally ingenious and -symmetrical to set in their place. - -Three things strike one in considering this incident apart from the other -adventures with which it is associated; the want of consistency in those -versions which, formally, are closely related, an inconsistency which we -have already noted in dealing with the legend as a whole; the repetition -of the same incident with almost similar details, but with a different -animating conception; and the fact that some of the secondary forms -testify to that same thread of story which we have already extracted from -the comparison of the Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal in their entirety. -Not only is the conception of the Quest different in Chrestien and -Manessier or Chrestien-Gerbert, but the details are different, the centre -of interest being shifted from the omitted question to the broken sword. -In Manessier the _dénoûment_ is brought about without any reference to the -question, in Gerbert the reference is of the most perfunctory kind. Again -we find the same machinery of Grail, lance, and other talismans, which in -Chrestien-Manessier serves to bring about the hero's vengeance on his -uncle's murderer, in Chrestien-Gerbert the re-union of the lovers and the -winning of the Grail Kingship, used in the Gawain quest with the evident -object of compassing vengeance upon the slayer of the unknown knight. And, -thirdly, this secondary form is in close agreement with the -Mabinogi--here, as there, the sword test takes place at the Fisher King's; -here, as there, it immediately precedes the passing of the talismans; -here, as there, it is only partially successful; here, as there, is a -tangible reminder of the object of the quest, in the dead body of the -unknown knight in the one case, in the head swimming in blood in the -other. And here we may note that of the two forms in which the _Queste_ -reproduces this incident, the one which holds the more prominent position -in the narrative, the one of which Lancelot is the hero, closely resembles -that secondary form in the Conte du Graal which is connected with Gawain. -The wounded knight whom Lancelot beholds at the crossways borne into the -chapel upon a bier, and clamouring for the succour of the Grail, recalls -forcibly the dead knight of the Gawain quest. It is, perhaps, still more -significant that when the Queste does reproduce the Perceval form, it is -only in its externals, and the mystic vessel, which in the older version -is obviously a means of achieving the quest, has, in the later one, -become the end of that quest. - -It seems impossible to resist the following conclusions:--The many forms -of the incident found in the Grail romances are not variants of one, and -that an orderly and logical original; they testify to the fact that in the -body of popular tradition which forms the basis of these romances the -incident of the visit to a magic castle was a common one, that it entered -into the thread of stories, somewhat similar in outline and frequently -centered in the same hero, but differing essentially in conception, and -that the forms in the romances which are most likely to keep close to the -traditional model are those secondary ones with which the innovating -spirit, whether due to the genius of the individual artist, or to -intruding Christian symbolism, has least concerned itself. There is -apparently but one case in the Conte du Graal, that of Perceval's visit to -the Castle of Maidens, which has been modified by neither of these -influences. - -To accept these conclusions is to clear the ground. If we rid our minds of -the idea that there is _a Grail legend_, a definite fixed sequence of -incidents, we need not be discouraged if we fail to find a prototype for -it in Celtic tradition or elsewhere. We shall be prepared to examine every -incident of which the Grail is a feature upon its own merits, and -satisfied if we can find analogies to this or that one. And by so doing we -are more likely to discover the how and why of the development of the -legends as we find them in the romances. - -Leaving subsidiary details out of account, we may bring all the instances -in which the Grail appears under two formulas: that of the kinsman -avenging a blood feud by the means of the three magic talismans, sword and -lance and vessel; and that of the visit to the Bespelled Castle, the -inmates of which enjoy, thanks to the magic vessel, a supernaturally -prolonged life, from which they are released by the hero's question -concerning that vessel. The one we may call the feud quest, the other the -unspelling quest. The Proto-Mabinogi belonged, as we have already seen -(_supra_, p. 139), to the first class, and accordingly we find that all -relating to the question is obviously interpolated from Chrestien. -Chrestien's model belonged, in all probability if not wholly, chiefly to -the first class, and accordingly we find that Manessier, certainly more -faithful than Chrestien to that original, lays no stress upon the -question. But in Chrestien himself there is a mixture of the two formulas; -the question and the food-producing qualities of the magic vessel have -been incorporated in the feud formula. Once started upon this track the -legend continues to mingle the formulas. The mystic procession, which -probably owes its form to Chrestien, is repeated with monotonous sameness -by his continuators; the machinery of the feud quest almost invariably -doubles that of the visit to the Bespelled Castle, and _vice versâ_. Thus -Heinrich von dem Türlin, along with the most archaic presentment of the -unspelling quest, has that procession of the talismans which properly -belongs to the feud quest; and, to complete his conception, we must turn -to incidents at present set in the framework of the other formula. For the -effect upon the land produced by the hero's action at the Castle of -Talismans is obviously analagous to, though of directly contrary nature -to, that produced upon the inmates of the Bespelled Castle. They are dead -though they seem quick, the land is full of life though it seems waste. -The question which frees the one from the spell of life-in-death, frees -the other from the spell of death-in-life.[91] The Didot-Perceval has the -complete conception. Perceval's question not only releases Brons, who may -not die until then, but it also ends the enchantment of Britain. - -The identity of hero in stories originally dissimilar was one reason for -the confusion between the two formulas; the nature of the Grail was -another. Its attributes were in all probability not very clearly defined -in the immediate models of the French romance writers; these found it -enveloped in mysterious haze, which simple story-tellers, such as Gautier, -did not try to clear up, and which gave free play to the mystic -imaginings of those writers who used romance as a vehicle for edification. -The one tangible thing about it in stories of the one class, its food -producing-power, has left its trace upon every one of the romances. But we -shall also find in our survey of Celtic literature that this attribute, as -well as that of healing or restoring to life, is found indifferently in -stories of both the classes, to the fusion of which we refer the Grail -legends in their present form. Another link between the two formulas is -formed by the sword. It is almost invariably found associated with the -healing vessel of balsam in task stories connected with the feud quest of -the Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal; it is also a frequent feature in the -legend of the unsuccessful visit to the Bespelled Castle.[92] Finally, the -most important reason for running into one the stories derived from these -two formulas, and the one which could hardly fail to lead to the fusion, -is to be found in the identity of the myth which underlies both -conceptions. The castle to which the avenger must penetrate to win the -talismans, and that to which the hero comes with the intent of freeing its -lord, are both symbols of the otherworld. - -Bearing in mind this double origin of the Grail, and reviewing once more -the entire cycle, we note that, whilst it is that presentment of the magic -vessel due to the second formula which is most prominent in the romances, -the feud quest has furnished more and more varied sequences of incident, -and is the staple of the oldest literary Celtic form (the Proto-Mabinogi) -and of those North French forms which are most closely akin to it. Here -the magic vessel is at best one of three equally potent treasures; as a -matter of fact its _rôle_ in this section of the romances is, as we have -seen, inferior to that of the sword. Obviously intended to be the -immediate cause of restoration to life or health of the hero's kinsman, -its functions have been minimised until they have been forgotten. If this -is so already in the Proto-Mabinogi and in the model of the Conte du -Graal, we may expect to find that elsewhere in Celtic tradition the magic -vessel is of less account than sword or lance. - -We should likewise misconceive the character of popular tradition if we -expected to find certain attributes rigidly ascribed to the mystic vessel -in this or that set of stories. The confusion we have noted in the -romances may be itself derived from older traditions. Certain it is that -in what maybe looked upon as the oldest account of the vessel[93] in -Celtic literature (although the form in which it has reached us is -comparatively modern), there is a vessel of abundance associated with -three other talismans, two of them being sword and lance. The Tuatha de -Danann (the race of fairies and wizards which plays a part in Irish -tradition analogous to that of Gwydion ap Don, Gwynn ap Nudd, and their -kin in Welsh) so runs the tradition preserved by Keating in his History of -Ireland (Book I, ed. by Joyce, Dublin, 1880, p. 117), had four treasures: -The Lia Fail, the stone of Fate or Virtue ("now in the throne upon which -is proclaimed the King of the Saxons," _i.e._, the stone brought by Edward -I., from Scone); the sword that Lug[94] Lamhfhada (Lug the Longhanded) was -wont to use; the spear the same Lug used in battle; the cauldron of the -Dagda, "_a company used not ever go away from it unsatisfied_." Keating -followed old and good sources, and although the passage I have underlined -is not to be found in all MSS. of his work (_e.g._, it is missing in that -translated by Halliday), and although the verse which he quotes, and which -probably goes back to the eleventh century, whilst the traditions which -it embodies may be regarded as a couple of centuries older, does not -mention this property of the Dagda's[95] Cauldron, it may, I think, be -assumed that the tradition here noticed is genuine, and that a vessel akin -to the Grail, as well as talismans akin to those that accompany the Grail, -formed part of the gear of the oldest Celtic divinities.[96] - -This conclusion appears no rash one when we consider the further -references to the cauldron in Middle Irish Literature. The Battle of Magh -Rath, a semi-historical romance relating to events which took place in the -seventh century, is ascribed by its editor, Dr. J. O'Donovan, to the -latter half of the twelfth century. It relates (pp. 51, _et seq._) how the -sons of the King of Alba sought to obtain from their father the "Caire -Ainsicen" so called, because "it was the caire or cauldron which was used -to return his own proper share to each, and no party ever went away from -it unsatisfied, for whatever quantity was put into it there was never -boiled of it but what was sufficient for the company according to their -grade or rank." The mediæval story-teller then goes on to instance similar -cauldrons to be met with in the older history of Ireland. These may nearly -all be referred to the oldest heroic Irish cycle, the Ultonian, of which -Cuchulainn is the most prominent figure. This cycle, in its origin almost -if not wholly mythic, was at an early date (probably as early as the -eighth century) euhemerised, and its gods and demi-gods made to do duty as -historical personages living at the beginning of the Christian era. It is, -indeed, not improbable that actual historical events and personages of -that period may have coloured and distorted the presentment of the myth; -and it is highly probable that the substance of these stories does go back -to that age, as they are almost entirely free from any admixture of -Christian elements, and such admixture as there is can be readily detected -as the handiwork of the tenth and eleventh century monks by whom these -tales were written in MSS. which have for the most part come down to us. -The cauldron is found with the same properties as those set forth in the -Battle of Magh Rath, in two of the most celebrated tales of this cycle, -the Toghail Bruighne da Derga, and the Tale of Mac Datho's pig. - -Turning from Irish to Welsh literature we may note that the Grail has -frequently been compared with the cauldron of Bran in the Mabinogi of -Branwen, the daughter of Llyr. I have dealt with this tale fully -(Folk-Lore Record, Vol. V.), and see no reason to depart from the -conclusion I then arrived at; namely, that it goes back in the main to the -eleventh or tenth century. Here, the revivifying power of the vessel is -dwelt upon, "The property of it is that if one of thy men be slain to-day, -and be cast therein, the morrow he will be as well as ever he was at his -best, except that he will not regain his speech." We cannot fail to recall -that in the Queste which, as far as the Grail itself is concerned, must be -referred on the whole to the feud quest formula, when the sacred vessel -appears the assembled company is struck dumb.[97] - -Later Celtic folk-literature has followed the Mabinogi rather than the -older Irish legend in its account of the mystic vessel. Where it appears -in the folk-tale its function is to heal or to bring back to life. We may -leave out of account for the present the references in the Welsh "bardic" -literature to the cauldron of Ceridwen, chief among which is that in the -Mabinogi of Taliesin. I am far from thinking that this literature deserves -the wholesale condemnation that has been passed upon it, but it has been -too little and too uncritically studied to afford, as yet, a firm basis -for investigation. We are on surer ground in dealing with the living -folk-tale. Thus the tale of Fionn's Enchantment, although belonging more -properly to the other formula, may be noticed here as containing a cup of -balsam, the washings of which restore the maimed Fionn to complete health. -Mr. Campbell, who has noted the tale, remarks that the cup of healing is -common in all the Fenian stories, which is what we should naturally -expect, seeing the close connection between Fionn and Peredur (Rev. Celt. -I., p. 194). Other instances have already been given in Chapter VI. of the -appearance of the vessel of balsam in connection with the glaive of light, -and of its use in bringing back to life the hero's enemies. And here it -maybe noted that almost the very mode in which it is introduced in the -folk-tales may be paralleled from the romances. The Grail appears to -Perceval and Hector, lying well nigh dead upon the field of battle, and -makes them whole, even as the vessel of balsam revivifies the dead -warriors whom Conall Gulban has just slain, and heals the latter. It is, -perhaps, only a coincidence that the angel in the one, the Carlin in the -other case, appear in a great flashing of light. But, as a rule, in those -task-stories which otherwise present such close similarities to the feud -quest of the Proto-Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal, the mystic vessel has -dropped out altogether, and the sword is the chief if not the only -talisman. This is the case in Campbell, I., the young King of Easaidh -Ruadh, and in XLVI. Mac Iain Direach. In one instance the glaive of light -is met with outside the task group, in Campbell XLI., the Widow and her -Daughters, variant ii (a Bluebeard story), and here it is found associated -with the vessel of balsam. In the folk-tales, then, as in one section of -the Conte du Graal, the healing vessel is decidedly of less account than -the avenging or destroying weapon. This, as the sword, plays such an -important part in the French romances that an examination of its _rôle_ in -Celtic literature will repay examination. - -Besides the already quoted instances in which the sword of light -accompanies the vessel of balsam as one of the treasures which reward the -hero's quest, but in which it does not otherwise affect the march of the -story, we find others in which the sword is either that weapon which -causes the woe, the subject of the story, or else is the one means of -testing the hero's fitness for his quest. In either case it is parallel to -the sword of the Grail romances. Apart from these special instances there -are general references in the oldest Irish literature to the -quasi-supernatural nature attributed to the sword. Thus the Leabhar -Gabhala, or Book of Invasions, the tenth and eleventh century tract in -which Irish mythology was euphemerised into an historical relation of the -pre-Christian invasion of Ireland, has a passage relating to the sword of -Tethra, King of the Fomori,[98] which spake, and, adds the Christian -scribe, the ancient Irish adored swords.[99] This is borne out by a -passage in the Seirglige Conculainn, a story belonging to the Ultonian -cycle, which Mr. Whitley Stokes has translated (Rev. Celt. I., 260). The -men of Ulster, when showing their trophies, had their swords upon their -thighs, "for their swords used to turn against them where they made a -false trophy." - -The Christian transcriber notes that it was reasonable for the pagan Irish -to trust their swords "because demons used to speak from out them." To -return to the sword of Tethra. The most famous battle of Irish mystic -history is that of Mag-Tured, in which the Tuatha de Danann, the gods of -light and life, overcome their enemies the Fomori. Ogma, the champion of -the Tuatha de Danann, wins the sword of Tethra, and as he cleans it it -tells him the many and great feats it had wrought. - -It is, however, in the second of the great heroic cycles of the ancient -Irish, the Fenian or Ossianic, that we find the sword put to a use which -strongly recalls that of the romances. Not until the hero is able to wield -the weapon so that it break not in his hand, or to weld it together so -that no flaw appears,[100] is he fit to set forth on the quest. In -Campbell's LXXVII., "How the Een was set up," Fionn applies for his sword -to Ullamh Lamhfhada[101] (Ullamh the Longhanded), who gives him the most -likely sword and the best he found. The hero takes it, shakes it, casts it -out of the wooden handle and discards it. Thrice is this repeated, and -when the right weapon is in Fionn's hand, he quells utterly all he -sees.[102] Now how had Fionn obtained this sword originally? By slaying -black Arcan, his father's slayer. It may, I think, be looked upon as -certain that in an earlier form of the story, the weapon in question would -turn out to be the one with which the treacherous deed was done, and -Fionn, a counterpart of Peredur in his bringing up, would also be his -counterpart in this incident.[103] For the sword with which Partinal slew -Goon Desert is treasured up for the use of Perceval, but only after a -repeated essay is he held worthy of it.[104] - -The sword incident reappears in a tale of Campbell's, Manus (Vol. III.), -which presents some very remarkable analogies with the romances. Manus is -driven into various adventures by his aunt; an armourer of his -grandfather offers to get him a sword; but all given to him he breaks save -the armourer's old sword, and it beat him to break that. The armourer then -gives him a cloth, "When thou spreadest it to seek food or drink, thou -wilt get as thou usest." Subsequently, helped by a lion, he achieves many -feats. He comes to the help of the White Gruagach by fetching the blood of -a venemous horned creature belonging to the King over the Great World, by -which alone the White Gruagach could be restored to life when the magic -trout with which his life was bound up had been slain. Afterwards he -accompanies him against his enemy the Red Gruagach, who is slain, and his -head stuck on a stake. This Red Gruagach is apparently the father of the -aunt who so persecutes Manus.[105] - -This examination of the sword incident shows that the Mabinogi has -preserved the original form of the story, and links afresh this portion of -the Conte du Graal with the other Celtic stories belonging to the -Expulsion and Return formula group, with which it has so much else in -common. In all the formula-stories, except those of the Conte du Graal and -the Proto-Mabinogi, the hero has to avenge his father, not his uncle; and -it is highly suggestive that at least one version of the Perceval cycle -(the Thornton romance) follows suit. With this remark we may take leave of -the feud quest. - -Many and interesting as have been the parallels from the older Celtic -literature to the feud quest, they are far outweighed by those which that -literature affords to the second formula--the visit to the Bespelled -Castle--which we have noted in the romances. - -From the recapitulation (_supra_, pp. 173, _et. seq._) we may learn -several things. The castle lies, as a rule, on the other side of a river; -the visitor to it is under a definite obligation; he must either do a -certain thing, as, _e.g._, in Perceval's visit to the Castle of Maidens, -strike on the table three blows with the hammer, or he must put a certain -question, or again he must abstain from certain acts, as that of falling -asleep (Perceval and Gawain) or drinking[106] (Gawain, in Heinrich von dem -Türlin). Disregard of the obligation is punished in various ways. In the -case of the Castle of Maidens the craven visitor is allowed to fare forth -unheeded without beholding the marvels of the castle; but, as a rule, the -hero of the adventure finds himself on the morrow far away from the -castle, which has vanished completely. The inmates of this castle fall -into two classes--they are supernatural beings like the maidens, who have -apparently no object to gain from their mortal visitor, but who love -heroism for its own sake, and are as kindly disposed towards the mortal -hero in the folk-lore and mythology of the Celts as gods, and especially -goddesses, are in the mythic lore of all other races; or they suffer from -an over-lengthened life, from which the hero alone can release them. This -latter feature, seen to perfection only in Heinrich von dem Türlin, is -apparent in the Didot-Perceval, and has, in the Conte du Graal, supplied -the figure of the old man, father to the Fisher King, nourished by the -Grail. - -These features sufficiently indicate that the Magic Castle is the realm of -the other world. The dividing water is that across which lies Tír-na n-Og, -the Irish Avalon, or that Engelland dwelt in by the shades which the -inhabitants of the Belgian coast figured in the west.[107] In Celtic lore -the earliest trace of this realm is found, as is the earliest trace of -Grail and sword, in connection with the Tuatha de Danann, that race of -dispossessed immortals which lives on in the hollow hill sides, and is -ever ready to aid and cherish the Irish mythic heroes. The most famous -embodiment of this conception in Irish myth is the Brug na Boine, the -dwelling place of Oengus,[108] son of the Dagda, and the earliest account -of it is that contained in the Book of Leinster, the second of the two -great Irish vellums written down in the twelfth century. It is a land of -Cockayne; in it are fruit trees ever loaded with fruit, on the board a pig -ready roasted which may not be eaten up, vessels of beer which may not be -emptied, and therein no man dies.[109] But Oengus is not the only one of -the Tuatha de Danann who has such a fairy palace. The dwelling place of -Lug is of the same kind, and in the story of the Conception of -Cuchulainn,[110] which tells how the god carried off Dechtire, sister of -Conchobor, and re-incarnated himself in her as the great Ulster hero, we -learn that when Conchobor and his men go in search of Dechtire and her -fifty maidens, they first come to a small house wherein are a man and -woman; the house suddenly becomes a splendid mansion,[111] therein are the -vanished maidens in the shape of birds (and all sorts of goods, and dishes -of divers sorts, known and unknown; never did they have a better night, in -the morning they found themselves houseless, birdless in the east of the -land, and they went back to Emain Macha).[112] Although no prohibition is -mentioned the similarity in parts of this story, which, it must be -repeated, is older than the introduction of Christianity in Ireland, to -the romances is evident. Another famous Brug of the Tuatha de Danann is -that of Manannan Mac Lir. Among the visitors was Bran, the son of Febal, -whose story may be found in the Leabhar na h' Uidhre, the oldest of the -great Irish vellums.[113] One day as he was alone in his palace there came -to him soft, sweet music, and he fell asleep. When he awoke a silver -branch, covered with flowers, was at his side. A short while after, as he -was in the midst of his kinsfolk, his chiefs, and his nobles, an unknown -damsel appeared, and bid him to her in the land of _Sidhe_, and then -vanished, and with her the branch. Bran set sail, and with him thirty men. -After two days' wandering they met Manannan Mac Lir. They continued their -journey until they came to an island dwelt in solely by women; their queen -it was who had sent for Bran. He stayed with her a while, and then came -back to Ireland. - -But the most famous of the visits to the Brug of Manannan is that of -Cormac Mac Art, whom the Irish legendary annals place in the third century -of our era, and bring into connection with Fionn. The story, though only -known to us from later MSS., can be traced back to the tenth century at -least, as the title of it figures in a list preserved in the Book of -Leinster, and as it is apparently alluded to by the eleventh century -annalist, Tighernach.[114] The following summary is from a version, with -English translation by Mr. Standish Hayes O'Grady, in the third volume of -the Ossianic Society's publications. - -Of a time that Cormac was in Liathdruim he saw a youth having in his hand -a glittering fairy branch, with nine apples of red gold upon it.[115] And -this was the manner of that branch, that when any one shook it, men -wounded and women with child would be lulled to sleep by the sound of the -very sweet fairy music which those apples uttered, and no one on earth -would bear in mind any want, woe, or weariness of soul when that branch -was shaken for him. Cormac exchanged for this branch his wife and son and -daughter, overcoming their grief by shaking the branch. But after a year, -Cormac went in search of them. And he chanced upon a land where many -marvels were wrought before his eyes, and he understood them not. At -length he came to a house wherein was a very tall couple, clothed in -clothes of many colours, and they bade him stay. And the man of the house -brought a log and a wild boar, and if a quarter of the boar was put under -a quarter of the log, and a true story was told, the meat would be cooked. -At Cormac's request the host told the first story, how that he had seven -swine with which he could feed the world, for if the swine were slain, and -their bones put in the sty, on the morrow they would be whole again; and -the hostess the second, how that the milk of her seven white kine would -satisfy the men of the world. Cormac knew them for Manannan and his wife, -and then told his story how he had lost and was seeking for wife and -children. Manannan brought in the latter, and told Cormac it was he who -gave him the branch, that he might bring him to that house. Then they sat -down to meat, and the table-cloth was such that no food, however delicate, -might be demanded of it, but it should be had without doubt; and the -drinking cup was such that if a false story was told before it, it went in -four pieces, and if a true one, it came whole again, and therewith was the -faith of Cormac's wife made evident. And Manannan gave branch and cloth -and goblet to Cormac, and thereafter they went to slumber and sweet sleep. -Where they rose upon the morrow was in the pleasant Liathdruim. - -The foregoing examples have been akin to the incident of the Maiden -Castle. We have seen the race of immortals caring for the sons of men, -signalling out and alluring to themselves the brave and wise hero. In the -tales we are now about to examine the benefit conferred by the visitor -upon the inmates of the Magic Castle is insisted upon. But we must first -notice a tale which presents many of the incidents of the Grail romances, -without actually belonging to the same story group as they. In Campbell's -No. LXXXVI, the Daughter of King Under the Waves, Diarmaid, the fairest -and bravest of the Fenian heroes, weds a fay who, as her description -indicates, belongs to the same order of beings as the damsels who lure -away Connla and Bran, the son of Febal. She comes to him in loathly guise, -and the other heroes shrink from her; but Diarmaid, courteous as he is -brave, gives her the shelter of tent and bed and has his reward. She -builds for him such a castle as the fay mistress of the Knight of the -Black Tomb (_supra_, p. 17) builds for her lover. But she warns him that -after a threefold reproach as to how he found her she would have to leave -him. Through the cunning of Fionn he is led to break the taboo and "it was -in a mosshole he awoke on the morrow. There was no castle, or a stone left -of it on another." Diarmaid sets forth to seek his wife, he finds her -ailing to death, and to be cured she must have three draughts from the cup -of the King of the Plain of Wonder. Helped by a little russet man, he gets -the talisman, as was prophesied of him; but, advised by the little russet -man, he gives the maiden to drink out of a certain well, which changes -their love into aversion, and he returns to the light of day. - -This last feature should be noted as characteristic. The mortal lover -always tires sooner than the fay mistress. Oisin cannot stay in Tír-na -n-Og. Perceval gives but one night to the Lady of the Chessboard. - -We now come to the "unspelling" stories, and I will cite in the first -place one which is the most striking testimony I know of to the influence -of this formula upon Celtic mythic lore. There is a widely spread -folk-tale of a hero robbed of three magic gifts and getting them back -thus; by chance he eats some fruit or herb which changes him into an ass, -causes his nose to grow, sets horns upon his head, or produces some -equally unpleasant result. Another herb he finds heals him. Armed with -specimens of either, he wins back his talismans. In Grimm it is No. 122, -Der Krautesel, and in Vol. III., p. 201, variants are given. In one the -hero is one of three soldiers, and he receives the gifts from a little -grey man. But neither here nor in the variants given by Dr. R. Köhler -(Orient und Occident, II., p. 124) is the opening the same as in -Campbell's No. X.--The Three Soldiers. - -The three come to a house in the wilderness dwelt in by three girls who -keep them company at night, but disappear during the day. In the house is -a table, overnight they eat off it, and when they rise the board is -covered, and it would not be known that a bit had ever come off it. At the -first night's close one soldier gets a purse never empty; at the second, -the next one a cloth always filled with meat; and the third, the youngest -(the hero), a transporting whistle. But as they leave he must needs ask -them who they are, and they burst out crying, "They were under charms till -they could find three lads who would spend three nights with them without -putting a question--had he refrained they were free." - -In one variant the time of probation lasts a year, and the talismans are: -a cup that empties not, and a lamp of light, the table-cloth of meat, and -a bed for rest. In another the damsels are swanmaids,[116] and the -visitors are bidden "not to think nor order one of us to be with you in -lying down or rising up."[117] - -There can, I think, be little doubt that this last variant represents the -oldest form of the story, and that the swanmaid damsels belong to the -otherworld, as do the daughter of King Under the Waves and the maiden who -fetches Connla. There is nothing surprising in swanmaids being the object -of a taboo, this is so invariably the case in myth and folk-lore that it -is needless to accumulate instances; what is unique to my knowledge, I -speak under correction, is the fact of these damsels being in possession -of the talismans, one of which is so obviously connected with the Grail. -It may be noted that the obligation laid upon the hero is the direct -opposite of that in the Grail romances, in the one case a question must -not be asked, in the other it must. In this respect Campbell's tale of -course falls into line with all the widely spread and varying versions of -the Melusine legend. The supernatural wife always forbids her husband some -special act which, as is perhaps natural, he can never refrain from doing. - -The next form of the Bespelled Castle legend is one which has attained far -greater celebrity than any other on account of its traditional association -with historical personages. It pictures the inmate of the castle as a -King, with his warriors around him, sunk into magic sleep, and awaiting a -signal to come forth and free his folk. To many English readers this -legend will be more familiar in connection with Frederick Barbarossa[118] -or with Holger the Dane than with any Celtic worthy. Yet the oldest -historic instance is that of Arthur.[119] I have quoted (_supra_, p. 122) -Gerald's words relating to the mountain seat of Arthur. A more definite -tradition, and one closely resembling the episode in the Grail romances, -is the one noted by Gervasius of Tilbury[120] (c. 1211 A.D.). A groom of -the Bishop of Catania, following a runaway horse even to the summit of -Mount Etna, found himself in a far reaching plain, full of all things -delightful. A marvellous castle rose before him, wherein lay Arthur on a -royal bed, suffering from the wound inflicted upon him by Modred his -nephew, and Childeric the Saxon, and this wound broke out afresh each -year. The King caused the horse to be given to the groom, and made him -many rich presents.[121] - -This tradition of Arthur in Sicily raises some very interesting questions. -For one thing it is a fresh example of the tremendous and immediate -popularity of the Arthurian legend. It also shows with what rapidity a -tradition, however remote in its origin from a particular spot, may -associate itself with that. Of more immediate interest to us is the -question whether this tradition has any direct connection with the Grail -romances, whether it has shaped or been shaped by them. Martin refers the -Maimed King of the romances to the same myth-root as the wounded Arthur -waiting in Etna or in Avalon till his wound be healed and he come forth. -It seems to me more likely that in so far as the wound is concerned there -is a coincidence merely between the two stories, and that the Wounded King -belongs properly to the feud quest. I do not, however, deny that the fact -of the Lord of the Bespelled Castle, of the otherworld, being sometimes -pictured as suffering from an incurable wound, may have aided that fusion -of the two strains of legend which we find in the romances. - -It is not my purpose to examine here in detail the innumerable versions of -this widely-spread tradition[122], the more so as I have been able to -trace no exact parallel to that presentment of the story found in Heinrich -von dem Türlin and in the Didot-Perceval. No other version of this form of -the legend, to my knowledge, pictures the Bespelled King as awaiting the -deliverance of death at the hands of his visitor. Before endeavouring to -find a reason for the singularity of Heinrich's account, I will first -quote one variant of the common form of the legend which has not been -printed before save by myself in the Folk-Lore Journal, Vol. I., p. -193.[123] King Arthur sleeps bespelled in the ruins of (Richmond) Castle. -Many have tried to find him but failed. One man only, Potter Thompson by -name, wandering one night among the ruins chanced upon the hall wherein -sat the King and his men around a table upon which lay a horn and a sword. -Terrified, he turned and fled, and as he did so a voice sounded in his -ears-- - - "Potter Thompson, Potter Thompson, - Had'st thou blown the horn, - Thou had'st been the greatest man - That ever was born." - -for then he would have freed Arthur from his magic sleep. Never again -could he reach that hall. - -This version, besides being practically inedited has the merit of -exemplifying that association of the sword with the Lord of the Bespelled -Castle to which I have already alluded. - -The instances of the visit to the otherworld which have thus far been -collected from Celtic mythic literature, and which have been used as -parallels to the unspelling quest of the romances, are more closely akin -to one example of this incident, Perceval's visit to the Castle of -Maidens, than to that found in Heinrich and the Didot-Perceval. None, -indeed, throw any light upon that death-in-life which is the special -feature in these two works. All are of one kind in so far as the -disposition of the inmates towards the visitor is concerned; he is -received with courtesy when he is not actually allured into the castle, -and the trials to which he is subjected are neither painful nor -humiliating. But it will not have escaped attention that the Conte du -Graal contains another form of the visit, one which I have hitherto left -unnoticed, in Gawain's visit to the Magic Castle. A new conception is here -introduced: the Lord of the Castle[124] is an evil being, who holds -captive fair dames and damsels; they it is, and not he, whom the hero must -deliver, and the act of deliverance subjects him to trial and peril -(_supra_, p. 14, Chr. Inc. 17). Let us see if this form affords any -explanation of the mysterious features of Heinrich's version. This -incident may, it is easily conceivable, be treated in two ways; the hero -may be a worthy knight and succeed, or a caitiff and fail. A story of this -latter kind may throw some light upon Gawain's adventures at the Magic -Castle. The story in question (The Son of Bad Counsel) is ascribed by -Kennedy, Legendary Fictions, pp. 132, _et seq._, to an author of the -early eighteenth century, Brian Dhu O'Reilly, and traced back to an older -Ossianic legend--Conan's delusions in Ceash, of which Kennedy prints a -version, pp. 232, _et seq._ The hero of the story comes to the Castle of a -Gruagach, named the Giant of the Unfrequented Land, and his wife, daughter -to the King of the Lonesome Land. The name of the castle is the Uncertain -Castle. Very fair is their daughter, and she is proffered to the hero for -his promised aid against other fairy chieftains. After playing at -backgammon with the Gruagach, the hero lays himself to bed. He is -assailed, as he fancies, by great dangers from which he hastens to flee, -and, waking, finds himself in a ridiculous plight with his lady-love, and -the other folk of the castle laughing at him. In the morning he awakes, -"and his bed was the dry grass of a moat." - -The names of the personages in the story at once recall those of the -romances--the Waste Land or Forest, the Castle Perillous, and the -like--and one of the trials, the being shot at with fairy darts, is the -same as that to which Gawain is exposed in the Conte du Graal. But it is -interesting chiefly as being a version of a wide-spread tale of how gods -or heroes penetrating to the other world are made mock of by its inmates. -In Scandinavian mythology the story is well-known as Thor's visit to -Utgarth Loki. It is equally well-known in the Fionn saga, and, considering -the many points of contact we have hitherto found between Fionn and the -Grail hero, the Fenian form claims our notice. The oldest preserved form -of the story, that in the Book of Leinster, has been printed with -translation by Mr. Whitley Stokes, Revue Celt., Vol. VII., pp. 289, _et -seq._--Fionn comes at nightfall with Cailte and Oisin to a house he had -never heard of in that glen, knowing though he was. A grey giant greets -them; within are a hag with three heads on her thin neck, and a headless -man with one eye protruding from his breast. Nine bodies rise out of a -recess, and the hideous crew sing a strain to the guests; "not melodious -was that concert." The giant slays their horses; raw meat is offered them, -which they refuse; the inmates of the house attack them; they had been -dead had it not been for Fionn alone. They struggle until the sun lights -up the house, then a mist falls into every one's head, so that he was dead -upon the spot. The champions rise up whole, and the house is hidden from -them, and every one of the household is hidden.--In the later Fenian saga -(later that is as far as the form in which it has come down to us is -concerned) the story closely resembles Thor's visit. Kennedy (Bardic -Stories, pp. 132, _et seq._) has a good version.[125]--Fionn and his -comrades follow a giant, on his shoulders an iron fork with a pig -screeching between the prongs, behind him a damsel scourging him. They -follow them to a house wherein is an aged hoary-headed man and a beautiful -maid, a rough giant cooking the hog, and an old man having twelve eyes in -his head, a white-haired ram, and a hag clad in dark ash coloured garment. -Two fountains are before the house: Fionn drinks of one which at first -tastes sweet, but afterwards bitter to death; from the other, and though -he never suffered as much as while drinking, when he puts the vessel from -his lips he is as whole as ever he was. The hog is then shared; the ram -left out of count revenges itself by carrying out the guest's share, and -smite it with their swords as they may, they cannot hurt it. The hag then -throws her mantle over the guests, and they become four withered -drooping-headed old men; on the mantle being removed they resume their -first shape. These wonders are explained. The giant is _sloth_, urged on -by _energy_; the twelve-eyed old man is the _world_; and the ram the -_guilt of man_; the wells are _truth_ and _falsehood_; the hag _old age_. -The warriors sleep and in the morning find themselves on the summit of -Cairn Feargaill with their hounds and their arms by them. - -This tale betrays its semi-literary origin at once; and, though there is -no reason to doubt that the Irish Celts had a counterpart to Thor's -journey to Giantland, I am inclined to look upon the version just -summarised as influenced by the Norse saga. Certain it is that the popular -version of Fionn's visit to Giantland is much more like the eleventh -century poem, preserved in the Book of Leinster, than it is like the -mediæval, "How Fionn fared in the House of Cuana." I have already alluded -(_supra_, p. 186) to one feature of the tale of Fionn's enchantment, but -the whole tale is of interest to us.--As Fionn and his men are sitting -round the fire boasting of their prowess in comes a slender brown hare and -tosses up the ashes, and out she goes. They follow her, a dozen, to the -house of the Yellow Face, a giant that lived upon the flesh of men. A -woman greets them, and bids them begone before the Face returns, but Fionn -will not flee. In comes the Face and smells out the strangers. Six of the -Fenians he strikes with a magic rod, "and they are pillars of stone to -stop the sleety wind." He then cooks and devours a boar, and the bones he -throws to the Fenians. They play at ball with a golden apple, and the Face -puts an end to Fionn's other comrades. Hereafter he wrestles with Fionn, -and the griddle is put on the fire till it is red hot, and they all get -about Fionn and set him on the griddle till his legs are burnt to the hips -('twas then he said, "a man is no man alone"), and stick a flesh-stake -through both his hams, so that he could neither rise nor sit, and cast him -into a corner. But he manages to crawl out and sound his horn, and -Diarmaid hears it and comes to his aid, and does to the Face as the Face -did to Fionn, and with the cup of balsam which he wins from him makes -Fionn whole.--It is not necessary to dwell on the parallel between -Diarmaid healing his uncle Fionn, wounded with a stake through the two -thighs, by winning the cup of balsam, and Perceval healing his uncle -(mehaignié des II cuisses) by the question as to the Grail. This, alone, -would be sufficient to show us what _rôle_ the Grail played in the oldest -form of the feud quest before the latter was influenced by the visit to -the Bespelled Castle. - -If we look at the stories we have just summarised, we shall easily -understand the meaning of the Magic Castle vanishing at dawn. As sleep is -brother to death, so are night and its realm akin to the otherworld; many -phantoms haunt them and seem quick and strive with and often terribly -oppress the mortal wanderer through this domain, but with the first gleam -of sunlight they vanish, leaving no trace behind them, and the awakening -hero find himself in his own place. The conditions of the visit to the -otherworld are thus partly determined by man's nightly experience in that -dreamland which he figures to himself as akin to, if not an actual -portion of the land of shades. This visit, as we have seen, is conceived -of in several ways. Its object is almost invariably to win precious -talismans; all we have comes to us from our forefathers, and it is natural -to suppose that in the world whence they came, and whither they go back, -is to be found all that man seeks here, only in a form as more wonderful -than earthly objects as the dwellers in the otherworld are mightier and -cleverer than man. At times the talismans are held by beneficent beings, -who either gladly yield them to the mortal visitor, or from whom they may -be won by the exhibition of valour and magnanimity; at times by evil -monsters with whom the mortal must strive. In either case the visitor -arrives at nightfall and in the morning awakes to the life of this earth. - -The secondary or Gawain form of the myth, as found in the Conte de Graal, -may help us to understand Heinrich's version. It is to free imprisoned -damsels that Gauvain undergoes the trials of the Magic Castle. Now the -effect of his visit in the German poem is to free the sister of -Gansguoter, who, with her maidens, remains when the other inmates of the -castle, released by the question, have utterly vanished.[126] But what -means the death-in-life condition of the King and his men? Is it merely an -expedient to account for their sudden vanishing at daylight? I rather see -here the influence of another form of the unspelling myth, one that mixed -with Christian elements has powerfully impressed the popular imagination, -and is in many European countries the only one in which this old myth -still lives on.[127] - -The inmates of the Magic Castle or house are in this form figured as men -doomed for some evil deed to haunt that particular spot, until some mortal -is bold enough to win their secret and bring them rest. One would think -that under the circumstances they would be as amiable as possible to any -visitor. But the older form of the story persists, and they have not -terrors or trials enough for the man who is to be their deliverer. I will -only quote one version, from Irish sources.[128] - -A youth engages to sleep in a haunted castle. If he is alive in the -morning he will get ten guineas and the farmer's daughter to wife. At -nightfall he goes thither, and presently three men in old-fashioned dress -come down in pieces through a hole in the ceiling, put themselves -together, and begin playing at football. Jack joins them, and towards -daybreak he judges they wish him to speak, so he asks them how he can give -them rest if rest they want. "Them is the wisest words you ever spoke," is -answered to him. They had ground the poor and heaped up wealth evilly. -They show him their treasure, and tell him how to make restitution. As -they finish, "Jack could see the wall through their body, and when he -winked to clear his sight the kitchen was as empty as a noggin turned -upside down." Of course Jack does as he is told, and has the daughter to -wife, and they live comfortably in the old castle.[129] - -We have here, it seems to me, the last echo of such a story as one of -those which enter into the Grail romances. In Heinrich's version, as -elsewhere in these romances, different story types can be distinguished, -different conceptions are harmonised. Many, indeed, are both the early -conceptions and the varying shapes in which they embodied themselves, to -be traced in the complex mass of the romances. That a kinsman is bound to -avenge a blood feud, and that until he does so his kin may suffer from -ailment or enchantment and their land be under a curse; that the -otherworld is a land of feasting and joyousness and all fair things; that -it contains magic treasures which he who is bold may win; that it is -peopled with beings whom he may free by his courage; that it is fashioned -like dreamland--all these ideas find expression. - -If the foregoing exposition be accepted we have a valuable criterion for -the age of the immediate originals of the romances. That famous version of -the legend which pictured the dwellers in the otherworld as Kings, spell -bound, awaiting the releasing word to come forth and aid their folk, to -which special circumstances gave such wide popularity in the later middle -ages, causing it to supplant older tales of gods dwelling in the hollow -hills, this version has left no trace upon the romances. These must, -therefore, be older than the full-blown Arthurian legend. One or two minor -points may be briefly noticed. The ship in which is found the magic sword -which wounds all bold enough to handle it save the destined Knight may be -thought to have taken the place of an older island. The loathly Grail -messenger shows the influence of the two formulas: as coming from the -Bespelled Castle,[130] type of the otherworld, she should be radiantly -fair; as the kinswoman of the destined avenger, under spells until the -vengeance be accomplished, she is hideous in the last degree. - -But before we take leave of this incident we must examine two features -upon which, as yet, no light has been thrown, the meaning of the epithet -the _Fisher_ King, and the hero's silence upon his first visit to the -Castle of Talismans. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - - The Fisher King in the Conte du Graal, in the Queste, and in Borron - and the Grand St. Graal--The accounts of latter complete each - other--The Fish is the Salmon of Wisdom--Parallel with the Fionn - Saga--The nature of the Unspelling Quest--The Mabinogi of Taliesin and - its mythological affinities--Brons, Bran, Cernunnos--Perceval's - silence: Conte du Graal explanation late; explanation from the Fionn - Saga--Comparison of incident with _geasa_; nature of latter; - references to it in Celtic folk-tales and in old Irish literature, - Book of Rights, Diarmaid, Cuchulainn--_Geasa_ and _taboo_. - - -The Conte du Graal, as we have seen, offers no satisfactory explanation of -the Fisher King. By Chrestien he is represented on Perceval's first -meeting with him as angling from a boat steered by his companion (v. -4,187); he directs Perceval to his castle. Perceval is afterwards informed -that, being wounded and consequently unable to mount on horseback, fishing -is his only solace, whence the name applied to him (vv. 4,681, _et seq._). -This is practically all the Conte du Graal has to say about him, as the -continuators, whilst repeating the epithet, add no fresh details. Indeed -in none of the after-visits of Perceval is the King represented as -fishing, or is there the slightest reference to, let alone insistence -upon, this favourite occupation of his. It is another proof of the -inadequacy of Birch-Hirschfeld's theory of the development of the legend, -that it represents Chrestien, who, _ex hypothesi_, divested Borron's poem -of its religious character, as retaining this feature due wholly to -religious symbolism, whilst the continuators with their obvious fondness -for such symbolism entirely neglected it. The Queste, which in so far as -the quest portion is concerned is formally connected with the Conte du -Graal, says nothing about the Fisher, nor does that section of the Grand -St. Graal which presents the same Early History as the Queste. In -Borron's poem, on the other hand, and in that later section of the Grand -St. Graal which agrees with it, an explanation is given of the epithet. -According to Borron, Brons catches a fish at Joseph's bidding; Joseph, -having placed the vessel on the table and covered it with a towel, takes -the fish and lays it opposite the vessel; the people are then called -together, and it is possible to distinguish the sinners from the righteous -(vv. 2,500-2,600). Joseph is afterwards told by an angel, that, as Brons -was a good man, it was the Lord's will he should catch the fish (vv. -3,310, _et seq._), and he is to be called the Rich Fisher (v. 3,348). In -the Grand St. Graal (Vol. II., pp. 248, _et seq._) not Brons but his son -Alain is bidden by Joseph to fish, and this with a view to providing food -for the sinners of the company whom the Holy Vessel leaves unsatisfied. -Alain fishes from a boat with a net. He catches but one fish, and there -are at first murmurs, but Joseph, by virtue of Alain's prayers, multiplies -the fish so that it feeds the host, and thus Alain wins the name of Rich -Fisher. - -These accounts complete each other. Chrestien dwells upon the continued -act of fishing which, for aught to the contrary we learn from him or his -continuators, is always fruitless. Borron and the Grand St. Graal dwell -upon the one successful haul, and especially upon the miraculous -properties of the one fish caught. Reading the two accounts together, we -find that the Fisher King passes his life seeking for a fish which, when -caught, confers upon him the power of distinguishing good from evil, or -enables him to furnish an inexhaustible meal to his men. - -The Conte du Graal has been shown to derive more of its substance from the -feud quest--the Didot-Perceval from the unspelling quest. Borron's poem, -as far as its primitive Celtic elements are concerned, is probably to be -ranged with the Didot-Perceval, to which many links unite it. We may, -therefore, turn to Celtic stories belonging to either of these formulas -for parallel features. The inexhaustible nature of the fish at once -recalls the pigs of Manannan Mac Lir (_supra_, p. 194); they, too, can -feed a multitude. But it is in stories formally connected with the feud -quest that we find what I venture to suggest is an adequate explanation of -the nature of the Fisher King and of the fish. The latter is, I think, -the Salmon of Wisdom,[131] which appears so often and so prominently in -Irish mythic lore; and the former is that being who passes his life in -vain endeavours to catch the wonderful fish, and who, in the moment of -success, is robbed of the fruit of all his long toils and watchings. I am -prepared to admit that the incident as found in Borron's poem has been -recast in the mould of mediæval Christian symbolism, but I think the older -myth can still be clearly discerned and is wholly responsible for the -incident as found in the Conte du Graal.[132] - -Let us first look at the Irish story. This is found in an account, to -which allusion has already been made, of the Boyish Exploits of Finn Mac -Cumhail.[133] It is there told how Finn seeks his namesake, Finn-eges, to -learn poetry from him, as until then he durst not stay in Ireland for fear -of his foes. Now Finn-eges had remained seven years by the Boyne, watching -the salmon of Linn-Feic, which it had been foretold Finn (himself as he -thought) should catch and know all things afterwards. Finn, who conceals -his name, takes service with him and the salmon is caught. Finn is set to -watch it while it roasts, but warned not to eat of it. Inadvertently he -touches it with his thumb, which he burns, and carries to his mouth to -cool. Immediately he becomes possessed of all knowledge, and thereafter he -had only to chew his thumb to obtain wisdom. Finn-eges recognises that the -prophecy has been fulfilled, and hails his pupil as Finn. - -It is needless to dwell upon the archaic features of this tale, which -represents the hero seeking service of a powerful magician, from whom he -hopes to learn the spells and charms that may guard him against his foes. -Here, as in many other portions of the Ossianic saga, Fionn is strikingly -like a Red Indian medicine man, or the corresponding wizard among other -savage tribes. It is more to our purpose to note that this tale contains -the fullest presentment of Fionn as hero of the Expulsion and Return -Formula, and that a similar incident is to be found in the lives of other -heroes of the formula (notably Siegfried: the Adventure with Mimir.) Now, -as we have already seen that Peredur-Perceval is a formula hero, there is -nothing remarkable in finding an analogous incident in his _sage_. A -formal connection is thus at once made out. But we must look into the -matter a little closer, as the incident found in the romances is but a -faint echo, and that in part distorted by alien conceptions, of the -original story. - -The unspelling quest in one form resolves itself ultimately into the -hero's search for riches, power, or knowledge, in prosecution of which he -penetrates to the otherworld. This is figured in the Grail romances both -by Brons' or Alain's (who here answers to Fionn) catching the wonderful -fish, and by Peredur-Perceval coming to the house of Brons, the Fisher -King (who here answers to Finn-eges), winning from him the mysterious -vessel of increase, and learning the secret words which put an end to the -enchantments of Britain. In the Grail romances the idea of wisdom is not -associated with the Grail, the vessel, at all; it is either bound up with -the fish, as in the Irish tale, or is the possession of the Fisher King as -the wonder-working spells are the possession of Finn-eges. - -But in the Welsh tradition which corresponds to that of Fionn and the -salmon, it is the vessel, the cauldron, or rather the drink which it -holds, which communicates the gift of wisdom and knowledge. I allude, of -course, to the story of Gwion, set by Ceridwen to watch the cauldron of -inspiration, inadvertently tasting its contents, becoming thereby filled -with knowledge, pursued by Ceridwen, who swallows him, and in whom he -re-incarnates himself as Taliesin, the Allwise Bard. Campbell had already -(Vol. IV., p. 299) drawn attention to the similarity of the two stories, -and equated Fionn, father of Oisin, with Gwion, father of Taliesin; and, -as Professor Rhys has now (Hibbert Lectures, p. 551) given the equation -his sanction, it may be accepted as philologically sound. - -I have hitherto refrained in the course of these studies from making any -use of the Mabinogi of Taliesin, or of references to the cauldron of -Ceridwen of a like nature with those contained in that tale; but it will, -I think, be admitted now that the Welsh Mabinogi, however late in form, -and however overlaid it may be with pseudo-archaic bardic rubbish, does go -back to a primitive stratum of Celtic mythology. - -In connection with this myth the name Brons is of high import. This -catcher of the fish, this lord of the Grail, at once suggests Bran, who is -also a guardian of the magic cauldron. Professor Rhys (pp. 85-95) shows -reason for looking upon Bran (as he is presented in the Mabinogi of -Branwen) as the representative of an old Celtic god, Cernunnos, that -Celtic Dis from whom, as Cæsar reports, the Gauls claimed descent, and -who, as god of the otherworld and the shades was also god of knowledge and -riches. We are thus brought back again to the fundamental conception of -the Grail quest. - -It is to this tale that I would turn for one of the possible explanations -of Perceval's silence at the Court of the Fisher King. That the romance -writers did not understand this incident is evident from the explanation -they give. - -Gonemans' moral advice to his nephew on the evil of curiosity may have its -foundation in a possible feature of the original, about which I shall -speak presently; or it may simply be an expedient of Chrestien's or of his -immediate model. In either case its present form is obviously neither old -nor genuine. The silence of Perceval may, perhaps, be referred to the same -myth-root as Fionn's concealment of his name whilst in the service of -Finn-eges.[134] This prohibition might extend not only to the disclosing -of his name by the mortal visitor to the realm of the shades, but to the -utterance of any words at all. As he might not eat or drink in the -underworld, so he might not speak lest he lose the power to return to the -land of the living. One tale we have seen (_supra_, p. 195) does contain -this very injunction to say no word whilst in company of the dwellers in -the Bespelled Castle. In this case we should have to assume that two -varying redactions of the theme have been maladroitly fused into one in -the romances--that, namely, which bids the visitor to the otherworld -abstain from a certain act, and that which, on the contrary, bids him -perform a certain act, failure of compliance with the injunction being -punished in either case. The positive injunction of one form of the story -is used as an explanation of the hero's failure in another. - -An alternative hypothesis is that whilst the hero's unreadiness of speech, -the cause of his want of success at his first visit, comes wholly from the -unspelling quest, the motive by which the romances seek to account for -that unreadiness comes from the feud quest. The latter, as has been shown, -is closely akin to many task-stories; and it is a frequent feature in such -stories, especially in the Celtic ones, that the hero has to accomplish -his quest in spite of all sorts of odd restrictions which are laid upon -him by an enemy, generally by a step-mother or some other evil-disposed -relative. In the language of Irish mythic tradition Perceval would be -under _geasa_ to ask no questions, and Gonemans' advice would be the last -faint echo of such an incident. The form which such prohibitions take in -Celtic folk-tales is very curious. The _gess_ is generally embodied in a -magical formula, the language of which is very old and frequently -unintelligible to the narrators themselves. As a rule, the hero, by advice -of a friendly supernatural being, lays a counterspell upon his enemy. -Thus, in "How the Great Tuairsgeul was put to Death" (Scot. Celt. Rev. I., -p. 70) the magician "lays it as crosses and charms that water leave not -your shoe until you found out how the Great Tuairsgeul was put to death." -The hero retorts by laying the same charms that the magician leave not the -hillock until he return. In Campbell, No. XLVII., Mac Iain Direach, the -stepmother, "sets it as crosses, and as spells, and as the decay of the -year upon thee; that thou be not without a pool of water in thy shoe, and -that thou be wet, cold, and soiled until, etc.;" and the hero bespells -her, "that thou be standing with the one foot on the great house and the -other foot on the castle: and that thy face be to the tempest whatever -wind blows, until I return back." The formula in Campbell, No. LI, the -Fair Gruagach is very archaic. "I lay thee under spells, and under -crosses, under holy herdsmen of quiet travelling, wandering woman, the -little calf, most feeble and powerless, to take thy head and thine ear and -thy wearing of life from off thee if thou takest rest by night or day; -where thou takest thy breakfast that thou take not thy dinner, and where -thou takest thy dinner that thou take not thy supper, in whatsoever place -thou be, until thou findest out in what place I may be under the four -brown quarters of the globe." - -These instances will suffice to show the nature of the _gess_ in Celtic -folk-lore, but some references to older Irish literature are necessary to -show its great importance in the social and religious life of the race. -O'Donovan (Book of Rights, p. xlv.) explains the word _geasa_ as "any -thing or act forbidden because of the ill luck that would result from its -doing;" also "a spell, a charm, a prohibition, an interdiction or -hindrance." This explanation occurs in the introduction to a poem on the -restrictions (_geasa_) and prerogatives (_buada_) of the Kings of Eire, -found in the Book of Ballymote (late fourteenth century) and Book of Lecan -(early fifteenth century). The poem is ascribed to Cuan O'Lochain (A.D. -1024), and, from the historical allusions contained in it, O'Donovan looks -upon it as in substance due to that poet, and as embodying much older -traditions. Some of these _geasa_ may be quoted. For the King of Eire, -"that the sun should rise upon him on his bed in Magh Teamhrach;" for the -King of Leinster, "to go round Tuath Laighean left hand-wise on -Wednesday;" for the King of Munster, "to remain, to enjoy the feast of -Loch Lein from one Monday to another;" for the King of Connaught, "to go -in a speckled garment on a grey speckled steed to the heath of Luchaid;" -for the King of Ulster, "to listen to the fluttering of the flocks of -birds of Luin Saileach after sunset."[135] Even these instances do not -exhaust the force or adequately connote the nature of this curious -institution. In the Irish hero-tales _geasa_ attach themselves to the hero -from his birth up, and are the means by which fate compasses the downfall -of the otherwise invincible champion; thus it is a _gess_ of Diarmaid that -he never hunt a swine, and when he is artfully trapped into doing it by -Fionn he meets his death; it is a _gess_ of Cuchulainn's that he never -refuse food offered him by women, and as he goes to his last fight he -accepts the poisoned meal of the witches though he full well knows it will -be fatal to him.[136] But, besides this, _geasa_ may also be an appeal to -the hero's honour as well as a magic charm laid upon him, and it is -sometimes difficult to see by which of the two motives the hero is moved. -Thus Graine, wife of Fionn, lays _geasa_ upon Diarmaid that he carry her -off from her husband, and though he is in the last degree unwilling he -must comply.[137] - -Enough has been said to show that we have in the _geasa_ a cause quite -sufficient to explain the mysterious prohibition to ask questions laid -upon Perceval, if the first explanation I have offered of this prohibition -be thought inadequate. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - - Summing up of the elements of the older portion of the - cycle--Parallelism with Celtic tradition--The Christian element in the - cycle: the two forms of the Early History; Brons form older--Brons and - Bran--The Bran conversion legend--The Joseph conversion legend: Joseph - in apocryphal literature--Glastonbury--The head in the platter and the - Veronica portrait--The Bran legend the starting point of the Christian - transformation of the legend--Substitution of Joseph for - Bran--Objections to this hypothesis--Hypothetical sketch of the growth - of the legend. - - -I have now finished the examination of all those incidents in the Grail -Quest romances which are obviously derived from some other sources than -Christian legend, and which are, indeed, referred by pronounced adherents -of the Christian-origin hypothesis to Celtic tradition. I have also -claimed a Celtic origin for features hitherto referred to Christian -legend. This examination will, I trust, convince many that nearly all the -incidents connected with the Quest of the Grail are Celtic in their -origin, and that thus alone can we account for the way in which they -appear in the romances. The latter are, as we have seen, in the highest -degree inconsistent in their account of the mystic vessel and its -fortunes; the most cursory examination shows the legend to be composed of -two parts, which have no real connection with each other; the older of -these parts, the Quest, can easily be freed from the traces of Christian -symbolism; this older part is itself no homogeneous or consistent tale, -but a complex of incidents diverse in origin and character. These -incidents are: the rearing of the hero in ignorance of the world and of -men; his visit to the court of the King, his uncle; his slaying of his -father's murderer, the trial made of him by means of the broken sword; his -service with the Fisher King; his quest in search of the sword and of the -vessel by means of which he is to avenge the death or wounding of his -kinsman; his accomplishment of this task by the aid of a kinsman who is -under spells from which he will not be loosed until the quest be ended; -the adventure of the stag-hunt, in which the bespelled kinsman tests the -hero's skill and courage; the hero's visit to the Castle of Talismans; the -prohibition under which he labours; his failure to accomplish certain -acts; the effects of his failure; his visit to the Magic Castle, the lord -of which is under the enchantment of death-in-life; his visit to the -Castle of Maidens; his visit to the Castle Perillous; and his deliverance -of the captive damsels by means of the trials which he successfully -undergoes. To one and all of these incidents Celtic parallels have been -adduced; these have in each case been drawn from stories which present a -general similarity of outline with the Grail romances, or share with them -similar guiding conceptions, whilst at the same time they are so far -disconnected with them that no hypothesis of borrowing can account for the -features they have in common. The inconsistencies of the romances have -been explained by the fusion into one of two originally distinct groups of -stories, and this explanation is confirmed by the fact that traces of this -fusion may readily be found in the parallel Celtic tales. These latter, -when studied by scholars who never thought of comparing them with the -Grail romances, have been found to contain mythical elements which other -scholars had detected independently in the romances. Those features of the -romances which have perplexed previous students, the Fisher King and the -omitted question, have been explained from the same group of Celtic -traditions, and in accordance with the same scheme of mythical -interpretation which have been used to throw light upon the remainder of -the cycle. Finally, the one Celtic version of the Grail Quest, the -Mabinogi, which presents no admixture of Christian symbolism, has been -shown, when cleared of certain easily distinguishable interpolations, to -be genuine in character, and to present the oldest form of one of the -stories which enters into the romances. - -I have tried not to force these parallels, nor to go one step beyond what -the facts warrant. I have also tried to bear in mind that a parallel is of -no real value unless it throws light upon the puzzling features in the -development of the romances. I thus rest my case, not so much upon the -accumulative effect of the similarities which I have pointed out between -the romances and Celtic tradition, as upon the fact that this reference of -the romances to certain definite cycles of Celtic myth and legend makes us -understand, what otherwise we cannot do, how they came by their present -shape. It now remains to be seen if this reference, can in any way explain -the Christian element in the legend, which I have hitherto left almost -entirely out of account. Birch-Hirschfeld's hypothesis is condemned, in my -opinion, by its failure to account for the Celtic element; although I do -not think an explanation of a late and intruding feature is as incumbent -upon me as that of the original Celtic basis of the legend is upon him, I -yet feel that an hypothesis which has nothing to say on such a vital point -can hardly be considered satisfactory. It is the Christian transformation -of the old Celtic myths and folk-tales which gave them their wide vogue in -the Middle Ages, which endowed the theme with such fascination for the -preachers and philosophers who used it as a vehicle for their teaching, -and which has endeared it to all lovers of mystic symbolism. The question -how and why the Celtic tales which I have tried, not unsuccessfully I -trust, to disentangle from the romances were ever brought into contact -with Christ and His disciples, and how the old mystic vessel of healing, -increase, and knowledge became at last the sacramental cup, must, -therefore, be faced. The hypotheses set forth in the preceding page might -be accepted in their entirety, and the merit of this transformation still -be claimed, as Birch-Hirschfeld claims it, for the North French poets, to -whom we owe the present versions of the romances. On first reading -Birch-Hirschfeld's book, I thought this claim one of the flaws in his -argument, and, as will be seen by reference to Chapter IV., other -investigators, who accept the Christian origin of the larger part of the -legend, hold that it has been shaped in these islands, or in accordance -with Celtic traditions now lost. I think we can go a step farther. A -number of myths and tales have been used to illustrate the romances. In -them may be found the personages through whom probably took place the -first contact between Celtic mythic tradition and Christian legend. - -We must revert for one moment to the results obtained in Chapter III. by -an examination of the way in which the Grail and its fortunes are -mentioned in the romances. We there distinguished two forms of the -distinctively Christian portion of the legend, the Early History. In both -Joseph is the first possessor and user of the holy vessel, but in one its -farther fortunes are likewise bound up with him or with his seed. He, or -his son, it is who leads the Grail host to Britain, who converts the -island, and by whom the precious vessel is handed down through a chosen -line of kings in anticipation of the promised Knight's coming. In the -other form, on the contrary, Joseph has nothing to do with Britain, which -is converted by Brons and his son, Alain; Brons is the guardian of the -holy vessel, and, in one version, the fisher of the mystic fish, whilst in -another his son takes this part. There is repeated insistence upon the -connection between the Grail host and Avalon. Finally Brons is the -possessor of "secret words," and may not die until he has revealed them to -his grandson. - -This account is, we saw, later in form than the Joseph one. As we have it, -it was written after the greater portion of the Conte du Graal, after that -redaction of the Early History made use of by the author of the Queste and -of the first draft of the Grand St. Graal. Its influence only makes itself -felt in the later stages of development of the legend. But none the less -it clearly represents an older and purer form of the Early History than -that of the Queste and of Chrestien's continuators. It has not been -doctored into harmony with the full-blown Arthurian legend as the Joseph -Early History has. It is still chiefly, if not wholly, a legend, the main -purport of which is to recount the conversion of Britain. - -Such a legend is surely more likely to have been shaped by Welsh or Breton -monks than by North French _trouvères_. And when we notice the Celtic -names of the personages, and their connection with the Celtic paradise, -Avalon, there can remain little, if any, doubt respecting the first home -of the story. We may thus look upon Brons, owner of a mystic vessel, -fisher of a mystic fish, as the hero of an early conversion legend. But -the name Brons has at once suggested to most students of the cycle that of -Bran. The latter is, as we saw in the last Chapter, the representative of -an old Celtic god of the otherworld. He is the owner of the cauldron of -renovation. He is also the hero in Welsh tradition of a conversion legend, -and is commonly known as Bran the Blessed. Unfortunately the only -explanation we have of this epithet occurs in a late triad, to which it is -not safe to assign an earlier date than the fourteenth century. He is -described therein as son of Llyr Llediath, "as one of the three blissful -Rulers of the Island of Britain, who first brought the faith of Christ to -the nation of the Cymry from Rome, where he was seven years a hostage for -his son Caradawc."[138] But if late in form this triad may well embody an -old tradition. It gives the significant descent of Bran from Llyr, and -thereby equates him with Mannanan Mac Lir, with whom he presents otherwise -so many points of contact. It is quite true that the Bran legend, as is -pointed out to me by Professor Rhys, is mentioned neither in the earliest -genealogies nor in Geoffrey. But it should be noted that the Grand St. -Graal does bring one member of the Brons group, Petrus, into contact with -King Luces, the Lucius to whom Geoffrey ascribes the conversion. Again, -the epithet "blessed" is applied to Bran in the Mabinogi of Branwen, -daughter of Llyr. I have placed this tale as a whole as far back as the -eleventh-tenth centuries, and my arguments have met with no opposition, -and have won the approval of such authorities as Professor Windisch and -Monsieur Gaidoz. But the Mabinogi, as we have it, was written down in the -fourteenth century; the last transcriber abridged it, and at times did not -apparently understand what he was transcribing. By his time the full-blown -Bran legend of the triad was in existence, and it may be contended that -the epithet was due to him and did not figure in his model. On the other -hand, Stephens (Lit. of the Cymry, p. 425) quotes a triad of Kynddelw, a -poet of the twelfth century, referring to the three blessed families of -the Isle of Britain, one of which is declared by a later tradition to be -that of Bran.[139] Again, the triads of Arthur and his Warriors, printed -by Mr. Skene, Four Ancient Books, Vol. II., p. 457, from MS. Hengwrt, 566, -of the beginning of the fourteenth century, and probably at least fifty -years older, mentions the "blessed head of Bran."[140] On the whole, in -spite of the silence of older sources, I look upon the epithet and the -legend which it presupposes as old, and I see in a confusion between Bran, -Lord of the Cauldron, and Bran the Blessed, the first step of the -transformation of the Peredur _sage_ into the Quest of the Holy Grail. In -the first capacity Bran corresponds to the Lord of the Castle of -Talismans. From the way in which the fish is dwelt upon in his legend, it -may, indeed, be conjectured that he stood to Peredur in some such relation -as Finn-eges to Fionn. As hero of a conversion legend he came into contact -with Joseph. We do not know how or at what date the legend of the -conversion of Britain by Joseph originated. It is found enjoying wide -popularity in the latter half of the twelfth century, the very time in -which the romances were assuming their present shape. Wülcker (Das -Evangelium Nicodemi in der abendländischen Literatur, Paderborn, 1872) -shows that the legend is not met with before William of Malmesbury; and -Zarncke, as already stated (_supra_, p. 107), has argued that the passage -in William is a late interpolation due to the popularity of the -romances.[141] But to accept Zarncke's contention merely shifts back the -difficulty. If William did not first note and give currency to the -tradition, the unknown predecessor of Robert de Borron and of the authors -of the Queste and Grand St. Graal did so; and the question still remains -how did he come by the tradition, and what led him to associate it with -Glastonbury. Birch-Hirschfeld, it is true, makes short work of this -difficulty. The fact that there is no earlier legend in which Joseph -figures as the Apostle of Britain is to him proof that Borron evolved the -conception of the Grail out of the canonical and apocryphal writings in -which Joseph appears, and then devised the passage to Britain in order to -incorporate the Arthurian romances with the legend he had invented. It is -needless to repeat that this theory, unacceptable on _a priori_ grounds, -is still more so when tested by facts. - -But Joseph under other aspects than that of Apostle of Britain is worthy -of notice. The main source whence the legend writers drew their knowledge -of him was the Evangelium Nicodemi, the history of which has been -investigated by Wülcker. The earliest allusion in western literature to -this apocryphal gospel is that of Gregory of Tours (Wülcker, p. 23), but -no other trace of its influence is to be met with in France until we come -to the Grail romances, and to mystery-plays which relate Christ's -Harrowing of Hell. In Provence, Italy, and Germany the thirteenth and -twelfth centuries are the earliest to which this gospel can be traced. In -England, on the contrary, it was known as far back as the latter quarter -of the eighth century; Cynewulf based upon it a poem on the Harrowing of -Hell, and alludes to it in the Crist; the ninth century poem, "Christ and -Satan," likewise shows knowledge of it, and there is a West-Saxon -translation dating from the early eleventh century. - -Whence this knowledge and popularity of the gospel in England several -centuries before it entered prominently into the literature of any other -European people? Wülcker can only point by way of answer to the early -spread of Christianity in these Islands, and to the possibility of this -gospel having reached England before it did France or Germany. He also -insists upon the early development of Anglo-Saxon literature. - -Whether the fact that the apocryphal writings which told of Joseph were -known here when they were unknown on the Continent be held to warrant or -no the existence of a specifically British Joseph legend, they at all -events prove that he was a familiar and favourite legendary figure on -British soil. It would be rash to go any farther, and to argue from the -inadequacy of the reasons by which Wülcker seeks to account for the early -knowledge of the Evangelium Nicodemi in England, that Joseph enjoyed -particular favour among the British Christians, and that it was from them -the tidings of him spread among their Saxon conquerors. - -The legendary popularity of Joseph in these islands, though not in any -special capacity of Apostle of Britain, is thus attested. Let us admit for -argument's sake that the conversion legend did first take shape in the -twelfth century, is it not more likely to have done so here, where the -apocryphal writings about him were widely spread, than in France, where -they were practically unknown? And why if Borron, or any other French -poet, wanted to connect the Holy Vessel legend which he had imagined with -Arthur, should he go out of his way to invent the personages of Brons and -Alain? The story as found in the Queste would surely have been a far more -natural one for him. And why the insistence upon Avalon? We have plain -proof that Borron did not understand the word, as he explains it by a -ridiculous pun (_supra_, p. 78).[142] - -These difficulties are met in a large measure if we look upon Bran -(Brons) as the starting point of the Christian transformation of the -legend. In any case we may say that a conversion legend, whether -associated with Joseph or anyone else, would almost inevitably have -gravitated towards Glastonbury, but there are special reasons why this -should be the case with a Bran legend. Avalon is certainly the Welsh -equivalent of the Irish Tír na n-Og, the land of youth, the land beyond -the waves, the Celtic paradise. When or how this Cymric myth was localised -at Glastonbury we know not.[143] We only know that Glastonbury was one of -the first places in the island to be devoted to Christian worship. Is it -too rash a conjecture that the Christian church may have taken the place -of some Celtic temple or holy spot specially dedicated to the cult of the -dead, and of that Lord of the Shades from which the Celts feigned their -descent? The position of Glastonbury, not far from that western sea beyond -which lie the happy isles of the dead, would favour such an hypothesis. -Although direct proof is wanting, I believe that the localisation is old -and genuine: Bran, ruler of the otherworld, of Avalon, would thus come -into natural contact with Glastonbury; and if, as I assume, Joseph took -his place in the conversion legend the association would extend to him. -The after development of the legend would then be almost a matter of -course. Bran, the ruler in Avalon, would pass on his magic gear (cauldron, -spear, and sword, as in the case of the Tuatha de Dannan) to Bran the -Blessed, who would in his turn transfer them to Joseph. And once the -latter had entered into the legend, he would not fail to recall that last -scene of the Lord's life with which he was so closely associated, not by -any pseudo-gospel but by the canonical writings themselves, and thus the -gear of the old Celtic gods became transformed into such objects as were -most prominent in the story of the Passion and of the scene that -immediately preceded it. The spear became that one wherewith Christ's side -was pierced. As for the vessel, the sacramental nature is the last stage -of its Christian development; its original object was merely to explain -the sustenance of Joseph in prison, and to provide a miraculous -refreshment for the Grail host, as is shown by the Early History portion -of the Conte du Graal and by the Queste. In a dim and confused way the -circumstances of the Resurrection helped to effect the change of the pagan -resuscitation-cauldron into a symbol of the risen Lord. And some now lost -feature of the original legend--some insistence upon the _contents_ of the -vessel, some assimilation of them to blood--may have suggested the use to -which the vessel was first put. - -This hypothesis assumes many things. It assumes a Bran conversion legend, -of which the only evidence of anything like the same date as the romances -is a single epithet; it assumes that the hero of this legend was -originally an old Celtic divinity; it assumes a Joseph conversion legend, -for which there is really no other evidence than that of the romances; it -assumes the amalgamation of the two legends, and that Joseph took over in -a large measure the _rôle_ and characteristics of Brons. And when it is -recollected that the primary assumption, the identification of the two -Brans, rests in a large measure upon the appearance of the fish in the -Brons legend, that this fish is nowhere in Celtic tradition associated -with Bran, that it is associated on the other hand with a being, Fionn, -whom we have compared with Peredur, but that it is absent from the -Peredur-saga, the hypothesis must be admitted to be of a tentative nature. -I fully appreciate the force of the objections that can be urged against -it; at the same time it has the merit of accounting for many puzzling -features in the legend. When in the same story two personages can be -distinguished whose _rôle_ is more or less of the same nature, when the -one personage is subordinated in one version and has disappeared -altogether from the other, it is quite legitimate to conclude that two -originally independent accounts have become blended, and that one has -absorbed the other. The hypothesis is on safe ground so far. It thus -explains the presence of Brons in the legend, as well as his absence from -some versions of it; it has something to say in explanation of the -connection with Glastonbury; it explains in what way the Celtic traditions -were started on their path of transformation; and it provides for that -transformation taking the very course it did. There is nothing to be urged -against it on _a priori_ grounds; once admit the premisses, and the rest -follows easily and naturally. Its conjectural character (the main -objection to it) is shared in an even higher degree by the other -hypotheses, which have essayed to account for the growth and origin of the -legend, and _they_ have the disadvantage of being inherently impossible. - -In the light of the foregoing investigations and hypotheses we may now -amplify the sketch history of the whole cycle given in Chapter III. The -Peredur-saga probably came into existence in much its later form at an -early date in the Middle Ages. A number of older mythical tales centered -in a, perhaps, historical personage. The circumstances of his life and -adventures may have given them not only cohesion, but may also have -coloured and distorted them; nevertheless they remained, in the main, -mythical tales of the same kind as those found all over the world. One of -these tales was undoubtedly a Cymric variant of the Celtic form of the -Expulsion and Return formula; another dealt with the hero's journey to the -Land of Shades; traces of many others are to be found in the Mabinogi. -Another Celtic worthy, Gwalchmai, was early associated with Peredur, and -the two stood in some such relation to each other as the twin brethren of -a widely spread folk-tale group. Curiously enough, whilst comparatively -few incidents in the Peredur-saga were worked up into the version which -served as immediate model to the North French romances, that version -contained many adventures of Gwalchmai's which have not been preserved in -Welsh. We can trace three main crystallizations of the original saga-mass; -one represented by the Proto-Mabinogi contained the feud quest, and, -probably, some only of the other adventures found in the present Mabinogi; -the second, based more on the lines of the Expulsion and Return formula, -is represented by the Thornton MS. romance; in the third the feud quest -was mixed up with the hero's visit to the Bespelled Castle, and those -portions of the Gwalchmai-saga which told of his visit to Castle Perillous -as well as to the Bespelled Castle. Whilst the Proto-Mabinogi was probably -in prose, the Proto-Conte du Graal was probably in verse, a collection of -short _lais_ like those of Marie de France. Meanwhile, one of the chief -personages of the older mythic world which appear in the Peredur-saga, -Bran, the Lord of the Land of Shades, of the Bespelled Castle, of the -cauldron of healing, increase and wisdom, and of the knowledge-giving -salmon, had become the Apostle of Britain, his pagan attributes thus -suffering a Christian change, which was perfected when Joseph took the -place of Brons, bringing with him his gospel associations and the -apocryphal legends that had clustered round his name. Thus a portion of -the saga was Christianised, whilst the other portion lost its old, fixed -popular character, owing to the fusion of originally distinct elements, -and the consequent unsettling both of the outlines and of the details of -the story. Incidents and features which in the earlier folk-tale stage -were sharply defined and intelligible became vague and mysterious. In this -state, and bearing upon it the peculiarly weird and fantastic impress of -Celtic mythic tradition, the story, or story-mass rather, lay ready to the -hand of courtly poet or of clerical mystic. At first Christian symbolism -was introduced in a slight and meagre way--the Brons-Joseph legend -supplied the Christian meaning of the talismans, and that was all. But the -Joseph legend was soon vigorously developed by the author of the work -which underlies the Queste and the Grand St. Graal. He may either not have -known or have deliberately discarded Brons, the old Celtic hero of the -conversion, as he certainly deliberately thrust down from his place of -pre-eminence Perceval, the Celtic hero of the Quest, substituting for him -a new hero, Galahad, and for the adventures of the Conte du Graal, based -as they were upon no guiding conceptions, fresh adventures intended to -glorify physical chastity. With all his mystic fervour he failed to see -the full capacities of the theme, his presentment of the Grail itself -being in especial either over-material or over-spiritual. But his work -exercised a profound influence, as is seen in the case of Chrestien's -continuators. Robert de Borron, on the other hand, if to him the merit -must be assigned, if he was not simply transcribing an older, forgotten -version, was a more original thinker, if a less gifted writer. Although he -was not able to entirely harmonise the conflicting accounts of which he -made use, he yet succeeded in keeping close to the old lines of the legend -whilst giving a consistent symbolical meaning to all its details. His work -came too late, however, to exercise the influence it should have done upon -the development of the legend; the writers who knew it were mere heapers -together of adventures, and the very man who composed a sequel to it -abandoned Robert's main conception. - -The history of the Legend of the Holy Grail is, thus, the history of the -gradual transformation of old Celtic folk-tales into a poem charged with -Christian symbolism and mysticism. This transformation, at first the -inevitable outcome of its pre-Christian development, was hastened later by -the perception that it was a fitting vehicle for certain moral and -spiritual ideas. These have been touched upon incidentally in the course -of these studies, but they and their manifestation in modern as well as in -mediæval literature deserve fuller notice. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - - Popularity of the Arthurian Romance--Reasons for that - Popularity--Affinities of the Mediæval Romances with early Celtic - Literature; Importance of the Individual Hero; Knighthood; the _rôle_ - of Woman; the Celtic Fairy and the Mediæval Lady; the Supernatural--M. - Renan's views--The Quest in English Literature, Malory--The earliest - form of the Legend, Chrestien, his continuators--The Queste and its - Ideal--The Sex-Relations in the Middle Ages--Criticism of Mr. - Furnivall's estimate of the moral import of the Queste--The Merits of - the Queste--The Chastity Ideal in the later versions--Modern English - Treatments: Tennyson, Hawker--Possible Source of the Chastity Ideal in - Popular Tradition--The Perceval Quest in Wolfram; his Moral - Conception; the Question; Parzival and Conduiramur--The Parzival Quest - and Faust--Wagner's Parsifal--The Christian element in the - Legend--Ethical Ideas in the folk-tale originals of the Grail - Romances: the Great Fool, the Sleeping Beauty--Conclusion. - - -Few legends have attained such wide celebrity, or been accepted as so -thoroughly symbolical of one master conception, as that of the Holy Grail. -Poets and thinkers from mediæval times to our own days have used it as a -type of the loftiest goal of man's effort. There must be something in the -romances which first embodied this conception to account for the enduring -favour it has enjoyed. Nor is it that we read into the old legend meanings -and teachings undreamt of before our day. At a comparatively early stage -in the legend's existence its capacities were perceived, and the works -which were the outcome of that perception became the breviary and the -exemplar of their age. There are reasons, both general and special, why -the Celtic mythic tales grew as they did, and had such overwhelming vogue -in their new shapes. In no portion of the vast Arthurian cycle is it more -needful or more instructive to see what these reasons were than in that -which recounts the fortunes of the Grail. - -The tales of Peredur and Gwalchmai, bound up with the Arthurian romance, -shared its success, than which nothing in all literary history is more -marvellous. It was in the year 1145 that Geoffrey of Monmouth first made -the legendary history of Britain accessible to the lettered class of -England and Continent. He thereby opened up to the world at large a new -continent of romantic story, and exercised upon the development of -literature an influence comparable in its kind to that of Columbus' -achievement upon the course of geographical discovery and political -effort. Twenty years had not passed before the British heroes were -household names throughout Europe, and by the close of the century nearly -every existing literature had assimilated and reproduced the story of -Arthur and his Knights. Charlemagne and Alexander, the sagas of Teutonic -tribes, the tale of Imperial Rome itself, though still affording subject -matter to the wandering jongleur or monkish annalist, paled before the -fame of the British King. The instinct which led the twelfth and -thirteenth centuries thus to place the Arthurian story above all others -was a true one. It was charged with the spirit of romance, and they were -pre-eminently the ages of the romantic temper. The West had turned back -towards the East, and, although the intent was hostile, the minds of the -western men had been fecundated, their imagination fired by contact with -the mother of all religions and all cultures. The achievements of the -Crusaders became the standard of attainment to the loftiest and boldest -minds of Western Christendom. For these men Alexander himself lacked -courage and Roland daring. The fathers had stormed Jerusalem, and the -sons' youth had been nourished on tales of Araby the Blest and Ophir the -Golden of strife with the Paynim, of the sorceries and devilries of the -East. Nothing seemed impossible to a generation which knew of toils and -quests greater than any minstrel had sung, which had beheld in the East -sights as wondrous and fearful as any the jongleur could tell of. -Moreover, the age was that of Knight Errantry, and of that phase of love -in which every Knight must qualify himself for the reception of his lady's -favours by the performance of some feat of skill and daring. Such an age -and such men demanded a special literature, and they found it in -adaptations of Celtic tales. - -The mythic heroic literature of all races is in many respects alike. The -sagas not only of Greek or Persian, of Celt or Hindu, of Slav or Teuton, -but also of Algonquin or Japanese, are largely made up of the same -incidents set in the same framework. But each race shapes this common -material in its own way, sets upon it its own stamp. And no race has done -this more unmistakably than the Celtic. Stories which go back to the first -century, stories taken down from the lips of living peasants, have a -kinship of tone and style, a common ring which no one who has studied this -literature can fail to recognise. What stamps the whole of it is the -prevailing and abiding spirit of romance. To rightly urge the Celtic -character of the Arthurian romances would require the minute analysis of -many hundred passages, and it would only be proving a case admitted by -everyone who knows all the facts. It will be more to the point to dwell -briefly upon those outward features which early (_i.e._, pre-eleventh -century) Celtic heroic literature has in common with the North French -romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, especially as we thus -gain a clue to much that is problematic in the formal and moral growth of -the Arthurian cycle in general and of the Grail cycle in particular. - -In Celtic tradition, as little as in mediæval romance, do we find a record -of race-struggles such as meets us in the Nibelungenlied, in the Dietrich -saga, or the Carolingian cycle.[144] In its place we have a glorification -of the individual hero. The reason is not far to seek. The Celtic tribes, -whether of Ireland or Britain, were surrounded by men of their own speech, -of like institutions and manners. The shock of opposing nations, of rival -civilisations, could not enter into their race-tradition. The -story-teller had as his chief theme the prowess and skill of the -individual "brave," the part he took in the conflicts which clan -incessantly waged with clan, or his encounters with those powers of an -older mythic world which lived on in the folk-fancy. To borrow Mr. -Fitzgerald's convenient terminology, the "constants" of this tradition may -be the same as in that of other Aryan races, the "resultants" are not. To -give one instance: the conception of a chief surrounded by a picked band -of warriors is common to all heroic tradition, but nowhere is it of such -marked importance, nowhere does it so mould and shape the story as in the -cycles of Conchobor and the Knights of the Red Branch, of Fionn and the -Fianna, and of Arthur and his Knights. The careers of any of the early -Irish heroes, the single-handed raids of Cét mac Magach or Conall -Cearnach, above all the fortunes of Cuchullain, his hero's training in the -Amazon-isle, his strife with Curoi mac Daire, his expeditions to -fairy-land, his final holding of the ford against all the warriors of -Erinn, breathe the same spirit of adventure for its own sake, manifest the -same subordination of all else in the story to the one hero, that are such -marked characteristics of the Arthurian romance. - -Again, in the bands of picked braves who surround Conchobor or Fionn, in -the rules by which they are governed, the trials which precede and -determine admission into them, the duties and privileges which attach to -them, we have, it seems to me, a far closer analogue to the knighthood of -mediæval romance than may be found either in the Peers of Carolingian saga -or in the chosen warriors who throng the halls of Walhalla. - -In the present connection the part played by woman in Celtic tradition is -perhaps of most import to us. In no respect is the difference more marked -than in this between the twelfth century romances, whether French or -German, and the earlier heroic literature of either nation. The absence of -feminine interest in the earlier _chansons de geste_ has often been noted. -The case is different with Teutonic heroic literature, in which woman's -_rôle_ is always great, sometimes pre-eminently so. But a comparison of -the two strains of traditions, Celtic and Teutonic, one with the other, -and again with the romances, may help to account for much that is -otherwise inexplicable to us in the mediæval presentment of the -sex-feelings and sex-relations. - -The love of man, and immortal, or, if mortal, semi-divine maid is a -"constant" of heroic tradition. Teuton and Celt have handled this theme, -however, in a very different spirit. In the legends of the former the man -plays the chief part; he woos, sometimes he forces the fairy maiden to -become the mistress of his hearth. As a rule, overmastered by the prowess -and beauty of the hero, she is nothing loth. But sometimes, as does -Brunhild, she feels the change a degradation and resents it. It is -otherwise with the fairy mistresses of the Celtic hero; they abide in -their own place, and they allure or compel the mortal lover to resort to -them. Connla and Bran and Oisin must all leave this earth and sail across -ocean or lake before they can rejoin their lady love; even Cuchullain, -mightiest of all the heroes, is constrained, struggle as he may, to go and -dwell with the fairy queen Fand, who has woed him. Throughout, the -immortal mistress retains her superiority; when the mortal tires and -returns to earth she remains, ever wise and fair, ready to welcome and -enchant a new generation of heroes. She chooses whom she will, and is no -man's slave; herself she offers freely, but she abandons neither her -liberty nor her divine nature. This type of womanhood, capricious, -independent, severed from ordinary domestic life, is assuredly the -original of the Vivians, the Orgueilleuses, the Ladies of the Fountain of -the romances; it is also one which must have commended itself to the -knightly devotees of mediæval romantic love. Their "_dame d'amour_" was, -as a rule, another man's wife; she raised in their minds no thought of -home or child. In the tone of their feelings towards her, in the character -of their intercourse with her, they were closer akin to Oisin and Neave, -to Cuchullain and Fand, than to Siegfried and Brunhild, or to Roland and -Aude. Even where the love-story passes wholly among mortals, the woman's -_rôle_ is more accentuated than in the Teutonic sagas. She is no mere -lay-figure upon a fire-bound rock like Brunhild or Menglad, ready, when -the destined hero appears, to fall straightway into his arms. Emer, the -one maiden of Erinn whom Cuchullain condescends to woo, is eager to show -herself in all things worthy of him; she tests his wit as well as his -courage, she makes him accept her conditions.[145] In the great tragic -tale of ancient Ireland, the Fate of the Sons of Usnech, Deirdre--born -like Helen or Gudrun, to be a cause of strife among men, of sorrow and -ruin to whomsoever she loves--Deirdre takes her fate into her own hands, -and woos Noisi with outspoken passionate frankness. The whole story is -conceived and told in a far more "romantic" strain than is the case with -parallel stories from Norse tradition, the loves of Helgi and Sigrun, or -those of Sigurd and Brunhild-Gudrun. And if the lament of Deirdre over her -slain love lacks the grandeur and the intensity with which the Norse -heroines bewail their dead lords, it has, on the other hand, an intimate, -a personal touch we should hardly have looked for in an eleventh century -Irish epic.[146] - -Another link between the Celtic sagas and the romances is their treatment -of the supernatural. Heroic-traditional literature is made up of mythical -elements, of scenes, incidents, and formulas which have done service in -that account of man's dealings with and conceptions of the visible world -which we call mythology. All such literature derives ultimately from an -early, wholly animistic stage of culture. Small marvel, then, if in the -hero-tales of every race there figure wonder-working talismans and -bespelled weapons, if almost every great saga has, as part of its -_dramatis personæ_, objects belonging to what we should now call the -inanimate world. Upon these a species of life is conferred, most often by -power of magic, but at times, it would seem, in virtue of the older -conception which held all things to be endowed with like life. All heroic -literatures do not, however, accentuate equally and similarly this magic -side of their common stock. Celtic tradition is not only rich and varied -beyond all others in this respect, it often thus secures its chief -artistic effects. The talismans of Celtic romance, the fairy branch of -Cormac, the Ga-bulg of Cuchullain, the sounding-hammer of Fionn, the -treasures of the Boar Trwyth after which Prince Kilhwch sought, the -glaives of light of the living folk-tale, have one and all a weird, -fantastic, half-human existence, which haunts and thrills the imagination. -No Celtic story-teller could have "mulled" the Nibelung-hoard as the poet -of the Nibelungenlied has done. How different in this respect the twelfth -century romances are from the earlier German or French sagas, how close to -the Irish tales is apparent to whomsoever reads them with attention.[147] - -I do not for one moment imply that the romantic literature of the Middle -Ages was what it was, wholly or even mainly in virtue of its Celtic -affinities. That literature was the outcome of the age, and something akin -to it would have sprung up had Celtic tradition remained unknown to the -Continent. The conception of feudal knighthood as a favoured class, in -which men of different nations met on a common footing; the conception of -knightly love as something altogether disassociated from domestic life, -must in any case have led to the constitution of such a society as we find -portrayed in the romances. What is claimed is that the spirit of the age, -akin to the Celtic, recognised in Celtic tales the food it was hungering -for. It transformed them to suit its own needs and ideas, but it carried -out the transformation on the whole in essential agreement with tradition. -In some cases a radical change is made; such a one is presented to us in -the Grail cycle. - -The legend thus started with the advantages of belonging to the popular -literature of the time, and of association through Brons with Christian -tradition. Its incidents were varied, and owing to the blending of diverse -strains of story vague enough to be plastic. The formal development of the -cycle has been traced in the earlier chapters of these studies; that of -its ideal conceptions will be found to follow similar lines. Various -ethical intentions can be distinguished, and there is not more difference -between the versions in the conduct of the story than in the ideals they -set forth. - -To some readers it may have seemed well nigh sacrilegious to trace that - - ... vanished Vase of Heaven - That held like Christ's own Heart an Hin of Blood, - -to the magic vessels of pagan deities. In England the Grail-legend is -hardly known save in that form which it has assumed in the Queste. This -French romance was one of those which Malory embodied in his _rifacimento_ -of the Arthurian cycle, and, thanks to Malory, it has become a portion of -English speech and thought.[148] In our own days our greatest poet has -expressed the quintessence of what is best and purest in the old romance -in lines of imperishable beauty. As we follow Sir Galahad by secret shrine -and lonely mountain mere until - - Ah, blessed vision! Blood of God, - The spirit beats her mortal bars, - As down dark tides the glory slides, - And star-like mingles with the stars. - -we are under a spell that may not be resisted. And yet of the two main -paths which the legend has trodden that of Galahad is the least fruitful -and the least beautiful. Compared with the Perceval Quest in its highest -literary embodiment the Galahad Quest is false and antiquated on the -ethical side, lifeless on the æsthetic side. - -As it first meets us in literature the legend has barely emerged from its -pure and simple narrative stage. There is a temptation to exaggerate -Chrestien's skill of conception when speculating how he would have -finished his work, but we know enough, probably, to correctly gauge his -intentions. It has been said he meant to portray the ideal knight in -Perceval. As was formerly the wont of authors he presents his hero in a -good light, and he may be credited with a perception of the opportunity -afforded him by his subject for placing that hero in positions wherein a -knight could best distinguish himself. In so far his work may be accepted -as his picture of a worthy knight. But I can discover in it no scheme of a -quest after the highest good to be set forth by means of the incidents at -his command. Perceval is brave as a matter of course, punctual in obeying -the counsels of his mother and of his teachers, Gonemans and the -hermit-uncle, unaffectedly repentant when he is convicted of having -neglected his religious duties. But it cannot be said that the hermit's -exhortations or the hero's repentance, confession, and absolution mark, or -are intended to mark, a definite stage in a progress towards spiritual -perfection. The explanation of the hero's silence as a consequence of his -sin in leaving his mother, shows how little real thought has been bestowed -upon the subject. This explanation, whether wholly Chrestien's, as I am -tempted to think, or complacently reproduced from his model, gives the -measure of his skill in constructing an allegory. Beyond insistence upon -such points (the hero's docility) as were indicated to him by his model, -or, as in the case of his religious opinions, were a matter of course in a -work of the time, Chrestien gives Perceval no higher morality, no loftier -aims than those of the day. The ideal of chastity, soon to become of such -importance in the development of the legend, is nowhere set forth. -Perceval, like Gawain, takes full advantage of what _bonnes fortunes_ come -in his way. And if the Quest connotes no spiritual ideal, still less does -it one of temporal sovereignty. Had Chrestien finished his story he would -have made Perceval heal the Maimed King and win his kingdom, but that -kingdom would not have been a type of the highest earthly magnificence. We -have seen reason to hold that Chrestien made one great change in the story -as he found it in his model; he assigns the Fisher-King's illness to a -wound received in battle. This he did, I think, simply with a view to -shortening the story by leaving out the whole of the Partinal episode. No -mystical conception was floating in his mind. Yet, as we shall see, the -shape which he gave to this incident strongly influenced some of the later -versions, and gave the hint for the most philosophical _motif_ to be found -in the whole cycle. - -The immediate continuators of Chrestien lift the legend to no higher -level. I incline to think that Gautier, with less skill of narrative and -far greater prolixity, yet trod closely in Chrestien's footsteps. In the -love episodes he is as full of charm as the more celebrated poet. The -second meeting of Perceval and Blanchefleur is told with that graceful -laughing _naïveté_ of which French literature of the period has the -secret. But of a plan, an animating conception even such slight traces as -Chrestien had introduced into the story are lacking. Here, as in -Chrestien, the mysterious talismans themselves in no way help forward the -story. Chrestien certainly had the Christian signification of them in his -mind, but makes no use of it. The Vessel of the Last Supper, the Spear -that pierced Christ's side might be any magic spear or vessel as far as he -is concerned. The original Pagan essence is retained; the name alone is -changed. - -Thus far had the legend grown when it came into the hands of the author of -the Queste. The subject matter had been partly shaped and trimmed by a -master of narrative, the connection with Christian tradition had been -somewhat accentuated. It was open to the author of the Queste to take the -story as it stood, and to read into its incidents a deep symbolical -meaning based upon the Christian character of the holy talismans. He -preferred to act otherwise. He broke entirely with the traditional -framework, dispossessed the original hero, and left not an incident of his -model untouched. But his method of proceeding may be likened to a shuffle -rather than to a transformation. The incidents reappear in other -connection, but do not reveal the author's plan any more than is the case -in the Conte du Graal. The Christian character of the talismans is dwelt -upon with almost wearisome iteration, the sacramental act supplies the -matter of many and of the finest scenes, and yet the essence of the -talismans is unchanged. The Holy Grail, the Cup of the Last Supper, the -Sacramental Chalice is still when it appears the magic food-producing -vessel of the old Pagan sagas. What is the author's idea? Undoubtedly to -show that the attainment of the highest spiritual good is not a thing of -this world; only by renouncing every human desire, only by passing into a -land intermediary between this earth and heaven, is the Quest achieved. In -the story of the prosecution of that Quest some attempt may be traced at -portraying the cardinal virtues and deadly sins by means of the adventures -of the questers, and of the innumerable exhortations addressed to them. -But no skill is shown in the conduct of this plan, which is carried out -chiefly by the introduction of numerous allegorical scenes which are made -a peg for lengthy dogmatic and moral expositions. In this respect the -author compares unfavourably with Robert de Borron, who shapes his story -in full accord with his conception of the Grail itself, a conception -deriving directly from the symbolic Christian nature he attributed to it, -and who makes even such unpromising incidents as that of the Magic Fisher -subserve his guiding idea.[149] - -If the author's way of carrying out his conception cannot be praised, how -does it stand with the conception itself? The fact that the Quest is -wholly disassociated from this earth at once indicates the standpoint of -the romance. The first effect of the Quest's proclamation is to break up -the Table Round, that type of the noblest human society of the day, and -its final achievement brings cheer or strengthening to no living man. The -successful questers alone in their unhuman realm have any joy of the -Grail. The spirit in which they prosecute their quest is best exemplified -by Sir Bors. When he comes to the magic tower and is tempted of the -maidens, who threaten to cast themselves down and be dashed to pieces -unless he yield them his love, he is sorry for them, but unmoved, thinking -it better "they lose their souls than he his." So little had the Christian -writer apprehended the signification of Christ's most profound saying. The -character of the principal hero is in consonancy with this aim, wholly -remote from the life of man on earth. A shadowy perfection at the outset, -he remains a shadowy perfection throughout, a bloodless and unreal -creature, as fit when he first appears upon the scene as when he quits it, -to accomplish a quest, purposeless, inasmuch as it only removes him from a -world in which he has neither part nor share. Such human interest as there -is in the story is supplied by Lancelot, who takes over many of the -adventures of Perceval or Gawain in the Conte du Graal. In him we note -contrition for past sin, strivings after a higher life with which we can -sympathise. In fine, such moral teaching as the Queste affords is given us -rather by sinful Lancelot than by sinless Galahad. - -But the aversion to this world takes a stronger form in the Queste, and -one which is the vital conception of the work, in the insistence upon the -need for physical chastity. To rightly understand the author's position we -must glance at the state of manners revealed by the romances, and in -especial at the sex-relations as they were conceived of by the most -refined and civilised men and women of the day. The French romances are, -as a rule, too entirely narrative to enable a clear realisation of what -these were. Wolfram, with his keener and more sympathetic eye for -individual character--Wolfram, who loves to analyse the sentiments and to -depict the outward manifestations of feeling of his personages--is our -best guide here. The manners and customs of the day can be found in the -French romances; the feelings which underlie them must be sought for in -the German poet. - -The marked feature of the sex-relations in the days of chivalry was the -institution of _minnedienst_ (love-service). The knight bound himself to -serve a particular lady, matron or maid. To approve himself brave, hardy, -daring, patient, and discreet was his part of the bargain, and when -fulfilled the lady must fulfil hers and pay her servant. The relation must -not for one moment be looked upon as platonic; the last favours were in -every case exacted, or rather were freely granted, as the lady, whether -maid or wedded wife, thought it no wrong thus to reward her knight. It -would have been "bad form" to deny payment when the service had been -rendered, and the offender guilty of such conduct would have been scouted -by her fellow-women as well as by all men. Nothing is more instructive in -this connection than the delightfully told episode of Gawain and -Orgueilleuse. The latter is unwedded, a great and noble lady, but she has -already had several favoured lovers, as indeed she frankly tells Gawain. -He proffers his service, which she hardly accepts, but heaps upon him all -manner of indignity and insult, which he bears with the patient and -resourceful courtesy, his characteristic in mediæval romance. Whilst the -time of probation lasts, no harsh word, no impatient gesture, escapes him. -But when he has accomplished the feat of the Ford Perillous he feels that -he has done enough, and taking his lady-love to task he lectures her, as a -grave middle-aged man might some headstrong girl, upon the duties of a -well-bred woman and upon the wrong she has done knighthood in his person. -To point the moral he winds up, at mid-day in the open forest, with a -proposition which the repentant scornful one can only parry by the naïve -remark, "Seldom she had found it warm in the embrace of a mail-clad arm." -Not only was it the lady's duty to yield after a proper delay, but at -times she might even make the first advances and be none the worse thought -of. Blanchefleur comes to Perceval's bed with scarce an apology.[150] -Orgueilleuse, overcome with admiration at the Red Knight's prowess, offers -him her love. True, she has doubts as to the propriety of her conduct, but -when she submits them to Gawain, the favoured lover for the time being, he -unhesitatingly approves her--Perceval's fame was such that had he accepted -her proffered love she could have suffered naught in honour. - -Customs such as these, and a state of feelings such as they imply, are so -remote from us, that it is difficult to realise them, particularly in view -of the many false statements respecting the nature of chivalrous love -which have obtained currency. But we must bear in mind that the age was -pre-eminently one of individual prowess. The warlike virtues were all in -all. That a man should be brave, hardy, and skilful in the use of his -weapons was the essential in a time when the single hero was almost of as -much account as in the days of Achilles, Siegfried, or Cuchullain. That -_minnedienst_ tended to this end, as did other institutions of the day -which we find equally blamable, is its historical excuse. Even then many -felt its evils and perceived its anti-social character. Some, too, there -were who saw how deeply it degraded the ideal of love. - -A protest against this morality was indeed desirable. Such a one the -Queste does supply. But it is not enough to protest in a matter so -profoundly affecting mankind as the moral ideas which govern the -sex-relations. Not only must the protest be made in a right spirit, and on -the right lines, but a truer and loftier ideal must be set up in place of -the one attacked. In how far the Queste fulfils these conditions we shall -see. Meanwhile, as a sample of the feelings with which many Englishmen -have regarded it, and as an attempt to explain its historical and ethical -_raison d'être_, I cannot do better than quote Mr. Furnivall's -enthusiastic words: "What is the lesson of it all? Is the example of -Galahad and his unwavering pursuit of the highest spiritual object set -before him, nothing to us? Is that of Perceval, pure and tempted, on the -point of yielding, yet saved by the sight of the symbol of his Faith, to -be of no avail to us? Is the tale of Bohors, who has once sinned, but by a -faithful life ... at last tasting spiritual food, and returning to devote -his days to God and Good--is this no lesson to us?... On another point, -too, this whole Arthur story may teach us. Monkish, to some extent, the -exaltation of bodily chastity above almost every other earthly virtue is; -but the feeling is a true one; it is founded on a deep reverence for -woman, which is the most refining and one of the noblest sentiments of -man's nature, one which no man can break through without suffering harm to -his spiritual life." - -It would be hard to find a more striking instance of how the "editorial -idol" may override perception and judgment. He who draws such lofty and -noble teachings from the Queste del Saint Graal, must first bring them -himself. He must read modern religion, modern morality into the mediæval -allegory, and on one point he must entirely falsify the mediæval -conception. Whether this is desirable is a question we can have no -hesitation in deciding negatively. It is better to find out what the -author really meant than to interpret his symbolism in our own fashion. - -The author of the Queste places the object and conditions of his mystic -quest wholly outside the sphere of human action or interest; in a similar -spirit he insists, as an indispensable requirement in the successful -quester, upon a qualification necessarily denied to the vast majority of -mankind. His work is a glorification of physical chastity. "Blessed are -the pure--in body--for they shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven," is the -text upon which he preaches. In such a case everything depends upon the -spirit of the preacher, and good intent is not enough to win praise. His -conception, says Mr. Furnivall, is founded upon a deep reverence for -woman. This is, indeed, such a precious thing that had the mediæval -ascetic really felt it we could have forgiven the stupidity which ignores -all that constitutes the special dignity and pathos of womanhood. But he -felt nothing of the kind. Woman is for him the means whereby sin came into -the world, the arch stumbling-block, the tool the devil finds readiest to -his hands when he would overcome man. Only in favour of the Virgin Mother, -and of those who like her are vowed to mystical maidenhood, does the -author pardon woman at all. One single instance will suffice to -characterize the mediæval standpoint. When the Quest of the Holy Grail was -first proclaimed in Arthur's Court there was great commotion, and the -ladies would fain have joined therein, "car cascune dame ou damoiselle -(qui) fust espousée ou amie, dist à son chiualer qu'ele yroit od lui en la -queste." But a hermit comes forward to forbid this; "No dame or damsel is -to accompany her knight lest he fall into deadly sin." Wife or leman, it -was all one for the author of the Queste; woman could not but be an -occasion for deadly sin, and the sin, though in the one case less in -degree (and even this is uncertain), was the same in kind. Fully one-half -of the romance is one long exemplification of the essential vileness of -the sex-relation, worked out with the minute and ingenious nastiness of a -Jesuit moral theologian. The author was of his time; it was natural he -should think and write as he did, and it would be uncritical to blame him -for his degrading view of womanhood or for his narrow and sickly view of -life. But when we are bidden to seek example of him, it is well to state -the facts as they are.[151] - -If his transformation of the story has been rudely effected without regard -to its inherent possibilities, if the spirit of his ideal proves to be -miserably ascetic and narrow, what then remains to the Queste, and how may -we account for its popularity in its own day, and for the abiding -influence which its version of the legend has exercised over posterity. -Its literary qualities are at times great; certain scenes, especially such -as set forth the sacramental nature of the Grail, are touched with a -mystical fervour which haunts the imagination. It has given some of the -most picturesque features to this most picturesque of legends. But I see -in the idea of the mystic quest proclaimed to and shared in by the whole -Table Round the real secret of the writer's success. This has struck the -imagination of so many generations and given the Queste an undeserved -fame. In truth the conception of Arthur's court, laying aside ordinary -cares and joys, given wholly up to one overmastering spiritual aim, is a -noble one. It is, I think, only in a slight degree the outcome of definite -thought and intent but was dictated to the writer by the form into which -he had recast the story. Galahad had supplanted Perceval, but the latter -could not be suppressed entirely. The achievement of the quest involved -the passing away out of this world of the chief heroes, hence a third less -perfect one is joined to them to bring back tidings to earth of the -marvels he had witnessed. Lancelot, to whom are assigned so many of -Perceval's adventures, cannot be denied a share in the quest; it is the -same with Gawain, whose character in the older romance fits him, moreover, -excellently for the _rôle_ of "dreadful example." By this time the -Arthurian legend was fully grown, and the mention of these Knights called -up the names of others with whom they were invariably connected by the -romance writers. Well nigh every hero of importance was thus drawn into -the magic circle, and the mystic Quest assumed, almost inevitably, the -shape it did. - -This conception, to which, if I am right, the author of the Queste was led -half unconsciously, seems to us the most admirable thing in his work. It -was, however, his ideal of virginity which struck the idea of his -contemporaries, and which left its mark upon after versions. An age with -such a gross ideal of love may have needed an equally gross ideal of -purity. Physical chastity plays henceforth the leading part in the moral -development of the cycle. With Robert de Borron it is the sin of the flesh -which brings down upon the Grail host the wrath of Heaven, and -necessitates the display of the Grail's wondrous power. Here may be noted -the struggle of the new conception with the older form of the story. -Alain, the virgin knight, would rather be flayed than marry, and yet he -does marry in obedience to the original model. Robert is consistent in all -that relates to the symbolism of the Grail, but in other respects, as we -have already seen, he is easily thrown off his guard. In the -Didot-Perceval, written as a sequel to Robert's poem, the same struggle -between old and new continues, and the reconciling spirit goes to work in -naïve and unskilful style. The incidents of the Conte du Graal are kept, -although they accord but ill with the hero's ascetic spirit. In the -portion of the Conte du Graal itself which goes under Manessier's name, -along with adventures taken direct from Chrestien's model, and far less -Christianised than in the earlier poet's work, many occur which are -simply transferred from the Queste. No attempt is made at reconciling -these jarring elements, and the effect of the contrast is at times almost -comic. In two of the later romances of the cycle the fusion has been more -complete, and the result is, in consequence, more interesting. The prose -Perceval le Gallois keeps the original hero of the Quest as far as name -and kinship are concerned, but it gives him the aggressive virginity and -the proselytising zeal of Galahad. Gerbert's finish to the Conte du Graal -is, perhaps, the strangest outcome of the double set of influences to -which the later writers were exposed. Without doubt his model differed -from the version used by Gautier and Manessier. It is more Celtic in tone, -and is curiously akin to the hypothetical lost source of Wolfram von -Eschenbach. The hero's absence from his lady-love is insisted upon, and -the need of returning to her before he can find peace. The genuineness of -this feature admits of little doubt. Many folk-tales tell of the severance -of lover and beloved, and of their toilful wanderings until they meet -again; such a tale easily lends itself to the idea that separation is -caused by guilt, and that, whilst severed, one or other lover must suffer -misfortune. Often, as in the case of Diarmaid and the Daughter of King -Under the Waves (_supra_, p. 194), definite mention is made of the guilt, -as a rule an infringed taboo. Such an incident could scarcely fail to -assume the ethical shape Gerbert has given it. Thus he had only to listen -to his model, to take his incidents as he found them, and he had the -matter for a moral conception wholly in harmony with them. The chastity -ideal has been too strong for him. His lovers do come together, but only -to exemplify the virtue of continence in the repulsive story of their -bridal night. After Gerbert the cycle lengthens, but does not develop. The -Queste retains its supremacy, and through Malory its dominant conception -entered deeply into the consciousness of the English race. - -How far the author of the Queste must be credited with the new ideal he -brought into the legend is worth enquiry. Like so much else therein, it -may have its roots in the folk and hero tales which underlie the romances. -The Castle of Talismans visited by Perceval is the Land of Shades. In -popular tradition the incident takes the form of entry into the hollow -hill-side where the fairy king holds his court and hoards untold riches. -Poverty and simplicity are the frequent qualifications of the successful -quester; oftener still some mystic birthright, the being a Sunday's child -for instance, or a seventh son; or again freedom from sin is required, -and, perhaps, most frequently maidenhood.[152] The stress which so many -peoples lay upon virginity in the holy prophetic maidens, who can -transport themselves into the otherworld and bring thence the commands of -the god, may be noted in the same connection. No Celtic tale I have -examined with a view to throwing light upon the Grail romances insists -upon this idea, but some version, now lost, may possibly have done so. -Celtic tradition gave the romance writers of the Middle Ages material and -form for the picture of human love; it may also have given them a hint of -the opposing ideal of chastity.[153] - -All this time it should be noted that no real progress is made in the -symbolical machinery of the legend. The Holy Grail becomes superlatively -sacrosanct, but it retains its pristine pagan essence, even in the only -version, the Grand St. Graal, which knew of Borron and of his mystical -conception. - -Such, then, had been the growth of the legend in one direction. The -original incidents were either transformed, mutilated, or, where they kept -their first shape, underwent no ethical deepening or widening. The -talismans themselves had been transferred from Celtic to Christian -mythology, but their fate was still bound up with the otherworld. He who -would seek them must turn his back upon this earth from which the Palace -Spiritual and the City of Sarras were even more remote than Avalon or -Tir-na n-Og. Was no other course open? Could not framework and incidents -of the Celtic tales be retained, and yet, raised to a loftier, wider -level, become a fit vehicle for philosophic thought and moral exhortation? -One side of popular tradition figured the hero as wresting the talismans -from the otherworld powers for the benefit of his fellow men. Could not -this form of the myth be made to yield a human, practical conception of -the Quest and Winning of the Holy Grail? - -We are luckily not reduced to conjecture in this matter. A work largely -fulfilling these hypothetical requirements exists in the Parzival of -Wolfram von Eschenbach. On the whole it is the most interesting individual -work of modern European literature prior to the Divina Commedia, and its -author has a better claim than any other mediæval poet to be called a man -of genius. He must, of course, be measured by the standard of his time. It -would be useless to expect from him that homogeneity of narrative, that -artistic proportion of style first met with 150 years later in Italy, and -which from Italy passed into all European literatures. Compared with the -unknown poets who gave their present shape to the Nibelungenlied or to the -Chanson de Roland he is an individual writer, but he is far from deserving -this epithet even in the sense that Chaucer deserves it. His subject -dominates him. Even when his philosophic mind is conceiving it under a new -aspect he anxiously holds to the traditional form. Hence great -inconsistencies in his treatment of the theme, hence, too, the frequent -difficulty in interpreting his meaning, the frequent doubt as to how far -the interpretation is correct. Here, as in the discussion respecting the -_origines_ of the Grail legend, resort must often be had to conjecture, -and any solution of the fascinating problems involved is necessarily and -largely subjective. - -Wolfram's relation to his predecessors must be taken into account in -estimating the value of the Parzival. The earlier portion of his work -differs entirely, as we have seen, from any existing French romance; so -does the finish in so far as it agrees with the opening. The greater part -of the story is closely parallel to Chrestien; there are points of -contact, peculiar to these two writers, with Gerbert. Little invention, -properly so called, of incident can be traced in the Parzival. The part -common to it and Chrestien is incomparably fuller and more interesting in -the German poet, but the main outlines are the same. Wolfram has, however, -been at some pains to let us know what was his conception of the legend. -That much is allowed to remain at variance therewith is a clear proof of -his timidity of invention. - -Doubt, he says, is the most potent corrupter of the soul. Whoso gives -himself over to unfaith and unsteadfastness treadeth in truth the downward -path. God Himself is very faithfulness. Strife against Him, doubt of Him, -is the highest sin. But humility and repentance may expiate it, and he who -thus repents may be chosen by God for the Grail Kingship, the summit of -earthly holiness. Peace of soul and all earthly power are the chosen -one's; alone, unlawful desire and the company of sinners are denied him by -the Grail. - -How is this leading conception worked out? The framework and the march of -incidents are the same as in the Conte du Graal. One capital change at -once, however, lifts the story to a higher level. The Fisher King suffers -from a wound received in the cause of unlawful love, in disobedience to -those heavenly commands which govern the Grail community. The healing -question can be put only by one worthy to take up the high office Amfortas -has dishonoured, in virtue of having passed through the strife of doubt, -and become reconciled to God by repentance and humble trust. If Parzival -neglected to put the question on his first arrival at the Grail Castle, it -was that in the conceit of youth he fancied all wisdom was his. Childish -insistence upon his mother's counsels had brought down reproof upon him; -he had learnt the world's wisdom from Gurnemanz, he had shown himself in -defence of Conduiramur a valiant knight, worthy of power and woman's love. -When brought into contact with the torturing sorrow of Amfortas, he is too -full of himself, of his teacher's wisdom, to rightly use the opportunity. - -The profound significance of the question which at once releases the -sinner, and announces the one way in which the sin may be cancelled, -namely, by the coming of a worthier successor, is due, if we may credit -Birch-Hirschfeld, to an accident. Wolfram only knew Chrestien. The latter -never explains the real nature of the Grail, and the German poet's -knowledge of French was too slight to put him on the right track. The -question, "Whom serve they with the Grail?" which he found in Chrestien, -was necessarily meaningless to him, and he replaced it by his, "Uncle, -what is it tortures thee?" The change _may_ be the result of accident as -is so much else in this marvellous legend, but it required a man of genius -to turn the accident to such account. It is the insistence upon charity as -the herald and token of spiritual perfection that makes the grandeur of -Wolfram's poem, and raises it so immeasureably above the Queste. - -The same human spirit is visible in the delineation of the Grail Kingship -as the type of the highest good. Wolfram's theology is distinctively -antinomian--no man may win the Grail in his own strength; it choseth whom -it will--and has been claimed on the one hand[154] as a reflex of orthodox -Catholic belief, on the other as a herald of the Lutheran doctrine of -grace.[155] Theological experts may be left to fight out this question -among themselves. Apart from this, Wolfram has a practical sense of the -value of human effort. With him the Quest is not to be achieved by utter -isolation from this earth and its struggles. The chief function of the -Grail Kingdom is to supply an abiding type of a divinely ordered Society; -it also trains up leaders for those communities which lack them. It is a -civilising power as well as a Palace Spiritual. - -In the relation of man to Heaven, Wolfram, whilst fully accepting the -doctrines of his age, appeals to the modern spirit with far greater power -and directness than the Queste. In the other great question of the legend, -the relation of man to woman, he is likewise nearer to us, although it -must be confessed that he builds better than he knows. To the love ideal -of his day, based wholly upon passion and vanity and severed from all -family feeling, he opposes the wedded love of Parzival and Conduiramur. -The hero's recollection of the mother of his children is the one saving -influence throughout the years of doubt and discouragement which follow -Kundrie's reproaches. Whilst still staggering under this blow, so cruelly -undeserved as it seems to him, he can wish his friend and comrade, Gawain, -a woman chaste and good, whom he may love and who shall be his guardian -angel. The thought of Conduiramur holds him aloof from the offered love of -Orgeluse. In his last and bitterest fight, with his unknown brother, when -it had nigh gone with him to his death, he recalls her and renews the -combat with fresh strength. She it is for whom he wins the highest earthly -crown, of which her pure, womanly heart makes her worthy. Reunion with her -and with his children is Parzival's first taste of the joy that is -henceforth to be his. - -Passages may easily be multiplied that tally ill with the ideas of the -poem as here briefly set forth. But the existence of these ideas is patent -to the unprejudiced reader. Despite its many shortcomings, the poem which -contains them is the noblest and most human outcome of that mingled strain -of Celtic fancy and Christian symbolism whose history we have traced.[156] - -In Wolfram, equally with the majority of the French romance writers, there -is little consistency in the formal use of the mystic talismans. Be the -reason what it may, Wolfram certainly never thought of associating the -Grail with the Last Supper. But its religious character is, at times, as -marked with him as with Robert de Borron or the author of the Queste. It -is the actual vehicle of the Deity's commands; it restrains from sin; it -suffers no unchaste servant; it may be seen of no heathen; the simple -beholding of it preserves men from death. This last characteristic would -be thought in modern times a sufficient tribute to the original nature of -the old pagan cauldron of increase and rejuvenescence. But Wolfram was of -his time, and followed his models faithfully. Along with the lofty -spiritual attributes of his Grail, he pictures in drastic fashion its -food-dispensing powers. The mystic stone, fallen from Heaven itself, -renewed each Good Friday by direct action of the Spirit, becomes all at -once a mere victual producing machine. We can see how little Wolfram liked -this feature of his model, and how he felt the contrast between it and his -own more spiritual conception. But here, as elsewhere in the poem, he -allowed much to stand against which his better judgment protested. His own -share in the development of the legend must be gauged by what is -distinctively his, not by what he has in common with others. Judged thus, -he must be said to have developed the Christian symbolic side of the -legend as much as the human philosophic side. If in Robert de Borron the -Grail touches its highest symbolic level through its identification with -the body of the dead and risen Lord, we can trace in Wolfram the germ of -that approximation of the Grail-Quester to the earthly career of the -Saviour which Wagner was to develop more than 600 years later.[157] - -What influence Wolfram's poem, with its practical, human enthusiasm, its -true and noble sexual morality, might have had on English literature is an -interesting speculation. It would have appealed, one would think, to our -race with its utilitarian ethical instinct, with its lofty ideal of wedded -love. The true man, Parzival, should, in the fitness of things, be the -English hero of the Quest, rather than the visionary ascetic Galahad. -Mediæval England was dominated by France and knew nothing of Germany, and -when in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries we can trace German -influence on English thought and writ, taste had changed, and the Parzival -was well-nigh forgotten in its own land. It remained so almost until our -own days. The Quest after Perfection still haunted the German mind, but it -was conceived of on altogether different lines from those of the twelfth -century poet. The nation of scholars pictured the quester as a student, -not as a knight. When it took shape in the dreary period of Protestant -scholasticism the quest is wholly cursed. Faust's pursuit of knowledge is -unlawful, a rebellion against God, which dooms him irrevocably. Not until -Goethe's day is the full significance of the legend perceived, is the -theme widened to embrace the totality of human striving. Thus the last -glimpse we have of Faust is of one devoted to the service of man; the last -words of the poem are a recognition of the divine element in the love of -man and woman.[158] - -In Germany, as in England, the old legend has appealed afresh to poets and -thinkers, and then, as was natural, they turned to Germany's greatest -mediæval poet. Wagner's Parsifal would, in any case, be interesting as an -expression of one of the strongest dramatic geniuses of the century. -Considered purely as a work of literature, apart from the music, it has -rare beauty and profound significance. The essentially dramatic bent of -Wagner's mind, the stage destination of the poem, must be borne in mind -when considering it. Wolfram's conception--youthful folly and inexperience -chastised by reproof, followed by doubt and strife, cancelled by the -faithful steadfastness of the full-grown man--is obviously unsuited for -dramatic purposes. At no one point of Wolfram's poem do we find that clash -of motives and of characters which the stage requires. In building up -_his_ conception Wagner has utilised every hint of his predecessor with -wonderful ingenuity. Klinschor, the magician, becomes with him the active -opponent of the Grail King, Amfortas, from whom he has wrested the holy -spear by the aid of Kundry's unholy beauty. Kundry is Wagner's great -contribution to the legend. She is the Herodias whom Christ for her -laughter doomed to wander till He come again. Subject to the powers of -evil, she must tempt and lure to their destruction the Grail warriors. And -yet she would find release and salvation could a man resist her love -spell.[159] She knows this. The scene between the unwilling temptress, -whose success would but doom her afresh, and the virgin Parsifal thus -becomes tragic in the extreme. How does this affect Amfortas and the -Grail? In this way. Parsifal is the "pure fool," knowing nought of sin or -suffering. It had been foretold of him he should become "wise by -fellow-suffering," and so it proves. The overmastering rush of desire -unseals his eyes, clears his mind. Heart-wounded by the shaft of passion, -he feels Amfortas' torture thrill through him. The pain of the physical -wound is his, but far more, the agony of the sinner who has been unworthy -his high trust, and who, soiled by carnal sin, must yet daily come in -contact with the Grail, symbol of the highest purity and holiness. The -strength which comes of the new-born knowledge enables him to resist -sensual longing, and thereby to release both Kundry and Amfortas. - -In the latest version of the Perceval Quest, as in the Galahad Quest, the -ideal of chastity is thus paramount. This result is due to Wagner's -dramatic treatment of the theme. The conception that knowledge of sin and -fellowship in suffering are requisite to enable man to resist temptation, -and that thus alone does he acquire the needful strength to assist his -fellows, however true and profound, can obviously only be worked out on -the stage through the medium of one form of sin and suffering. The long -psychological process of Wolfram's poem, the slow growth of the unthinking -youth into the steadfast, faithful man, is replaced by a mystic, -transcendental conversion. From out a world of human endeavour, human -motive, we have stepped into one wholly ascetic and symbolical. The love -of man for woman only appears in the guise of forbidden desire; the aims -and needs of this world are not even thought of. Every incident has been -remoulded in accord with Christian tradition. Wagner fully accepts the -sacramental nature of the Grail, and the Grail feast is with him a -faithful reproduction of the Last Supper. Holiness and purity are the -essence of the Grail, which is cleared from every taint of its pagan -origin. And whilst Wagner, following the French models, identifies the -Grail with the most sacred object of Christian worship, he also, -developing hints of Wolfram's, reshapes the career of his Grail-seeker in -accord with that of Christ. Parsifal, the releaser of sin-stricken Kundry, -of sin-stricken Amfortas--Parsifal, the restorer of peace and holiness to -the Grail Kingdom--becomes a symbol of the Saviour. - -In the reasoned, artistic growth of the legend, the plastic, living -element is that supplied by Christian tradition. From the moment that the -Celtic lord of the underworld is identified with the evangelist of Britain -we see the older complex of tales acquire consistency, life, and meaning. -Even where the direct influence of the intruding element is slightest, as -in the Conte du Graal, we can still perceive that it is responsible for -the germs of after development. Sometimes violently and unintelligently, -sometimes with a keen feeling for the possibilities of the original -romance, sometimes with the boldest introduction of new matter, sometimes -with slavish adherence to pre-Christian conceptions, the transformation of -the Celtic tales goes on. The cauldron of increase and renovation, the -glaive of light, the magic fish, the visit to the otherworld, all are -gradually metamorphosed until at last the talisman of the Irish gods -becomes the symbol of the risen Lord, its seeker a type of Christ in His -divinest attributes. - -The ethical teaching of the legend becomes also purely Christian as the -Middle Ages conceived Christianity. Renunciation of the world and of the -flesh is its key-note. Once only in Wolfram do we find an ideal human in -its essence, though dogmatic in form; the path thus opened is not trodden -further, and the legend remains as a whole, on the moral side, a monument -of Christian asceticism. - -We have seen reason to surmise that the folk-tales which underlie the -romances themselves gave the hint for the most characteristic -manifestation of this ascetic ideal. It is worth enquiry if these tales -have developed themselves independently from the Christianised legend, and -if such development shows any trace of ethical conceptions comparable with -those of the legend. Can we gather from the tales as fashioned by the folk -teaching similar to that of the preachers, philosophers, and artists by -whom the legend has been shaped? Few enquiries can be more interesting -than one which traces such a conception as the Quest after the highest -good as pictured by the rudest and most primitive members of the race. - -Many of the tales which formed a part of the (hypothetical) Welsh original -of the earliest Grail romances have been shown to come under the Aryan -Expulsion and Return Formula (_supra_, Ch. VI). Among most races this -formula has connected itself with the national heroes, and has given rise -to hero-tales in which the historical element outweighs the ethical. -Sometimes, as in the tale of Perseus, the incidents are so related as to -bring out an ethical _motif_; Perseus is certainly thought of as avenging -his mother's undeserved wrongs. I cannot trace anything of the kind among -the Celts. All the incidents of the formula in Celtic tradition which I -know of are purely historical in character. This element of the old -Saga-mass thus yields nothing for the present enquiry. Others are more -fruitful. Perceval is akin not only to Fionn, but also to the Great Fool. -The Lay of the Great Fool was found to tally closely with adventures in -the Mabinogi and in the Conte du Graal (_supra_, Ch. VI). It also sets -forth a moral conception that admits of profitable comparison with that of -the Grail romances. - -Ultimately, the Lay is, I have little doubt, one of the many forms in -which a mortal's visit to the otherworld was related. Wandering into the -Glen of Glamour, the hero and his love encounter a magician; the hero -drinks of the proffered cup, despite his love's remonstrances, and -forthwith loses his two legs. This is obviously a form of the -widely-spread myth which forbids the visitant to the otherworld to partake -of aught there under penalty of never returning to earth. But this -mythical _motif_ has taken an ethical shape in popular fancy. According to -Kennedy's version, it is the hero's excess in draining the cup to the -dregs which calls for punishment. This change is of the same nature as -that noted with regard to a similar incident in the Grail romances. There, -the old mythic taboo of sleeping or speaking in the otherworld called at -last for an explanation, and found one in Wolfram's philosophic -conception. The parallel does not end here. Perceval may retrieve his -fault, and so may the Great Fool; Wolfram makes his hero win salvation by -steadfast faith, the folk-tale makes its hero in the face of every form of -temptation a pattern of steadfast loyalty to the absent friend and to the -pledged word. It may, or may not, be considered to the advantage of the -folk-tale that, unlike the mediæval romance, it deals neither in mysticism -nor in asceticism. The sin and atonement of the Great Fool are such as the -popular mind can grasp; he is an example of human weakness and human -strength. The woman he loves is no temptress, no representative of the -evil principle--on the contrary, she is ever by his side to counsel and to -cheer him. - -When it is remembered that the two off-shoots, romantic-legendary and -popular, from the one traditional stem have grown up in perfect -independence of each other, the kinship of moral idea is startling. The -folk-lorist has often cause to wonder at the spontaneous flower-like -character of the object of his study; folk-tradition seems to obey fixed -laws of growth and to be no product of man's free thought and speech. The -few partisans of the theory that folk-tradition is only a later and -weakened echo of the higher culture of the race are invited to study the -present case. A Celtic tale, after supplying an important element to the -Christianised Grail legend, has gone on its way entirely unaffected by the -new shape which that legend assumed, and yet it has worked out a moral -conception of fundamental likeness to one set forth in the legend. It -would be difficult to find a more perfect instance of the spontaneous, -evolutional character of tradition contended for by what, in default of a -better name, must be called the anthropological school of folk-lorists. - -We must quit Celtic ground to find another example of an element in the -originals of the Grail romances, embodying a popular ethical idea. This -instance is such an interesting one that I cannot pass it by in silence. -As was shown in Chapter VII, one of the many forms of the hero's visit to -the otherworld has for object the release of maidens held captive by an -evil power. A formal connection was established between this section of -the romance and the folk-tale of the Sleeping Beauty. As a whole, too, -this tale admits of comparison with the legend. Its origin is mythic -without a doubt. Whether it be regarded as a day or as a year myth, as the -rescue of the dawn from night, or of the incarnate spring from the bonds -of winter, it equally pictures a victory of the lord of light and heat and -life over the powers of darkness, cold, and death. With admirable fidelity -folk-tradition has preserved the myth, so that its true nature can be -recognised without fail. It would be wrong, though, to conclude that -retention of the mythic framework implied any recognition of its mythic -character on the part of those who told or listened to the story. Some -investigators, indeed, hold it idle to consider it otherwise than as a -tale told merely for amusement. But a story, to live, must appeal to moral -as well as to æsthetic emotions. In the folk-mind this story sets forth, -dimly though it may be, that search for the highest human felicity which -is likewise a theme of the Grail romances. What better picture of this -quest could be found than the old mythic symbol of the awakening of life -and increase beneath the kiss of the sun-god. The hero of the folk-tale -makes his way through the briars and tangle of the forest that he may -restore to the deserted castle life and plenty; so much has the tale -retained of the original mythic signification. As regards the quester -himself, the maiden he thus woos is his reward and the noblest prize earth -has to offer him. Where the romance writers made power, or riches, or -learning, or personal salvation the goal of man's effort, the folk-tale -bids him seek happiness in the common human affections. - -Such, all too briefly sketched, has been the fate and story of these -tales, first shaped in a period of culture wellnigh pre-historic, gifted -by reason of their Celtic setting with a charm that commended them to the -romantic spirit of the middle ages, and made them fit vehicles for the -embodiment of mediæval ideas. Quickened by Christian symbolism they came -to express and typify the noblest and the most mystic longings of man. The -legend, as the poets and thinkers of the twelfth century fashioned it, has -still a lesson and a meaning for us. It may be likened to one of the -divine maidens of Irish tradition. She lives across the western sea. Ever -and again heroes, filled with mysterious yearning for the truth and beauty -of the infinite and undying, make sail to join her if they may. They pass -away and others succeed them, but she remains ever young and fair. So long -as the thirst of man for the ideal endures, her spell will not be -weakened, her charm will not be lessened. But each generation works out -this Quest in its own spirit. This much may be predicted with some -confidence: henceforth, whosoever would do full justice to the legend must -take pattern by Wolfram von Eschenbach rather than by any of his rivals; -he must deal with human needs and human longings; his ideal must be the -widening of human good and human joy. Above all, he must give reverent yet -full expression to all the aspirations, all the energies of man and of -woman. - - -FINIS. - - - - -APPENDIX A. - -THE RELATIONSHIP OF WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH AND CHRESTIEN. - - -The various arguments for and against the use of any other French source -than Chrestien by Wolfram have been clearly summed up by G. Bötticher, Die -Wolfram Literatur seit Lachmann, Berlin, 1880. The chief representative of -the negative opinion is Birch-Hirschfeld, who first gives, Chapter VIII. -of his work, a useful collection of passages relating to the Grail, the -Castle, and the Quest, from both authors. His chief argument is this:--The -Grail in all the romances except in Wolfram is a cup or vessel, but in -Wolfram a stone, a peculiarity only to be explained by Wolfram's ignorance -of any source than Chrestien, and by the fact that the latter, in -accordance with his usual practice of leaving objects and persons in as -mysterious an atmosphere as possible, nowhere gives a clear description of -the Grail. He undoubtedly would have done so if he had finished his work. -Such indications as he gave led Wolfram, who did not understand the word -_Graal_, to think it was a stone. It is inconceivable that Kyot, if such a -personage existed, should have so far departed from all other versions as -not to picture the Grail as a vessel, inconceivable, again, that his -account of it should have been just as vague as Chrestien's, that he -should have afforded Wolfram no hint of the real nature of the object. In -Chrestien Perceval's question refers to the Grail, but Wolfram, missing -the significance of the holy vessel owing to the meagreness of the -information respecting it given to him by Chrestien, was compelled to -transform the whole incident, and to refer it solely to the sufferings of -the wounded King. Again, Chrestien meant to utilise the sword, and to -bring Gawain to the Grail Castle; but his unfinished work did not carry -out his intention, and in Wolfram Gawain also fails to come to the Grail -Castle; the sword is passed over in silence in the latter part of the -poem.--Simrock, jealous for the credit of Wolfram, claimed for him the -invention of all that could not be traced to Chrestien, resting the claim -chiefly upon consideration of a sentimental patriotic nature.--In -opposition to these views, although the fact is not denied that Wolfram -followed Chrestien closely for the parts common to both, it is urged to be -incredible that he, a German poet, should invent a prologue to Chrestien's -unfinished work connecting with an Angevin princely genealogical legend. -It was also pointed out, with greatest fulness by Bartsch, Die Eigennamen -im Parcival und Titurel, Germanist. Studien, II., 114, _et seq._, that the -German poet gives a vast number of proper names which are not to be found -in Chrestien, and that these are nearly all of French, and especially -Southern French and Provençal origin.--Simrock endeavoured to meet this -argument in the fifth edition of his translation, but with little -success.--Bötticher, whilst admitting the weight of Birch-Hirschfeld's -arguments, points out the difficulties which his theory involves. If -Wolfram simply misunderstood Chrestien and did not differ from him -personally, why should he be at the trouble of inventing an elaborately -feigned source to justify a simple addition to the original story? If he -only knew of the Grail from Chrestien, what gave him the idea of endowing -it, as he did, with mystic properties? Martin points out in addition (Zs. -f. d. A., V. 87) that Wolfram has the same connection of the Grail and -Swan Knight story as Gerbert, whom, _ex hypothesi_, he could not have -known, and who certainly did not know him.--In his Zur Gralsage, Martin -returned to the question of proper names, and showed that a varying -redaction of a large part of the romance is vouched for by the different -names which Heinrich von dem Türlin applies to personages met with both in -Chrestien and in Wolfram. If, then, one French version, that followed by -Heinrich, who is obviously a translator, is lost, why not another? - -The first thorough comparison of Chrestien and Wolfram is to be found in -Otto Küpp's Unmittelbaren Quellen des Parzival, (Zs. f. d. Ph. XVII., l). -He argues for Kyot's existence. Some of the points he mentions in which -the two poems differ, and in which Wolfram's account has a more archaic -character, may be cited: The mention of Gurnemanz's sons; the food -producing properties of the Grail on Parzival's first visit; the -reproaches of the varlet to Parzival on his leaving the Grail Castle, "You -are a goose, had you but moved your lips and asked the host! Now you have -lost great praise;"[160] the statement that the broken sword is to be made -whole by dipping in the Lake Lac, and the mention of a sword charm by -virtue of which Parzival can become lord of the Grail Castle; the mention -that no one seeing the Grail could die within eight days. In addition Küpp -finds that many of the names in Wolfram are more archaic than those of -Chrestien. On the other hand, Küpp has not noticed that Chrestien has -preserved a more archaic feature in the prohibition laid upon Gauvain not -to leave for seven days the castle after he had undergone the adventure of -the bed. - -Küpp has not noticed that some of the special points he singles out in -Wolfram are likewise to be found in Chrestien's continuators, _e.g._, the -mention of the sons of Gurnemanz, by Gerbert. - -I believe I have the first pointed out the insistence by both Wolfram and -Gerbert upon the hero's love to and duty towards his wife. - -The name of Parzival's uncle in Wolfram, Gurnemanz, is nearer to the form -in Gerbert, Gornumant, than to that in Chrestien, Gonemant. - -The matter may be summed up thus: it is very improbable that Wolfram -should have invented those parts of the story found in him alone; the -parts common to him and Chrestien are frequently more archaic in his case; -there are numerous points of contact between him and Gerbert. All this -speaks for another French source than Chrestien. On the other hand, it is -almost inconceivable that such a source should have presented the Grail as -Wolfram presents it. - -I cannot affect to consider the question decidedly settled one way or the -other, and have, therefore, preferred to make no use of Wolfram. I would -only point out that if the contentions of the foregoing studies be -admitted, they strongly favour the genuineness of the non-Chrestien -section of Wolfram's poem,[161] though I admit they throw no light upon -his special presentment of the Grail itself. - - - - -APPENDIX B. - -THE PROLOGUE TO THE GRAND ST. GRAAL AND THE BRANDAN LEGEND. - - -I believe the only parallel to this prologue to be the one furnished by -that form of the Brandan legend of which Schröder has printed a German -version (Sanct Brandan) at Erlangen, in 1871, from a MS. of the fourteenth -century, but the first composition of which he places (p. 15) in the last -quarter of the twelfth century. The text in question will be found pp. 51, -_et seq._: Brandan, a servant of God, seeks out marvels in rare books, he -finds that two paradises were on earth, that another world was situated -under this one, so that when it is here night it is day there, and of a -fish so big that forests grew on his back, also that the grace of God -allowed some respite every Saturday night to the torments of Judas. Angry -at all these things he burnt the book. But the voice of God spake to him, -"Dear friend Brandan thou hast done wrong, and through thy wrath I see My -wonders lost." The holy Christ bade him fare nine years on the ocean, -until he see whether these marvels were real or a lie. Thereafter Brandan -makes ready a ship to set forth on his travels. - -This version was very popular in Germany. Schröder prints a Low German -adaptation, and a chap book one, frequently reprinted during the -fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. But besides this form -there was another, now lost, which can be partially recovered from the -allusions to it in the Wartburg Krieg, a German poem of the thirteenth and -early fourteenth century, and which is as follows:--An angel brings -Brandan a book from heaven: Brandan finds so many incredible things in it -that he taxes book and angel with lying, and burns the book. For his -unfaith he must wander till he find it. God's grace grants him this at -last; an angel gives him the sign of two fires burning, which are the eyes -of an ox, upon whose tongue he shall find the book. He hands it to -Uranias, who brings it to _Scotland_ (_i.e._, of course Ireland) Schröder, -p. 9. - -The closeness of the parallel cannot be denied, and it raises many -interesting questions, which I can here only allude to. The Isle of -Brandan has always been recognized as a Christian variant of the Celtic -Tír-na n-Og, the Land of the Shades, Avalon. Schröder has some instructive -remarks on this subject, p. 11. The voyage of Brandan may thus be -compared with that of Bran, the son of Febal (_supra_, p. 232), both being -versions of the wide-spread myth of a mortal's visit to the otherworld. It -is not a little remarkable that in the Latin legend, which differs from -the German form by the absence of the above-cited prologue, there is an -account (missing in the German), of a "conopeus" ("cover" or "canopy,") -_cf._ Ducange and Diez, _sub voce_; the old French version translates it -by "Pavillon of the colour of silver but harder than marble, and a column -therein of clearest crystal." And on the fourth day they find a window and -therein a "calix" of the same nature as the "conopeus" and a "patena" of -the colour of the column (Schröder, p. 27, and Note 41). - -Thus there is a formal connection between the Brandan legend and the Grail -romances in the prologue common to two works of each cycle, and there is a -likeness of subject-matter between the Brandan legend and the older Celtic -traditions which I have assumed to be the basis of the romances. But -German literature likewise supplies evidence of a connection between -Brandan and Bran. Professor Karl Pearson has referred me to a passage in -the Pfaffe Amis, a thirteenth century South German poem, composed by Der -Stricker, the hero of which, a prototype of Eulenspiegel, goes through the -world gulling and tricking his contemporaries. In a certain town he -persuades the good people to entrust to him their money, by telling them -that he has in his possession a very precious relic, the head of St. -Brandan, which has commanded him to build a cathedral (Lambl's Edition, -Leipzig, 1872, p. 32). The preservation of the head of Bran is a special -feature in the Mabinogi. I have instanced parallels from Celtic tradition -(Branwen, p. 14), and Professor Rhys has since (Hibb. Lect., p. 94) -connected the whole with Celtic mythological beliefs. This chance -reference in a German poem is the only trace to my knowledge of an earlier -legend in which, it may be, Bran and Brandan, the visitor to and the lord -of the otherworld, were one and the same person. - -It is highly desirable that every form of or allusion to the Brandan -legend should be examined afresh, as, perhaps, able to throw fresh light -upon the origin and growth of the Grail legend. In Pseudo-Chrestien -Perceval's mother goes on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Brandan. - - - - -INDEX I. - -DRAMATIS PERSONÆ. - - -[This Index is to the Summaries contained in Chapter II, and the -references are not to page and line, but to Version and Incident. The -Versions are distinguished by the following abbreviations:-- - -Conte du Graal =Co=, Pseudo-Chrestien =PC=, Chrestien =C=, Gautier =G=, -Manessier =Ma=, Gerbert =Ge=, Wolfram =W=, Heinrich von dem Türlin =H=, -Mabinogi of Peredur =M=, Thornton MS. Sir Perceval =T=, Didot-Perceval -=D=, Borron's poem =B=, Queste =Q= (=Q={1} and =Q={2} refer to the -different drafts of the romance distinguished p. 83) Grand St. Graal =GG=. -With the less important entries, or when the entries are confined to one -version, a simple number reference is given. But in the case of the more -important personages, notably Perceval, Gawain, and Galahad, an attempt -has been made to show the life history, by grouping together references to -the same incident from different versions; in this case each incident -group is separated from other groups by a long dash ----. Any speciality -in the incident presented by a version is bracketed _before_ the reference -initial, and, when deemed advisable, reference has been made to allied as -well as to similar incidents. This detail, to save space, is, as a rule, -given only once, as under Perceval, and not duplicated under other -headings, the number reference alone being given in the latter cases. The -fullest entry is Perceval, which practically comprises such entries as -Fisher King, Grail, Sword, Lance, etc.] - -=ABEL= =Q=37, =GG=24. - -=ABRIORIS= =G=9. - -=ACHEFLOUR= =T=1. - -=ADAM= =Q=37, =GG=24. - -=ADDANC OF LAKE= =M=16, 19. - -=AGARAN= =Q=23. - -=AGRESTES= =GG=40. - -=AGUIGRENONS= =Co=, _Kingrun_ =W=, anonymous =M=, =C=6, =W=, =M=8. - -=ALAINS=, Celidoine's son =GG=43. - -=ALAINS= or =ALEIN= (=li Gros= =D=, =Q=, =GG=) =B=12----=Dprol=, 1, 6, 12, -=Q=26, =GG=30, 43, 45, 51, 58, 59. - -=ALEINE=, Gawain's niece, =D=1. - -=ALFASEM= =GG=51, 58. - -=AMANGONS= =PC=1, 2, 4. - -=AMFORTAS=, see Fisher King. - -=AMINADAP= =GG=58. - -=ANGHARAD= Law Eurawc, =M=12, 14. - -=ANTIKONIE=, see Facile Damsel. - -=ARGASTES= =Q=27. - -=ARIDES= of Cavalon =Ma=14, 16 (a King of Cavalon mentioned =C=12 -corresponds to _Vergulat_ of Askalon in =W=). - -=ARTHUR= =PC=2, 3, 5, =C=1, =Dprol=----arrival of Perceval at his court -=C=3, =W=, =M=3, =T=4, =Dprol=----=C=6, 9, 10, =W=, =M=9, 10, 11----=M=13, -14----=C=11, =W=, =M=20----=T=7----=C=18, =W=----=G=1, =W=----=G=2, 3, 6, -9, 11, 13, 16, 19, 20, =Ma=10, 16, 23, =Ge=5, =H=, =D=1, 3, 5, 8, 14, 16, -=M=25, =Q=3, 5, 13, =GG=33, 45, 48. - -=AUGUSTUS CÆSAR= =GG=11. - -=AVALON= or =AVARON= =B=12, 13, =D=9. - -=BAGOMMEDES= =G=19, 20. - -=BANDAMAGUS= =Q=5, 6, 43. - -=BANS= =Q=26, =GG=30, 59. - -=BEAU MAUVAIS=, le, =G=11, =D=8. - -=BEDUERS= =D=2. - -=BLAISE= =Dprol=, 14. - -=BLANCHEFLEUR= =Co=, Conduiramur =W=, anonymous =M=, _cf._ Lufamour -=T=----Perceval's cousin =Co=, =W=----first meeting with Perceval =C=6, -=W=, =M=8----second meeting with Perceval =G=10----third meeting -=Ma=13-16----third meeting and marriage with Perceval =Ge=8-10, _cf._ =W=. - -=BLIHIS= =PC=1 = Blaise? - -=BLIHOS BLIHERIS= =PC=2. - -=BLIOCADRANS= (of Wales, Perceval's father), =PC=6. - -=BORS, BOHORS, BOORT= =Q=1, 3, 13, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, =Ma=18----=Q=35, -48-52. - -=BRANDALIS= =G=1, 2. - -=BRIOS= =G=16. - -=BRONS, BRON=, or =HEBRON=. =B=7, 8, 12, 14, =Dprol=, 6, 16, =GG=41, 42, -_cf._ p. 19. - -=BRUILLANT= =GG=58 = Urlain =Q=35. - -=BRUN DE BRANLANT= =G=1. - -=CAIN= =Q=37, =GG=24. - -=CAIPHAS= =GG=2, 3. - -=CAIUS= =GG=3. - -=CALIDES= =Ma=9. - -=CALOGRENANT= =Q=33. =CALOGRINANT= =Ma=18----_Calocreant_ in =H=, one of -the three Grail-seekers. - -=CARAHIES= =G=5. - -=CARCHELOIS= =Q=39. - -=CARDUEL= =C=3----_Carduel_ of Nantes =G=1. - -=CASTRARS= =PC=4. - -=CATHELOYS= =GG=58. - -=CAVALON= =C=12----=Ma=14, 16. - -=CELIDOINE= =GG=22, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 39, 59, =Q=26. - -=CHANAAN= =GG=45, 47. - -=CHESSBOARD CASTLE= =G=7, =D=4, =M=24----=G=14----=G=18, =D=13. - -=CHRIST= =B=1-3, 5, 6, 8, 11, =Q=7, 10, 13, 15, 20, 26, 50, =Dprol=, 16, -=Ge=15, =GG=1-4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16, 21, 23, 30, 37, 41, 45. - -=CLAMADEX= =C=6, Clamide =W=, the earl =M=8 = the Sowdane =T=7. - -=CLARISSE= =Co= Mons MS. or _Clarissant_ Montpellier MS., ITONJE -=W=----=C=18, =G=1, =W=. - -=CLAUDIUS= =GG=3. - -=CLAUDIUS=, son of Claudas =Q={2}51. - -=CORBENIC= =Q=, =GG=, =CORBIÈRE= =Ma=23, =Q=13, 43, 48, =GG=51. - -=CORSAPIAS= =GG=22. - -=COWARD KNIGHT= =Ma=17, 19. - -=CRUDEL= =Q=6, 15, =Ge=15, =GG=36-38. - -=DAVID= =Q=37. - -=DODINEL= =Ma=14. - -=ELIEZER= =Q=27. - -=EMPTY SEAT=, see Seat Perillous. - -=ENYGEUS=, =ENYSGEUS=, or =ANYSGEUS= =B=7, 8, 11, 12. - -=EREC= =D=2. - -=ERNOUS= =Q=39. - -=ESCORANT= =Q={2}51. - -=ESCOS= =GG=47. - -=ESPINOGRE= =Ma=5. - -=ESTROIS DE GARILES= =Q={2}51. - -=ETLYM GLEDDYV COCH= =M=16-18. - -=EVALACH.= Evalach li mescouncus =GG=, Eualac =Q= (Anelac 26), Evelac -=Ma=, =Ge=. Overcoming Tholomes =GG=6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, =Q=6, 15, 26, -=Ma=3, =Ge=15, name changed to _Mordrains_, which see. - -=EVE= =Q=37, =GG=24. - -=FACILE DAMSEL=, Anonymous =Co=, =H=, =M=, _Antikonie_ =W=, =C=14, =W=, -=H=, =M=21. - -=FEIREFIZ= =W=. - -=FELIX= =GG=3, 11. - -=FISHER KING.= Anonymous =Co=, Amfortas =W=, Brons =B=, =D=, Alain =GG=. -Anonymous (?), =Q={1}, Pelles =Q={2}. In =M= the Fisher corresponds to -Gonemans. In all the French works of the cycle the adjective rich is -commonly applied to the Fisher. Splendour of court =PC=1----learned in -black art =PC=3----old and sick =Dprol=, First meeting with Perceval =C=7, -=W=, =D=11, _cf._ =PC=3, =M=6----=C=8, =W=, _cf._ =D=2, 12----=C=11, =W=, -_cf._ =D=15, =M=21----=G=7, 8, 9, 16, 18, 19, 20----Second meeting with -Perceval =G=22, =Ma=1-7 or =Ge=1-5, =D=16, _cf._ =M=25----=Ma=10----Third -meeting with Perceval =Ma=22, =Ge=22, =W=----Grandfather of Galahad -=Q={1}2, 26. See also Maimed King. - - Surname given to Brons =B=12, to Alain =GG=43. - - Vessel given to him =D=1----commanded to go to the West =D=6. - -=FLEGENTYNE= =GG=22, 29, 31, 37, 59. - -=GAHMURET= =W=. - -=GALAHAD= (GALAAD). _Father_: Lancelot =Q=, =GG=----_Mother_: daughter of -King Pelles =Q={1}, =GG=, or Fisher King =Q={2}----Seat Perillous -=Q=2----Sword =Q=3----Quest proclaimed =Q=5----Evelac's Shield =Q=6, -=GG=50----Devil-inhabited tomb =Q=7, _cf._ =Ge=17----Melians' -discomforture =Q=8----Castle of Maidens =Q=9----overcoming of Lancelot and -Perceval =Q=11----destined achiever of Quest =Q=13----rescue of Perceval -=Q=16----Genealogy =Q=26, =GG=21, 30, 58----likening to a spotless bull -=Q=29----overcoming of Gawain =Q=34----stay on ship =Q=35, 36----sword -=Q=36----Maimed King =Q={2} 36----capture of Castle Carchelois -=Q=39----stag and lions =Q=40, _cf._ =GG=45----castle of the evil custom -=Q=41----stay with father =Q=42----healing of Mordrains =Q=44, _cf._ -=GG=39----cooling of fountain =Q=45----making white the Cross -=GG=40----release of Symeu =Q=46, =GG=49----making whole sword -=GG=44----release of Moys =GG=46----five years' wanderings -=Q=47----arrival at King Peleur's =Q={1}, Maimed King's =Q={2}, witnessing -of Grail and healing of Maimed King =Q=48-50----Sarras, crowning, death -=Q=51, 52. - -=GALAHAD= (GALAAD) son of Joseph =GG=8, 31, 34----King of Hocelice and -ancestor of Urien =GG=49----founding of abbey for Symeu =GG=49. - -=GANSGUOTER= =H=. - -=GANORT= =GG=33, 35. - -=GARALAS= =G=13. - -=GAWAIN.= Gauvain =Co=, =Q=, =GG=, Gwalchmai =M=, Gawan =W=, Gawein =H=, -Gawayne or Wawayne =T=----of the seed of Joseph of Arimathea =GG=48, -Arthur's nephew =Co=, =Q=----conquers Blihos Bliheris =PC=2----allusion to -his finding the Grail =PC=3----one of the knights met by Perceval in wood -=M=1, =T=2----helps Perceval to disarm Red Knight =T=4----meeting with -Perceval after blood-drops incident =C=10, =W=, =M=11----vow to release -imprisoned maiden =C=11, =M=20----reproached by Guigambresil =C=12, -(Kingrimur) =W=, (anonymous) =M=20----tournament at Tiebaut's =C=13, -(Lippaot) =W=, (Leigamar) =H=, _cf._ =D=15, where Perceval is hero but -Gawain best knight after him----adventure with the facile damsel =C=14, -(Antikonie) =W=, =H=, =M=21----injunction to seek bleeding lance =C=14, -=W=, (Grail) =H=----adventure with Griogoras =C=16, (Urjan) =W=, (Lohenis) -=H=----meeting with scornful damsel, Orgeuilleuse, arrival at ferryman's -=C=16, =W=----Magic Castle =C=17, =W=, _cf._ =GG=51----may not leave -castle =C=17----second meeting with Orgueilleuse =C=18, =W=, -(Mancipicelle) =H=----Ford Perillous, Guiromelant =C=18, (Gramoflanz) =W=, -(Giremelanz) =H=----marriage with Orgueilleuse =W=, (?) =C=18----arrival -of Arthur to witness combat with Guiromelant =C=18 continued by =G=1, =W=, -=H=----fight with Perceval =W=, _cf._ =T=7----reconciliation with -Guiromelant =G=1, =W=, =H=----departure on Grail Quest and winning various -talismans =H=----[first arrival at Grail Castle according to Montpellier -MS. of =Co=]----Brun de Branlant, Brandalis =G=1 and 2----slaying of -unknown knight and Quest to avenge him =G=3----Chapel of Black Hand -=G=3----arrival at Grail Castle (first according to Mons MS. of =Co=), -half successful =G=3, wholly successful =H=, _cf._ =M=25 found by Peredur -at Castle of Talismans, and reference in =Q=51 Welsh version----greetings -of country folk =G=3, _cf._ =Ge=3----meeting with his son =G=4----Mount -Dolorous Quest =G=19----renewed Grail Quest, reproached for conduct at -Fisher King's, slaying of Margon =Ma=10----rescue of Lyonel -=Ma=18----rescue by Perceval =Ge=16. - - Joins in search for Grail with remainder of Table Round =D={2}, =Q=, - betraying knowledge of Maimed King =Q=5. - - Meeting with Ywain, Gheheris and confession to hermit =Q=10. - - Meeting with Hector de Mares =Q=29. - - Overcoming at Galahad's hand =Q=34. - -=GHEHERIES= =Q=10. - -=GIFLÈS= =C=11, =G=2. - -=GONEMANS= or =GONEMANT= =Co=, Gornumant =Ge=, Gurnemanz =W=, Fisher Uncle -=M=, =C=5, =W=, =M=5, uncle to Blanchefleur =C=6, =C=7, =W=, second -meeting with Perceval =Ge=8-9, _cf._ =T=6. - -=GOON DESERT= =Ma=4. - -=GRAIL=, Early History of. Last Supper cup given to Joseph =B=2, 3, 4, -=GG=2, =Q=50, =Ma=3----Solace of Joseph =B=5, 6, =GG=2, =D=16, =Ma=3 -(Montpellier MS.)----Grail and Fish =B=8, 9 _cf._ =GG=43----Directs Joseph -what to do with Alain =B=12, _cf._ =GG=42, confided to Brons =B=14,15, -=Dprol= 6, (Alain) =GG=51----=D=6, 10----feeds host =GG=5, =Q=13, also -=GG=32----Blinding of Nasciens =GG=16, 21, 23, 30, passage to England 31, -=D=6, =Q=6, 13, 15----Crudel =GG=38, =Q=15, =Ge=15----Blinding of -Mordrains =GG=38, 39, 42, only feeds the sinless 43, 44, refuses meat to -Chanaan and Symeu 47, resting-place, Castle Corbenic =GG=51. - - Book of, revealed to hermit =GG=2. - -=GRAIL=, Quest of _by Perceval_: first seen at Fisher King's =PC=3, =C=7, -=W=, =D=11----properties of =C=8, =W=, =D=12----=C=11, =W=----=C=15, -=W=----lights up forest =G=14----=G=21----seen for second time -=G=22-=Ma=1-7 or =Ge=1-3, =D=16----heals Hector and Perceval -=Ma=20----taken from earth =Ge=6, _cf._ =W=----opposed by witch, =Ge=8, -9----connection with Shield =Ge=13----seen for third time =Ma=23, 24, -=Ge=22; _by Gawain_: =H= and =G=3; _by Lancelot_: =Q=12, 22, 43; _by -Galahad_: =Q=2, feeds Arthur's court =Q=4, quest proclaimed =Q=5, feeds -host =Q=13, =GG=32, denied to Gawain and Hector =Q=29, 30, accomplished -=Q=50-52. - -=GRAIL-MESSENGER=, see Loathly Damsel. - -=GRAMOFLANZ= see Guiromelant. - -=GRIOGORAS= =C=16 = Lohenis =H=. - -=GUIROMELANT= =Co=, Gramoflanz =W=, Giremelanz =H=, =C=18-=G=1, =W=, =H=. - -=HECTOR= (de =MARES= =Q=) =Q=29, 34, 43, =Ma=20. - -=HELAIN= =Q=27. - -=HELICORAS= =GG=22. - -=HELYAB= =GG=2, 8, 34. - -=HELYAS= =Q=26 = Ysaies =GG=30, 38. - -=HERZELOYDE= =W=. - -=HUDEN= =PC=4. - -=HURGAINS= or =HURGANET= =D=2, 3. - -=JONAANS= =Q=26, =JONANS= =GG=30, =JONAS= =GG=59. - -=JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA.= D'Arymathye =B=, de Arimathie =GG=, d'Abarimathie -or d'Arimathie =Q=, de Barimacie =G=, and =Ma= (Montpellier MS.), Josep -(without mention of town =Ma=, Mons MS.), de Barismachie =Ge=----care of -Christ's body, captivity, solace, release =B=2-7, =GG=2, 3, =D=16, _cf._ -=Q=6, =Ma=2----stay in Sarras =GG=4-11, =Q=6, 26, =Ge=15, -=Ma=3----=B=7----Passage to England =GG=31, =Q=6----feeding by Grail -=GG=32, =Q=13, _cf._ =B=8, 9----Moys =B=11, 12, =Dprol=, _cf._ -=GG=41----=B=12-15----=GG=34, 36, =Q=15, =Ge=15----=GG=38, 44, 45, 48, -50--=D=1, 6, 12. - -=JOSEPHES=, =JOSEPHE=, =JOSEPHUS=, or =JOSAPHES=, son of Joseph of -Arimathea, =GG=2, 5, 9, 10, 11 =Q=6, 13, 14, 16, 17, 31 =Q=6, 13 and 32, -36 =Q=6, 38 =Q=6 and 15, 40, 41 =Q=13 _cf._ =D=6, 42, 43, 45, 46, 49, 50 -=Q=6, =Q=50, 51. - -=JOSUE= =GG=51, 58. - -=KALAFIER= =GG=20, 22. - -=KARDEIZ= =W=. - -=KAY.= Kex =Co=----=T=2----=C=3, =W=, =M=3----=C=4, =W=, =M=4----=C=6, -=C=9----=C=10, =W=, =M=11----=M=14----=T=7----=G=3, 19, =Ma=10, =Ge=21, -=D=8----one of the three Grail-questers =H=. - -=KLINSCHOR= =W.= - -=LABAN= =Q=35 (query variant of Lambar?). - -=LABEL= =GG=26. - -=LABEL'S DAUGHTER= =GG=28, 29, 37, 39. - -=LAMBAR= or =LABRAN= =Q=35, =LAMBOR= =GG=58. - -=LANCE= (Spear) =PC=3, 4, =C=7, 8, =M=6, =C=11, 14, 15, =G=3, 22, =Ma=1, -2, 24, =Ge=22, =H=, =D=11, 12, 16, =Q=50, 51, =GG=9, 15, 16. - -=LANCELOT=, Lancelot of Lake's grandfather =Q=26, =GG=30, 59. - -=LANCELOT.= Galahad's father =Q=, =GG=, =Q=1, 2, 4 (_cf._ =C=11), 5, 11, -12 (_cf._ =C=7 and =G=3), 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 (_cf._ =GG=58) 27, 28, 29, -42, 43, =GG=30, 33, 40, 45, 58, 59, =PC=4. - -=LEUCANS= =GG=10. - -=LIONEL Q=1, 3, attacks Bors =Q=33, =Ma=18. - -=LOATHLY DAMSEL.= Anonymous =Co=, Kundrie =W=, Perceval's cousin =M=, -reproaches Perceval =C=11, =W=, =M=20----announces end of Quest, =Ma=23, -=M=25. - -=LOGRES= =PC=1, =G=3, =Q=12, 35, 47. - -=LOHENIS= =H= = Griogoras =C=16. - -=LOHERANGRIN= =W=. - -=LONGIS= =PC=4, =Ma=2, =D=16. - -=LOT= =GG=48. - -=LUCES= =GG=48. - -=LUFAMOUR= =T=7, _cf._ Blanchefleur. - -=MAIDENS' CASTLE= =PC=5, =G=12=a=, =Ge=6----=Q=9. - -=MAIMED= or =LAME KING=. Same personage as Fisher King. Designated in this -way _only_ =M=, almost entirely so =Q={2} (5, 13, also =Q={1} 36, 39, 47, -50), never so =B=, =D=. =GG=58 applies the designation to Pelleans. - -=MANAAL= =GG=58. - -=MANCIPICELLE=, see Orgueilleuse. - -=MARGON= =Ma=10. - -=MARIE LA VENISSIENNE= =GG=3 = Verrine, =B=6, =W=. - -=MARPUS= (=WARPUS= =Q=26) =GG=30, 59. - -=MEAUX= =GG=11. - -=MELIANS=, Galahad's companion =Q=8, 10. - -=MELIANS DE LIS= =C=13, =D=15. - -=MERLIN= (see p. 64D) =G=20, =Dprol=, 14, 15, =Q=13. - -=MORDRAINS= =GG=, Mordains =Q=, _once_ Noodrans =Ma=, _once_ Mordrach -=Ge=----Baptism =GG=14, 15, =Q=6, 26, =Ma=3 =Ge=15----=GG=16, 17, vision -of descendants 18, =Q=26----=GG=19, 20, stay on island 21, _cf._ -=Q=19----=GG=27, =Q=36----=GG=29 Crudel, and blinding by Grail 37, 38, -=Q=15, =Ge=15----retires to hermitage =GG=39, =Q=44----his shield =GG=50, -=Q=6. - -=MORDRED= =GG=45. - -=MORDRET= =Ge=6, 7. - -=MORGHE LA FÉE= =G=18. - -=MORONEUS= =Q={2}26. - -=MORS DEL CALAN= =PC=4. - -=MOUNT DOLOROUS= =G=19, 20, =Ge=5. - -=MOYS=, =MOYSES= (=B=). Seat Perillous =B=10, 11, 12, =Dprol=, 1, =GG=41, -46. - -=NASCIENS= =GG=, =Q=, Natiien =Ma=----Baptism =GG=14, =Q=6, 26, -=Ma=3----Blinded by Grail =GG=16----=GG=18, 19, 20, 21, 22, turning isle -and Solomon's ship, 23-27, =Q=35-37----=GG=28, 29, 30, 32, 33, Crudel 37, -38, (called Seraphe) =Q=15----=GG=39----his tomb =GG=50----death -=GG=59----appears as hermit in Arthur's time =Q=4, 5, 6, 29. - -=NASCIENS=, son of Celidoine, =GG=39. - -=NASCIENS=, grandson of Celidoine =GG=30, 59. - -=NICODEMUS= =B=3, 4, 5. - -=NOIRONS=, _i.e._, Nero =GG=3. - -=ORCANZ= =GG=48. - -=ORGUEILLEUSE.= Orguellouse =C=, Orgeluse =W= = Mancipicelle =H=, -=C=16----=G=1, =W=, =H=. - -=OWAIN= =M=, =EWAYNE= =T=, =YONES= =C=4, =YWAIN= "li aoutres" =Q=6, 9, 10, -29, =GG=49----meets Perceval =M=1, =T=2----helps him =M=3, =C=4. - -=PARTINAL= =Ma=5, 8, 21, 22. - -=PECORINS= =PC=4. - -=PELEUR= =Q={1}5, 47, 48. - -=PELLEANS= =GG=58. - -=PELLEHEM= =Q={2}35. - -=PELLES= =Q={2}1-3, 14, 27, 36, 44, 48, 50, =GG=59. - -=PERCEVAL= =Co=, =D=, =Q=, =GG=; PARZIVAL =W=, =H=; PEREDUR =M=; -PERCYVELLE =T=.--_Father_: Bliocadrans =PC=; anonymous =Co=, =Q=; Alain -=D=; Gahmuret =W=; Evrawe =M=; Percyvelle =T=; Pellehem =Q={2}. _Mother_: -Anonymous =Co=, =D=, =Q=, =M=; Herzeloyde =W=; Acheflour (Arthur's sister) -=T=----brought up in wood =C=1, =W=, =M=, =T=1----meets knights (5) =C=1, -=W=, (3) =M=1, =T=2----leaves mother =C=1, =W=, =D=, =M=1, =T=2----first -meeting with lady of tent =C=2, (Ieschute) =W=, =M=2, =T=3----arrival at -Arthur's Court =C=3, =W=, =D=, =M=3, =T=4----laughing prophetic damsel -=C=3, =W=, dwarves =M=3----slays _red_ knight =C=4, (Ither of Gaheviez) -=W=, (colour not specified) =M=3, =T=4----overcomes 16 Knights -=M=4----burns witch =T=5----arrival at house of first uncle, Gonemans -=C=5, Gurnemanz =W=, Anonymous =M=5, and (different adventure partly -corresponding to =Ge=8) =T=6----first arrival at castle of lady love, -Blanchefleur =C=5, Conduiramur =W=, Anonymous =M=8, Lufamour =T=7----first -arrival at Fisher King's =C=7, =W=, =D=11, =M=6----is reproached by -wayside damsel, cousin: (Anonymous) =C=8, (Sigune) =W=, =D=12, foster -sister =M=7----second meeting with lady of tent =C=9, =W=, -=M=9----overcoming of Sorceresses of Gloucester =M=10----blood drops in -the snow =C=10, =W=, =M=11----Adventures with Angharad Law Eurawc; at the -castle of the huge grey man; serpent on the gold ring; Mound of Mourning; -Addanc of the Lake; Countess of Achievements =M=12-19----reproaches of the -loathly damsel =C=11, (Kundrie) =W=, =M=20----Good Friday incident and -confession to uncle =C=15, (Trevrezent) =W=, =D=14, =M=22----the Castle of -the Horn =G=6----the Castle of the Chessboard =G=7, =D=4, =M=24----meeting -with brother of Red Knight =G=8----Ford _amorous_ =G=9, _perillous_ -=D=9----second meeting with Blanchefleur =G=10----meeting with Rosette and -Le Beau Mauvais =G=11, =D=8----meeting with sister and visit to hermit -=G=12, =D=5 and 6----the Castle of Maidens =G=12=a=----meeting with the -hound-stealing damsel =G=13, =D=13, =M=24----meeting with the damsel of -the white mule =G=14----tournament at Castle Orguellous =G=16 = =D=15 -(Melianz de Lis) and =M=19 (?)----Deliverance of knight in tomb -=G=17----second visit to the Castle of the Chessboard =G=18, -=D=13----delivery of Bagommedes =G=19----arrival at Mount Dolorous -=G=20----the Black Hand in the Chapel =G=21----second arrival at Grail -Castle =G=22-=Ma=1-7 and =Ge=1, =D=16, (with final overcoming of -Sorceresses of Gloucester) =M=25. - - Puts on red armour for love of Aleine, accomplishes the feat of the - Seat Perillous, and sets forth on Quest =D=1 and 2. - - Slays the red knight, Orgoillous Delandes, =D=3. - - Overcomes Black Knight, slays giant and finds mother =T=9. - -Perceval and Saigremors =Ma=8----Second visit to Chapel of the Black Hand -=Ma=11----the demon horse =Ma=12, =Q=18----Stay on the island =Q=19, and -20, and temptation by damsel 21, =Ma=13----Delivery of Dodinel's lady love -=Ma=14----Tribuet =Ma=15----third meeting with Blanchefleur -=Ma=16----meeting with coward knight =Ma=17----combat with Hector -=Ma=20----slaying of Partinal =Ma=21----third arrival at Grail Castle -=Ma=22----learns death of his uncle the Fisher King from loathly damsel -=Ma=23, =W=----retires into wilderness =Q=52, =Ma=24----dies =Q=52, goes -to Palestine and dies (?) =T=. - - Encounter, unknown to either, with Galahad =Q=11. Meeting with recluse - aunt =Q=13. - - Assistance at the hands of the Red Knight =Q=16. - - Adventure of the ship =Q=33, essay to draw sword =Q=35. - - Receives Galahad's sword =Q=41, bears Galahad company for five years - =Q=47----adjusts the sword at the Court of Pelles =Q={2}48. - -Breaking of sword at the Gate of Paradise =Ge=2----Blessings of the -country folk for putting question =Ge=3----Mending of sword at forge of -the serpent =Ge=4----Accomplishment of the feat of the Perillous Seat -=Ge=5----adventures at sister's Castle, with Mordret, and at cousin's, -Castle of Maidens =Ge=6----encounter with Kex, Gauvain, and Tristan =Ge=7, -_cf._ =T=7----meeting with Gornumant =Ge=8 (_cf._ =T=6) and fight with the -resuscitating hag----third arrival at Blanchefleur's Castle, marriage -=Ge=9----deliverance of maiden, abolition of evil custom, knight on fire -=Ge=10-12----obtains the promised shield =G=13----combat with the Dragon -King =Ge=14----arrival at abbey and story of Mordrains =Ge=15, -=Q=15----the swan-drawn coffin =Ge=16----Devil in tomb =Ge=17, _cf._ -=Q=7----deliverance of maiden from fountain =Ge=18----punishment of -traitress damsel =Ge=19----combat with giant =Ge=20, _cf._ -=T=9----encounters Kex =Ge=21----third arrival at Grail Castle =Ge=22. - -=PERCEVAL'S AUNT= =Q=13, 14. - -=PERCEVAL'S SISTER=, daughter to Pellehem =Q={2}, =G=12, =D=5-7, =Q=35, -36, 38, 41, 42----_cf._ =M=7. - -=PERCEVAL'S UNCLE=, see Gonemans, Fisher King. - -=PETRONE= =GG=29. - -=PETRUS= =B=8, 12, 13, 14, =PETER= =GG=43, =PIERRON= =GG=45, 47, 48. - -=PHILOSOPHINE= =Ge=6, 15. - -=PILATE= =B=1, =GG=2, =B=3, 6. - -=PRIADAM THE BLACK= =Q=30. - -=QUIQUAGRANT= =Ma=5. - -=RED KNIGHT.= Slain by Perceval =C=3, 4, =T=1, 5, who takes his arms, and -is mistaken for him =C=6, =T=6, transferred to Galahad when latter takes -Perceval's place =Q=14, 16----=G=8, 9. - -=ROSETTE=, Loathly Maiden, =G=11, =D=8. - -=SAIGREMORS= =C=10, =Ma=8, 9, 18, =D=2. - -=SARRAQUITE= =GG=13, 16, 22, 28, 29, 59. - -=SARRAS= =GG=5, 11, 13, 15, 18, =Ma=3, =Q=26, 41, 50, =GG=30. - -=SEAT PERILLOUS= (empty) =B=10, =Dprol=, 1----=Q=2, =GG=41, =Ge=5, =Q=13. - -=SERAPHE= =GG=, =Q=, =Ge=, _once_ Salafrès =Ma=----Battle with Tholomes -=GG=12, 14, =Q=6, 26, =Ma=3, =Ge=15, renamed _Nasciens_, which see. - -=SEVAIN OF MEAUX= =GG=11. - -=SOLOMON'S SHIP= =Q=35-38, =GG=24, 27, 30, 58. - -=SOLOMON'S SWORD= =Q=35, 38, =GG=27, _cf._ =Q=48. - -=SORCERESSES OF GLOUCESTER= =M=10, 25. - -=STAG HUNT= =G=7, 8, 16, 18, =D=4, 13, =M=24. - -=SWORD= =PC=3, =C=7, 8, =M=6, =G=3, 12, 22, =Ma=5, 22, =Ge=1, 2, 4, 15, -22, =H=, =Q=2, 3, 48, =GG=33, 44, 58. See also Solomon's sword. - -=SYMEU= =Q=46, =GG=31, 47, 49. - -=THOLOMES= =Q=6, =Ge=15, =GG=11, 12, 14. - -=THOLOME CERASTRE= =GG=11. - -=TIBERIUS CÆSAR= =GG=3, 11, =Ma=3. - -=TITUS= =GG=3. - -=TREBUCET= or =TRIBUET= =C=8, =W=, =Ma=15. - -=URBAN OF THE BLACK THORN= =D=9, =Co=. - -=URLAIN= or =URBAN= =Q=35 = Bruillant =GG=58. - -=UTHER PENDRAGON= =GG=9, _cf._ p. 64D. - -=VERRINE= =B=6 = Marie la Venissienne =GG=3. - -=VESPASIAN= =B=6, =GG=3, 4, =Ma=3, =Q=7. - -=WASTE CITY=, King of the, =Ge=8. - -=WASTE LAND= =PC=1, (forest) 6, =Q=13, 35, =GG=58. - -=YSAIES= =GG=30, 59 = Helyas, =Q=26. - -=YWAIN=, see Owain. - - - - -INDEX II. - - -[This Index comprises the whole of the work with exception of the -Summaries, for which see Index I. The references are to the pages. The -entries apply solely to the page number or page group-number which they -immediately precede, and not to all the pages between themselves and the -next entry. In the majority of cases a simple number reference is given, -and the fuller entries are to those points which the author wishes -specially to emphasise.] - - Abundia and Herodias, 100. - - Adonis, 101. - - Alain (son of Brons), 66, 77, 79, 82, 83, 84, 89, 109, 112, 123, - as Fisher King, 208, 210, 218, 222, 245. - - Amfortas, Fisher King in Wolfram, 249, - in Wagner's Parsifal, 253-55, 263. - - Aminadap, 84. - - Arbois de Jubainville, 184-85, 188, 192-93. - - Arthur, Arthur saga, Arthurian romance or legend, 108, 114, 116, 117, - Martin's interpretation of, 122-24, 130, 134, 136, 144, 147, 148, 153, - 155, 156, 188, - A's waiting, 197-98, - A and Potter Thompson, 198, 205, 218, 219, 221, 222, - popularity of, 228-29, - Celtic character of, 230, 231, 236, 243, 244, 245. - - Avalon (Avaron), 77, - punning explanation of, 78, - parallel to the Grail, 122-23 and 188, - with the Magic Castle, 191, 198, 218, 222, - connection with Glastonbury, 223, 248, - parallel with Brandan's isle, 264. - - - Baldur, 100. - - Ban, 83, 84. - - Baring-Gould, 98. - - Bartsch, 261. - - Battle of Magh Rath, 185, 186. - - Bergmann's San Grëal, 104. - - Bespelled Castle in Celtic tradition, 190-206. - - Birch-Hirschfeld, 4, 5, 6, 38, 52, 64_d_, 84, - full analysis of his work, 108-121, - Martin's criticism, 121-23, 124, - objections to his hypothesis, 125-126, 128, 132, 133, 134, 137, 138, - 145, 151, 168, 171, 174, 207, 217, 220, 250, - Wolfram and Chrestien, 261-62. - - Blaise, 113. - - Blanchefleur, 92, 114, 115, 133, - comparison of Chrestien and Mabinogi, 135, 140, 147, 204, 238, - example of sex-relations of the time, 241. - - Blood-drops in the snow, 137-38. - - Books of Rights and Geasa, 213. - - Borron, Robert de, author of the Joseph d'Arimathie, bibliographical - details, 2, - MS. statements respecting, 4-6, 19, - passage of Grail to England, 79-80, 94, 95, 96, - Hucher's views, 105-6, - relation to other versions according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 111-115, - 116, 118-20, - Martin's views, 121-124, 125, 131, 171, - secret words, 186, 188, - Fisher King in, 207-9, 220, 221, 222, - his conception, 239, - chastity ideal in, 245, 247, 251, 252. - - Bors, 66, - exemplification of spirit of Queste, 239. - - Bötticher, Wolfram and Chrestien, 261. - - Bran (the Blessed), 108, - and Cernunnos, 211, - connection with conversion of Britain, 218-20, 226, - connection with Brandan legend, 265. - - Bran the Son of Febal, 192, 194, 232, 265. - - Brandan legend, 264-65. - - Branwen (Mabinogi of), 76, 97, 108, 167, 168, - cauldron, 186, 211, 219, 260. - - Britain, evangelisation of, 80, 91, 95, 105-106, 107, 124, 218, - connection with the Brons and Joseph legends, 219-24. - - Brons, 66, 70, 72, 75, 77, - special form of Early History, 78-79, 80, 81, - two accounts respecting, 82-83, 84, 85, 86, 88, - in the Didot-Perceval, 89, 91, 93, 94, 95, 106, 109, 112, 113, 123, - 124, 125, 182, - as Fisher King, 208-11, - as Apostle of Britain, 218-26, 235. - - Bruillans, 84. - - Brunhild, 232. - - Bundling, 135. - - - Caesarius of Heisterbach, 122. - - Campbell, J. F., 102-03, 152, 159-60, - cup of healing, 187, 210. - - Campbell, - No. 1 Young King of Easaidh Ruadh, 187; - No. 10 The Three Soldiers, 195-96; - No. 41 The Widow and her Daughters, 187; - No. 47 Mac Iain Direach, 187, 212; - No. 51 The Fair Gruagach, 213; - No. 52 The Knight of the Red Shield, 156-57, - the resuscitating carlin, 166-67; - No. 58 The Rider of Grianaig, 157, 209; - No. 76 Conall Gulban, 167, 187; - No. 82 How the Een was set up, 158, 189; - No. 84 Manus, 189-90; - No. 86 The Daughter of King Under the Waves, 194-95, 246. - - Campbell, J. G., Muilearteach, 167. - - Catheloys, 84. - - Celidoine, 83, 84. - - Celtic tradition, origin of or elements in Grail legend, 7, - how affected by placing of versions, 68-69, - opinions of previous investigators, 97-107, - Birch-Hirschfeld, 111-113-14-15-17-20, - Martin, 121-24, - Hertz, 125, - Grail apparently foreign to, 151, 164-65, - Carlin in, 167-69, 170-71, 181, 183-84, - Vessel in, 184-88, - Sword in, 188-90, 191, 195, 197, 199, 208, - origin of legend, 215-18, 223-27, - relation to mediæval romance, 230, - individualism in, 231, - woman in, 231-33, - the supernatural in, 234, 235, - chastity ideal, 247, 248, 251, - transformation of, 255, 265. - - Ceridwen, 186, 210-11. - - Cernunnos, 211. - - Cét mac Magach, 231. - - Chanson de Roland, 248. - - Charlemagne, Carolingian Saga, 197, 229, 230, 231. - - Chastity ideal in the Queste, 243-44, - in later versions, 245-46, - in popular and Celtic tradition, 246-47. - - Chessboard Castle, 127-30, 139-41. - - Chrestien, bibliographical description, 1, 2, - statements of MSS. respecting, 4, 5, 8, 66, 69, 70, 74, 76, 80, 81, - 85, 86, 91, 92, 93, 95, - views of previous investigators, 98-108, - Birch-Hirschfeld, 108-121, 122, 124, 125, 126, - relation to Didot-Perceval, 127-131, - to Mabinogi, 132-145, - nature of model, 145-46, - relation to Sir Perceval, 147-51, - relation to Great Fool, 155-56-58-59, 164, 168, - visit to Grail Castle in, 171-74, 175, - represents mainly feud quest, 180-82, 199, 207, 208, 211, 218, - his ideal, 237-38, 245, 249, 250, - relation to Wolfram, 261-63. - - Christian origin of or elements in Grail legend, Christian tradition, - legend, etc.; - as affected by placing of versions, 68, 80, 123, 143, 146, 165, - 170-73, 179, 181, 186, 209, - as affected by my hypothesis, 215-18, 220, 224, 226-27, - relation to the talismans, 238-39, 251-52, - influence on the legend as a whole, 255. - - Chronological arrangement of versions, 6, - Author's, 95-96, - Zarncke's, 107, - Birch-Hirschfelds', 120-21. - - Conall Cearnach, 231. - - Conan's delusions, 200. - - Conchobor, 192, 231, 233. - - Conduiramur, 204, - and Parzival, 249-51. - - Connla, 188, 194, 196, 232. - - Constituent elements in the romances, 215-16. - - Corbenic, 83, 84. - - Cormac's visit to the otherworld, 193-94, 234. - - Counsels, the, in the romances, 150. - - Crestiens, p. 83 = Nasciens, p. 84. - - Cuchulainn, 153, 185, 188, 189, - conception of, 192, - _gess_ of, 214, - parallel of legend to mediæval romances, 231-34. - - Cumhall, father of Fionn, 158-59. - - Curoi mac Daire, 231. - - Cynewulf, 221. - - - Dagda, the, and the cauldron, 184-85, 192. - - Deirdre, 137, - and the Sons of Usnech, 233. - - Diarmaid, 202, - _gess_ of, 214. - - Didot-Perceval, prose sequel to Borron's poem, numbered as C 2, 65, 66, - 68, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 78, 79, 82, - the Quest in, 89-91, 92, 93, 94, 96, - Zarncke's opinion of, 107, - Authorship of according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 112-15, 117, 120, 121, - 125, 126, - relationship to Conte du Graal, 127-30, - origin of, 131, 138, 139, - stag hunt in, 141-42, 145-46, 172-73, 179, 182, 191, 198-99, 208, 245. - - Dietrich Saga, 230. - - Domanig, Parzival-Studien, 250. - - Duvau, 192. - - Dwarves incident in Chrestien and Mabinogi, 134. - - - Elton, 219. - - Emer, wooing of, 232-33. - - Encyclopædia Britannica, 126. - - England, arrival of Grail in 76-80, - Birch-Hirschfeld 116, - Joseph legend in 221-22. - - Enygeus (Brons' wife), 81, 82. - - Evangelium Nicodemi, 221-22. - - Espinogre, 142. - - Expulsion and Return Formula (Aryan), 144, 153-54, 156, 159, 163-64, - 190, 210, 225, 256. - - - Fand, 232. - - Faust, 253. - - Fenian saga or cycle, sword in, 188-90, 230. - - Feud-Quest in the romances and in Celtic tradition, 181-90. - - Finn-eges, 209-11, 220. - - Fionn (Finn), Fionn-saga, 153-54, 157, - connection with Great Fool and boyhood of Peredur, 158-59, 163-64, - Fionn's enchantment, 186-87, - and sword, 189-90, 195, - in the otherworld, 200-03, - and salmon, 209-11, 214, 220, 224, 231, 234, 256. - - Fish, according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 112, - Martin, 123-24, 224. - See also Salmon. - - Fisher King, Fisher or Rich Fisher, 77, 78, - as Grail-Keeper, 80-86, - relation the Promised Knight, 87-89, 107, 110, 113, 115, - accounted for by Birch-Hirschfeld, 117, 123, 124, 134, 138, 139, 140, - 142, 143, 144, 180, 206, - Author's explanation of, 207-11, 237, - in Wolfram, 249. - - Fisher King's daughter, 140-42. - - Fisher King's father, 74, 81, 110, 191. - - Fitzgerald, 198, 231. - - Fomori, 188, 230. - - Förster on Peredur, 132. - - Frederick II, 122, - in the Kyffhäuser, 196-97. - - Frederick I (Barbarossa), 196-97. - - Furnivall, 2, 3, 102-03, - estimate of Queste criticised, 242-43. - - - Gaelic talismans = Grail and lance, 103. - - Gaidoz, 219. - - Galahad, Galahad Quest, 66, 67, 83-86, - as Promised Knight, 90-94, 102, 104, 106, 108, 109, 113, 131, 149, 226, - comparison with Perceval Quest, 236, - morality of, 240, 245-46, 252, 254. - - Gaston Paris on relation between Chrestien and Mabinogi, 132. - - Gautier (de Doulens), Pseudo-Gautier, numbered A II., 1-2, - statements respecting in MS., 4, - Berne MS. of, 19, 69-70, 72, 74-75, 76-77, 81, 87, 92-95, 101, 106, - 110, 113, 114, 120-21, - relation to Didot-Perceval, 128-30, - to Mabinogi ,133 and 140-44, 145, 146, - visit to Grail Castle in, 171-72, - Gawain Quest in, 174 and 178-79, 182, 189, 199, 237, 246. - - Gautier (Walter) de Montbeliart and Borron, 5, 103, 105, 120, 121. - - Gawain (Gauvain), 2, 67, 69, - visit to Grail King, 87, 92, 101, - Martin's view of, 122 and 124, 125, 164, 172, - special form of Quest, 176-78, 180, 189, 191, - visit to Magic Castle, 199-200, - in Heinrich, 203-05, 237, - and Orgueilleuse, 240-41, 245, 251, 261-62. - - Geasa, 212-14. - - Geoffrey of Monmouth, 91, 119, 219, 229. - - Gerald (Giraldus Cambrensis), testimony respecting Map's authorship, - 117-18, 122. - - Gerbert, numbered A IV., 1, 5, 69, - love _motif_ in, 92, 95, 110, 121, 126, - the witch who brings the dead to life in, 165-69, 172, 174-75, 179, - 180, 199, - chastity ideal in, 246, 249, - relation to Wolfram, 262-63. - - Gervasius of Tilbury, 122, 197. - - Glastonbury, Skeat's view, 105, - Zarncke, 107, 220, - and Avalon, 223-25. - - Goethe, 253. - - Gonemans, 130-34, - and Fisher King, 138, 140, - and the witch, 165-68, - advice to Perceval, 211-12. - See also Gurnemanz. - - Goon Desert, 81, 142. - - Grail, 66, - hypothetical Christian origin of, 68, - first possessor of, 69-70, - solace of Joseph, 70-72, - connection with Sacrament, 71 and 73, - and Trinity, 72, - properties and effect of, 74-76, - name, 76, - arrival in England, 76-79, 83-84, 89-90, 94, 96, 99, 100-112, - phraseology used by romances in mentioning it, 113, 114-16, - symbol of Christ's body, 117, 120, - symbol of Avalon, 123, 124-26, 136, 140-142, - absence of from Mabinogi and Thornton Sir P., 164, - apparently foreign to Celtic legend, 165, 169, - various forms of visit to castle of, 170-79, - double nature of, 182-83, - parallel to magic vessel of Celtic tradition, 185-96, - and Fionn, 202, 218, 221, - mode of transformation, 224, 245, 247, - in Wolfram, 250-52, - in Wagner, 254-55, 261-63. - - Grail (Early History of), two forms, 65-66, - Joseph form, 67, - relation to Christian origin hypothesis, 68, 69, - Brons form, 80, 86, - two forms in French romances, 93-94, - later than Queste, 93, 95-96, 103, - according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 108-21, 151, 208, - origin of, 218 and 224. - - Grail (Quest of), two forms, 65-67, - Perceval form, 67, - relation to Celtic origin hypothesis, 68, 69, 80, 83, 86, - object of according to different versions, 88-90, - original form of, 91, 92, - Perceval form older, 93-94, 95-96, 105-06, 109-26, 131, 138, - Mabinogi form of, 139-44, 151, - inconsistency of accounts respecting, 180-81, - two formulas fused in, 181, - constituent elements in, 215-16, - mode of transformation, 220, 237-39, 243, 245, 248, 251, 252. - - Grail legend, romance or cycle, origin of according to Birch-Hirschfeld, - 120, 159, - Christian element in, 217, - genesis and growth of, 225-27, - popularity of, 228, 230, - development of ethical ideas in, 235 _et seq._, 248, - future of, 259, 265. - - Grail-Keeper and Promised Knight, 80-81. - - Grail-Messenger and Rosette, 114. - See also Loathly Damsel. - - Graine, 214. - - Gramoflanz, 193. - - Grand St. Graal, numbered E 3, authorship ascribed to Borron, 5, - Helinandus' testimony, 52, 65-67, 70, 72-73, 75-76, 79, - conflicting accounts respecting Promised Knight in, 84-86, 90, 91, 93, - 94-96, 99, 102-112, 117, - authorship of, 119-20, 121, 126, 146, 207-08, 219, 220, 247, - prologue of and Brandan legend, 264-65. - - Great Fool, lay or tale of the, 101-02, 144, - prose opening, 152-53, - comparison with romances, 154-56, - originality of, 158, - relation to Fionn legend, 159, - Lay, 159-162, 163, 164, - ethical import of, 256-57. - - Gregory of Tours and Evangelium Nicodemi, 221. - - Greloguevaus, 81. - - Grimm, No. 122, Der Krautesel, 195, 197, 198, 204-05, 247. - - Gudrun, 233. - - Guinevere, 83. - - Gurnemanz, 113, 115, 249, 262-63. - See also Gonemans. - - Guyot = Kiot, 104. - - Gwalchmai, 225-26, 228. - See Gawain. - - Gwion and Fionn, 210. - - - Hahn, J. G. von, 153-54. - - Halliwell, 98, 147. - - Haunted Castle, 204-05. - - Hawker, 244. - - Hebron, 108 = Brons, which see. - - Hector, 187. - - Heinrich von dem Türlin, numbered K, 4, - citation of Chrestien, 6, 69, 91, - Martin's view of, 122, 125, - visit to Grail Castle in, 172-73 and 178, - double origin, 182, 191, - special form of Quest, 198-99 and 203, - parallel with Sleeping Beauty, 203. - - Hélie de Borron, 105-06, - testimony of, 118-19, 121. - - Helinandus, 52, 95, 103, 121. - - Helyas, 83 = Ysaics, 84. - - Hennessy, 159. - - Henry II, 118-19. - - Herodias, 100, 254. - - Hertz' views, 124-25. - - How the Great Tuairsgeul etc., 212. - - Hucher, 2, - attempt to harmonise conflicting accounts in Borron, 82, - statement of views, 105-06, - criticised by Birch-Hirschfeld, 111 and 118, 130, - and cauldron, 184. - - - Iduna, apples of, 182. - - - John the Baptist, 100. - - Jonaans, 83, 84. - - Joseph of Arimathea, Joseph legend, 65-67, 69, 70, - and Grail, 70-73, 74, 77, - and England, 78-80, 81, 82, 84, 88, 89, 90, 93, 94, 99, 100, 104-109, - 112-117, 124, 146, - and the Fisher, 208, 218, - Apocryphal legend of, 220-24, 226. - - Joseph, Metrical, poem by Robert de Borron, numbered B 2, author of, 5, - 65-66, 68, 70-73, 74-76, 77-80, - two accounts in, 81-82, 88, 91, 93-94, 102-103, - relation to Didot-Perceval according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 112-14, 125. - - Josephes (son of Joseph), and Veronica, 79, 84-86, 109. - - Josue, 66, 84, 85. - - - Kay, 130. - - Keating and the treasures of the Tuatha de Danann, 184. - - Kennedy's Fellow with the Goat-skin, 134, - Castle Knock, 159, - Great Fool, 159-61, - Son of Bad Counsel, 199-200, - Fionn's visit to Cuana, 201, - haunted castle tale, 204, 257. - - Kiot, 6, - San Marte's view, 99-100, 107-08, 121, - and Wolfram, 261-63. - - Klinschor, 253, 263. - - Knight Errantry, 229. - - Knighthood, prototype of in Celtic tradition, 231. - - Knights of the Red Branch, 231. - - Knowles' Said and Saiyid, 196. - - Koch, Kyffhäuser Sage, 197. - - Köhler, 195. - - Kundry in Wagner, 254-55, 263. - See Loathly Damsel. - - Küpp on Pseudo-Chrestien, 8, 126, - and the branch, 193, 262. - - Kynddelw, 219. - - - Lambar, 83-84, 86, 183. - - Lame King, see Maimed King. - - Lance, 109, - and Grail legend according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 111, 113, 121. - - Lancelot, 83, 84, 108, 110, 112, 118, 119, 123, 172-173, 180, 240, 245. - - Latin original of French romances probable, 122. - - Liebrecht, 197-98. - - Llyr Llediath, 219-20. - - Loathly Damsel, 87, - and Rosette, 114, - in Mabinogi and Chrestien, 136, - hero's cousin, 139-41, - double origin of in romances, 205-06, - and Wagner, 254. - - Longis, 70. - - Luces de Gast, 118-19. - - Luces (Lucius), 91, 219. - - Lufamour, 147. - - Lug Lamhfhada, 184, 189, 192. - - Mabinogi of Peredur (generally Mabinogi sometimes Peredur) numbered H 3, - 5, 66, 68, 69, - Villemarqué on, 97-98, 89, - Simrock on, 100, 101, - Nash, 102, 104, - Hucher, 106, - lateness of according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 114-115, 125-26, - relation to Conte du Graal, 131-37, - dwarves incident in, 134, - greater delicacy in Blanchefleur incident, 135, - blood drops incident, 137-38, - differences with Chrestien, 138-39, - machinery of Quest in, 139-42, - relation to Manessier, 142-44, - origin and development of, 143-145, - special indebtedness to Chrestien, 145, 146, - relation to Sir Perceval, 148-49, - counsels in, 150, - apparent absence of Grail from, 151, - comparison with Great Fool tale, 154-57, - with Great Fool Lay, 161-62, 164, - with Gerbert's witch incident, 168-69, 171, - visit to Talismans Castle in, 172-73 and 176, 180, 181, 183, 184, 190, - 216, - fusion of numerous Celtic tales in, 225-26, - Sex-relations in, 241, 256. - - Maidens' Castle, parallels to in Celtic tradition, 191-94. - - Maimed or Lame or Sick King, 66, 83-88, 90, 91, 109, - parallel with Arthur, 122, - probable absence from Proto Mabinogi, 145, - belongs to Feud Quest, 198, - parallel to Fionn, 202, 237. - - Malory, 236. - - Manaal, 84. - - Manannan mac Lir, 192-94, 208, - and Bran, 219. - - Manessier, numbered A III, 1-2, - date etc., 4-5, 69-71, 73-74, 77, 81, 88, 92, 95, 110, 121, 138, - relation to the Mabinogi, 142-46, 168-69, 171, 175, - disregard of question, 180-82, 199, 245-46. - - Manus, 189-90. - - Mapes or Map, 5, 104, 105, - not author of Queste or Grand St. Graal according to Birch-Hirschfeld, - 117-19. - - Martin's views, 121-26, - Kyffhäuser hypothesis criticised, 197, 198, - Wolfram and Gerbert, 262. - - Meaux, 120. - - Menglad, 232. - - Merlin, 92, 114, 124. - - Merlin, Borron's poem, 2, 64D, 105, 106, 112-13, 117. - - Meyer, Kuno, 209, 233. - - Minnedienst, 240-41. - - Modred, 122. - - Montsalvatch, 66. - - Mordrains, 90, 109-10, 120, 173. - - Morgan la Fay, 122. - - Morvan lez Breiz, 148, 158, 162. - - Moys or Moses, 88-90, 106, 109, 112, 116. - - Mythic conceptions in the romances, 205. - - - Nasciens, 76, 83, 85, 120. - - Nash, 102. - - Nibelungenlied, 230, 234, 248. - - Nicodemus, 71. - - Noisi, 137, 233. - - - O'Daly, 159-61, 163. - - Odin, 100-01. - - O'Donovan, 185, 209, 213. - - Oengus of the Brug, 191-92, - and swanmaid, 196. - - O'Flanagan, 233. - - Ogma, 188. - - Oisin, 195, 200, - and Gwion, 210, 232. - - O'Kearney, 201. - - Orgueilleuse, Celtic character of, 124 and 232, - illustrates mediæval morality, 240-41, 263. - - Osiris, 101. - - - Pagan essence of Grail etc. in the Christianised romances, 238. - - Partinal, 81, 88, 142-43. - - Parzival, 101, 252-53. - See Perceval and Wolfram. - - Paulin-Paris, 5, - explanation of word Grail, 103, 111, 116-17, 119. - - Pearson on the Veronica legend, 222, - and St. Brandan, 265. - - Peleur, 83. - - Pelleans or Pellehem, 83-86, 90. - - Pelles, 83-86, 90. - - Perceval, Perceval-Quest, type hero of Quest, 66-67, 72, 78, - relation to the Grail-keeper, 80-86, 88-89, 91-92, - oldest hero of Quest, 93, 94, 98, 101, 102-04, - according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 110-119, 125, - in Didot-Perceval and Conte du Graal, 127-31, - in Mabinogi and Conte du Graal, 131-45, - relation to (bespelled) cousin, 139-42, - relation of existing versions to earliest form, 146, - in the Thornton MS. romance, 147-51, - hero of Expulsion and Return Formula, 153-56, - parallel with Highland folk-tales, 157-58, - relation to Twin Brethren folk-tale and dualism in, 162-64, 169, - versions of Quest, 171-76, - visit to the Maidens' Castle, 178-79, 180, 181, - significance of Didot-Perceval form, 182, 187, - and sword, 189, - Castle of Maidens, 191, 195, 199, - parallel with Diarmaid, 202, - possible hero of Haunted Castle form, 204-05, - relation to Fisher, 207, - his silence, 211-14, 226, - superiority to Galahad Quest, 236, 237-38, 240-41, 245, 247, 254, 256, - 261-62. - See also Parzival and Peredur. - - Perceval's aunt, 79. - - Perceval's sister, 83-84, 163. - - Perceval's uncle, 78. - - Perceval le Gallois, numbered G 3, authorship, 6, 65-66, 69, 104, 121, - 126, 246. - - Peredur (hero of Mabinogi = Perceval), Peredur-saga, 106, - mother of, 115, 132-36, - parallel to Tom of the Goat-skin, 134, - the sword test, 138, - hero of the stag hunt, 139-42, 143, - original form of saga, 144-45, 153-54, 157, 162, 163, 164, 168-69, - and Fionn, 187 and 203, 220, - fish absent from, 224, - genesis and growth of, 225-227, 228, - Blanchefleur incident in, 241. - See Perceval. - - Peronnik l'idiot, 125, 158. - - Perseus, 256. - - Petrus, 77, 82, 88-90, 106, 109, 112, - connection with Geoffrey conversion legend, 219. - - Pfaffe Amis, 265. - - Pilate, 65, 70. - - Potter Thompson and Arthur, 198, 262. - - Potvin, 1, 2, 6, - his views, 104, 174, 177. - - Prester John, 100. - - Procopius, 191. - - Promised or Good Knight, and Grail Keeper, 80-86, - Galahad as, 85-86 - work of, 86-91, - qualifications of, 92-93, 107, 109. - - Prophecy incident in Grail romances, 156. - - Pseudo-Chrestien, 8, 209. - - Pseudo-Gautier, numbered AII_a_, 2, 15-16, 70, 72, 74, 77, 79, 81, 95. - - Pseudo-Manessier, numbered AIII_a_, 2, 19, 72-73. - - - Queste del St. Graal, numbered D 2-3, varying redactions distinguished - typographically, 38, 65-67, 72, 75-76, 79, - three drafts of, 83-86, 90-91, - glorification of virginity in, 93, 95, 103, 107, - relation to Grand St. Graal, 108-09, - to Conte du Graal, 110-11, 112, 113, - authorship of, 117-20, 121, 126, 131, 146, - visit to Grail Castle in, 172-73, 180, 183, 186, 207, 218, 220, 222, - 224, 226, 236, - ideal of, 238-40 and 243-44, - ideal criticised, 243-44, - merits of, 244-45, 246, - inferiority to Wolfram, 250, 251. - - Question, Birch-Hirschfeld's opinion, 171, 180, - belongs to Unspelling Quest, 181-82, 191, 196, 203, - Wolfram's presentment, 249-50. - - - Red Knight, 147-49, 155-56, 162, 189. - - Renan on Celtic poetry, 234-35. - - Rhys, 198, 209, 211, - Bran legend, 219-20, 265. - - Rich Fisher or King. See Fisher King. - - Riseut, 141. - - Robert de Borron. See Borron. - - Rochat, 19, - his views, 101-02. - - Roland, 229, 232. - - Roménie, 118. - - Rosette, 130, 141. - See Loathly Damsel. - - - Salmon of Wisdom, 209-10. - - San Marte, views, 99-100, 101-02, - and Wolfram, 250-5. - - Sarras, 72, 77, 79. - - Schröder, Brandan legend, 264-65. - - Seat, empty or Perillous, 81-82, 88-90. - - Secret words, 73, 89, 179. - - Seraphe, 108. - - Sex-relations in Middle Ages, 240-42. - - Siegfried, 157, 162, 203, 210, 232-33. - - Simei, 90. - - Simrock, views, 100-101, 103, 132, 134, 164, 251, 261-62. - - Skeat, 104. - - Skene, 219-20. - - Sleep and the Magic Castle myth, 202-03. - - Sleeping Beauty, parallel with Heinrich's version, 203, - ethical import of, 258. - - Solomon's sword, 84. - See Sword. - - Sons of Usnech, 137, 233. - - Sorceresses of Gloucester, 101, 139, 156. - - Spontaneity of folk tradition, 254, 257-58. - - Stag Hunt in Conte du Graal and Mabinogi, 139-40, - in Didot-Perceval, 141, - parallel with Lay of Great Fool, 162. - - Steinbach on Sir Perceval, 147-50. - - Stephens, 219-20. - - Stokes, 188, 200, 233. - - Suetonius, 116. - - Sword, 113, 142, - belongs more to Feud Quest, 180-82, - found also in Unspelling Quest, 183, - of Lug, 184, - in Celtic myth, 187-90, 198-99. - - Taboo and Geasa, 214. - - Taliesin, 97, 186, - and Oisin, 210-11. - - Templars, 100. - - Tennyson, 236, 244. - - Tethra, 188. - - Thor, Irish parallels to, 200-01. - - Thornton MS. Sir Perceval (often simply Sir Perceval), numbered I 4, 66, - 68-69, 101-02, 125, 126, - Steinbach's theory of, 147-50, - criticised, 149, - absence of Grail from, 151, - connection with Great Fool tale, 154-58, 162, 164-65, - witch incident, 169, 190, 225. - - Tír-na n-Og, 191, 195, 223, 248, 264. - - Titurel, 66. - - Titus, 107. - - Trinity, symbolizing of, 88. - - Tuatha de Danann, treasures of, 184-85, 189-92, 223, 230. - - Two Brothers tale, 157, 162-63. - - - Ultonian cycle, 185. - - Unspelling Quest, 181, - Celtic parallels to, 190-206, 208. - - Urban (Urlain), 83, 84, 183. - - - Van Santen, 252. - - Vanishing of Bespelled Castle, 202-03. - - Veronica (Verrine), 79, 116, - Ward's theory, 222. - - Vespasian, 107, 116. - - Vessel in Celtic myth, 184, - in Ultonian cycle, 185, - in Welsh myth, 186, - in Celtic folk-tales, 187. - See Grail. - - Villemarqué, views 97-98, 101, 131, 148. - - Virginity, 247. - - - Wagner, 252-54. - - Ward, 220, 222. - - Wartburg Krieg and Brandan legend, 264. - - William of Malmesbury, 105, - Zarncke's opinion of, 107, 115, - Ward's opinion of, 220. - - Windisch, 188, 219. - - Witch who brings the dead to life, 165-69. - - Wolfram von Eschenbach, numbered F 3, sources, 6, 25-26, 65-67, 69, - and Gerbert, 92, 99-102, 104, 107, 121-25, 150, 157, - brother incident in, 164, 172-73, - branch in, 193, - magician lord, 199, - account of mediæval morality, 240-41, 246, - ideal of, 248-52, 254, 255, 256, - pattern for future growth of legend, 261, - relation to Chrestien, 261-63. - - Woman in Celtic tradition, 231-33. - - Wülcker, Evangelium Nicodemi, 220-21. - - - Zarncke, views, 106-07, 115, 132, 220. - - - HARRISON AND SONS, - PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY, - ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON. - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Fully described by Potvin, VI, lxix, etc. - -[2] Potvin, VI, lxxv, etc. - -[3] Birch-Hirschfeld: Die Sage vom Gral, 8vo., Leipzig, 1877, p. 81. - -[4] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 89. - -[5] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 110. - -[6] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 232, quoting the colophon of a Paris MS., after -Paulin Paris, Cat. des MSS. français, vol. ii, pp. 361, etc. - -[7] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 143. - -[8] This prologue is certainly not Chrestien's work; but there is no -reason to doubt that it embodies a genuine tradition, and affords valuable -hints for a reconstruction of the original form of the story. _Cf._ Otto -Küpp in Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, vol. xvii., No. 1. - -[9] Potvin's text, from the Mons MS., is taken as basis. - -[10] Several MSS. here intercalate the history of Joseph of Arimathea: -Joseph of Barimacie had the dish made; with it he caught the blood running -from the Saviour's body as it hung on the Cross, he afterwards begged the -body of Pilate; for the devotion showed the Grail he was denounced to the -Jews, thrown into prison, delivered thence by the Lord, exiled together -with the sister of Nicodemus, who had an image of the Lord. Joseph and his -companions came to the promised land, the White Isle, a part of England. -There they warred against them of the land. When Joseph was short of food -he prayed to the Creator to send him the Grail wherein he had gathered the -holy blood, after which to them that sat at table the Grail brought bread -and wine and meat in plenty. At his death, Joseph begged the Grail might -remain with his seed, and thus it was that no one, of however high -condition, might see it save he was of Joseph's blood. The Rich Fisher was -of that kin, and so was Greloguevaus, from whom came Perceval. - -It is hardly necessary to point out that this must be an interpolation, as -if Gauvain had really learnt all there was to be told concerning the -Grail, there would have been no point in the reproaches addressed him by -the countryfolk. The gist of the episode is that he falls asleep before -the tale is all told. - -[11] The existence of this fragment shows the necessity of collating all -the MSS. of the Conte du Graal and the impossibility of arriving at -definite conclusions respecting the growth of the work before this is -done. The writer of this version evidently knew nothing of Queste or Grand -St. Graal, whilst he had knowledge of Borron's poem, a fact the more -remarkable since none of the other poets engaged upon the Conte du Graal -knew of Borron, so far, at least, as can be gathered from printed sources. -It is hopeless in the present state of knowledge to do more than map out -approximately the leading sections of the work. - -[12] It is by no means clear to me that Gerbert's portion of the Conte du -Graal is an interpolation. I am rather inclined to look upon it as an -independent finish. As will be shown later on, it has several features in -common with both Mabinogi and Wolfram, features pointing to a common -prototype. - -[13] In the solitary MS. which gives this version, it follows, as has -already been stated, prose versions of Robert de Borron's undoubted poems, -"Joseph of Arimathea" and "Merlin." - -[14] Birch-Hirschfeld, in his Summary (p. 37, l. 22) or his MS. authority, -B.M., xix, E. iii., has transposed the relationships. - -[15] And buried it, adds B. H. in his Summary, whether on MS. authority or -not I cannot say, but the Welsh translation has--"there was a period of -240 years" (an obvious mistake on the part of the translator) "after the -passion of J. C. when Jos. of A. came; he who buried J. C. and drew him -down from the cross." - -[16] Thus was Evelach called as a Christian, adds B. H. Here W. agrees -with Furnivall. - -[17] Here Birch-Hirschfeld's Summary agrees with W. - -[18] B. H. agrees with W. - -[19] According to B. H., the recluse tells him he has fought with his -friends, whereupon, ashamed, he hurries off. - -[20] B. H. here agrees with W. - -[21] B. H. has _five_ candles. - -[22] B. H.: "When will the Holy Vessel come to still the pain I feel? -Never suffered man as I." - -[23] B. H. agrees with W. - -[24] B. H. agrees with Furnivall. - -[25] B. H., the _ninth_. - -[26] B. H., the vision is that of a crowned old man, who with two knights -worships the cross. - -[27] B. H., Nasciens. - -[28] B. H. has all this passage, save that the references to the vision at -the cross-ways seem omitted. - -[29] B. H., the latter. - -[30] B. H., in Chaldee. - -[31] B. H., Labran slays Urban. - -[32] The 1488 text has Urban. - -[33] B. H., Thus was the King wounded, and he was Galahad's grandfather. - -[34] It does not appear from B. H.'s Summary whether his text agrees with -F. or W. - -[35] B. H., seven knights. - -[36] B. H., that was the Castle of Corbenic where the Holy Grail was kept. - -[37] B. H., the Castle of the Maimed King. - -[38] B. H., ten. Obviously a mistake on the part of his text, as the nine -with the three Grail questers make up twelve, the number of Christ's -disciples. - -[39] B. H., three. - -[40] B. H. agrees with F. - -[41] One cannot see from B. H. whether his text agrees with F. or W. - -[42] B. H. agrees with F. - -[43] It will be advisable to give here the well-known passage from the -chronicle of Helinandus, which has been held by most investigators to be -of first-rate importance in determining the date of the Grand St. Graal. -The chronicle ends in the year 1204, and must therefore have been finished -in that or the following year, and as the passage in question occurs in -the earlier portion of the work it may be dated about two years earlier -(Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 33). "Hoc tempore (717-719) in Britannia cuidam -heremitae demonstrata fuit mirabilis quaedam visio per angelum de Joseph -decurione nobili, qui corpus domini deposuit de cruce et de catino illo -vel paropside, in quo dominus caenavit cum discipulis suis, de quo ab -eodem heremita descripta est historia quae dicitur gradale. Gradalis autem -vel gradale gallice dicitur scutella lata et aliquantulum profunda, in qua -preciosae dapes divitibus solent apponi gradatim, unus morsellus post -alium in diversis ordinibus. Dicitur et vulgari nomine greal, quia grata -et acceptabilis est in ea comedenti, tum propter continens, quia forte -argentea est vel de alia preciosa materia, tum propter contentum .i. -ordinem multiplicem dapium preciosarum. Hanc historiam latine scriptam -invenire non potui sed tantum gallice scripta habetur a quibusdem -proceribus, nec facile, ut aiunt, tota inveniri potest." - -The Grand St. Graal is the only work of the cycle now existing to which -Helinandus' words could refer; but it is a question whether he may not -have had in view a work from which the Grand St. Graal took over its -introduction. Helinandus mentions the punning origin of the word "greal" -(_infra_, p. 76), which is only hinted at in the Grand St. Graal, but -fully developed elsewhere, _e.g._, in the Didot-Perceval and in Borron's -poem. - -Another point of great interest raised by this introduction will be found -dealt with in Appendix B. - -[44] The MS. followed by Furnivall has an illustration, in which Joseph is -represented as sitting under the Cross and collecting the blood from the -sides and feet in the basin. - -[45] MS. reading. - -[46] I have not thought it necessary to give a summary of the prose -romance Perceval le Gallois. One will be found in Birch-Hirschfeld, pp. -123-134. The version, though offering many interesting features, is too -late and unoriginal to be of use in the present investigation. - -[47] _Cf._ p. 78 as to this passage. - -[48] It is forty-two years, according to D. Queste (p. 119), after the -Passion that Joseph comes to Sarras. - -[49] It is plain that B I is abridged in the passage dealt with, from the -following fact: Joseph (v. 2,448, etc.) praying to Christ for help, -reminds Him of His command, that when he (Joseph) wanted help he should -come "devant ce veissel precieus Où est votre sans glorieus." Now Christ's -words to Joseph in the prison say nothing whatever about any such -recommendation; but E, Grand St. Graal, does contain a scene between our -Lord and Joseph, in which the latter is bidden, "Et quant tu vauras à moi -parler si ouuerras l'arche en quel lieu que tu soies" (I, 38-39) from -which the conclusion may be drawn that B I represents an abridged and -garbled form of the prototype of E. - -[50] In the Mabinogi of Branwen, the daughter of Llyr, the warriors cast -into the cauldron of renovation come forth on the morrow fighting men as -good as they were before, except that they are not able to speak (Mab., p. -381). - -[51] The version summarised by Birch-Hirschfeld. - -[52] Curiously enough this very text here prints Urban as the name of the -Maimed King; Urban is the antagonist of Lambar, the father of the Maimed -King in the original draft of the Queste, and his mention in this place in -the 1488 text seems due to a misprint. In the episode there is a direct -conflict of testimony between the first and second drafts, Lambar slaving -Urlain in the former, Urlain Lambar in the latter. - -[53] This account agrees with that of the second draft of the Queste, in -which Urlain slays Lambar. - -[54] Only _one_ beholder of the Quest is alluded to, although in the -Queste, from which the Grand St. Graal drew its account, _three_ behold -the wonders of the Grail. - -[55] This, of course, belongs to the second of the two accounts we have -found in the poem respecting the Promised Knight, the one which makes him -the grandson and not the son merely of Brons. - -[56] The object of the Quest according to Heinrich von dem Türlin will be -found dealt with in Chapter VII. - -[57] This is one of a remarkable series of points of contact between -Gerbert and Wolfram von Eschenbach. - -[58] It almost looks as if the author of C were following here a version -in which the hero only has to go once to the Grail Castle; nothing is said -about Perceval's first unsuccessful visit, and Merlin addresses Perceval -as if he were telling him for the first time about matters concerning -which he must be already fully instructed. - -[59] It is remarkable, considering the scanty material at his disposal, -how accurate Schulz' analysis is, and how correct much of his -argumentation. - -[60] Wagner has admirably utilised this hint of Simrock's in his Parsifal, -when his Kundry (the loathly damsel of Chrestien and the Mabinogi) is -Herodias. _Cf._ _infra_, Ch. X. - -[61] Excepting, of course, the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century -Paris imprints, which represented as a rule, however, the latest and most -interpolated forms, and Mons. Fr. Michel's edition of Borron's poem. - -[62] Hucher's argument from v. 2817 (_supra_ p. 106) that the poem knew of -the Grand St. Graal is, however, not met. - -[63] _Vide_ p. 200, for Birch-Hirschfeld's summary comparison of the two -works, and _cf._ _infra_ p. 127. - -[64] _Cf._ _infra_ p. 128, for a criticism of this statement. - -[65] Opera V. 410: Unde et vir ille eloquio clarus W. Mapus, Oxoniensis -archidiaconus (cujus animae propitietur Deus) solita verborum facetia et -urbanitate praecipua dicere pluris et nos in hunc modum convenire solebat: -"Multa, Magister Geralde, scripsistis et multum adhue scribitis, et nos -multa diximus. Vos scripta dedistis et nos verba." - -[66] Printed in full, Hucher, I. 156, etc. - -[67] Printed by Hucher, I. p. 35, etc. - -[68] The remainder of Birch-Hirschfeld's work is devoted to proving that -Chrestien was the only source of Wolfram von Eschenbach, the latter's Kiot -being imagined by him to justify his departure from Chrestien's version; -departures occasioned by his dissatisfaction with the French poet's -treatment of the subject on its moral and spiritual side. This element in -the Grail problem will be found briefly dealt with, Appendix A. - -[69] I have not thought it necessary, or even advisable, to notice what -the "Encyclopædia Britannica" (Part XLI, pp. 34, 35) and some other -English "authorities" say about the Grail legends. - -[70] They are brought together by Hucher, vol. i, p. 383, etc. - -[71] In the preface to the second volume of his edition of Chrestien's -works (Halle, 1887), W. Förster distinguishes Peredur from the Lady of the -Fountain and from Geraint, which he looks upon as simple copies of -Chrestien's poems dealing with the same subjects. Peredur has, he thinks, -some Welsh features. - -[72] It is perhaps only a coincidence that in Gautier the "pucelle de -malaire" is named Riseut la Bloie, and that Rosette la Blonde is the name -of the loathly damsel whom Perceval meets in company of the Beau Mauvais, -and whom Birch-Hirschfeld supposes to have suggested to Chrestien _his_ -loathly damsel, the Grail messenger. But from the three versions one gets -the following:--Riseut (Gautier), loathly damsel (Didot-Perceval), Grail -messenger (Chrestien), = Peredur's cousin, who in the Mabinogi is the -loathly Grail messenger, and the protagonist in the stag-hunt. - -[73] I have not thought it necessary to discuss seriously the hypothesis -that Chrestien may have used the Mabinogi as we now have it. The foregoing -statement of the facts is sufficient to negative it. - -[74] THE COUNSELS. _Chrestien_ (v. 1,725, etc.): aid dames and damsels, -for he who honoureth them not, his honour is dead; serve them likewise; -displease them not in aught; one has much from kissing a maid if she will -to lie with you, but if she forbid, leave it alone; if she have ring, or -wristband, and for love or at your prayer give it, 'tis well you take it. -Never have comradeship with one for long without seeking his name; speak -ever to worthy men and go with them; ever pray in churches and monasteries -(then follows a dissertation on churches and places of worship generally). -_Mabinogi_ (p. 83): wherever a church, repeat there thy Paternoster; if -thou see meat and drink, and none offer, take; if thou hear an outcry, -especially of a woman, go towards it; if thou see a jewel, take and give -to another to obtain praise thereby; pay thy court to a fair woman, -_whether she will or no_, thus shalt thou render thyself a better man than -before. (In the italicised passage the Mabinogi gives the direct opposite -of Chrestien, whom he has evidently misunderstood.) _Sir Perceval_ (p. -16): "Luke thou be of mesure Bothe in haulle and boure, And fonde to be -fre." "There thou meteste with a knyghte, Do thi hode off, I highte, and -haylse hym in hy" (He interprets the counsel to be of measure by only -taking half the food and drink he finds at the board of the lady of the -tent. The kissing of the lady of the tent which follows is in no way -connected with his mother's counsel.) _Wolfram_: "Follow not untrodden -paths; bear thyself ever becomingly; deny no man thy greeting; accept the -teaching of a greybeard; if ring and greeting of a fair woman are to be -won strive thereafter, kiss her and embrace her dear body, for that gives -luck and courage, if so she be chaste and worthy." Beside the mother's -counsels Perceval is admonished by Gonemans or the personage corresponding -to him. In _Chrestien_ (2,838, _et seq._) he is to deny mercy to no knight -pleading for it; to take heed he be not over-talkful; to aid and counsel -dames and damsels and all others needing his counsel; to go often to -church; not to quote his mother's advice, rather to refer to him -(Gonemans). In the _Mabinogi_ he is to leave the habits and discourse of -his mother; if he see aught to cause him wonder not to ask its meaning. In -_Wolfram_ he is not to have his mother always on his lips; to keep a -modest bearing; to help all in need, but to give wisely, not heedlessly; -and in especial not to ask too much; to deny no man asking mercy; when he -has laid by his arms to let no traces thereof be seen, but to wash hands -and face from stain of rust, thereby shall ladies be pleased; to hold -women in love and honour; never to seek to deceive them (as he might do -many), for false love is fleeting and men and women are one as are sun and -daylight.--There seems to me an evident progression in the ethical -character of these counsels. Originally they were doubtless purely -practical and somewhat primitive of their nature. As it is, Chrestien's -words sound very strange to modern ears. - -[75] In the notes to my two articles in the "Folk-Lore Record" will be -found a number of references establishing this fact. - -[76] The hero renews his strength after his various combats by rubbing -himself with the contents of a vessel of balsam. He has moreover to enter -a house the door of which closes to of itself (like the Grail Castle -Portcullis in Wolfram), and which kills him. He is brought to life by the -friendly raven. The mysterious carlin also appears, "there was a turn of -her nails about her elbows, and a twist of her hoary hair about her toes, -and she was not joyous to look upon." She turns the hero's companions into -stone, and to unspell them he must seek a bottle of living water and rub -it upon them, when they will come out alive. This is like the final -incident in many stories of the Two Brothers class. _Cf._ note, p. 162. - -[77] O'Daly's version consists of 158 quatrains; Campbell's of 63. The -correspondence between them, generally very close (frequently verbal), is -shown by the following table:-- - - O'D., 1, 2. C., 1, 2. - -- C., 3. - O'D., 3. C., 4. - O'D., 4-15. -- - O'D., 16. C., 4. - O'D., 17-24. C., 5-12. - O'D., 25. -- - -- C., 13-15. - O'D., 26-47. C., 16-36. - O'D., 48-56. -- - O'D., 57-61. C., 37-40. - O'D., 62. -- - O'D., 63-65. C., 41-43. - O'D., 66. C., 45. - O'D., 67. C., 44. - O'D., 68, 69. C., 46, 47. - O'D., 70. C., 49. - O'D., 71. C., 48. - -- C., 50. - O'D., 72. C., 52. - O'D., 73. -- - O'D., 74. C., 53. - O'D., 75. C., 54. - O'D., 76-80. C., 55-59. - O'D., 81-134. -- - O'D., 135, 136. C., 60, 61. - -- C., 62. - O'D., 137. -- - O'D., 138. C., 63. - O'D., 139-158. -- - -[78] Of this widely spread group, Grimm's No. 60, Die zwei Brüder, may be -taken as a type. The brethren eat heart and liver of the gold bird and -thereby get infinite riches, are schemed against by a goldsmith, who would -have kept the gold bird for himself, seek their fortunes throughout the -world accompanied by helping beasts, part at crossways, leaving a life -token to tell each one how the other fares; the one delivers a princess -from a dragon, is cheated of the fruit of the exploit by the Red Knight, -whom after a year he confounds, wins the princess, and, after a while, -hunting a magic hind, falls victim to a witch. His brother, learning his -fate through the life token, comes to the same town, is taken for the -young king even by the princess, but keeps faith to his brother by laying -a bare sword twixt them twain at night. He then delivers from the witch's -spells his brother, who, learning the error caused by the likeness, and -thinking advantage had been taken of it, in a fit of passion slays him, -but afterwards, hearing the truth, brings him back to life again. Grimm -has pointed out in his notes the likeness between this story and that of -Siegfried (adventures with Mimir, Fafnir, Brunhilde, and Gunnar). In India -the tale figures in Somadeva's Katha Sarit Sagara (Brockhaus' translation, -ii., 142, _et seq._). The one brother is transformed into a demon through -accidental sprinkling from a body burning on a bier. He is in the end -released from this condition by his brother's performing certain exploits, -but there is no similarity of detail. Other variants are _Zingerle_ (p. -131) where the incident occurs of the hero's winning the king's favour by -making his bear dance before him; this I am inclined to look upon as a -weakened recollection of the incident of a hero's making a princess -_laugh_, either by playing antics himself or making an animal of his play -them (_see_ _supra_, p. 134, Kennedy's Irish Tale). Grimm also quotes -_Meier_ 29 and 58, but these are only variants of the dragon-killing -incident. In the variant of 29, given p. 306, the hero makes the king -laugh, and in both stories occurs the familiar incident of the hero coming -unknown into a tournament and overcoming all enemies, as in Peredur (Inc. -9). _Wolf._, p. 369, is closer, and here the hero is counselled by a grey -mannikin whom he will unspell if he succeeds. _Stier_, No. I. (not p. 67, -as Grimm erroneously indicates) follows almost precisely the same course -as Grimm's 60, save that there are three brothers. _Graal_, p. 195, has -the magic gold bird opening, but none of the subsequent adventures tally. -_Schott_, No. 11, is also cited by Grimm, but mistakenly; it belongs to -the faithful-servant group. Very close variants come from Sweden -(Cavallius-Oberleitner, V_a_, V_b_) and Italy (Pentamerone, I. 7 and I. -9). The Swedish tales have the miraculous conception opening, which is a -prominent feature in tales belonging to the Expulsion and Return group -(_e.g._, Perseus, Cu-Chulaind, and Taliesin), but present otherwise very -nearly the same incidents as Grimm. The second of the Italian versions has -the miraculous conception opening so characteristic of this group of -folk-tales, and of the allied formula group, the attainment of riches -consequent upon eating the heart of a sea dragon, the tournament incident -(though without the disguise of the hero), the stag hunt, wherein the -stag, an inimical wizard haunting the wood, is a cannibal and keeps the -captured hero for eating. In the story of the delivery by the second -brother, the separating sword incident occurs. The first version opens -with what is apparently a distorted and weakened form of the hero's -clearing a haunted house of its diabolical inmates (_see_ _infra_ Ch. -VII., Gawain) and then follows very closely Grimm's Two Brothers, save -that the alluring witch is young and fair, the whole tale being made to -point the moral, "more luck than wit." Straparola, _a_ 3, is a variant of -the dragon fight incident alone. It is impossible not to be struck by the -fact that in this widely spread group of tales are to be found some of the -most characteristic incidents of the Perceval and allied Great Fool group. -The only version, however, which brings the two groups into formal contact -is O'Daly's form of the Great Fool. - -[79] The brother feature appears likewise in Wolfram von Eschenbach, where -Parzival's final and hardest struggle is against the unknown brother, as -the Great Fool's is against the Gruagach. This may be added to other -indications that Wolfram _did_ have some other version before him besides -Chrestien's. - -[80] I cannot but think that these words have connection with the incident -in the English Sir Perceval of the hero's throwing into the flames and -thus destroying his witch enemy. - -[81] I must refer to my Mabinogion Studies, I. Branwen for a discussion of -the relation of this tale with Branwen and with the Teutonic Heldensage. - -[82] Another parallel is afforded by the tale of Conall Gulban (Campbell, -III., 274). Conall, stretched wounded on the field, sees "when night grew -dark a great Turkish carlin, and she had a white glaive of light with -which she could see seven miles behind her and seven miles before her; and -she had a flask of balsam carrying it." The dead men are brought to life -by having three drops of balsam put into their mouths. The hero wins both -flask and glaive. - -[83] _Cf._ my Branwen for remarks on the mythological aspect of the -ballad. It should be noted that most of the ballads traditionally current -in the Highlands are of semi-literary origin, _i.e._, would seem to go -back to the compositions of mediæval Irish bards, who often sprinkled over -the native tradition a profusion of classical and historical names. I do -not think the foreign influence went farther than the "names" of some -personages, and such as it is is more at work in the ballads than in the -tales. - -[84] This may seem to conflict with the statement made above (p. 145), -that the Mabinogi probably took over the maimed uncle from Chrestien. But -there were in all probability several forms of the story; that hinted at -in Chrestien and found in Manessier had its probable counterpart in Celtic -tradition as well as that found in Gerbert. It is hardly possible to -determine what was the form found in the proto-Mabinogi, the possibility -of its having been exactly the same as that of Gerbert is in no way -affected by the fact that the Mabinogi, as we now have it, has in this -respect been influenced by Chrestien. Meanwhile Birch-Hirschfeld's -hypothesis that Gerbert's section of the Conte du Graal is an -interpolation between Gautier and Manessier is laid open to grave doubt. -It is far more likely that Gerbert's work was an independent and original -attempt to provide an ending for Chrestien's unfinished poem, and that he -had before him a different version of the original from that used by -Gautier and Manessier. - -[85] It occurs also in Peredur (Inc. 16), where the hero comes to the -Castle of the Youths, who, fighting every day against the Addanc of the -Cave, are each day slain, and each day brought to life by being anointed -in a vessel of warm water and with precious balsam. - -[86] For the second time, if Gerbert's continuation be really intended for -our present text of Gautier, and if Potvin's summary of Gerbert is to be -relied upon; Birch-Hirschfeld seemingly differs from him here, and makes -the King at once mention the flaw. - -[87] It may be worth notice that v. 35,473 is the same as Chrestien, v. -4,533. - -[88] It is evident that, although in the MS. in which this version is -found it is followed by Manessier's section, the poem was intended by -Gerbert to end here. - -[89] Told at other times, and notably by Gautier himself (Inc. 21), of -Perceval, where the feature of a dead knight lying on the altar is added. - -[90] According to the Montpellier MS., which here agrees substantially -with Potvin's text (the Mons MS.), this is Gauvain's second visit to the -Grail Castle. At his first visit he had been subjected to the sword test -and had slept. The mystic procession is made up as follows:--Squire with -lance; maidens with plate; two squires with candlesticks; fair maiden -weeping, in her hands a "graal;" four squires with the bier, on which lies -the knight and the broken sword. Gauvain would fain learn about these -things, but is bidden first to make the sword whole. On his failure he is -told - - Vous n'avez par encore tant fet - D'armes, que vous doiez savoir, etc., - -and then goes to sleep. His awakening finds him in a marsh. - -[91] It may be conjectured that the magic vessel which preserves to this -enchanted folk the semblance of life passes into the hero's possession -when he asks about it, and that deprived of it their existence comes to an -end, as would that of the Anses without the Apples of Iduna. I put this -into a note, as I have no evidence in support of the theory. But read in -the light of this conjecture some hitherto unnoticed legend may supply the -necessary link of testimony. - -[92] Nearly all the objections to the view suggested in the text may be -put aside as due to insufficient recognition of the extent to which the -two formulas have been mingled, but there is one which seems to me of real -moment. The wasting of the land which I have looked upon as belonging to -the unspelling formula, is traced by the Queste to the blow struck by King -Lambar against King Urlain, a story which, as we have seen, is very -similar to that which forms the groundwork of one at least of the models -followed by the Conte du Graal in its version of the feud quest. It does -not seem likely that the Queste story is a mere echo of that found in the -Conte du Graal, nor that the fusion existed so far back as in a model -common to both. But the second alternative is possible. - -[93] I do not follow M. Hucher upon the (as it seems to me) very insecure -ground of Gaulish numismatic art. The object which he finds figured in -pre-Christian coins may be a cauldron--and it may not--and even if it is a -cauldron it may have no such significance as he ascribes to it. - -[94] _Cf._ as to Lug D'Arbois de Jubainville, Cycle Mythologique -Irlandais; Paris, 1884, p. 178. He was revered by all Celtic races, and -has left his trace in the name of several towns, chief among them -Lug-dunum = Lyons. In so far as the Celts had departmental gods, he was -the god of handicraft and trade; but _cf._ as to this Rhys, Hibb. Lect., -p. 427-28. - -[95] _Cf._ D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._, p. 269-290. The Dagda--the -good god--seems to have been head of the Irish Olympus. A legend anterior -to the eleventh century, and belonging probably to the oldest stratum of -Celtic myth, ascribes to him power over the earth: without his aid the -sons of Miledh could get neither corn nor milk. It is, therefore, no -wonder to find him possessor of the magic cauldron, which may be looked -upon as a symbol of fertility, and, as such, akin to similar symbols in -the mythology of nearly every people. - -[96] _Cf._ as to the mythic character of the Tuatha de Danann, D'Arbois de -Jubainville, _op. cit._, and my review of his work, Folk-Lore Journal, -June, 1884. - -[97] I at one time thought that the prohibition to reveal the "secret -words," which is such an important element in Robert de Borron's version, -might be referred to the same myth-root as the instances in the text. -There is little or no evidence to sustain such a hazardous hypothesis. -Nevertheless it is worth while drawing attention in this place to that -prohibition, for which I can offer no adequate explanation. - -[98] Powers of darkness and death. Tethra their king reigns in an island -home. It is from thence that the maiden comes to lure away Connla of the -Golden Hair, as is told in the Leabhar na-h-Uidhre, even as the Grail -messenger comes to seek Perceval--"'tis a land in which is neither death -nor old age--a plain of never ending pleasure," the counterpart, in fact, -of that Avalon to which Arthur is carried off across the lake by the fay -maiden, that Avalon which, as we see in Robert de Borron, was the earliest -home of the Grail-host. - -[99] _Cf._ D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._ p. 188. - -[100] When Cuchulainn was opposing the warriors of Ireland in their -invasion of Ulster one of his feats is to make smooth chariot-poles out of -rough branches of trees by passing them through his clenched hand, so that -however bent and knotted they were they came from his hands even, -straight, and smooth. _Tain bo Cualgne_, quoted by Windisch, Rev. Celt., -Vol. V. - -[101] This epithet recalls Lug, of whom it is the stock designation. Now -Lug was _par excellence_ the craftsman's god; he, too, at the battle of -Mag Tured acted as a sort of armourer-general to the Tuatha de Danann. A -dim reminiscence of this may be traced in the words which the folk-tale -applies to Ullamh l.f., "he was the one special man for taking their -arms." - -[102] _Cf._ my Aryan Expulsion and Return formula, pp. 8, 13, for variants -of these incidents in other stories belonging to this cycle and in the -allied folk-tales. - -[103] This incident is only found in the living Fionn-_sage_, being absent -from all the older versions, and yet, as the comparison with the allied -Perceval sage shows, it is an original and essential feature. How do the -advocates of the theory that the Ossianic cycle is a recent mass of -legend, growing out of the lives and circumstances of historical men, -account for this development along the lines of a formula with which, _ex -hypothesi_, the legend has nothing to do? The Fionn-_sage_, it is said, -has been doctored in imitation of the Cuchulainn-_sage_, but the assertion -(which though boldly made has next to no real foundation) cannot be made -in the case of the Conte du Graal. Mediæval Irish bards and unlettered -Highland peasants did not conspire together to make Fionn's adventures -agree with those of Perceval. - -[104] In the Gawain form of the feud quest found in Gautier, the knight -whose death he sets forth to avenge is slain by the cast of a dart. Can -this be brought into connection with the fact that Perceval slays with a -cast of his dart the Red Knight, who, according to the Thornton romance, -is his father's slayer. - -[105] This prose tale precedes an oral version of one of the commonest -Fenian poems, which in its present shape obviously goes back to the days -when the Irish were fighting against Norse invaders. The poem, which still -lives in Ireland as well as in the Highlands, belongs to that later stage -of development of the Fenian cycle, in which Fionn and his men are -depicted as warring against the Norsemen. It is totally dissimilar from -the prose story summarised above, and I am inclined to look upon the prose -as belonging to a far earlier stage in the growth of the cycle, a stage in -which the heroes were purely mythical and their exploits those of mythical -heroes generally. - -[106] The prohibition seems to be an echo of the widely-spread one which -forbids the visitor to the otherworld tasting the food of the dead, which, -if he break, he is forfeit to the shades. The most famous instance of this -myth is that of Persephone. - -[107] _Cf._ Procopius quoted by Elton, Origins of English History, p. 84. - -[108] Prof. Rhys, Hibbert Lectures for 1886, looks upon him as a Celtic -Zeus. He dispossessed his father of the Brug by fraud, as Zeus -dispossessed Kronos by force. - -[109] D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._, p. 275. Rhys, _op. cit._, p. -149. - -[110] M. Duvau, Revue Celtique, Vol. IX., No. 1, has translated the -varying versions of the story. - -[111] Like many of the older Irish tales the present form is confused and -obscure, but it is easy to arrive at the original. - -[112] The part in brackets is found in one version only of the story. Of -the two versions each has retained certain archaic features not to be -found in the other. - -[113] Summarised by D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._, p. 323. - -[114] D'Arbois de Jubainville, p. 326. - -[115] Otto Küpp, Z.f.D. Phil. xvii, i, 68, examining Wolfram's version -sees in the branch guarded by Gramoflanz and broken by Parzival a trace of -the original myth underlying the story. Gramoflanz is connected with the -Magic Castle (one of the inmates of which is his sister), or with the -otherworld. Küpp's conjecture derives much force from the importance given -to the branch in the Irish tales as part of the gear of the otherworld. - -[116] This recalls the fact that Oengus of the Brug fell in love with a -swanmaid. See text and translation Revue Celtique, Vol. III., pp. 341, -_et. seq._ The story is alluded to in the catalogue of epic tales (dating -from the tenth century) found in the Book of Leinster. - -[117] In a variant from Kashmir (Knowles' Folk-tales of Kashmir, London, -1888, p. 75, _et. seq._), Saiyid and Said, this tale is found embedded in -a twin-brethren one. - -[118] Frederick (I.) Barbarossa is a mistake, as old as the seventeenth -century (_cf._ Koch, Sage vom Kaiser Friedrich in Kyffhäuser, Leipzig, -1886), for Frederick II., the first German Emperor of whom the legend was -told. The mistake was caused by the fact that Frederick took the place of -a German red-bearded god, probably Thor, hence the later identification -with the _red-bearded_ Frederick, instead of with that great opponent of -the Papacy whose death away in Italy the German party refused for many -years to credit. - -[119] Unless the passage relating to Carl the Great quoted by Grimm (D.M., -III., 286) from Mon. Germ. Hist., Vol. VIII., 215, "inde fabulosum illud -confictum de Carolo Magno, quasi de mortuis in id ipsum resuscitato, et -alio nescio quo nihilominus redivivo," be older. - -[120] Liebrecht's edition of the Otia Imperialia, Hanover, 1856, p. 12, -and note p. 55. - -[121] Martin Zur Gralsage, p. 31, arguing from the historical connection -of Frederick II. with Sicily, thinks that the localisation of this -Arthurian legend in that isle was the reason of its being associated with -the Hohenstauffen; in other words, the famous German legend would be an -indirect offshot of the Arthurian cycle. I cannot follow Martin here. I -see no reason for doubting the genuineness of the traditions collected by -Kuhn and Schwartz, or for disbelieving that Teutons had this myth as well -as Celts. It is no part of my thesis to exalt Celtic tradition at the -expense of German; almost all the parallels I have adduced between the -romances and Celtic mythology and folk-lore could be matched from those of -Germany. But the romances are historically associated with Celtic -tradition, and the parallels found in the latter are closer and more -numerous than those which could be recovered from German tradition. It is, -therefore, the most simple course to refer the romances to the former -instead of to the latter. - -[122] See Grimm, D.M., Ch. XXXII.; Fitzgerald, Rev. Celt., IV., 198; and -the references in Liebrecht, _op. cit._ - -[123] Personally communicated by the Rev. Mr. Sorby, of Sheffield. - -[124] In Chrestien the part of the Magician Lord is little insisted upon. -But in Wolfram he is a very important personage. It may here be noted that -the effects which are to follow in Chrestien the doing away with the -enchantments of this Castle, answer far more accurately to the description -given by the loathly Grail-Maiden of the benefits which would have accrued -had Perceval put the question at the Court of the Fisher King than to -anything actually described as the effect of that question being put, -either by Gautier, Manessier, or Gerbert. This castle seems, too, to be -the one in which lodge the Knights, each having his lady love with him, -which the loathly maiden announces to be her home. - -[125] Kennedy follows in the main Oss. Soc., Vol. II, pp. 118, _et. seq._, -an eighteenth century version translated by Mr. O'Kearney. This particular -episode is found, pp. 147, _et. seq._ I follow the Oss. Soc. version in -preference to Kennedy's where they differ. - -[126] The story as found in Heinrich may be compared with the folk-tale of -the Sleeping Beauty. She is a maiden sunk in a death-in-life sleep -together with all her belongings until she be awakened by the kiss of the -destined prince. May we not conjecture that in an older form of the story -than any we now possess, the court of the princess vanished when the -releasing kiss restored her to real life and left her alone with the -prince? The comparison has this further interest, that the folk-tale is a -variant of an old myth which figures prominently in the hero-tales of the -Teutonic race (Lay of Skirni, Lay of Swipday and Menglad, Saga of Sigurd -and Brunhild), and that in its most famous form Siegfried, answering in -Teutonic myth to Fionn, is its hero. But Peredur is a Cymric Fionn, so -that the parallel between the two heroes, Celtic and Teutonic, is closer -than at first appears when Siegfried is compared only to his Gaelic -counterpart. - -[127] I have not examined Gawain's visit to the Magic Castle in detail, in -the first place because it only bears indirectly upon the Grail-Quest, and -then because I hope before very long to study the personality of Gawain in -the romances, and to throw light upon it from Celtic mythic tradition in -the same way that I have tried in the foregoing pages to do in the case of -Perceval. - -[128] Kennedy, Legendary Fictions, p. 154, _et. seq._ - -[129] Grimm, Vol. III., p. 9 (note to Märchen von einem der auszog das -Fürchten zu lernen), gives a number of variants. It should be noted that -in this story there is the same mixture of incidents of the Magic Castle -and Haunted Castle forms as in the romances. Moreover, one of the trials -to which the hero's courage is subjected is the bringing into the room of -a coffin in which lies a dead man, just as in Gawain's visit to the Grail -Castle. Again, as Grimm notes, but mistakenly refers to Perceval instead -of to Gawain, the hero has to undergo the adventures of the magic bed, -which, when he lays himself down in it, dashes violently about through the -castle and finally turns topsy turvy. In connection with this story, and -with the whole series of mythical conceptions noted in the Grail romances, -Chapter XXXII. of the Deutsche Mythologie deserves careful study. Grimm -compares Conduiramur's (Blanchefleur's) nightly visit to Percival's -chamber to the appearance at the bedside of the delivering hero of that -white maiden, who is so frequently figured as the inmate of the Haunted -Castle. As niece of the Lord of the Grail Castle, Blanchefleur is also a -denizen of the otherworld, but I hardly think that the episode of -Perceval's delivering her from her enemies can be looked upon as a version -of the removal of the spells of the Haunted Castle. In a recent number of -the Revue des Traditions Populaires (III., p. 103), there is a good Breton -version of the Bespelled Castle sunk under the waves. A fair princess is -therein held captive; once a year the waves part and permit access, and he -who is bold enough to seize the right moment wins princess and castle, -which are restored to earth. - -[130] Whether it be the Castle of the Fisher King, _i.e._, the Castle of -the Perceval Quest; or the Magic Castle, _i.e._, the Castle of the Gawain -Quest. - -[131] For fuller information about this mysterious fish, see Rhys, Hibbert -Lectures, pp. 553-54. - -[132] In an already quoted tale of Campbell's (LVIII., the Rider of -Grianaig) allusion is made to the "black fisherman working at his tricks." -Campbell remarks that a similar character appears in other tales. Can this -wizard fisher be brought into contact with the Rich Fisher of -Pseudo-Chrestien (_supra_, p. 8), who knew much of black art, and could -change his semblance a hundred times? - -[133] Complete text, edited by Kuno Meyer, Revue Celt., Vol. V. Major -portion of text with English translation by Dr. J. O'Donovan, Oss. Soc., -Vol. IV. The tract as a whole is only known to us from a fifteenth century -MS.; but the earlier portion of it appears in the L.n.H., in a strongly -euhemerised form, only such incidents being admitted as could be presented -historically, and these being divested of all supernatural character. See -my paper, "Folk-Lore Record," Vol. IV., for a discussion of the genuine -and early character of the tract. - -[134] A reason for this concealment may be found in the idea, so -frequently met with in a certain stage of human development, that the name -is an essential portion of the personality, and must not be mentioned, -especially to possible enemies or to beings possessed of magical powers, -lest they should make hurtful use of it. - -[135] _Cf._ the whole of the Book of Rights for an exemplification of the -way in which the pre-Christian Irishman was hedged and bound and fettered -by this amazingly complicated system of what he might and what he might -not do. - -[136] They offer him dog's-flesh cooked on rowan spits, and, it has been -conjectured that the _gess_ has a totemistic basis, Culann's Hound -(Cuchulainn) being forbidden to partake of the flesh of his totem. - -[137] It is only within the last 100 years that our knowledge of savage -and semi-savage races has furnished us with a parallel to the "geasa" in -the "taboo" of the Polynesian. I am not advancing too much in the -statement that this institution, although traces of it exist among all -Aryan races, had not the same importance among any as among the Irish -Gael. It is another proof of the primitive character of Irish social life, -a character which may, perhaps, be ascribed to the assimilation by the -invading Celts of the beliefs and practices of much ruder races. - -[138] Mr. Elton (Origins, pp. 291, 292) looks upon Bran and Caradoc as -original war gods. Caradoc, he thinks, was confounded with Caractacus, -Bran with Brennus, and hence the two personages were sent to Rome in -imitation of the presumed historical prototypes. - -[139] Kynddelw's triad does not really refer to the "blessed" families at -all, but to the "faithful" or "loyal" families. Stephen's mistake arose -from the fact of the name Madawc occurring in two sets of triads, one -relating to the "lordly" families of Britain in which the family of Llyr -Llediath also figures, and one to the faithful families. In both triads -the name is probably a mistake for Mabon. (Note communicated by Professor -Rhys.) - -I let the statement in the text stand, to exhort myself and others to that -fear of trusting authorities which in scholarship is the beginning of -wisdom. - -[140] Professor Rhys tells me this passage can only mean "Blessed Bran's -head." - -[141] Mr. Ward endorses Zarncke's contention. According to him there is no -trace of any connection between Joseph and the evangelisation of Britain -which can be said to be older than the romances. The statements of the "De -ant. eccl. Glast." are, he thinks, no guide to the knowledge or opinions -of William of Malmesbury. - -[142] I may here notice a theory to which my attention has only just been -called. It is found cited in a work of great research, _Die Fronica_, by -Professor Karl Pearson, Strassburg, 1887. The author quotes an opinion of -Mr. Jenner, of the British Museum, that the head in the platter of the -Mabinogi may be derived from a Veronica portrait. Professor Pearson -expresses doubt, because such a procession of the Veronica portrait and -the Passion Instruments as the scene in the Mabinogi would, _ex -hypothesi_, imply is not known to him before the fourteenth century, -whereas the Mabinogi must be attributed, at latest, to the middle of the -thirteenth century. Mr. H. L. D. Ward informs me that the suggestion was -his. Noting the connection of the Veronica and Grail legends, testified to -by Borron, it occurred to him that the whole scene at the Wounded King's -might be derived from the former legends. The Wounded King, healed by the -Grail, would thus be a counterpart of the leprous Vespasian healed by the -Veronica portrait, which some wandering "jongleur" turned boldly into an -actual head. But it must be noted that in Borron, our authority for the -connection of the two legends, there is no Wounded King at all; in the -Conte du Graal the Maimed King is not healed by any special talisman, but -by the death of his enemy, the visible sign of which is that enemy's head, -whilst in the "procession" (which Mr. Ward thinks to have been intended as -a vision), the Grail is certainly a vessel, and has no connection whatever -with any head or portrait. The theory thus requires that the version which -gives the oldest form of the hypothetical remodelled Veronica legend -omitted the very feature which was its sole _raison d'être_. - -[143] Mr. Ward thinks the localisation a late one, and that practically -there is no authority for it of an older date than the romances. He points -out in especial that Geoffrey's Vita Merlini, which has so much to say -about the "insula pomorum" in no way connects it with Glastonbury. There -is considerable doubt as the etymology of Glastonbury, but there is -substantial unanimity of opinion among Celtic scholars of the present day -in referring it to a Celtic rather than to a Saxon source. Be this as it -may, the fact remains that at sometime in the course of the twelfth -century the old Christian site of Glastonbury took, as it were, the place -of the Celtic paradise, and it seems far more likely that the -transformation was effected in virtue of some local tradition than wholly -through the medium of foreign romances. - -[144] The pre-Christian Irish annals, which are for the most part -euhemerised mythology, contain also a certain amount of race history; thus -the struggle between the powers of light and darkness typified by the -antagonism between Tuatha de Danann and Fomori, is doubled by that between -the fair invading Celts and the short dark aborigines. But the latter has -only left the barest trace of its existence in the national sagas. Not -until we come to that secondary stage of the Fenian saga, which must have -been shaped in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and which represents -the Fenians as warring against the harrying Northmen, does the foreign -element reappear in Irish tradition. - -[145] The Tochmarc Emer, or the Wooing of Emer by Cuchullain, has been -translated by Professor Kuno Meyer in the Archæological Review, Nos. 1-4 -(London, 1888). The original text is found partly in the Leabhar na -h-Uidhre, partly in later MSS. - -[146] The fate of the Sons of Usnech is known to us in two main -redactions, one found in the Book of Leinster (compiled in the middle of -the twelfth century from older MS.) printed by Windisch, Irische Texte -(first series) pp. 67-82, and translated by M. Poinsignon, Revue des -Traditions Populaires, III, pp. 201-207. A text printed and translated by -J. O'Flanagan (Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, 1808, pp. -146-177), agrees substantially with this. The second redaction has only -been found in later MSS. Mr. Whitley Stokes has given text and translation -from a fifteenth century MS. (Irische Texte, II. 2, pp. 109-178), and -O'Flanagan has edited a very similar version (_loc. cit._ pp. 16-135). -This second version is fuller and more romantic; in it alone is to be -found Deirdre's lament on leaving Scotland, one of the earliest instances -in post-classic literature of personal sympathy with Nature. - -But the earlier version, though it bear like so much else in the oldest -Irish MS. obvious traces of abridgment and euhemerism, is also full of the -most delicate romantic touches. Part of Deirdre's lament over the slain -Noisi may be paraphrased thus:--"Fair one, loved one, flower of beauty; -beloved, upright and strong; beloved, noble and modest warrior. When we -wandered through the woods of Ireland, sweet with thee was the night's -sleep! Fair one, blue-eyed, beloved of thy wife, lovely to me at the -trysting place came thy clear voice through the woods. I cannot sleep; -half the night my spirit wanders far among throngs of men. I cannot eat or -smile. Break not to-day my heart; soon enough shall I lie within my grave. -Strong are the waves of the sea, but stronger is sorrow, Conchobor." - -[147] M. Renan's article "De la Poésie des Races Celtiques" (Revue des -Deux Mondes, 1854, pp. 473-506) only came into my hands after the bulk of -this chapter was printed, or I should hardly have dared to state in my own -words those conclusions in which we agree. It may be useful to indicate -those points in which I think this suggestive essay no longer represents -the present state of knowledge. When M. Renan wrote, the nature of popular -tradition had been little investigated in France--hence a tendency to -attribute solely to the Celtic genius what is common to all popular -tradition. Little or nothing was then known in France of early Irish -history or literature--hence the wild, primitive character of Celtic -civilization is ignored. The "bardic" literature of Wales was still -assigned wholesale to the age of its alleged authors--hence a false -estimate of the relations between the profane and ecclesiastical writings -of the Welsh. Finally the three Mabinogion (The Lady of the Fountain, -Geraint, Peredur), which correspond to poems of Chrestien's, are -unhesitatingly accepted as their originals. The influence of Welsh fiction -in determining the courtly and refined nature of mediæval romance is, in -consequence, greatly exaggerated. It is much to be wished that M. Renan -would give us another review of Celtic literature based on the work of the -last thirty years. His lucid and sympathetic criticism would be most -welcome in a department of study which has been rather too exclusively -left to the specialist. - -[148] Malory is a wonderful example of the power of style. He is a most -unintelligent compiler. He frequently chooses out of the many versions of -the legend, the longest, most wearisome, and least beautiful; his own -contributions to the story are beneath contempt as a rule. But his -language is exactly what it ought to be, and his has remained in -consequence the classic English version of the Arthur story. - -[149] See p. 112 for a brief summary of Borron's conception; Sin the cause -of want among the people; the separation of the pure from the impure by -means of the fish (symbol of Christ); punishment of the self-willed false -disciple; reward of Brons by charge of the Grail; symbolising of the -Trinity by the three tables and three Grail Keepers. - -[150] The greater delicacy of the Welsh tale has already been noted. "To -make him such a offer before I am wooed by him, that, truly, can I not -do," says the counterpart of Blanchefleur in the Mabinogi. "Go my sister -and sleep," answers Peredur, "nor will I depart from thee until I do that -which thou requirest." I cannot help looking upon the prominence which the -Welsh story-teller has given to this scene as his protest against the -strange and to him repulsive ways of knightly love. The older, mythic -nature of Peredur's beloved, who might woo without forfeiting womanly -modesty, in virtue of her goddesshood, had died away in the narrator's -mind, the new ideal of courtly passion had not won acceptance from him. - -[151] The perplexities which beset the modern reader of the Queste are -reflected in the Laureate's retelling of the legend. Nowhere else in the -Idylls has he departed so widely from his model. Much of the incident is -due to him, and replaces with advantage the nauseous disquisitions upon -chastity which occupy so large a space in the Queste. The artist's -instinct, rather than the scholar's respect for the oldest form of the -story, led him to practically restore Perceval to his rightful place as -hero of the quest. _His_ fortunes we can follow with an interest that -passing shadow, Galahad, wholly fails to evoke. Nor, as may easily be -seen, is the fundamental conception of the twelfth century romance to the -Laureate's taste. Arthur is his ideal of manhood, and Arthur's energies -are practical and human in aim and in execution. What the "blameless king" -speaks when he first learns of the quest represents, we may guess, the -author's real attitude towards the whole fantastic business. - -It is much to be regretted by all lovers of English poetry that Hawker's -Quest of the Sangraal was never completed. The first and only chant is a -magnificent fragment; with the exception of the Laureate's Sir Galahad, -the finest piece of pure literature in the cycle. Hawker, alone, perhaps -of moderns, could have kept the mediæval tone and spirit, and yet brought -the Quest into contact with the needs and ideas of to-day. - -[152] _Cf._ Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, II, 811, and his references. - -[153] The ideas held by many peoples in a primitive stage of culture -respecting virginity are worthy careful study. Some physiological basis -may be found for them in the phenomena of hysteria, which must necessarily -have appeared to such peoples evidences of divine or demoniac possession, -and at that stage are hardly likely to have been met with save among -unmarried women. In the French witch trials these phenomena are often -presented by nuns, in whose case they were probably the outcome of a life -at once celibate and inactive. On the other hand the persons accused of -witchcraft were as a rule of the most abandoned character, and it is a, -morally speaking, degraded class which has furnished Professor Charcot and -his pupils with the subjects in whom they have identified all the -phenomena that confront the student of witch trials. - -[154] Domanig, Parzival-Studien, I, II, 1878-80. - -[155] San-Marte, Parzival-Studien, I-III, 1861-63. - -[156] Some readers may be anxious to read Wolfram's work to whom -twelfth-century German would offer great difficulties. A few words on the -translation into modern German may, therefore, not be out of place. -San-Marte's original translation (1839-41) is full of gross blunders and -mistranslations, and, what is worse, of passages foisted into the text to -support the translator's own interpretation of the poem as a whole. -Simrock's, which followed, is extremely close, but difficult and -unpleasing. San Marte's second edition, corrected from Simrock, is a great -advance upon the first; but even here the translator has too often allowed -his own gloss to replace Wolfram's statement. A thoroughly faithful yet -pleasing rendering is a desideratum. - -[157] J. Van Santen, Zur Beurtheilung Wolfram von Eschenbach, Wesel, 1882, -has attacked Wolfram for his acceptance of the morality of the day, and -has, on that ground, denied him any ethical or philosophic merit. The -pamphlet is useful for its references, but otherwise worthless. The fact -that Wolfram does accept _Minnedienst_ only gives greater value to his -picture of a nobler and purer ideal of love, whilst to refuse recognition -of his other qualities on this account is much as who should deny Dante's -claim to be regarded as a teacher and thinker because of his acceptance of -the hideous mediæval hell. - -[158] In the Geheimnisse Goethe shows some slight trace of the Parzival -legend, and the words in which the teaching of the poem are summed up: -"Von der Gewalt, die alle Wesen bindet, Befreit _der_ Mensch sich der sich -überwindet," may be looked upon as an eighteenth century rendering of -Wolfram's conception. - -[159] We may here note an admirable example of the inevitable, spontaneous -character of the growth of certain conceptions, especially of such as have -been partly shaped by the folk-mind. There is nothing in Wolfram or in the -French romances to show that the fortunes of the loathly damsel (Wagner's -Kundry) are in any way bound up with the success of the Quest. But we have -seen that the Celtic folk-tales represent the loathly damsel as the real -protagonist of the story. She cannot be freed unless the hero do his task. -Precisely the same situation as in Wagner, who was thus led back to the -primitive _donnée_, although he can only have known intermediary stages in -which its signification had been quite lost. - -[160] _Cf._ the reproaches addressed to Potter Thompson (_supra_, p. 198). -That the visitor to the Bespelled Castle should be reproached, at once, -for his failure to do as he ought, seems to be a feature of the earliest -forms of the story. _Cf._ Campbell's Three Soldiers (_supra_, p. 196). If -Wolfram had another source than Chrestien it was one which partook more of -the unspelling than of the feud quest formula. Hence the presence of the -feature here. - -[161] In Wolfram's work there is a much closer connection between the -Gawain quest and the remainder of the poem than in Chrestien. -Orgueilleuse, to win whose love Gawain accomplishes his feats, is a former -love of Amfortas, the Grail King, who won for her a rich treasure and was -wounded in her service. Klinschor, too, the lord of the Magic Castle, is -brought into contact with Orgueilleuse, whom he helps against Gramoflanz. -It is difficult to say whether this testifies to an earlier or later stage -of growth of the legend. The winning of Orgueilleuse as the consequence of -accomplishing the feat of the Ford Perillous and plucking the branch is -strongly insisted upon by Wolfram and not mentioned by Chrestien, though -it is possible he might have intended to wed the two had he finished his -poem. In this respect, however, and taking these two works as they stand, -Wolfram's account seems decidedly the earlier. In another point, too, he -seems to have preserved the older form. Besides his Kundrie la Sorcière -(the loathly damsel) he has a Kundrie la Belle, whom I take to be the -loathly damsel released from the transforming spell. - - - - -Transcriber's Notes: - -Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. - -Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=. - -Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}. - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, by -Alfred Nutt - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDIES ON LEGEND OF HOLY GRAIL *** - -***** This file should be named 42205-8.txt or 42205-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/2/0/42205/ - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you -do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the -rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose -such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and -research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do -practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is -subject to the trademark license, especially commercial -redistribution. - - - -*** START: FULL LICENSE *** - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at - www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy -all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. -If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" -or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the -collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from -copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative -works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg -are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project -Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by -freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of -this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with -the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by -keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project -Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate -access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently -whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, -copied or distributed: - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived -from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is -posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied -and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees -or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work -with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the -work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 -through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional -terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked -to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the -permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), -you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a -copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon -request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other -form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided -that - -- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is - owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he - has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments - must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you - prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax - returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and - sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to - the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." - -- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or - destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium - and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of - Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any - money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days - of receipt of the work. - -- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set -forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from -both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm -collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain -"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or -corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual -property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a -computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by -your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. -To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 -and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent -permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. -Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 -North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email -contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the -Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To -SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any -particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. -To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/42205-8.zip b/42205-8.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 91e7073..0000000 --- a/42205-8.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/42205-h.zip b/42205-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 1db14ff..0000000 --- a/42205-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/42205.txt b/42205.txt deleted file mode 100644 index ca6e35c..0000000 --- a/42205.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,13330 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, by Alfred Nutt - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail - With Especial Reference to the Hypothesis of Its Celtic Origin - -Author: Alfred Nutt - -Release Date: February 26, 2013 [EBook #42205] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDIES ON LEGEND OF HOLY GRAIL *** - - - - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - - - - - - - - - The Folk-Lore Society, - FOR COLLECTING AND PRINTING - RELICS OF POPULAR ANTIQUITIES, &c. - ESTABLISHED IN - THE YEAR MDCCCLXXVIII. - - [Illustration: Alter et Idem.] - - PUBLICATIONS - OF - THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY. - 1888. - XXIII. - - - - -List of Officers of the Society. - -1887-1888. - - -PRESIDENT. - - THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF STRAFFORD. - - -VICE-PRESIDENTS. - - ANDREW LANG, M.A. - W. R. S. RALSTON, M.A. - EDWARD B. TYLOR, LL.D., F.R.S. - - -DIRECTOR. - - G. L. GOMME, F.S.A., 1, Beverley Villas, Barnes Common, S.W. - - -COUNCIL. - - THE HON. J. ABERCROMBY. - A. MACHADO Y ALVAREZ. - THE EARL BEAUCHAMP, F.S.A. - EDWARD BRABROOK, F.S.A. - DR. G. B. BRINTON. - JAMES BRITTEN, F.L.S. - LOYS BRUEYRE. - MISS C. S. BURNE. - EDWARD CLODD. - PROFESSOR D. COMPARETTI. - G. LAURENCE GOMME, F.S.A. - A. GRANGER HUTT, F.S.A. - SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, BT., F.R.S. - REV. DR. RICHARD MORRIS. - ALFRED NUTT. - EDWARD PEACOCK, F.S.A. - Z. D. PEDROSO. - PROFESSOR A. H. SAYCE, M.A. - CAPTAIN R. C. TEMPLE. - HENRY B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A. - - -AUDITORS. - - G. L. APPERSON. - JOHN TOLHURST, F.S.A. - - -LOCAL SECRETARIES. - - IRELAND: G. H. KINAHAN, R.I.A. - SOUTH SCOTLAND: WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK, ESQ. - NORTH SCOTLAND: Rev. WALTER GREGOR. - INDIA: CAPTAIN R. C. TEMPLE. - CHINA: J. STEWART LOCKHART. - - -HONORARY SECRETARIES. - - A. GRANGER HUTT, F.S.A., 8, Oxford Road, Kilburn, N.W. - J. J. FOSTER, 36, Alma Square, St. John's Wood, N.W. - - - - -STUDIES ON THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL. - - - - -_Works by the same Author._ - - -=The Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula among the Celts.=--_Folk-Lore -Record_, Vol. IV. 10_s._ 6_d._ - - "Interessante etude de mythographie comparee."--_Revue Celtique._ - -=Mabinogion Studies, I. The Mabinogi of Branwen, daughter of -Llyr.=--_Folk-Lore Record_, Vol. V. 10_s._ 6_d._ - - "Eingehendes und sehr beachtenswerthes Studium."--Prof. ERNST - WINDISCH, in _Ersch und Gruber_. - - "These careful and searching studies deserve to be honourably - mentioned."--Mons. HENRI GAIDOZ, in the _Academy_. - - - - - STUDIES ON THE - LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL - - _WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE HYPOTHESIS_ - OF ITS CELTIC ORIGIN. - - - BY ALFRED NUTT. - - - "Welchem Volke das Maerchen (von Parzival's Jugendgeschichte) - angehoerte, welches die schriftliche oder muendliche - Ueberlieferung mit der Gralsage in Verbindung brachte, ist - schwer zu bestimmen, doch wuerde dasjenige Volk den meisten - Anspruch darauf haben, bei welchem sich dies Maerchen ausserhalb - jenes Zusammenhangs nachweisen liesse."--K. SIMROCK. - - "The Celtic hero who in the twelfth century became Perceval le - Chercheur du basin ... in the end became possessed of that - sacred basin le Saint Graal, and the holy lance which, though - Christian in the story, are the same as the talismans which - appear so often in Gaelic tales ... the glittering weapon which - destroys, and the sacred medicinal cup which cures."--J. F. - CAMPBELL. - - "In all the Fenian stories mention is made of Fionn's healing - cup ... it is the same as the Holy Grail of course."--J. F. - CAMPBELL. - - - London: - DAVID NUTT, 270-71, STRAND. - 1888. - - - - - HARRISON AND SONS, - PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY, - ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON. - - - - -DEDICATION. - - - To the Memory - OF - J. F. CAMPBELL, - FROM WHOM - I FIRST LEARNT TO LOVE CELTIC TRADITION. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - CHAPTER I. - - Description of the leading forms of the Romance: Conte del - Graal--Joseph d'Arimathie--Didot-Perceval--Queste del Saint - Graal--Grand Saint Graal--Parzival--Perceval le Gallois-- - Mabinogi of Peredur--Sir Perceval--Diu Crone--Information - respecting date and authorship of these works in the MSS. page 1 - - - CHAPTER II. - - Summaries--Conte du Graal: Pseudo-Chrestien, Chrestien, - Gautier de Doulens, Manessier, Gerbert--Wolfram--Heinrich von - dem Tuerlin--Didot-Perceval--Mabinogi of Peredur--Thornton MS. - Sir Perceval--Queste del Saint Graal--Grand Saint Graal-- - Robert de Borron's poem, Joseph of Arimathea page 8 - - - CHAPTER III. - - The legend formed of two portions: Early History of Grail, - Quest--Two forms of each portion distinguished--Grouping of - the various versions--Alternative hypotheses of development-- - Their bearing upon the alleged Celtic origin of the Grail-- - Closer examination of the various accounts of the Grail: The - first use made of it and its first possessor; its solace of - Joseph; its properties and the effect produced by it; its - name; its arrival in England; the Grail-keeper and his - relationship to the Promised Knight--Three different stages - in the development of the Queste--The work and the - qualification of the Promised Knight--Conclusions: Priority - over Early History of Quest--Chronological arrangement of the - versions page 65 - - - CHAPTER IV. - - SKETCH OF THE LITERATURE CONNECTED WITH THE GRAIL CYCLE. - - Villemarque--Halliwell--San Marte (A. Schulz)--Simrock-- - Rochat--Furnivall's reprint of the Grand St. Graal and of - Borron--J. F. Campbell--Furnivall's Queste--Paulin Paris-- - Potvin's Conte du Graal--Bergmann--Skeat's Joseph of - Arimathea--Hucher: Grail Celtic, date of Borron--Zarncke, Zur - Geschichte der Gralsage; Grail belongs to Christian - legend--Birch-Hirschfeld develops Zarncke's views: Grand St. - Graal younger than Queste, both presuppose Chrestien and an - earlier Queste, the Didot-Perceval, which forms integral part - of Borron's trilogy; Mabinogi later than Chrestien; various - members of the cycle dated--Martin combats Birch-Hirschfeld: - Borron later than Chrestien, whose poem represents oldest - stage of the romance, which has its roots in Celtic - tradition--Hertz--Criticism of Birch-Hirschfeld page 97 - - - CHAPTER V. - - Relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du Graal--The - former not the source of the latter--Relationship of the - Conte du Graal and the Mabinogi--Instances in which the - Mabinogi has copied Chrestien--Examples of its independence-- - The incident of the blood drops in the snow--Differences - between the two works--The machinery of the Mabinogi and the - traces of it in the Conte du Graal--The stag hunt--The - Mabinogi and Manessier--The sources of the Conte du Graal and - the relation of the various parts to a common original--Sir - Perceval--Steinbach's theory--Objections to it--The counsels - in the Conte du Graal--Wolfram and the Mabinogi--Absence of - the Grail from the apparently oldest Celtic form page 127 - - - CHAPTER VI. - - The Lay of the Great Fool--Summary of the Prose Opening--The - Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula--Comparison with the - Mabinogi, Sir Perceval, and the Conte du Graal--Comparison - with various Gaelic maerchen, the Knight of the Red Shield, - the Rider of Grianaig--Originality of the Highland tale-- - Comparison with the Fionn legend--Summary of the Lay of the - Great Fool--Comparison with the stag hunt incident in the - Conte du Graal and the Mabinogi--The folk-tale of the twin - brethren--The fight against the witch who brings the dead to - life in Gerbert and the similar incident in the folk-tale of - the Knight of the Red Shield--Comparison with the original - form of the Mabinogi--Originality of Gerbert page 152 - - - CHAPTER VII. - - The various forms of the visit to the Grail Castle in the - romances--Conte du Graal: Chrestien; Gautier-Manessier; - Gautier-Gerbert--Didot-Perceval--Mabinogi--Conte du Graal; - Gawain's visit to the Grail Castle--Heinrich von dem - Tuerlin--Conte du Graal: Perceval's visit to the Castle of - Maidens--Inconsistency of these varying accounts; their - testimony to stories of different nature and origin being - embodied in the romances--Two main types: feud quest and - unspelling quest--Reasons for the confusion of the two - types--Evidence of the confusion in older Celtic literature-- - The Grail in Celtic literature: the gear of the Tuatha de - Danann; the cauldron in the Ultonian cycle; the Mabinogi of - Branwen; vessel of balsam and glaive of light in the - contemporary folk-tale--The sword in Celtic literature: - Tethra; Fionn; Manus--Parallels to the Bespelled Castle; the - Brug of Oengus, the Brug of Lug, the Brug of Manannan Mac - Lir, Bran's visit to the Island of Women, Cormac Mac Art, and - the Fairy Branch; Diarmaid and the Daughter of King Under the - Waves--Unspelling stories: The Three Soldiers; the waiting of - Arthur; Arthur in Etna; the Kyffhaeuser Legend, objections to - Martin's views concerning it--Gawain's visit to the Magic - Castle and Celtic parallels; The Son of Bad Counsel; Fionn in - Giant Land; Fionn in the House of Cuana; Fionn and the Yellow - Face--The Vanishing of the Bespelled Castle--Comparison with - the Sleeping Beauty cycle--The "Haunted Castle" form and its - influence on Heinrich's version--The Loathly Grail Messenger page 170 - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - The Fisher King in the Conte du Graal, in the Queste, and in - Borron and the Grand St. Graal--The accounts of latter - complete each other--The Fish is the Salmon of Wisdom-- - Parallel with the Fionn Saga--The nature of the Unspelling - Quest--The Mabinogi of Taliesin and its mythological - affinities--Brons, Bran, Cernunnos--Perceval's silence: Conte - du Graal explanation late; explanation from the Fionn Saga-- - Comparison of incident with _geasa_; nature of latter; - references to it in Celtic folk-tales and in old Irish - literature, Book of Rights, Diarmaid, Cuchulainn--_Geasa_ and - _taboo_ page 207 - - - CHAPTER IX. - - Summing up of the elements of the older portion of the - cycle--Parallelism with Celtic tradition--The Christian - element in the cycle: the two forms of the Early History; - Brons form older--Brons and Bran--The Bran conversion - legend--The Joseph conversion legend, Joseph in apocryphal - literature, the Evangelium Nicodemi--The Bran legend the - starting point of the Christian transformation of the - legend--Substitution of Joseph for Bran--Objection to this - hypothesis--Hypothetical sketch of the growth of the legend page 215 - - - CHAPTER X. - - The Moral and Spiritual import of the Grail-Legend - universally recognised--Popularity of the Arthurian Romance-- - Reasons for that Popularity--Affinities of the Mediaeval - Romances with early Celtic Literature; Importance of the - Individual Hero; Knighthood; the _role_ of Woman; the Celtic - Fairy and the Mediaeval Lady; the Supernatural--M. Renan's - views--The Quest in English Literature, Malory--The earliest - form of the Legend, Chrestien, his continuators--The Queste - and its Ideal--The Sex-Relations in the Middle Ages-- - Criticism of Mr. Furnivall's estimate of the moral import of - the Queste--The Merits of the Queste--The Chastity Ideal in - the later versions--Modern English Treatments: Tennyson, - Hawker--Possible Source of the Chastity Ideal in Popular - Tradition--The Perceval Quest in Wolfram; his Moral - Conception; the Question; Parzival and Conduiramur--The - Parzival Quest and Faust--Wagner's Parsifal--The Christian - element in the Legend--Ethical Ideas in the folk-tale - originals of the Grail Romances: the Great Fool; the Sleeping - Beauty--Conclusion page 228 - - - APPENDIX A.: The Relationship of Wolfram to Chrestien page 261 - - - APPENDIX B.: The Grand St. Graal Prologue and the Brandan - Legend page 264 - - - INDEX I. The Dramatis Personae of the Legend page 266 - - - INDEX II. page 275 - - - - -INTRODUCTION. - - -The present work is, as its title states, a collection of "Studies." It -does not profess to give an exhaustive or orderly account of the Grail -romance cycle; it deals with particular aspects of the legend, and makes -no pretence of exhausting even these. - -It may be urged that as this is the case the basis of the work is too -broad for the superstructure, and that there was no need to give full -summaries of the leading forms of the legend, or to discuss at such length -their relation one to another, when it was only intended to follow up one -of the many problems which this romance cycle presents. Had there existed -any work in English which did in any measure what the writer has here -attempted to do, he would only too gladly have given more space and more -time to the elaboration of the special subject of these studies. But the -only work of the kind is in German, _Birch-Hirschfeld's Die Gralsage_. -Many interested in the Arthurian romances do not know German; and some who -profess an interest in them, and who do know German, are not, to judge by -their writings, acquainted with Birch-Hirschfeld's work. It seemed worth -while, therefore, to present the facts about the cycle with greater -fulness than would have been necessary had those facts been generally -accessible. The writer felt, too, that whatever judgment might be passed -upon his own speculations, his statements of fact might give his book some -value in the eyes of students. He also wished to give all who felt an -interest in the line of investigation he opened up the opportunity of -pursuing it further, or the means of checking his assertions and -conjectures. - -The writer has taken his texts as he found them. He has studied the -subject matter of the romances, not the words in which they have been -handed down. Those who seek for philological disquisitions are, therefore, -warned that they will find nothing to interest them; and those scholars -who are well acquainted with the printed texts, but who are on the search -for fresh MS. evidence, must not look here for such. On the other hand, as -the printed texts are for the most of such rarity and price as to be -practically inaccessible to anyone not within reach of a large library, -the writer trusts that his abstract of them will be welcome to many. He -has striven to take note of all works of real value bearing upon the -subject. He endeavoured, though unsuccessfully, to obtain a copy of M. -Gaston Paris' account of the Arthurian romances which, though it has been -for some months in print, is not yet published. - -The writer has done his best to separate the certain from the conjectural. -Like M. Renan, in a similar case, he begs the reader to supply the -"perhaps" and the "possibly's" that may sometimes have dropt out. The -whole subject is fraught with difficulty, and there are special reasons -why all results must for some time to come be looked upon as conjectural. -These are glanced at here and there in the course of these studies, but it -may be well to put them together in this place. Firstly, whatever opinions -be held as to which are the older forms of the legend, it is certain that -in no one case do we possess a primary form. All the versions that have -come down to us presuppose, even where they do not actually testify to, a -model. Two of the forms which there is substantial agreement in reckoning -among the oldest, the poems of Chrestien de Troyes and Robert de Borron, -were never finished by the authors; sequels exist to both, of a later date -and obviously affected by other forms of the legend. A reconstruction of -the original story is under these circumstances a task of great -uncertainty. So much for the difficulty inherent in the nature of the -evidence, a difficulty which it is to be feared will always beset the -student of this literature, as no new texts are likely to be found. -Secondly, this evidence, such as it is, is not accessible in a form of -which the most can be made. The most important member of the group, the -Conte du Graal, only exists in one text, and that from a late and poor -MS. It is certain that a critical edition, based upon a survey of the -entire MS. evidence, will throw great light upon all the questions here -treated of. The Mabinogi of Peredur has not yet been critically edited, -nor have the MSS. of the other romances yielded up all that can be learnt -from them. Thirdly, whatever opinion be held respecting the connection of -the North French romances and Celtic tradition, connection of some kind -must be admitted. Now the study of Celtic tradition is only beginning to -be placed upon a firm basis, and the stores of Celtic myth and legend are -only beginning to be thrown open to the non-Celtic scholar. Were there in -existence a Celtic parallel to Grimm's great work on German Mythology, the -views for which the writer contends would have been, in all likelihood, -admitted ere now, and there would have been no necessity for this work at -all. - -Whilst some of the reasons which render the study of the Grail legends so -fascinating, because so problematic, will probably always remain in force, -others will vanish before the increase of knowledge. When the diplomatic -evidence is accessible in a trustworthy form; when the romances have -received all the light that can be shed upon them from Celtic history, -philology, and mythology, the future student will have a comparatively -easy task. One of the writer's chief objects has been to excite an -interest in these romances among those who are able to examine the Celtic -elements in them far more efficiently than he could do. Welsh philologists -can do much to explain the _Onomasticon Arthurianum_; Cymric history -generally may elucidate the subject matter. But as a whole Welsh -literature is late, meagre, and has kept little that is archaic. The study -of Irish promises far better results. Of all the races of modern Europe -the Irish have the most considerable and the most archaic mass of -pre-Christian traditions. By the side of their heroic traditional -literature that of Cymry or Teuton (High and Low), or Slav is recent, -scanty, and unoriginal. - -A few words must be said in defence of the free use made of conjecture in -the course of these studies. This is well nigh unavoidable from the way in -which the texts we have to deal with have come down to us. What M. Renan -has said about the Hebrew historical scriptures is excellently exemplified -in the Grail romances. There was no fixed text, no definite or rounded -sequence of incidents, of which scribes respected the integrity. On the -contrary, each successive transcriber was only anxious to add some fresh -adventure to the interminable tale, and those MSS. were most thought of -which contained the greatest number of lines. The earlier MSS. have, -therefore, almost entirely disappeared, and we are dealing with works -which we know to have been composed in the twelfth century, but of which -we have only thirteenth or fourteenth century transcripts. Inconsistencies -in the conduct of the story are the inevitable consequence in most cases, -but sometimes the latest arranger had an eye for unity of effect, and -attained this by the simple process of altering the old account so as to -make it fit with the new. In dealing with the text of an _individual_ -author, whether ancient or modern, it would be in the last degree -uncritical to explain difficulties by such hypotheses as the loss of an -earlier draft, or the foisting into the work of later and incongruous -incidents and conceptions. Not so in the case of the romances; this method -of explanation is natural and legitimate, but none the less is it largely -conjectural. - -The writer may be blamed for not having presented his subject in a more -engaging and more lucid form. He would plead in excuse the circumstances -under which his work has been carried on. When the only hours of study are -those which remain after the claims, neither few nor light, of business -and other duties have been met, it is hard to give an appearance of unity -to a number of minute detail studies, and to weld them together into one -harmonious whole. The fact that the work has been written, and printed, at -considerable intervals of time may, it is hoped, be accepted as some -excuse for inconsistency in the terminology. - -The writer has many acknowledgments to make. First and chief to Dr. -Birch-Hirschfeld, but for whose labours, covering well nigh the whole -field of the Grail cycle, he would not have been able to take in hand his -work at all; then to Dr. Furnivall, to whose enthusiasm and spirit the -publication of some of the most important texts are due. In these two -cases the writer acknowledges his gratitude with the more readiness that -he has felt compelled to come to an opposite conclusion from that arrived -at by Dr. Birch-Hirschfeld respecting the genesis and growth of the -legend, and because he has had to differ from Dr. Furnivall's estimate of -the moral value of the Galahad romances. To M. Hucher, to Mons. Ch. -Potvin, the editor, single-handed, of the Conte du Graal, to M. d'Arbois -de Jubainville, to Professor Ernst Martin, to the veteran San-Marte, to -Herr Otto Kuepp, and to Herr Paul Steinbach, these studies owe much. -Professor Rhys' Hibbert Lectures came into the writer's hands as he was -preparing the latter portion of the book for the press; they were of great -service to him, and he was especially gratified to find opinions at which -he had arrived confirmed on altogether independent grounds by Professor -Rhys' high authority. The writer is also indebted to him, to Mr. H. L. D. -Ward, of the British Museum, and to his friend Mr. Egerton Phillimore for -help given while the sheets were passing through the press. Lastly, the -writer desires to pay an especial tribute of gratitude and respect to that -admirable scholar, J. F. Campbell. Of all the masters in folk-lore, Jacob -Grimm not excepted, none had a keener eye or surer, more instinctively -right judgment. - -Although the writer admits, nay, insists upon the conjectural character of -his results, he believes he is on the right track, and that if the Grail -romances be worked out from any other point of view than the one here -taken, the same goal will be reached. It should be said that some of the -conclusions, which he can claim as his own by right of first mention, were -stated by him in a paper he read before the Folk-Lore Society in 1880 -(afterwards reprinted, Celtic Magazine, 1887, August-October); and in a -paper he read before the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, in 1884. - -These studies have been a delight and a solace to the writer; had it been -otherwise, he would still feel himself amply repaid for his work by the -thought that he had made a contribution, however slight, to the criticism -of the Legend of the Holy Grail. - - - - -ERRATA. - - -[The reader is kindly begged to mark in these corrections before using the -book.] - - Page 22, line 12, _for_ Corbierc _read_ Corbiere. - " 25, line 37, _insert_ Passion _before_ Week. - " 30, 7 lines from bottom, _for_ Avallon _read_ Avalon. - " 85, line 24, _for_ Percival _read_ Perceval. - " 86, line 12, _for_ Percival _read_ Perceval. - " 90, 5 lines from bottom, _for_ Pelleur _read_ Pelleans. - " 102, line 22, _for_ seems _read_ seem. - " 120, line 3, _for_ 1180 _read_ 1189. - " 124, line 29, _for_ Bron _read_ Brons. - " 156, line 11, _insert_ comma _after_ specially. - " 159, line 11, _for_ Henessey _read_ Hennessy. - " 163, note, _i.e._, _for_ Graal _read_ Gaal. - " 183, line 23, _insert_ comma _after_ more. - " 188, line 5, _for_ euphemerised _read_ euhemerised. - " 188, line 5, _for_ invasion _read_ invasions. - " 188, line 17, _for_ mystic _read_ mythic. - " 189, line 1, _for_ LXXVII _read_ LXXXII. - " 197, note, _for_ Carl the Great _read_ Karl the Great. - " 200, line 12, _insert_ comma _after_ plight; _dele_ comma _after_ - love. - " 201, 1 line from bottom, _insert_ late _before_ mediaeval. - " 204, note, _for_ Percival _read_ Perceval. - " 217, line 23, _for_ mystic _read_ mythic. - - - - -STUDIES ON THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - - Description of the leading forms of the Romance: Conte del - Graal--Joseph d'Arimathie--Didot-Perceval--Queste del Saint - Graal--Grand Saint Graal--Parzival--Perceval le Gallois--Mabinogi of - Peredur--Sir Perceval--Diu Crone--Information respecting date and - authorship of these works in the MSS. - - -The following are the forms in which the Legend of the Holy Grail has come -down to us:-- - -A.--=Le Conte del Graal=, a poem of over 60,000 verses, the major part of -which (45,379 verses) was printed for the first time by Potvin: Le Conte -del Graal, six volumes, 8vo. (vols. ii.-vi. containing our poem), Mons, -1866-71, from a MS. preserved in the Mons Library.[1] The portion of the -poem which is not printed in full is summarised by Potvin in the sixth -volume of his edition. The poem, so far as at present known, is the work -of four men: - - A I. Chrestien de Troyes, who carried the work down to verse 10,601. - - A II. Gautier de Doulens, who continued it to verse 34,934. - - A III. Manessier, who finished it in 45,379 verses. - - A IV. Gerbert, to whom are due over 15,000 verses, mostly found - interpolated between Gautier de Doulens and Manessier. - -A MS. preserved in the Library of Montpellier[2] differs in important -respects from the Mons one as far as Gautier de Doulens and Manessier are -concerned. It intercalates 228 verses between verses 20,294 and 20,296 of -the Mons MS., and gives a different redaction of verses 34,996-35,128 in -agreement with the aforesaid intercalation. It likewise mentions two -visits of Gawain to the Grail Castle. The intercalation in Gautier may be -called A II_a_, and the variant in Manessier A III_a_. - -B.--=Joseph d'Arimathie, Merlin=, exists in two forms: (1) a fragmentary -metrical version entitled in the sole existing MS. (Bibliotheque -Nationale, No. 20,047. Fonds St. Germain, No. 1,987) Li R(o)manz de l'est -(o)ire dou Graal, and consisting of 4,018 verses, 3,514 for the Joseph, -the remainder, for about one-fifth of the Merlin. First printed by -Francisque Michel: Le Roman du St. Graal. Bordeaux, 1841. Secondly by -Furnivall: Seynt Graal or the Sank Ryal. Printed for the Roxburghe Club, -two volumes, 4to., London, 1861-63, where it is found in an appendix at -the end of vol i. (2) A prose version of which several MSS. exist, all of -which are fully described by E. Hucher: Le Saint-Graal, ou le Joseph -d'Arimathie, three volumes, 12mo., Le Mans, 1875-78, vol. i., pp. 1-28. -The chief are: the Cange MS. (_circa_ 1250) of which Hucher prints the -Joseph, vol. i., pp. 209-276, and the Didot MS., written in 1301, of which -Hucher prints the Joseph, vol. i., pp. 277-333. Hucher likewise gives, -vol. i., pp. 335-365, variants from the Huth MS. (_circa_ 1280). - -These different versions may be numbered as follows:-- - - B I. The metrical version, which I shall always quote as Metr. Jos., - from Furnivall's edition. - - B II. The prose versions: B II_a_, Cange Jos.; B II_b_, Didot Jos.; B - II_c_, Huth Jos., all quoted from Hucher, vol. i. - -C.--=Perceval=, prose romance found in the already-mentioned Didot MS. at -the end of the Merlin, printed by Hucher, vol. i., pp. 415-505, from which -it will be quoted as Didot-Perceval. - -D.--=Queste del Saint Graal=, prose romance commonly found in the MSS. in -combination with Lancelot and the Mort Artur. Edited by Furnivall: La -Queste del St. Graal. Printed for the Roxburghe Club, 4to., London, 1864. -The introduction contains a full account of the existing MSS. A different -redaction from that of any of the known French MSS. is preserved in a -Welsh translation, printed, with a modern English version by the editor, -from a fifteenth century Hengwrt MS., by the Rev. Robert Williams: Y Seint -Graal, London, 8vo., 1876. I shall quote-- - - D I. Queste, from Furnivall's edition. - - D II. Welsh Quest, from Williams' edition. - -E.--The so-called =Grand Saint Graal=, prose romance found in the MSS., -both preceding the Merlin and the Queste, and preceding the Queste and the -Mort Artur. Printed by Furnivall from Cambridge and Brit. Mus. MSS., -together with a metrical English adaptation by Henry Lonelich, of about -the time of Henry the VIth, in the already-mentioned Seynt Graal; and by -Hucher, vols. ii. and iii., from a Le Mans MS.; will be quoted as Grand -St. Graal, from Furnivall's edition. - -F.--=Parzival=, by Wolfram von Eschenbach, German metrical romance, -critically edited from the MSS. by Karl Lachmann, Wolfram von Eschenbach, -Vierte Ausgabe, 8vo., Berlin, 1879, from which it will be quoted as -Wolfram. - -G.--=Perceval le Gallois=, prose romance, first printed by Potvin, vol. i. -of his Conte del Graal, from a Mons MS., with variants from a fragmentary -Berne MS. (as to both of which see pp. 353, etc.). A Welsh translation, -with modern English version by the editor, made from a MS. closely allied -to the Berne fragments, and representing a superior text to that printed -by Potvin, in Williams' already-mentioned Y Seint Graal. - -Besides these works there exist two versions of the Perceval legend in -which the Holy Grail, as such, does not appear. These are:-- - -H.--=The Mabinogi of Peredur, the son of Evrawc=, Welsh prose romance -found in the Red Book of Hergest, a MS. of the end of the fourteenth -century, and in MSS. a hundred years older. I shall quote it as Peredur, -from Lady Guest's English translation of the Mabinogion, 8vo., London, -1877. - -I.--=Sir Perceval of Galles=, English metrical romance, printed for the -first time from the Thornton MS., of _circa_ 1440, by Halliwell: The -Thornton Romances, printed for the Camden Society, small 4to., London, -1884; from which I shall quote it as Sir Perceval. - -Finally there exists an independent German version of certain adventures, -the hero of which in the Conte du Graal, in Wolfram, and in the Mabinogi, -is Gawain. This is-- - -K.--=Heinrich von dem Tuerlin.= Diu Crone. Edited by G. H. F. Scholl. -Bibliothek des Litterarischen Vereins, vol. xxvii., Stuttgart, 1852. - -The positive information which the different MSS. of the above mentioned -works afford respecting their authors, date of composition, sources, etc., -is as follows:--In the prologue to his poem, Chrestien (Potvin i., pp. -307-308) dedicates his work to "Li quens Felippes de Flandres," who as he -states (verse 67), "li bailla le livre," which served him as model, and -whom he praises at great length as surpassing Alexander. We know that -Count Philip of Flanders took the cross in 1188, set out for the Holy Land -in 1190, and died on the 1st of June, 1191, before Akkon.[3] As Chrestien -says not a word about the crusading intentions of Philip, it may be -inferred that he wrote his prologue before 1188, and began the poem in -1189 at the latest. Gautier de Doulens (probably of that ilk, in Picardy, -some miles from Amiens)[4] has only left his name, verse 33,755, Gautiers -de Dons qui l'estore, etc. Manessier the next continuator has been more -explicit; he describes himself as completing the work at the command -of ... - - Jehanne la Comtesse - Qu'est de Flandre dame et mestresse. - (Potvin, vi., p. 157.) - -This Joan, daughter of Baldwin the VIth, ruled Flanders _alone_ during the -imprisonment of her husband after the battle of Bouvines (1214-1227), and -Manessier's words can only apply to her during this period, so that his -continuation must have been written between 1214-1227.[5] The third -continuator, Gerbers, only mentions his name (Potvin, vi., p. 212). - -The author of version B, names himself, B I, verse 3,461, Messires Roberz -de Beron; verses 3,488-94 state that no mortal man had told the story, -until he had it from - - Mon seigneur Gautier en peis - Qui de Mont Belyal estoit. - -Verse 3,155 gives the name somewhat differently, Meistres Robers dist de -Bouron. The prose versions follow the poem with additions, thus Cange Jos. -(p. 275); Messires Roberz de Borron lou restrait a mon seigneur Gautier, -lou preu conte de Mobeliart. - -Walter of Montbeliard, brother to Count Richard of Montbeliard, went to -the Holy Land in 1199, became Constable of Jerusalem, Regent of Cyprus, -and died in 1212. The date of his birth is uncertain, but as his elder -brother died in 1237, Walter could hardly have been born before 1150. His -father, Amadeus, died in 1183, in which year he received the countship of -Montfaucon. It may only have been after he thus became independent that -Robert entered his service. In any case Robert could not have spoken of -him as "mon seigneur," before 1170. That year may, therefore, be taken as -a _terminus a quo_, and the year 1212 as a _terminus ad quem_ for dating -these versions. - -The Grand St. Graal is likewise ascribed in the MSS. to Robert de Borron, -and it is further stated that he translated from Latin into French--Et -ensi le temoigne me sires robiers de borron qui a translatee de latin en -franchois cheste estoire (ii. p. 78). - -The Queste ascribed in the MSS. to Walter Mapes, is said to have been -compiled by him for the love of his lord, King Henry--maistre Gautiers Map -les extrait pour l'amor del roy Henri son seignor, qui fist l'estore -translater du latin en francois[6]--Walter Mapes, born before 1143 (he -presided at the assizes of Gloucester in 1173), died in 1210. If we may -believe the MSS., the Queste would probably fall within the last -twenty-five years of the twelfth century. - -The author of Perceval le Gallois describes himself (Potvin, i., 348) as -writing the book for the "Seignor de Neele," whose Christian name, -"Johan," is given four lines lower down, at the command of the "Seingnor -de Cambresis," _i.e._, the Bishop of Cambray. This John of Nesle is -probably the one who in the year 1225 sold the lordship of Bruges to -Countess Joan of Flanders.[7] - -Wolfram von Eschenbach, of that ilk, in North Bavaria, born in the last -thirty years of the twelfth century, died about 1220. He knew Chrestien's -poem well, and repeatedly refers to it, but with great contempt, as being -the wrong version of the story, whereas he holds the true version from -Kyot, the singer, a "Provenzal," who found the tale of Parzival written in -heathen tongue at Dolet (Toledo), by Flegetanis, a heathen who first -taught concerning the Grail, put it into French, and after searching the -chronicles of Britain, France, and Ireland in vain, at length found -information in the chronicles of Anjou (pp. 202 and 219). - -Nothing is stated in the works themselves respecting the authors of the -Mabinogi and the Thornton Sir Perceval. - -Heinrich von dem Tuerlin frequently quotes Chrestien as his authority, -_e.g._, verses 16,941, 23,046, 23,982. - -If these various statements are to be accepted, it follows that in the -course of fifty years (1170-1220) a great body of romance came into -existence, partly in France, Chrestien, his continuators, and Robert de -Borron; partly in England, Walter Mapes; and partly in Germany, Wolfram -von Eschenbach, and Heinrich von dem Tuerlin. Of this body of romance only -a portion has come down to us, the work of Kyot and the Latin originals of -the Queste and the Grand St. Graal having disappeared. Furthermore, it is -only possible to date with any accuracy three or four of the works, viz., -Chrestien, Manessier, Wolfram (whose poem falls certainly within the first -ten years of the thirteenth century), though it may also be taken as -certain that R. de Borron wrote after 1170, and the anonymous author of -Perceval le Gallois before 1225. Of the dated works Chrestien's is the -oldest, 1188-90, and it postulates the existence of previous versions. - -The object of the present investigation being to determine, as far as -possible, the age and relationship to one another of the different -versions which have come down to us, to exhibit the oldest form of the -story as we have it, and to connect it with Celtic traditional belief and -literature, it will be well, before proceeding to further discuss the -various points left doubtful by the evidence gathered from the MSS., to -give clear and detailed summaries of the most important versions. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - - Summaries--Conte du Graal: Pseudo-Chrestien, Chrestien, Gautier de - Doulens, Manessier, Gerbert--Wolfram--Heinrich von dem - Tuerlin--Didot-Perceval--Mabinogi of Peredur--Thornton MS. Sir - Perceval--Queste del Saint Graal--Grand Saint Graal--Robert de - Borron's poem, Joseph of Arimathea. - - -=The Conte du Graal.=--PSEUDO-CHRESTIEN.[8]--The story tells of the -"Graal," whose mysteries, if Master Blihis lie not, none may reveal; it -falls into seven parts, and shows how the rich land of Logres was -destroyed. (1) In the wells and springs of that land harboured damsels who -fed the wayfarer with meat and pasties and bread. But King Amangons did -wrong to one and carried off her golden cup, so that never more came -damsels out of the springs to comfort the wanderer. And the men of King -Amangons followed his evil example. Thereafter the springs dried up, and -the grass withered, and the land became waste, and no more might be found -the court of the Rich Fisher, which had filled the land with plenty and -splendour. (2) The Knights of the Table Round, learning the ill done to -the damsels, set forth to protect them; they found them not, but fair -damsels wandering in the woods, each with her knight; with the latter they -strove, and when they overcame them sent them to Arthur. Thus came Blihos -Bliheris to Arthur's court conquered by Gauvain; he knew goodly tales and -he told how the wandering damsels were sprung from those ravished by King -Amangons. So long would they wander till God gave them to find the court, -whence joy and splendour would come to the land. (3) Arthur's knights -resolved to seek the court of the Rich Fisher--much knew he of black art, -more than an hundred times changed he his semblance, that no man seeing -him again recognised him. Gauvain found it, and had great joy therefrom; -but before him a young knight, small of age, but none bolder of -courage--Percevaus li Galois was he--he asked whereto the Grail served, -but nought of the lance why it dripped blood, nor of the sword one half of -which was away whilst the other lay in the bier. But he asked surely -concerning the rich cross of silver. Now in the room three times there -arose such great sorrow that no man who heard it, so bold he might be but -feared. Afterwards the room filled and the king came in, full richly -dressed, so that he might hardly be known of them that had seen him the -day before, fishing. And when all were sat down the Grail came in, and -without serjeant nor seneschal served all present, and 'twas wonder what -food it gave them. And then came the great marvel which has not its like. -But Perceval will tell of this, so I must say no more; it is a great shame -to tell beforehand what is in a good tale. When the good knight shall come -who found the court three times you shall hear me tell of Grail and lance, -and of him who lay in the bier, of the sword, of the grief and swooning of -all beholders. (4) Now the court was found seven times, and each time -shall have a fresh tale:-- - - The seventh (the most pleasing) tells of the lance wherewith Longis - pierced the side of the King of holy Majesty; - - The sixth of warlike feats; - - The fifth of the anger and loss of Huden; The fourth of heaven, for he - was no coward, the knight Mors del Calan, who first came to Glamorgan; - - The third of the hawk whereof Castrars had such fear--Pecorins, the - son of Amangons, bore all his days the wound on his forehead; - - The second has not yet been told; it tells of the great sorrows - Lancelot of the Lake had there where he lost his virtue; - - And the last is the adventure of the shield, never a better one was - there. - -(5) After this adventure the land was repeopled; court and grail were -found; the streams ran again; the meadows were green, the forests thick -and leafy; so that all folk marvelled. But there came back a folk, the -same that came out of the springs (save they were not cooks), a caitiff -set, and built for their damsels the rich Maidens' Castel, and the Bridge -Perillous, and Castel Orguellous, and warred against the Table Round. In -the castle were 376, each sire of 20 knights. And not till after four -years did Arthur overcome them and was there peace. - -_(Here beginneth the Story of the Grail.)_ - -(6) There were in the land of Wales twelve knights, of whom Bliocadrans -alone survived, so eager were they in seeking tournament and combats. -After living for two years with his wife, childless, Bliocadrans set forth -to a tournament given by the King of Wales and Cornwall against them of -the Waste Fountain. At first successful, he is at length slain. A few days -after his departure his wife has borne a son. When at length she learns -her husband's death, she takes counsel with her chamberlain, and -pretending a pilgrimage to St. Brandan, in Scotland, withdraws to the -Waste Forest far removed from all men. Here she brings up her son, and -though she allows him to hunt in the forest, warns him against men covered -with iron--they are devils. He promises to follow her counsel, and -thenceforth he goes into the forest alone. - -=The Conte du Graal.=--(_a_) CHRESTIEN.--(1) When as trees and meadows -deck themselves with green, and birds sing, the son of the widow lady goes -out into the wood. He meets five knights, and, as their weapons shine in -the sun, takes them for angels, after having first thought them to be the -devils his mother had warned him against. He prays to them as his mother -has taught him. One of the knights asks if he has seen five knights and -three maidens who had passed that way, but he can but reply with questions -concerning the arms and trappings of the knights. He learns of Arthur the -King who makes knights, and when he returns to his mother tells her he has -beheld a more beautiful thing than God and His angels, knights namely, and -he too will become one. In vain his mother tells him of his father's and -his two elder brothers' fates, slain in battle. Nothing will serve, so the -mother makes him a dress of coarse linen and leather, and before he leaves -counsels him as follows: If dame or damsel seek his aid he is to give it, -he is to do naught displeasing to them, but to kiss the maiden who is -willing, and to take ring and girdle of her if he can; to go for long with -no fellow-traveller whose name he knows not, to speak with and consort -with worthy men, to pray to our Lord when he comes to church or convent. -She then tells him of Jesus Christ, the Holy Prophet. He departs clad and -armed in Welsh fashion, and his mother swoons as though dead. (2) Perceval -comes to a tent in the wood, and, taking it for a convent, goes in and -finds sleeping on a bed a damsel, whom the neighing of his horse wakes. In -pursuance of his mother's counsel he kisses her more than twenty times, -takes her ring from her, and eats and drinks of her provisions. Thereafter -he rides forth, and her lover returning and hearing what has taken place, -swears to avenge himself upon the intruder, and until such time the -damsel, whose tale he disbelieves, is to follow him barefoot and not to -change her raiment. (3) Perceval learns the way to Carduel from a -charcoal-burner; arrived there, he sees a knight coming forth from the -castle and bearing a golden cup in his hand, clad in red armour, who -complains of Arthur as having robbed him of his land. Perceval rides into -the castle hall and finds the court at meat. Arthur, lost in thought, pays -no attention to the first two salutations of Perceval, who then turns his -horse to depart, and in so doing knocks off the King's hat. Arthur then -tells him how the Red Knight has carried off his cup, spilling its -contents over the Queen. Perceval cares not a rap for all this, but asks -to be made knight, whereat all laugh. Perceval insists, and claims the Red -Knight's armour. Kex bids him fetch them, whereat the King is displeased. -Perceval greets a damsel, who laughs and foretells he shall be the best -knight in the world. For this saying Kex strikes her, and kicks into the -fire a fool who had been wont to repeat that the damsel would not laugh -till she beheld the best of knights. (4) Perceval tarries no longer, but -follows the Red Knight, and bids him give up his arms and armour. They -fight, and Perceval slays his adversary with a cast of his dart. Yones, -who has followed him, finds him put to it to remove the knight's -armour--he will burn him out of it if need be--and shows him how to -disarm the dead man and to arm himself. Perceval then mounts the knight's -steed and rides off, leaving the cup to Yones to be given to the King, -with this message: he, Perceval, would come back to avenge the damsel of -the blow Kex struck her. (5) Perceval comes to a castle, in front of which -he finds an old knight, to whom he relates what has befallen him, and of -whom he asks counsel as his mother bade him. The knight, Gonemans of -Gelbort, takes him into his castle, teaches him the use of arms, and all -knightly practices. In especial he is to avoid over-readiness in speaking -and in asking questions, and to give over his habit of always quoting his -mother's counsels. He then dubs him knight, and sends him forth to return -to his mother. (6) After a day's journey Perceval comes to a town defended -by a castle, and, being allowed entrance therein, finds all waste and -deserted, even the very convents. The lady of the castle, a damsel of -surpassing beauty, welcomes him and bids him to table. Mindful of -Gonemans' counsels he remains silent, and she must speak to him first. She -turns out to be Gonemans' niece. At night the young stranger is shown to -his chamber, but the damsel cannot sleep for thought. Weeping she comes to -Perceval's bedside, and in reply to his wondering questions tells him how -the forces of King Clamadex encompass the castle, and how that on the -morrow she must yield, but rather than be Clamadex's she will slay -herself. He promises to help her, and bids her to him in the bed, which -she does, and they pass the night in each other's arms, mouth to mouth. On -the morrow he begs for her love in return for his promised aid, which she -half refuses, the more to urge him on. He fights with and overcomes -Aguigrenons, Clamadex's marshal, and sends him to Arthur's court. Clamadex -hearing of this tries afresh to starve out the castle, but a storm luckily -throws a passing ship ashore, and thereby reprovisions the besieged ones. -Clamadex then challenges Perceval, is overcome, and sent to Arthur's -court, where he arrives shortly after his marshal. They relate wonders -concerning the Red Knight, and the King is more than ever displeased with -Kex for having offended such a valiant warrior. After remaining for a -while with Blanchefleur, Perceval takes leave of her, as he longs to see -his mother again. (7) He comes to a river, upon which is a boat, and -therein two men fishing. One of them, in reply to his questions, directs -him for a night's shelter to his own castle hard by. Perceval starts for -it, and at first unable to find it reproaches the fisher. Suddenly he -perceives the castle before him, enters therein, is disarmed, clad in a -scarlet mantle, and led into a great hall. Therein is a couch upon which -lies an old man; near him is a fire, around which some four hundred men -are sitting. Perceval tells his host he had come from Biau-Repaire. A -squire enters, bearing a sword, and on it is written that it will never -break save in one peril, and that known only to the maker of it. 'Tis a -present from the host's niece to be bestowed where it will be well -employed. The host gives it to Perceval, "to whom it was adjudged and -destined." Hereupon enters another squire, bearing in his hand a lance, -from the head of which a drop of blood runs down on the squire's hand. -Perceval would have asked concerning this wonder, but he minds him of -Gonemans' counsel not to speak or inquire too much. Two more squires -enter, holding each a ten-branched candlestick, and with them a damsel, a -"graal" in her hands. The graal shines so that it puts out the light of -the candles as the sun does that of the stars. Thereafter follows a damsel -holding a (silver) plate. All defile past between the fire and the couch, -but Perceval does not venture to ask wherefore the graal is used. Supper -follows, and the graal is again brought, and Perceval, knowing not its -use, had fain asked, but always refrains when he thinks of Gonemans, and -finally puts off his questions till the morrow. After supper the guest is -led to his chamber, and on the morrow, awakening, finds the castle -deserted. No one answers his calls. Issuing forth he finds his horse -saddled and the drawbridge down. Thinking to find the castle dwellers in -the forest he rides forth, but the drawbridge closes so suddenly behind -him that had not the horse leapt quickly forward it had gone hard with -steed and rider. In vain Perceval calls: none answer. (8) He pricks on and -comes to an oak, beneath which sits a maid holding a dead knight in her -arms and lamenting over him. She asks him where he has passed the night, -and on learning it tells him the fisher who had directed him to the castle -and his host were one and the same; wounded by a spear thrust through both -thighs his only solace is in fishing, whence he is called the Fisher King. -She asks, had Perceval seen the bleeding lance, the graal, and the silver -dish? had he asked their meaning? No; then what is his name? He does not -know it, but she guesses it: Perceval le Gallois; but it should be -Perceval the Caitiff, for had he asked concerning what he saw, the good -king would have been made whole again, and great good have sprung -therefrom. He has also a heavy sin on his conscience in that his mother -died of grief when he left her. She herself is his cousin. Perceval asks -concerning the dead knight, and learning it is her lover offers to revenge -her upon his slayer. In return she tells him about the sword, how it will -fly in pieces if he have not care of it, and how it may be made whole -again by dipping it in a lake, near which dwells its maker, the smith -Trebucet. (9) Perceval leaves his cousin and meets, riding on a wretched -horse, a scantily and shabbily clad woman of miserable appearance, -lamenting her hard fate and unjust treatment. She is the lady of the tent -whose ring Perceval had carried off. She bids him fly her husband, the -Orgellous de la Lande. The latter appears, challenges Perceval, but is -overcome by him, convinced of his wife's innocence, compelled to take her -into favour again, and both must go to Arthur's court, relate the whole -story, and renew Perceval's promise to the damsel whom Kex had struck, to -avenge her. Arthur, when he hears of the deeds of the young hero, sets -forth with his whole court to seek him. (10) Snow has fallen, and a flock -of wild geese, blinded by the snow, has had one of its number wounded by a -falcon. Three blood drops have fallen on the snow, and Perceval beholding -them falls into deep thought on the red and white in his love's face. -Arthur and his knights come up with him. Saigremors sees him first, bids -him come, and, when he answers no word, tilts against him, but is -overthrown. Kex then trys his luck, but is unhorsed so rudely that arm and -leg are broken. Gauvain declares that love must be mastering the strange -knight's thoughts, approaches him courteously, tells his own name and -learns Perceval's, and brings the latter to Arthur, by whom he is received -with all honour. Perceval then learns it is Kex he has overthrown, thus -fulfilling his promise to the damsel whom Kex had smitten, and whose -knight he offers himself to be. (11) Perceval returns on the morrow with -the court to Carlion, and the next day at noon there comes riding on a -yellow mule a damsel more hideous than could be pictured outside hell. She -curses Perceval for having omitted to ask concerning the lance and graal; -had he done so the King would have been healed of his wound and ruled his -land in peace; now maidens will be put to shame, orphans and widows made, -and many knights slain. Turning to the King she tells of the adventures to -be achieved at the Castel Orgellous, where dwell five hundred and seventy -knights, each with his lady love. He, though, who would win the highest -renown must to Montesclaire to free the damsel held captive there. She -then departs. Gauvain will forth to the imprisoned damsel, Gifles to the -Castel Orgellous, and Perceval swears to rest no two nights in the same -place till he have learnt concerning graal and lance. (12) A knight, -Guigambresil, enters and accuses Gauvain of having slain his lord. The -latter sets forth at once to the King of Cavalon to clear himself of this -accusation. (13) On his way he meets the host of Melians, who is preparing -to take part in a tournament to approve himself worthy the love of the -daughter of Tiebaut of Tingaguel, who had hitherto refused his suit. -Gauvain rides on to Tingaguel to help its lord. On arriving at the castle -the eldest daughter jeers at him, whilst the youngest takes his part, -declaring him a better knight than Melians, whereat her sister is very -indignant. On the first day of the tournament Melians shows himself the -best knight, but the younger sister still declares her faith in Gauvain, -and has her ears boxed in consequence. She appeals to Gauvain to be her -knight and avenge the injury done her. He consents, overcomes Melians, -whose horse he sends to his little lady, and all other knights; then, -after telling his name, rides forth. (14) He meets two knights, the -younger of whom offers him hospitality, and sends him to his sister, -bidding her welcome him. She receives him kindly, and when, struck with -her beauty, he asks her favours, grants them at once. They are interrupted -by a steward, who reproaches her with giving her love to her father's -murderer, and calls upon the castle folk to attack Gauvain. The latter -defends himself until the return of Guigambresil, who reproaches the lord -of the castle for letting Gauvain be attacked, as he had expressed his -readiness to do single combat. Gauvain is then allowed to go, and is -excused the combat if within a year he can bring back the bleeding lance. -He sets off in search of it. (15) The tale returns to Perceval, who has -wandered about for five years without thinking of God, yet performing many -feats. He meets three knights accompanied by ladies, all clad in -penitents' dress. 'Twas a Good Friday, and the eldest knight rebukes -Perceval for riding fully armed on such a day. He must confess him to a -holy hermit who lives hard by. Perceval goes thither, accuses himself of -having forgotten God through his great grief at not learning the use of -the graal. The hermit reveals himself as his uncle, tells Perceval that he -is in sin as having caused his mother's death, and for that reason he -could not ask concerning lance and graal; but for her prayers he had not -lived till now. Perceval remains two days with his uncle, receives -absolution, and rides forth. (16) The story turns to Gauvain, who, after -Escalavon, finds beneath an oak a damsel lamenting over a wounded knight; -the latter advises Gauvain to push on, which he does, and comes upon a -damsel who receives him discourteously, and when at her bidding he has -fetched her horse from a garden hard by, mocks at him and rides off. He -follows, and culls on the way herbs with which he heals the wounded -knight. A squire rides up very hideous of aspect, mounted on a wretched -hack. Gauvain chastises him for discourteous answers; meanwhile the -wounded knight makes off with Gauvain's steed, making himself known as -Griogoras, whom Gauvain had once punished for ill-doing, Gauvain has to -follow the damsel upon the squire's hack, comes to a river, on the other -side of which is a castle, overcomes a knight who attacks him, during -which the damsel vanishes, is ferried across the stream, giving the -vanquished knight to the ferryman as toll; (17) comes on the morrow to the -Magic Castle, wherein damsels are held fast, awaiting a knight full of all -knightly virtues to restore their lands to the ladies, marry the damsels, -and put an end to the enchantments of the palace. Upon entering, Gauvain -sees a magnificent bed, seats himself therein, is assailed by magic art, -overcomes a lion, and is then acclaimed lord of the castle. He would then -leave the castle, but the ferryman says he may not, whereat Gauvain is -moved to anger. On the morrow, looking forth, Gauvain beholds the (18) -damsel who led him to the ford, accompanied by a knight. He hastens forth, -overcomes the knight, seeks again the damsel's love, but is sent by her to -the Ford Perillous. Here he meets Guiromelant, who loves Gauvain's sister, -Clarissant, a dweller in the Magic Castle. A combat is arranged to take -place after seven days. Upon his return to the damsel, named Orgellouse de -Logres, he is now well received by her. She hates Guiromelant for having -slain her lover, and has long sought a good knight to avenge her. -Guiromelant on his side hates Gauvain for having, as he says, -treacherously killed his father. Gauvain and Orgellouse return to the -Magic Castle. One of the queens who dwells there is mother to Arthur; the -second one, his daughter, mother to Gauvain. The latter gives his sister -Clarissant a ring Guiromelant had begged him, unknowing who he was, to -bring to her. He then sends a knight to Arthur to bid him and his whole -train come witness the fight 'twixt him and Guiromelant. The messenger -finds Arthur plunged in grief at Gauvain's absence.... - - * * * * * - -Here Chrestien's share breaks off abruptly in the middle of a sentence, -and the poem is taken up by - -(_b_) GAUTIER DE DOULENS.[9]--(1) Arthur and his court accept Gauvain's -invitation and make for the Castle of Wonders, the Queen whereof has -meantime made herself known to Gauvain as Ygene, Arthur's mother. The duel -between Gauvain and Guiromelant is hindered, and the latter weds Gauvain's -sister. (Montp. MS. here inserts a first visit of Gawain to Grail Castle, -which is substantially the same as the one it repeats afterwards in the -same place as the Mons MS.) Adventures of Arthur and Gauvain against Brun -de Branlant follow, of Gauvain with a maiden in a tent and her brother -Brandalis, of Carduel of Nantes, whose wife is beloved of the magician -Garahiet, and of their son Carados, and the magic horn (verses -11,000-15,800). (2) (A fresh series of adventures begins) Arthur sets -forth to seek Giflet, son of Dos; Gauvain meets again with Brandalis, -whose sister has meanwhile borne him a son; Castel Orgellous, where Giflet -is imprisoned, is captured; Gauvain's son by Brandalis' sister is lost. -(3) An unknown knight comes to Arthur's court; Keie, who demands his name, -is unhorsed; Gauvain brings the unknown to the court, but the latter is -slain by a javelin cast by invisible hands. Gauvain equips himself in the -unknown's armour and starts forth to learn the latter's name. After -praying in a chapel, in which he beholds a light on the altar quenched by -a black hand, he rides through Brittany and Normandy, and comes to a -castle where, owing to his armour, he is at first hailed as lord. In one -of the rooms stands a bier, whereon lies a knight, cross and broken sword -upon his body, his left hand bleeding. A crowned knight enters and goes to -battle with Gauvain; canons and clerks come and perform the Vigil of the -Dead; whilst at table Gauvain sees the rich Grail serving out bread and -wine to the knights. Gauvain remains alone after the meal; he sees a lance -which bleeds into a silver cup. The crowned knight again enters, bearing -in his hand a broken sword which had belonged to the unknown knight, over -whom he mourns. He hands the sword to Gauvain and asks him to put the -pieces together. Gauvain cannot, whereupon the knight declares him unfit -to fulfil the quest (_li besoin_) on which he came. Later he may try -again. Gauvain asks concerning lance, sword, and bier. The lance, he is -told, is the one wherewith the Son of God was pierced in the side, 'twill -bleed till Doomsday. The tale of the broken sword which brought so much -woe upon the kingdom of Logres will also be told, but here Gauvain falls -fast asleep.[10] On the morrow he wakes, and finds himself on the sea -strand. He rides off, and behold the country has burst into green leaf, -and the reason thereof is his having asked concerning the lance. The -countryfolk both bless and curse him for having so far delivered them and -for not having completed the deliverance by asking concerning the Grail. -(4) He meets a young knight who turns out to be his son. (5) (Adventures -in which Carahies, Gauvain's brother, is chief actor.) (6) The story -returns to Perceval, who, after leaving the hermit, rides for three days -and comes to a castle, over the door of which hangs a horn. Perceval blows -therein, overcomes the knight who answers the challenge, and sends him to -Arthur's court. (7) On his way to the Castle of Mont Orgellous, to the -pillar of which only an accomplished knight might tie his horse, he comes -to the stream on whose banks he had previously met the Fisher King. -Seeking for a bridge he meets a damsel on a mule, who, under pretence of -showing a way across the river, tries to drown him. He then comes to a -castle, which entering he finds untenanted. In the hall stands a -chessboard. Perceval plays, is beaten, seizes the board and makes as if to -throw it in the moat. Hereupon a damsel rises from the water to stay his -hand, and coming into the room reproaches him. Overcome by her beauty he -asks her favours. She will grant them if he bring the head of the stag -which roams in the castle park. Thereto she lends him her hound, bidding -him be sure he return it. The hunt follows; Perceval overtakes the stag, -slays it, and cutting off its head prepares to bring it back, when a maid -of ill-chance (_pucelle de malaire_) takes and carries it off. Perceval -claiming it is reproached by her for having slain her stag, but told he -may win again the hound if he go to a mound whereon a knight is painted -and say, "Vassal, what doest thou here?" The combat with the Knight of the -Tomb follows, during which hound and stag's head are carried off by -another knight, whom Perceval can only follow when he has overcome the -Knight of the Tomb and driven him back therein. Now this knight, hight the -Black Knight, had dwelt there summer and winter five years, striving with -all-comers for the sake of his love. Perceval, following up the Robber -Knight, meets the damsel who had carried off the hound, but she only mocks -him for answer to his questions. (8) After an adventure with a -discourteous knight, Perceval meets at length a brother of the Red Knight -whom he had formerly slain, who tells him he had seen the daughter of the -Fisher King, and she had told him of a knight who had carried off a hound -and stag's head belonging to a good knight who had been at her court, and -had omitted to ask concerning the grail, for which reason she had taken -his hound and refused him help to follow the Robber Knight. (9) Perceval -is directed by the Red Knight's brother to the Fisher King's castle, but -misses his way, and after an adventure at a castle, where he slays a lion, -overcomes Abrioris and sends him to Arthur; finds a damsel mourning over a -knight slain by a giant, whom he kills, achieves the feat of the Ford -Amorous, meets and fights with Gauvain's son until they learn who each -other is, and at length comes to Belrepaire. (10) At first unrecognised by -Blanchefleur he makes himself known, stays with her three days, and then -rides off, in spite of her entreaties. (11) He meets Rosette (the loathly -damsel) and Le Biaus Mauvais, laughs at the former, is challenged by the -latter, whom he overcomes and sends to Arthur. (12) He comes to his -mother's house, enters without making himself known, learns from his -sister that his mother died at his departure ten years before, tells her -who he is, and both set forth to their uncle, the hermit. On the way -Perceval slays a knight who offers violence to his sister. They come to -their uncle, sleep there, and on the morrow Perceval reveals himself, -confesses, is reproved for having slain the knight the day before. -Perceval, after mentioning his desire to learn more concerning lance, -Grail, and sword, and receiving good advice from the hermit, leaves with -his sister, with whom he stays three days and then quits her, despite her -piteous entreaties. (12_a_) Perceval comes to the Castle of Maidens, where -he falls untimely asleep, and on the morrow finds himself in the forest, -far from any castle. (13) Perceval finds the damsel who had carried off -the hound, fights with her knight, Garalas, overcomes him, learns that the -Knight of the Tomb is his brother, who had lived for ten years with a fay -in a magic invisible castle, and had met no one to overcome him until -Perceval came. Perceval sends both knight and damsel to Arthur. (14) -Perceval meets with a white mule led by a damsel; he joins her, although -she entreats him not to do so. Suddenly struck by a great light in the -forest, he turns to ask his companion what it might mean, but finds her -gone. A violent storm comes on. The morrow he meets the damsel with the -mule, who had felt no storm. She tells him about the great light: it came -from the "Greaus," which was given by the King of kings as He hung on the -Cross; the devil may not lead astray any man on the same day he sees it, -therefore the king has it carried about. Perceval asks further, but is -told only a holy man may speak of these mysteries. Perceval relates his -adventure with the lady of the chessboard, and the damsel gives him the -white mule, which will lead to her castle, together with a ring giving the -possessor power over the mule. He is to give both back when he meets her. -(16) The mule brings Perceval across a river, over a glass bridge, on the -other side of which he meets with Brios, who persuades him to join in a -tournament held by Arthur at the Castel Orguellous, as he must win the -prize of knighthood before coming to the castle of the Fisher King. -Perceval leaves stag's head and hound at Brios' castle, carries off the -prize at the tournament, remaining unknown. (17) Proceeding thence he -frees a knight imprisoned beneath a tombstone, who, in return, shuts him -up in the tomb, but, being unable to make the mule go forward, is obliged -to release him, and returns to his prison, telling Perceval he knows him -for the best knight in the world. (18) Perceval meets the damsel of the -mule, to whom he returns ring and mule, and who asks him if he has been at -the Fisher King's court; on his saying, No, she hurries off. Perceval -prays God to direct him to the Castle of the Chessboard. A voice tells him -to follow the hound; he does so, reaches the castle, is greeted by the -maiden, to whom he gives stag's head and hound, and who in return tells -him concerning the chessboard which _Morghe la fee_ had had made at -London, on the Thames, and grants him her favours as she had promised. On -the morrow Perceval rides forth, accompanied awhile by the damsel, who -will show him his onward way. (19) They come to a river, on which is a -boat tied to an oak tree. Perceval is to enter it, cross the river, and on -the other side he will find a road leading to the Fisher King. On his way -Perceval releases a knight whom he finds hanging by his feet from a tree; -'tis Bagommedes whom Keie had treated thus, and who returns to Arthur's -court, challenges Keie, and is only hindered by Arthur from slaying him. -All Arthur's knights then start forth for the Mont Dolorous and in search -of Perceval. The adventures of Gauvain alone are related in detail until -the tale returns to Perceval. (20) After freeing Bagommedes, Perceval, -wandering in the woods, comes to a tree, in whose branches sits a child, -who can tell nothing of the Fisher King, but tells Perceval he will come -on the morrow to the Mont Dolorous. This he does, and binds his horse to -the pillar. A damsel on a white mule tells him of Arthur's birth, and how -Merlin had made castle and pillar to prove who should be the best of -knights. She was Merlin's daughter. (21) Perceval rides on, and towards -evening sees afar off a tree upon which burn many lights; as he draws near -he finds only a chapel, upon the altar of which lies a dead knight. A -great and sudden light is followed by the appearance of a black hand, -which puts out the candle on the altar. On the morrow he meets first a -huntsman, who tells him he is near the castle, then a damsel, who explains -the child in the tree, the chapel, and the black hand as having connection -with the Holy Grail and the lance. (22) Perceval comes at last to the -castle of the Fisher King, whom he finds on a couch as heretofore. He -tells him his adventures, and asks concerning the child on the tree, the -tree full of lights, and the chapel with the dead knight. Meanwhile a -damsel enters a hall bearing the Grail, another follows with the bleeding -lance, then comes a squire with a sword broken in two. Again Perceval puts -his questions, and will not eat until they are answered. First, he is told -of the child which would not speak to him on account of his many sins, and -which climbed ever upwards to show man's thoughts should be raised to the -Creator. Before learning aught further Perceval is to try and weld the -broken sword together; none but a true knight lover of God, and of God's -spouse, Holy Church, may accomplish it. Perceval succeeds, save that a -little crack still remains. The Fisher King embraces him and hails him as -lord of his house. - -Here the section which goes under the name of Gautier ends. - -[A portion of Gautier's section of the Conte du Graal is found in the -Berne MS., partly edited, partly summarised, by Rochat in his work, _Ein -unbekannter Percheval li Gallois_ (_vide_ _infra_ p. 101). This version -offers some remarkable peculiarities. It has a short introduction of -thirteen lines; then follows line 21,930 of Gautier in Potvin's text (Mons -MS.). An incident follows, omitted in the Mons MS., but found in -Montpellier and in Paris, 794: Perceval meets a huntsman who upbraids him -for having been at the Fisher King's court, and failed to ask about Grail -and bleeding lance. Then follow Incidents 6, 7 (8 is absent so far as one -can judge from Rochat's summary), 9 to 13 (in which Perceval does not -apparently send Garalas and his love to Arthur), and 14 to end, the -following finish being then tacked on: The Fisher King is father to Alain -le Gros, husband to Enigeus, sister to that Joseph who, when Christ's body -was taken down from the Cross, had it from Pilate as a reward for his -services. Joseph had the vessel prepared to catch in it the blood from the -body; it was the same Jesus had made the Sacrament in on the Thursday -before. The Fisher King dies on the third day and Perceval reigns in his -stead.][11] - -The Conte du Graal is continued by-- - -(_c_) MANESSIER.--(1) Perceval, full of joy, sits down to table; after the -meal, lance, Grail, and a goodly silver dish pass before the royal table -away into the next room. Perceval, sighing, asks concerning these objects -and the maidens bearing them. (2) The King tells as follows: the lance is -that wherewith Longis pierced God's side that day he hung on the Cross -(Montpellier MS.: When Longis withdrew the spear the blood ran down to -feet, so that Joseph of Barimacie turned black from sorrow, and he -collected the blood in the holy vessel). On Perceval's asking further, the -Grail is the vessel wherein the holy precious blood of our Lord was -received. Then Perceval asks how it came thither; (3) Joseph brought it -when he departed from the prison whence he was freed by Vespasian. He -baptized forty of his friends, and wandered forth with them till they came -to Sarras, where, as the tale tells, they found the King in the Temple of -the Sun. Joseph helped the King against his enemies by means of a red -cross which he fixed on the King's shield. Evelac, such was the King's -name, won the battle thereby, was baptized, and renamed Noodrans. It went -so likewise with his brother-in-law, Salafres, renamed Natiien. Joseph -departed thence, ever bearing the Grail with him, till at length he came -hither, converted the land, and I, of his seed, am keeping manor and -Grail, the which shall never dwell elsewhere, God willing. (Montpellier -MS. merely says, how Joseph was put into a dark prison, and kept there -forty years, but the Lord sent him the sweetness of the Grail twice or -thrice a day. Tiberius and Vespasian deliver him and bring him to Rome, -whence he carries away the lance.) (4) To Perceval's questions concerning -the damsels: the Grail-bearer is of royal blood, and pure maid, or God -might not let her hold it, she is my child; the dish-bearer is also of -high lineage, daughter to King Goon Desert. (5) The King would then go to -sleep, but Perceval would know about the broken sword: In Quiquagrant -dwelt Goon Desert, the King's brother. Besieged by Espinogre he made a -sally and slew him. Espinogre's nephew swore revenge; donning the armour -of a knight of Goon Desert, he slew him, but the sword broke when the -traitrous blow was struck. Goon Desert's body was brought to his brother's -castle, whither came, too, his daughter with the broken sword, foretelling -that a knight should come, rejoin the pieces, and avenge the foul blow. -The Fisher King taking up the fragments incautiously was pierced through -the thigh, and the wound might not be healed until his brother's death was -avenged. The murderer's name is Partiniaus, Lord of the Red Tower. -Perceval vows to avenge this wrong, but first, despite the King's strong -hints that it is bed-time, must learn (6) about the candles on the trees, -how they are fay trees, and the lights deceiving ones, but they might not -deceive Perceval, he being destined to achieve the wonders of the earth, -and he has put an end to this illusion; (7) how the black hand haunted a -chapel wherein Pinogres had slain his mother, and over four thousand -knights had been slain by it. (8) Perceval starting on the morrow in -search of Partinal meets with Saigremors, and with him delivers a damsel -from ten robber knights. Perceval, wounded, stays a month at the damsel's -castle, and (9) the story tells for some fifteen hundred verses -(36,100-37,400) of Saigremors; how he pursues the robber knights, comes to -the Castle of Maidens, delivers the dame thereof from a knight, Calides, -who wars upon her, and afterwards delivers another maiden, to whom two -knights were offering violence; (10) then, for over two thousand verses of -Gauvain; how he prepares to set forth again in search of the Fisher King; -how a maiden comes to him whose brother had been slain in his service, -reproaches Gauvain for his conduct at the Fisher King's castle, and -carries him off; how he saves a maid going to be burnt; how after other -adventures he slays King Margon, returns to Arthur's court, fights with -Kex to avenge the brother of the damsel, etc. (11) Meanwhile Perceval, -leaving the damsel who has tended him right well, rides forth into a wood, -where he is overtaken by a great storm of thunder and hail, after which he -comes to the chapel where lies the body of the knight slain by the black -hand. Perceval strives with the devil to whom this belongs, overcomes, and -with the help of a hermit who tells him the tale of all the knights who -had fallen there, buries the body. He then confesses to the hermit, who -warns him not to think of acquiring fame, but rather to save his soul. -(12) Perceval, riding forth on the morrow, is met by the devil, who throws -him from his horse; he finds another, mounts it, but coming to a stream -luckily crosses himself, when it disappears; it was the devil. (13) A -damsel passes by with a bark, wherein Perceval mounts; she minds him of -Blanchefleur, and desire masters him, but again he crosses himself in -time, and ship and damsel vanish. (14) A hermit comes who instructs him -concerning all these things, brings him where he finds a fresh steed, and -to a fair castle. Perceval overcomes a knight who would bar his passing, -delivers the lady love of Dodinel from a felon knight; is appealed to for -help by a damsel of Blanchefleur's, oppressed by Arides of Cavalon. (15) -Setting off to the succour of his lady love, his horse falls lame, he -comes to a smith who tells him his name is Tribuet, the forger of the -broken sword. Tribuet makes the sword whole, and bids Perceval guard it -well, never had king or conqueror a better one. (16) Perceval reaches Bel -Repaire, overcomes Arides, whom he sends to Arthur's court, bidding him -announce his own arrival for Whitsuntide. He then quits Blanchefleur, and -(17) meets with the Coward Knight, who will not fight even when he sees -two damsels carried off by ten knights. Perceval attacks the ravishers, -the Coward Knight is drawn into the struggle, and quits himself valiantly. -The rescued damsels bring the knights to their castle, where Perceval, -sore wounded, remains for two months. (18) Meanwhile Saigremors has -announced Perceval's arrival at Camelot. Whitsuntide passing, all the -knights set forth in search of him, and, amongst others, Boort; he meets -his brother Lyonel led, bound and naked, by six knights, who scourge him, -and at the same moment he hears the plaint of a maid to whom a knight is -doing violence. Her he succours, then hurries after his brother, whom, -meanwhile, Gauvain has rescued. Lyonel bitterly reproaches his brother for -abandoning him, and falls upon him, sword in hand; Boort offers no -defence, and would be slain but for a passing knight, Calogrinant, who -pays for his interference with his life. Finally, heavenly intervention -appeases Lyonel. Calogrinant is buried by a hermit. (19) Perceval, healed, -leaves the castle together with the Coward Knight, is present with him at -a tournament, at which he distinguishes himself above all others, leaves -his companion, to whom he gives the name Le Hardis, and (20) meets Hector, -who challenges him. The two fight, and well-nigh kill each other. To them, -lying on the field of combat, appears an angel with the Grail, and makes -them whole. (21) Perceval rides on to Partinal's castle, before which -stands a fir tree whereon hangs a shield. Perceval throws this down, -whereupon Partinal appears and a desperate combat ensues, ended by the -overthrow of Partinal, and, as he will submit to no conditions, his death. -Perceval cuts off his head and makes for the Grail Castle, but only after -a summer's seeking, lights upon it chancewise. (22) As he nears the -castle, the warders come to the King, telling him a knight is coming with -a head hanging at his saddle-bow; hereupon the King leaps to his feet and -is straightway made whole. Partinal's head is stuck on a pike on the -highest tower of the castle. After supper, at which the same mystic -procession of talismans takes place as heretofore, the King learns -Perceval's name, and thereby finds that he is his own sister's son. He -would hand him his crown, but Perceval has vowed not to take it, his uncle -living. (23) He returns to Arthur's court, overcoming on the way seven -knights, and tells his adventures, which Arthur has written down and kept -in a box at Salisbury. The Grail damsel appears and tells Perceval his -uncle is dead. Perceval goes to Corbiere accompanied by all the court, who -assist at his crowning and remain with him a month, during which time the -Grail feeds all with the costliest foods. He marries his cousins, the two -Grail-bearers, to two valiant kings, and reigns in peace for seven years. -(24) After which time he follows a hermit into the wilderness, accompanied -by Grail, lance, and holy dish. He serves the Lord for ten years, and, -when he dies, Grail, lance, and dish were doubtless carried up to heaven, -for since that day no man saw them. - -(_d_) GERBERT.--(According to Birch Hirschfeld interpolated between -Gautier and Manessier, and joining on therefore to the last incident in -Gautier.)[12] - -(1) Perceval's sin in having indirectly caused the death of his mother -disables him from making whole the broken sword, and he must set forth -again in search of the Grail. In the night he dreams a danger threatens -his sister, and on the morrow he wakes up in open field, the Grail Castle -having vanished. (2) He comes to a fair castle in the midst of a meadow, -and, finding the door shut, knocks at it with his sword till the latter -breaks. An old man appears, and tells him the broken sword will cost him -seven years more wanderings until he come again to the Grail Castle. All -he can do for Perceval is to give him a letter which heals the wounded and -makes the wearer invincible. (3) Perceval riding thence through country -that the day before was waste and folkless, finds it now well cultivated -and peopled; all press round him and bless him for the change wrought by -his asking concerning the Grail. (4) He comes to a castle wherein is a -forge guarded by two serpents, and on it was a sword forged for a year, -and it might not be broken, save in a certain danger, or mended save at -the same forge. Perceval, after resisting the devil in the shape of a fair -maid, attacks and overcomes the two serpents, and has his sword mended by -the blacksmith, who tells him how he broke it at the gate of Paradise. -(5) After making whole by his letter two knights of the Round Table who -had lost their wits in Castle Dolorous, Perceval comes to Carlion, to -Arthur's court, and accomplishes the adventure of the Perillous Seat which -a fairy had sent to Arthur. Only the destined Grail-finder might sit in -it. Six knights who had previously essayed the feat had been swallowed up -by the earth; they reappear when Perceval is successful. (6) Perceval is -called away from the court by a forsaken damsel, whose false lover he -compels to marry her; then, after overcoming fresh temptation in -damsel-shape, he comes to his sister's castle, overcomes her adversary, -who turns out to be Mordret, and reaches the Castle of Maidens, where he -is healed of his wounds by the lady of the castle, his cousin. She tells -him of his mother, Philosofine, and how the Grail was taken from the ken -of man owing to the sinfulness of the world. Perceval leaves his sister in -this castle where dames are chaste and damsels maids. (7) Returning to -court, whither Mordret had preceded him in sorry plight, Perceval is -mocked at by Kex, whom he overcomes, and afterwards meets Gauvain and -Tristan. (8) Leaving the court, he meets with four knights carrying their -father, mortally wounded, accompanies them to their castle, recognises in -the wounded knight, Gornumant, who had knighted him, swears to avenge him, -tells all that has befallen himself, and learns that the cause of his -successive failures is his forsaking his betrothed, Blanchefleur, whom he -knows to be Gornumant's niece. He is told that if he listen heedfully to -mass and marry the damsel all will be well, and he will learn the secrets -of lance and Grail. But first Perceval overcomes a hideous hag, who by -night brings to life Gornumant's enemies slain during the day. She has a -potion, whereof Christ made use in the sepulchre, and with it she quickens -the dead. She recognizes Perceval and acknowledges him as her conqueror, -yet while she lives he shall know nought of the Grail; she works by order -of the King of the Waste City, who hates all Christian folk. Perceval -tries the virtue of the potion on the most valiant of his enemies, with -whom he engages in a fresh and desperate struggle, heals Gornumant with -it, and sets off to marry Blanchefleur, as he is wishful to live cleanly -and fly deadly sin. (9) She is overjoyed at his arrival; preparations are -made for the marriage; the night before, she comes to his bedside in smock -and mantle, and they pass the night side by side, but with the sheet -between them. The wedding follows, and then, fearful of losing the -heavenly joy for sake of carnal longing, they resolve to resist the devil -and live virgin-wise, for virginity surpasseth aught else, even as the -topaz does crystal. Perceval, in a dream, is assured that of his seed -shall be the Swan Knight and the deliverer of the Holy Sepulchre. -Meanwhile he is still to search after lance and Grail. (10) On the morrow -he quits Blanchefleur, "maid she laid her to bed, maid she arose;" frees a -maiden pursued by a brutal knight; (11) comes to a castle where the -wayfarer must first fight against four knights and then against the lord -of the castle; does away with this custom; (12) comes to cross roads, -whereof one is safe and easy, the other adventurous and full of danger; -meets a knight all on fire; sees two hermits, one kneeling at a cross, -the other scourging it; then a wonderful beast, a doe followed by fawns, -which assail and devour her; (13) is presented at a hermit's with a shield -none but the Grail-winner may wear, after which the table heretofore -meanly spread is covered with rich fare, and learns the meaning of the -mystic scenes he has witnessed. (14) He is summoned by a damsel, who tells -him of the Dragon King, lord of a heathen folk dwelling in mid-sea, -possessor of a shield whereon is painted a dragon that belches forth -flame. Perceval sets forth to attack him, resists the devil who dwells in -the dragon head, thanks to his miraculous shield whereon the cross is -painted, and forces him to flee; continues the fight against the Dragon -Knight without his shield, and slays him, but not till he has repented him -of his sins. (15) Meanwhile a thief has made off with the shield, in -pursuing whom Perceval comes to an abbey, where he learns the story of -Joseph of Arimathea. Some forty years after the Crucifixion lived a -heathen king, Evelac, in Sarras, wherefrom the Saracens have their name, -sore pressed by Tholomes, King of Syria. But Joseph of Barimaschie, who -had been five years in Pilate's service, comes to him, and with him his -brother-in-law, Seraphe; he promised the King victory if he would let -himself be baptized. The King consented, and received the name of -Mordrach. Joseph then came to this land, and with him sixty folk and two -fair ladies, whereof the one, Philosophine, bore a plate, the other an -ever-bleeding lance, whilst Joseph had a vessel, never saw man a fairer -one. But King Crudel flung Joseph and his companions into prison, where -they dwelt forty days, but it harmed them not, as through the Holy Grail -they were filled with great plenty and had every wish fulfilled. Now, -Mordrains, learning this, brought together a great host, invaded King -Crudel's lands, attacked and slew him. Mordrains, disarming, was found to -be covered with wounds, none of which he had felt. On the morrow Joseph -put up a table, altar-wise, and thereon laid the Grail, which Mordrains -seeing, pressed near to. But an angel with a fiery sword kept him back, -and a voice assured him he had laid such a burden on his shoulders as he -might not pass away, nor would his wounds be healed until should come the -true knight, loved of Christ, sinless, and in his arms he, Mordrains, -should die. And till then the Host should be his only food. Since then -three hundred years have passed, and the monks have heard that the knight -is in the land who shall ask concerning lance and Grail, and thereby heal -the king. (16) Perceval leaves on the morrow and comes to a castle wherein -is a coffin, brought thereto in a boat drawn by a swan; none save the best -knight in the world may open it. All have tried, even Gauvain, and failed. -Perceval succeeds, and finds in the coffin the body of a knight, former -lord of the castle, and a letter setting forth that he who should open the -coffin was his murderer. Perceval, attacked in consequence by the dead -man's sons, defends himself by making a buttress of the youngest son's -body. Afterwards he overcomes the folk of the castle, and delivers -Gauvain, held prisoner therein. (17) Perceval, after confessing his sins -to a hermit, has an adventure with the devil, who comes out of a tomb, -but whom he forces back therein. (18) He then succours a maiden whom her -jealous lover has thrown into a fountain; (19) punishes a damsel who -tempts him in traitrous-wise; (20) meets with and is sore pressed by a -giant, whom he overcomes; (21) has a fresh and victorious encounter with -Kex, and, finally, (22) arrives at crossways, is directed by the cross to -the Fisher King's court, reaches it, asks straightway for the Grail, is -questioned by the King and relates his allegorical adventures. At table -the Grail appears, followed by lance and sword. Perceval pieces together -the sword, and the King, full of joy, embraces him. - -=Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival.=--Gahmuret, Parzival's father, goes to -the East, takes service with Baruc, wins the love of the heathen queen -Belakane, but after remaining with her a short time forsakes her, -promising to return if she become Christian. She bears a son, and names -him Feirefiz. Gahmuret by his prowess at a tournament wins the love of -Herzeloyde, whom he marries on condition he may go a tourneying every -month. Hearing his old lord Baruc is in danger, he hastens to his aid, and -is slain. Herzeloyde on receipt of the news resolves to withdraw to the -wilderness, and bring up her son in ignorance of knighthood. - -[From this point up to and including the adventure with Orgeuilleuse, -where Chrestien's share of the Conte du Graal breaks off, Wolfram agrees -very closely with Chrestien. It has been much debated in Germany whether -he really had any other model but Chrestien, and whether his alleged model -Kyot be not a feigned source to justify his departure from the story as -found in the Conte du Graal. A brief outline of the arguments for and -against this view will be found in Appendix A. The chief points of -difference in the portion common to the two poets are: the more important -position in the narrative assigned to Perceval's cousin, whom Wolfram -names Sigune, who is fed from the Grail by the Grail messenger, the -loathly damsel, and about whose loves with Schianatulander Wolfram has -left fragments of another poem, Titurel. Parzival meets her immediately -after his adventure with the lady of the tent. Parzival's love is named -Condwiramur. On the first night of their marriage he leaves her maid (as -in Gerbert's version). But the most important peculiarity of Wolfram's -poem is his account of the Grail itself, a stone which yields all manner -of food and drink, the power of which is sustained by a dove, which every -week lays a Host upon it, given, after the fall of the rebel angels, in -charge to Titurel and his dynasty, by them preserved in the Grail castle, -Montsalvatch, guarded by a sacred order of knighthood whom it chooses -itself. The knights are vowed to virginity, the king alone being allowed -marriage. The cause of the maimed king's (Amfortas) hurt is his having -taken up arms in the cause of worldly and unlawful love. When Parzival -leaves the Grail castle after the first visit, he is mocked at by the -inmates for having omitted the question. More stress is laid on the broken -sword, connected with which is a magic spell Parzival must master before -he can become lord of the Grail castle. The "loathly damsel," Kundrie, is -also a much more important person with Wolfram than with Chrestien, and -she is brought into contact with Parzival's cousin, Sigune. Parzival's -love for his wife is dwelt upon at length, and he is urged by the hermit -rather to rejoin her than to seek the Grail.] - -After the adventure with Orgueilleuse, Wolfram continues as follows:--The -lord of the magic castle, wherein are kept prisoners Arthur's mother and -the other queens, is Clinschor, nephew of Virgilius of Naples, who took to -magic after his unmanning at the hands of King Ibert, whose wife, Iblis, -he loved. Gawain overcomes the magician, and, both unknowing, fights with -Parzival. The latter, after many lesser adventures, meets his half-brother -Feirefiz, and sustains with him the hardest of all his fights. At length -recognition is brought about, the two embrace, and repair to Arthur's -court. Cundrie nears once more, tells Parzival he has been chosen Grail -king, that his wife and twin sons, Loherangrin and Kardeiz, have been -summoned to the Grail castle, and that the question will now free Amfortas -and his land. With Cundrie and Feirefiz, Parzival rides to the Grail -castle, meets his wife, together they all behold the talismans, save -Feirefiz, to whom as a heathen the sight of the Grail is denied. But he is -baptised, weds Repanse de Schoie, the Grail damsel, the two return to -India, and from them is born Prester John. Parzival rules over his Grail -kingdom. Of his son Loherangrin it is told how he is led to the aid of the -Duchess of Brabant by a swan, how he marries her on condition she inquire -not as to his origin, and how, on her breaking the command, the swan -carries him away from her. - -=Heinrich von dem Tuerlin.=--_The Gawain Episodes of Diu Crone._--The -parallelism of Heinrich's poem with those of Wolfram and Chrestien begins -about verse 17,500 with an adventure of Gawain's corresponding to Inc. 13 -in Chrestien (Tournament for the hand of Tiebaut of Tingaguel's daughter, -episode of the two sisters, combat with Melians de Lis). In Heinrich the -father is named Leigamar, the eldest daughter Fursensephin, (Fleur sans -epine ?), the youngest Quebelepluz, where Heinrich has taken a French -phrase setting forth the greater fairness of the damsel for a proper name. -Inc. 14 in Chrestien then follows with these differences: the name of the -castle is Karamphi; Gawain and the facile damsel are surprised by the -latter's brother, and it is her father who, to avenge the wrong done his -house, makes Gawain swear that within a year he will either seek out the -Grail or return as prisoner to Karamphi. Chrestien's Inc. 15 is of course -missing, the story going straight on to Inc. 16, meeting with the wounded -knight (here Lohenis) and his lady love Emblie, who by treachery deprive -Gawain of his steed; then the arrival at the Castle of Wonders, and the -night passed in the enchanted bed, where the hero is overwhelmed with -crossbolts shot at him by invisible foes. The plucking of the flower from -the enchanted garden at the bidding of a damsel (Orgueilleuse in Chrestien -and Wolfram, here Mancipicelle), and the meeting with and challenge by -Giremelanz follow. Arthur's court comes to the Castle of Wonders to -witness the combat. Gawain and Giremelanz are reconciled, the latter -marries Gawain's sister, and Gawain himself sets off to search for the -Grail. [Adventures then follow which correspond to nothing in Chrestien or -Wolfram, in which Gawain wins talismans destined to aid him in his -search.] Gawain sets forth on his quest accompanied by Kay, Lancelot, and -Calocreant. They part at crossways. Gawain comes to the sister of the -magician (anonymous in Chrestien, Klinschor in Wolfram, here Gansguoter) -of the Castle of Wonders. She bids him take heed, if he wish to see the -Grail, he be not overcome by sleep, and for this that he drink not -overmuch; as soon as he saw it and its accompanying damsels, he was to ask -about it. If he neglected this, all his past and any future toil would be -useless. On his way to the Grail castle, the hero meets with all sorts of -dangers, and obstacles, and wonders; amongst others, passing the night in -a castle where he is tended by invisible hands. After month-long -wanderings he meets with Lancelot and Calocreant, and learns that Kay, in -a vain attempt to penetrate to the Grail, has been flung into prison. The -three comrades then come to the Grail castle. They are led into a hall -which passes in splendour aught earthly eye ever saw. The floor is strewn -with roses, on a bed lies an old man in gold-embroidered garments, and -watches two youths playing at chess. Towards night the hall fills with -knights and dames, a youth enters bearing a sword which he lays before the -old man. Gawain is pressed to drink; but refuses, not so his two -companions, who straightway fall asleep. Then enter two damsels bearing -lights, followed by two knights with a spear, and two more damsels with a -"toblier" (? tailleor, plate) of gold and jewels. After them comes the -fairest woman ever God created, and with her a maiden weeping. The spear -is laid on the table, by it the "toblier" wherein are three drops of -blood. In the box borne by the fair lady is a piece of bread, one third -part of which she breaks off and gives to the old man. Gawain recognising -in her Gansguoter's sister, stays no longer, but asks what these wonders -mean. Straightway knights and dames all with mighty shout leap from table, -and great joy arises. The old man says what he has seen is the Grail; none -saw it before save Parzival, and he asked not. By his question Gawain has -delivered from long waiting and suffering both those which are dead and -those which live. The old man himself and his companions are really dead, -though they seem it not, but the lady and her damsels are living; for -their unstained womanhood God has granted them to have the Grail, and -therewith yearly to feed the old man. All Gawain's adventures latterly -have come from the Grail. Now he has ended all, he is to take as prize of -his knighthood the sword which will help him in every danger. After him no -man shall see the Grail; further concerning it he must not ask, nor may -know more. At daybreak the old man's tale ends, and he with his whole -court vanish, leaving only the lady with her five damsels. [After -releasing Kay, and undergoing other adventures, Gawain returns to Arthur's -court.] - -=The Petit Saint Graal or Didot-Perceval.=[13]--_Prologue._--After the -choosing of Arthur to be King, Merlin comes to the court, and tells how -Arthur is Uther-Pendragon's son, brought up by Antor as his son. All -rejoice at this, especially Gauvain, son of Lot. After dinner the barons -bring Merlin to Arthur, and tell him how he was the prophet of -Uther-Pendragon, and had made the Round Table. Arthur promises to honour -Merlin. The latter calls him apart with Gauvain and Key, and tells him -how, in the time of Uther-Pendragon, the Round Table was made after the -pattern of one Joseph constructed when he separated the good from the -evil. Two Kings of Britain before had been Kings of France, and conquered -Rome; Queen Sibyl and Solomon had prophesied Arthur should be third, and -he, Merlin, was the third to assure him of it. But this could only be if -Arthur established the Round Table as Merlin directed. Now the Grail had -been given Joseph by our Lord himself, and at His command Joseph led a -great folk into the desert. And when evil befell them Joseph, at our -Lord's command, made a table; whereat one place was left empty in -remembrance of Judas. But Moyses, a false disciple, sat therein, but sank -into the abyss, whereout he shall not come until the time of Antichrist. -Our Lord made the first table; Joseph, the second; he, Merlin, the third. -The Grail was given into the keeping of the rich Fisher King; but he was -old, full of sickness, and should not win health till a knight came, -having sat at the Round Table, true man of God and of Holy Church, and the -best knight in the world for feats of arms. He must ask the rich fisher of -what use is the Grail; then the King would be cured of his infirmity, the -enchantments of Britain would cease, and the prophecy be fulfilled. Should -Arthur do this, great good would come of it; he, Merlin, must go, as he -could not often show himself to the people. Whereupon he departs to -Ortoberland, to Blaise, his master, who writes down these things, and by -his writings we know them. The son of Alein le Gros is a child named -Percevaux, and as Alein is dying he hears the voice of the Holy Ghost -saying, Know thou art near thy end, and wilt soon come into the fellowship -of Jesus Christ. Brons, thy father, dwells in these isles of Ireland, and -with him is the Grail. And he may not die until thy son finds him, to whom -he shall commend the grace of the vessel, and teach the secret words -Joseph taught him, then shall he be cured of his infirmities. And I -command thy son that he go to the court of Arthur, where he shall be -taught how he may find the house of his grandfather. Alein dies, and -Percevaux mounts his horse and comes to Arthur's court, and asks arms from -him, and stays there and is much loved. - -(1) Arthur proposes holding a tournament at Easter, the greatest the world -had seen, to honour the Round Table. Perceval at first takes no part in -the tournament; but afterwards, for love of Aleine, niece of Gauvain, who -incites him thereto, and sends him a suit of red armour, he enters the -lists unknown, and overbears all opponents, so that all say he should fill -the empty place at the Round Table. Perceval claims the empty place from -the King, and when refused threatens to return to his land and never visit -the court again. Arthur yields, and Perceval seats himself. Then the rocks -and the earth groan dolorously, and a voice reproaches Arthur with having -disobeyed Merlin's command. Were it not the goodness of Alein le Gros -Perceval had died the death of Moys. Now should Arthur know the vessel our -Lord gave Joseph was in the keeping of the rich fisher, and he was ill and -infirm, and until the best knight in the world should come might not die. -And when that knight should come to the rich fisher and ask concerning the -vessel, then should he be cured, but die within three days after giving -the vessel to that knight, and teaching him the secret words handed down -by Joseph. Thus the enchantments of Britain should cease. (2) Perceval -swears not to lie one night where he had lain the night before till he -find the rich fisher. Gauvain, Sagremors, Beduers, Hurgains, and Erec -swear the same. The knights set forth amid general lamentation. They part -at a chapel, and the story follows Perceval. (3) He comes, after two days, -upon a damsel weeping over a knight, Hurganet, one of the Round Table, who -had gone forth on the Grail Quest. He had delivered her from a giant, and -ridden with her into a tent where they found knights and ladies, who -warned them not to await the owner, the "Orgoillos Delandes," who would -kill him. And whilst speaking a dwarf entered, scourge in hand, who threw -down the tent. The Lord of the Tent then appeared, clad in red armour, and -slew Hurganet. Perceval determines to avenge his death; rides to the tent -with the damsel; is warned of its inmates; is surprised by the dwarf, who -smites the damsel with his scourge, whereupon Perceval fells him to the -ground. The Knight of the Tent appears; after a desperate struggle -Perceval overcomes him and sends him with the damsel to Arthur's court. -She had fain stayed with him, but he thought of other things. (4) Perceval -comes to the finest castle in the world, enters, and finds no inhabitant. -Only a chessboard he finds. He begins to move the pieces, and they play -against him, and he is checkmated three times running. Full of anger he -prepares to throw the chessmen into the castle moat--suddenly a damsel -shows herself and reproaches him. He will abstain if she comes to him. She -consents, and after her squires and maidens have disarmed Perceval he -joins her. Overcome by her beauty he requests her love. She will grant it -him if he capture the white stag of the wood. She lends him her hound, and -recommends him to take the utmost care of it. Perceval chases the stag, -captures it, and, having cut off its head, starts back. But meanwhile an -old woman has carried off the hound. She will only give it up if Perceval -will go to a grave whereunder is a knight painted, and say: "Felon, he -that put you there." Perceval complies; whereupon appears a knight on a -black horse armed in black. They strive, and Perceval overcomes him. But -meantime a second knight has carried off both the stag's head and the -hound from the old woman. Perceval's adversary flees to the tomb, which -closes upon him, and Perceval follows the second knight after a vain -attempt to get help from the old woman. (5) Him he found not; but after -feats longer than I can tell, comes to his father's house, where he was -born. He only finds his sister and a niece. The former tells him -concerning her brother, who went to Arthur's court; whereupon their mother -died of grief. Perceval reveals himself, and is amazed at what she relates -concerning the Grail and its guardian, and asks if he may come to behold -it. She answers, Yes; whereupon he vows not to rest till he have found it. -She attempts to dissuade him, but he remains firm. She then urges him to -go to their uncle, who is a hermit, to whom he may confess the sin of his -mother's death, and who will advise him concerning the Quest. (6) Both -proceed thither. He rejoices to see them, and asks if Perceval has been to -the house of his father, guardian of the vessel named Grail, and, on -hearing that he has not, tells him how at the table which Joseph and -himself had made, the voice of the Holy Ghost had come to them, telling -them to go westward, and ordering the rich fisher, his father, to come to -that land where the sun goes down (_avaloit_), telling him he should not -die till the son of Alein had become the best knight in the world. -Perceval had been chosen to do his Lord's service; he is to slay no knight -nor to lie with any woman, that being luxurious sin. His sins have -prevented his reaching Brons. He is to be careful to keep himself from sin -and felony, being of a race our Lord so loved that He committed His blood -to their keeping. Much else he says, and on the morrow Perceval and his -sister ride forth. (7) They meet a knight who challenges them. Perceval, -thinking of the damsel who had given him the hound, at first pays no -attention, but then overcomes and slays him. Perceval is much grieved at -having so soon broken his uncle's injunction. On the morrow he leaves his -sister, promising to return so soon as he may. (8) He meets a knight, -accompanied by a damsel the most wonderfully ugly nature ever made, -whereat he signs himself and laughs. The knight, indignant, challenges -him, but is overcome and sent with the damsel to Arthur's court. Kay makes -mock of them; but Arthur reproves him and receives them courteously. They -remain at the court, and know that she was the most beautiful woman in the -world! (9) Perceval comes to a ford and is challenged by its guardian, -whom he overcomes. His name is Urban of the Black Thorn; his lady had set -him to guard the ford. Her castle vanishes with a great noise, and she -comes to her lover's aid with her maidens in shape of birds. Perceval -slays one who becomes a woman, and is carried off by the others to -Avallon. (10) Perceval comes to a tree at the crossing of four roads, -among its branches he sees two naked children of seven years old. They -speak to him concerning the Grail, and direct him to take the road to the -right. They vanish, and a voice tells him to heed their counsel. (11) -Perceval comes to a river whereon are three men in a boat, and the master -of the boat bids him go down the stream till he should come to his house. -Perceval rides a whole day without finding it, and curses the fisher. At -last he comes to a castle with lowered drawbridge, enters, and is robed in -scarlet by two squires. Meanwhile four attendants have carried the Fisher -King, father of Alein, and grandfather of Perceval, into the hall. The -King wished to do Perceval what honour he might. They eat, and whilst at -table a squire comes out of a chamber, and brings in both hands a lance, -whence flows a drop of blood. Him follows a damsel bearing two silver -plates and clothes; then a squire with a vessel in which was our Lord's -blood. All bow as he passes, and Perceval had fain asked, but he fears to -displease the King, minding him of the worthy man to whom he had -confessed, and who forbade his speaking too much and enquiring -overmuch--for a man of idle words is displeasing to our Lord. All night -Perceval thinks of the lance and of the Grail, and in the morning, on -waking, finds neither man nor woman. He sets forth to seek some one, but -in vain, and is greatly distressed. (12) He finds a damsel weeping -bitterly, who, seeing him, cries out: "Percevaux le Gallois, be accursed, -unhappier art thou than ever, having been in the house of the rich Fisher -King, and not having asked concerning the Grail. Thy Lord hates thee; and -'tis wonder the earth do not open beneath thee." Had he not seen Grail and -lance pass? Had he asked what one did with them, the King, cured of his -infirmity, would have returned to his youth; our Lord's prophecy to Joseph -been fulfilled, and the enchantments of Britain undone. But Perceval is -neither wise, valiant, nor true man enough to have charge of the blood. -But he shall come again and ask concerning the Grail, and his grandfather -shall be cured. (13) The damsel departs, and Perceval, unable to find his -grandfather's house, rides on and comes to a tree under which a damsel is -sitting, and in whose branches the stag's head, which had been carried off -from him, is hanging. Perceval takes it, and when his hound following a -stag comes up, takes possession of it likewise. But the knight who had -taken them appears. Perceval fights with and overcomes him; learns that he -is the brother of the Knight of the Tomb, who lives therein with his love, -sister of the damsel for whose sake Perceval had hunted the stag. To her -Perceval now returns, gives her hound and stag's head, and then departs -refusing the offer of her love, even to stop one night with her. (14) -Perceval wanders for seven years achieving many feats, and sending more -than one hundred knights prisoners to Arthur; but, not being able to find -his grandfather's house, he falls into such melancholy as to lose his -memory, so that he minds him no more of God, and never enters Church. One -Good Friday, fully armed, he meets a knight and ladies in penitents' -dress, who reproach him for going armed on a day that our Lord was -crucified. Perceval repents; returns to his uncle, the hermit; learns that -his sister is dead, and does penitence. The songmen, in their pleasing -rhymes, say nothing of this; but we tell you of it as we find it in the -tale Merlin made Blaise write down. (15) Perceval rides forth and meets -seven squires of Melianz de Liz, who is going to a tournament at the White -Castle, the damsel of which is to be the victor's prize. All the knights -of the Round Table will be there, having returned that Whitsuntide from -the Quest of the Grail without achieving aught. Perceval leaves the -squires and come to a castle where he puts up. His host urges him to take -part in the tournament. The morrow they ride forth and look on; Melianz -wears the scarf of the lady of the castle; he and Gauvain prove themselves -the best knights, the onlooking ladies know not to whom to award the -prize. The next day, Perceval, having resolved upon taking part, accepts -the scarf of his host's daughter, overcomes all adversaries, and sends -steeds to the lady in return for her scarf. Being asked by his host if he -will not woo the damsel of the White Castle, Perceval answers he may not -take wife. Then appears an old man who reproaches Perceval for going to a -tournament, and with forgetting his vow to sleep no two nights in the same -house till the Quest be accomplished. He is Merlin, come from Hortoblande, -to say that owing to the prayers of Perceval's uncle, our Lord wills that -the latter may have his blood to keep. He is to go to his grandfather. -Perceval asks when he shall get there. "Before a year," is the answer. -"'Tis a long time." "Not so," says Merlin, who leaves him, and tells all -to Blaise, from whose writing we know of it. (16) That same night Perceval -comes to his grandfather's house, is received by the Fisher King, and as -they sit at table the Grail appears, and the relics with it, and when -Perceval sees it he asks to what use is the vessel put? Forthwith the King -is cured, and his being changed. Perceval must say first who he is before -learning such holy things. Upon learning it is his grandson before him, -the King leads him to the Grail, and tells him with this lance Longis -pierced the side of Jesus Christ, whom he knew in the flesh. In this -vessel is the blood, Joseph caught as it ran to the ground. It is called -Grail because it is agreeable to worthy men; none may sin in its presence. -Then Brons, kneeling, prays, and the voice of the Holy Ghost tells him the -prophecy will be fulfilled; and he is to teach Perceval the secret words -our Lord on the cross told Joseph, and Joseph told him. He does, but I -cannot and may not say what these words were. Then angels carry him off; -and Perceval remains, and the enchantments of Britain and of the whole -world cease. And that same day Arthur and his knights sitting at the Round -Table are aware of a great noise, and the seat is made whole again which -had broken under Perceval. Merlin appears to Blaise, tells him his work is -ended, and takes him to Perceval, who was right glad of his company. - -_Epilogue._--Merlin comes to Arthur's court and relates all that had taken -place. The knights, finding the Quest of the Grail is over, and mindful of -Merlin's former words, urge Arthur to invade the continent. He does so, -overcomes Frollo, King of France; refuses tribute to the Emperor of Rome, -overcomes him, but is recalled to England on learning Mordret's treachery. -The latter is slain; but Arthur, wounded mortally, is carried to Avallon -to be healed of Morguen, his sister. Lastly, Merlin tells Perceval how he -will withdraw from the world, and be no more seen of men. And the tale -says no more of Merlin and the Grail. - -=The Mabinogi of Peredur ab Evrawc.=--Evrawc, Earl of the North, has seven -sons, six of whom, like himself, fall in tournaments and combats. His wife -carries off her youngest son, Peredur, to the desert, and forbids horses -or arms being shown to him. He grows up strong and active, and can outrun -his mother's goats and hinds. (1) One day he sees three knights -passing--Gwalchmai, the son of Gwyar, and Geneir Gwystyl, and Owain, the -son of Urien. His mother declares them to be angels; whereupon he -determines to join them. He questions Owain concerning his accoutrements -and the use of his weapons. His mother swoons away at the thought of his -leaving her; but he picks out a horse and saddles it. Before leaving, his -mother counsels him to repeat his paternoster wherever he sees a church; -to take food and drink if none offer them; to aid when any outcry is, -especially a woman's; if he sees a fair jewel to take it and give it to -another; to pay his court to fair women whether they will or no. (2) After -two days and nights Peredur comes to a tent, where he finds a damsel. Half -of the food and drink she has he takes, half leaves to her; asks her for -her ring at leaving, which she gives him. Her lord returning, is jealous, -and sets forth to avenge his supposed wrong. (3) Peredur journeys on to -Arthur's court. A knight has been there before him, and grievously -insulted Gwenhwyvar by dashing a goblet of wine in her face, and carrying -the goblet out, and has dared any to avenge the insult; but all hang their -heads. Peredur enters the hall and demands knighthood. On Kai's protesting -he is too meanly equipped, a dwarf, who, with his female companion has -been a year at Arthur's court without speaking, salutes him as the flower -of knighthood. Kai strikes him for this, and kicks the female dwarf, who -repeats the salutation. Kai bids Peredur seek the knight and win back the -goblet, then shall he have knighthood. Peredur does so, and slays the -knight. Owain, who has followed, shows him how to undo the armour and to -clad himself in it, and bids him back to Arthur. But Peredur refuses, he -will not come back to the court till he have avenged the injury done by -Kai to the dwarf and dwarfess. (4) Peredur overcomes sixteen knights and -sends them to Arthur with the same message. (5) Peredur comes to a castle -by a lake, and sees a venerable man sitting by the lake and his attendant -fishing, and the old man is lame. And Peredur enters the castle, and is -practised in the use of weapons, and learns courtesy and noble bearing; -and the old man is his uncle--his mother's brother. He is to leave his -mother's habits and discourse, and if he sees aught to wonder at, not to -ask the meaning of it. (6) Peredur leaves his uncle and comes to a castle -where dwells a second uncle of his--brother likewise of his mother. His -strength is tested by his having to cut through an iron staple with a -sword. Twice he does it and the broken pieces re-unite, but the third time -neither would unite as before. He has arrived at two-thirds of his -strength, and when he attains his full power none will be able to contend -with him. Whilst talking, two youths enter the hall bearing a mighty spear -with three streams of blood flowing from the point to the ground. All -wail and lament; but as Peredur is not vouchsafed the meaning of what he -sees he forbears to ask concerning it. Then enter two maidens with a -salver in which a man's head swims in blood. The outcry redoubles. Peredur -retires to sleep. (7) On the morrow, with his uncle's permission, he rides -forth, finds a beautiful woman lamenting over the corpse of a knight. She -reveals herself as his foster-sister; calls him accursed for causing his -mother's death by leaving her; and tells him it is her husband she mourns -for, slain by the Knight of the Glade. Peredur meets the latter, overcomes -him, and makes him take his foster-sister in marriage. (8) Peredur comes -to a castle where are eighteen youths and five maidens, and he had never -seen one of so fair an aspect as the chief of the maidens. A flask of wine -and six loaves are brought by two nuns, and that must suffice for all. The -youths press the maiden to offer herself to Peredur as his wife or lady -love. She refuses; but consents when they threaten leaving her to her -enemies. She comes weeping to Peredur and relates how she is besieged by -an earl who seeks her hand. She implores his aid, and offers to place -herself in his hands. Peredur bids her go sleep, he will assist her, The -next day he overthrows the master of the household of the earl. To save -his life the latter must deliver up one-third of the besieged maiden's -lands. The second day it fares the same with the earl's steward; the third -with the earl himself. Peredur thus wins back all his hostess' lands, and -tarries with her three weeks; but for her love he would not have stayed so -long. (9) Peredur next meets the Lady of the Tent, ill-entreated of her -husband concerning him. Him he overcomes, compels to acknowledge her -innocence, and sends both to Arthur. (10) Peredur comes to the castle of a -tall and stately lady, who bids him escape from the sorceresses of -Gloucester, who will attack the castle that night; but he resolves to -remain, and defends one of the watch when overtaken by a sorceress. The -latter hails him by his name. She foreknows she is to suffer harm from -him. If he will go with her he shall learn chivalry and the use of arms. -Peredur consents on her promising to refrain from injuring the countess, -and stays with her three weeks. (11) Peredur comes to a hermit's cell. In -the morning it has snowed. A hawk has killed a fowl in front of the cell, -but is scared away by Peredur's horse; a raven has alighted on the bird. -Peredur likens the blackness of the raven and the whiteness of the snow -and the redness of the blood to the hair and the skin and the two red -spots on the cheeks of the lady he loves best. Whilst thus lost in -thought, Arthur and his household come up with him, but fail to recognise -him. A youth accosts him, but receives no answer; whereupon he thrusts at -Peredur but is struck to the ground. Twenty-four youths essay the same, -and are repulsed in like manner. Kai then comes and speaks angrily, but -Peredur breaks his arms for him. Gwalchmai then approaches him -courteously, learns his name, and brings him to Arthur, who does him -honour. Thus all return to Caerlleon. (12) Peredur solicits the love of -Angharad Law Eurawc, and when she denies him, vows to speak to no -Christian till she loves him. (13) Peredur comes to the castle of a huge -grey man, a heathen, after slaying a lion, his porter. The grey man's -daughter warns him of her father, and at his request brings his horse and -arms to his lodging. Peredur overcomes the vassals, and slays the sons of -the grey man, and sends the whole household to Arthur to be baptized. (14) -Peredur slays a serpent lying upon a gold ring, and wins the ring. For a -long time he speaks to no Christian, and loses colour and aspect through -longing for Arthur and his lady love. He returns to Arthur's court, but -none know him, and he suffers Kai to thrust him through the thigh without -his saying a word. He overcomes many knights, and at length Angharad Law -Eurawc confesses her love for him. He remains at Arthur's court. (15) -Peredur comes to the castle of a huge, black, one-eyed man. The latter's -daughter warns him against her father. But Peredur stays, overcomes the -latter, and learns how he lost his eye. On the Mound of Mourning is a -cairn, in the cairn a serpent with a stone in its tail, the virtue whereof -is to give as much gold to the possessor as he may desire. In fighting the -serpent he had lost his eye. He directs Peredur to the serpent, and is -slain by him. Peredur refuses the love of the maidens of the castle, and -rides forth. (16) He comes to the palace of the son of the King of the -Tortures. Every day the Addanc of the Lake slays them. Whilst at discourse -a charger enters the hall with a corpse in the saddle. They anoint the -corpse with warm water and balsam, and it comes to life. The same happens -with two other youths. The morrow they ride forth anew against the Addanc, -refusing Peredur, who would go with them; but he follows and finds seated -on a mound the fairest lady, who, if he will pledge her his love, will -give him a stone by which he may see the Addanc and be unseen of it. He -promises, and she gives him the stone, telling him to seek her in India. -Peredur passes through a valley wherein is a flock of white sheep, and one -of black, and when they cross the river flowing through the valley they -change colour. He learns of their shepherd the way to the Addanc's cave, -slays it, meets his three companions of the night before, who tell him it -was predicted that he should slay the monster, offers them its head, -refuses their sister whom they proffer him in marriage; accepts the -services of a youth, Etlym Gleddyv Coch, who wishes to become his -attendant, and rides forth. (17) He comes to the court of the Countess of -Achievements, overthrows her three hundred knights; but learning she loves -Etlym resigns her to him. (18) Peredur, accompanied by Etlym, comes to the -Mound of Mourning, slays two out of the three hundred knights he finds -guarding the serpent, slays the latter, repays the remaining hundred -knights all they have spent, gives Etlym the stone and sends him back to -his love. (19) Peredur comes to a valley wherein are many coloured tents, -lodges with a miller, from whom he borrows food and lodging, and learns -that a tournament is forward. He overcomes all the knights present, and -sends their horses and arms to the miller as repayment. The Empress of the -Tournament sends for him, he repels her messengers thrice, the fourth time -he yields. She reveals herself as the lady who had helped him against the -Addanc, and she entertains him for fourteen years. (20) Arthur is at -Caerlleon-upon-Usk, with him his knights, and among them Peredur. There -enters, riding upon a yellow mule, a maiden of hideous aspect. She greets -all save Peredur, to whom she reproaches his silence at the court of the -Lame King; had he asked the meaning of the streaming spear and of the -other wonders the King would have regained health and the dominions -peace--all his misfortunes are due to Peredur. She then tells of a castle -where are five hundred and seventy knights, each with the lady he loves -best--there may fame be acquired; and of a castle on a lofty mountain -where a maiden is detained prisoner, whoso should deliver her should -attain the summit of the fame of the world. Gwalchmai sets forth to -release the imprisoned maiden, Peredur to enquire the meaning of the -bleeding lance. Before they leave a knight enters and defies Gwalchmai to -single combat, for that he had slain his lord by treachery. (21) Gwalchmai -meets a knight who directs him to his own castle, where he is welcomed by -his sister. The steward of the castle accuses him to the knight of being -the slayer of his, the knight's, father. Gwalchmai demands a year to -acknowledge or deny the accusation. (22) Peredur, who, seeking tidings of -the black maiden, but finding none, has wandered over the whole island, -meets a priest who chides him for being in armour on Good Friday. Peredur -dismounts, asks the priest's blessing, and learns of a castle where he may -gain tidings of the Castle of Wonders. (23) Peredur proceeds thither, and -meets the King of the castle, who commends him to his daughter, by whom he -is well received. A little yellow page accuses him to the King of winning -his daughter's love, and advises that he should be thrown into prison. But -the damsel befriends him, and assists him to take part in a tournament, -where, for three days, he overthrows all opponents. The King at last -recognises him, and offers him his daughter; but he refuses and sets forth -for the Castle of Wonders. (24) On arriving there he finds the door open, -and in the hall a chessboard and chessmen playing by themselves. He -favours one side which loses, whereupon he casts the chessboard in the -lake. The black maiden comes in and reproaches him--he may find the -chessboard again at the Castle of Ysbidinongyl, where a black man lays -waste the dominions of the Empress. Him Peredur overcomes, but spares his -life; this the black maiden chides him for, and he slays him; but the -black maiden still refuses him access to the Empress unless he can slay a -stag, swift as the swiftest bird, with one sharp horn in his forehead. She -gives him a little dog belonging to the Empress which will rouse the stag. -With its aid he slays the latter, but a lady, riding by, carries off the -dog, and chides him for slaying the stag. He can only win her friendship -by going to a cromlech which is in a grove, and challenging to fight three -times a man who dwells there. Peredur complies, and fights with a black -man clad in rusty armour; but when he dismounts his adversary disappears. -(25) Peredur, riding on, comes to a castle where sits a lame grey-headed -man, and Gwalchmai by him. A youth enters the hall and beseeches Peredur's -friendship--he had been the black maiden who came to Arthur's court, and -who had chid Peredur concerning the chessboard; he was the youth who came -with the bloody head in the salver, and the head was that of Peredur's -cousin slain by the sorceresses of Gloucester, who also lamed Peredur's -uncle, and he, the speaker, was Peredur's cousin. Peredur seeks aid of -Arthur, and they start against the sorceresses. One of the latter slays -three of Arthur's men; whereupon Peredur smites her, and she flees, -exclaiming this was Peredur, who had learnt chivalry of them, their -destined slayer. She and all her companions are slain. Thus is it related -concerning the Castle of Wonders. - -=The Thornton MS. Sir Perceval.=--(1) PERCYVELLE is son of Percyvelle and -Acheflour, Arthur's sister. His father is slain in a tournament by the Red -Knight whom he had previously overcome in a former tournament. His mother -takes to the woods, brings up her son without instruction till he is -fifteen years, when she teaches him to pray to God. (2) He then meets with -three knights of Arthur's court--Ewayne, Gawayne, and Kay. He takes them -for gods. Learning that they are knights, he determines to go to Arthur's -court and become a knight himself, catches a wild horse, and, returning to -his mother, announces his attention. She counsels him to be always of -measure, to salute knights when he meets them, and at his departure gives -him a ring for token. (3) He sets forth, and finding on his way a house -makes himself free of it, eats, drinks, and finding a lady sleeping on a -bed takes from her her ring, leaving his mother's in its place. (4) Coming -to Arthur's hall he rides into it and up to the King so that his mare -kisses Arthur's forehead. He demands knighthood at Arthur's hands, -threatening to slay him if refused. Arthur sees the likeness to his -father, laments over the latter's untimely fate, and recalls that books -say the son should avenge the father's bane. Percyvelle bids him let be -his jangling and dub him knight. Whilst sitting down to table the Red -Knight comes in, carries off Arthur's cup (five years long had he done so) -none daring to hinder him. At the King's lament Percyvelle engages to slay -the Red Knight, and bring the cup back if knighthood be granted him. The -King promises, Percyvelle follows the ravisher, who scorns him, but is -slain by a dart flung at him. He captures the knight's steed, and not -being able otherwise to remove his armour, and recalling his mother's -injunction "out of the iron burn the tree" kindles a fire to burn the -body. Gawayne, who has followed him, shows him how to unlace the armour; -when that is removed Percyvelle casts the body into the fire to roast. He -refuses to return to Arthur, looking upon himself as great a lord as the -King, but sends the cup back through Gawayne and rides on. (5) He meets an -old witch, mother to the Red Knight, who addresses him as her son; her he -spears and casts into the fire. (6) He meets ten knights, who flee, taking -him for the Red Knight, but on his raising his vizor the oldest knight, -reassured, relates how the Red Knight bore him and his sons enmity, and -how, fifteen years before, he had slain his brother. Learning that -Percyvelle had burnt his enemy, he invites him to his castle. (7) Whilst -at meat a messenger comes in from the Maiden-land begging help from the -Lady Lufamour against a "Sowdane," who would have her to wife. Percyvelle -starts forth with three of the old knight's sons, whom, however, he sends -back each after a mile. Meanwhile, the King at Carebedd, mourning for -Percyvelle, receives Lufamour's messages, gains from him tidings of -Percyvelle, and sets forth with his court to follow him. Percyvelle, -coming to the Sowdane's camp, is set upon by the guard, but slays them -all, and then lays him down to rest under the castle wall. In the morning -Lufamour's men make her aware of the slaughter wrought upon her enemies. -She perceives Percyvelle and sends her chamberlain, Hatlayne, to bid him -to her chamber. Whilst at table together tidings are brought that the -enemy have nearly taken the town. Percyvelle sallies forth alone and soon -leaves not one alive. He is then ware of four knights--Arthur, Ewayne, -Gawayne, Kay. He pricks against them and Gawayne receives his onslaught. -They recognise each other, and all proceed to Lufamour's castle. The next -day the Sowdane challenges all comers; Percyvelle, dubbed knight by -Arthur, slays him, and thereafter weds Lufamour. (8) After a year he -thinks on his mother's loneliness, and sets forth to seek her. Hearing a -damsel lamenting in the wood, he finds her bound to a tree, for that a -year before, while sleeping, a stranger had robbed her of a ring leaving -his own in its stead. Now her ring was of a stone of such virtue that -neither death nor hurt could come to the wearer. He releases her, -overcomes the Black Knight who had bound her, reconciles them and claims -his own ring for the ring he had taken. But the Black Knight has given it -to the lord of the land--a giant. (9) Percyvelle slays the giant, and -claims the ring of the porter. The latter tells him how his master, loving -a fair lady, had offered her that same ring, but she, exclaiming that he -had killed her son, rushed into the forest and was since then bereft of -her senses. Percyvelle puts on a goat's skin, and after nine days search -finds her. A magic drink of the giant's throws her into a three days' -sleep, after which, restored to her right mind, she goes home with her -son. He afterwards goes to the Holy Land, and is there slain. - -=The Queste del Saint Graal.=--[_Furnivall's text (F.) has been taken as -the basis of the present summary. Words and passages not found in the -Welsh translation (W) are italicised; words or passages found in the Welsh -translation instead of those in Furnivall are in parentheses. The variants -from Birch-Hirschfeld's Summary (B. H.) are given in the notes._] - -(1) On Whitsun Eve the companions of the Round Table being assembled at -Camelot, a _damsel_ (youth) comes in great haste, asks for Lancelot and -bids him _from King Pelles_ (for the sake of whatever he loved most) -accompany her to the forest. Notwithstanding Guinevere's opposition he -does so, and comes to a nunnery where he finds his two cousins, Boort and -Lionel. Three nuns then bring Galahad, a child the like of whom might -scarce be found in the world; one asks Lancelot to knight him, he -consents, and on the morrow Lancelot and his companions return to -Camelot; his cousins think the child must be Lancelot's son, but Lancelot -answers no word. (2) At the Round Table the seat of each knight is marked, -but on the Seat Perillous it is written that _four hundred and fifty-four_ -(four hundred and fifty) years have passed since the Lord's Passion, and -that on this Whitsun Day the seat shall find its master. Lancelot covers -these words, and, whilst at Kay's reminding, the court awaits an adventure -before sitting down to meat, a youth tells them of a stone floating on the -water. It is a block of red marble, in which sticks a sword, and upon it -written that none may draw the sword save the best knight in the world. -Lancelot declares that the wonders of the Holy Grail are about to begin, -and refuses to essay the adventure; Gawain, Perceval, and others try, but -fail; they then sit down to table served by twelve kings; an old man -enters, leading a knight in vermeil armour, whom he proclaims the desired -knight, of the seed of David and kin of Joseph of Arimathea, who shall -achieve the adventures of the Holy Grail. He draws near the Seat -Perillous, on which is now written, "This is Galahad's seat," sits himself -therein, dismisses the old man, _and bids him greet_, "_My uncle, King -Pelles, and my grandfather, the rich fisher_."[14] (3) Great honour is -done to the new knight, whom Lancelot recognises as his son, and Bors and -Lionel as the youth begot by Lancelot upon the daughter _of the Fisher -King_ (King Pelles). The Queen is told that the knight is come, and her -ladies say he _shall end the wonders of Great Britain, and through him the -Maimed King shall be healed_. Galahad is then urged by Arthur to essay the -adventure of the sword, consents, easily draws out the sword, and asks for -a shield. (4) A damsel appears, weeps for Lancelot as having lost his -place as the best knight in the world, and tells the King from Nasciens, -the hermit, that on that day he would send the Holy Grail to feed the -companions of the Round Table. A tournament is ordered, in which Galahad -is held the best, as he overthrows all save Lancelot and Perceval. After -vespers the court sits down to table, a clap of thunder is heard, followed -by the brightest of sunbeams, so that all are as if lighted by the Holy -Ghost. None know whence the light comes, and none has power to say a word. -The Holy Grail enters, covered with white samite, but none may see who -carries it; the hall is filled with sweet odours, and as the Grail passes -along the tables each seat is filled with such meat as each one longs for. -Then it departs, none may say how, and those can now speak who before -could say no word. (5) All return thanks to God for the grace vouchsafed -them, and Gawain tells them that heretofore no man had been served with -whatever he might desire save _at the Maimed King's_ (at the court of King -Peleur). But they could not behold the Grail openly, and Gawain declares -he will go on quest of it for a year and a day. The knights of the Round -Table make a like vow. Arthur is much distressed, as he knows many will -die on the quest. The Queen and her ladies weep likewise, and propose to -join their knights, but an old priest tells them from Nasciens, the -hermit, that no knight entering on the quest of the Holy Grail is to have -with him his lady or damsel--the quest is no earthly one. On the morrow, -at King Bandamagus' suggestion, all the questers, Galahad first, swear to -maintain the quest for a year and a day and longer if need be. After the -Queen has taken leave of Lancelot, and Arthur has vainly tried to force a -shield on Galahad, the questers set off together and pass the first night -at Vagan's Castle. On the morrow they ride forth and separate. (6) After -five days Galahad comes to an abbey where he finds King Bandamagus and -Ywain "li aoutres." The abbey contains a shield which no knight save the -destined one may take and go unslain or unhurt. King Bandamagus would take -it, but is overthrown by a White Knight; Galahad then takes it, and his -right to do so is admitted by the White Knight, who tells him as follows -concerning it:--Forty-three years after our Lord's Passion, Joseph of -Arimathea, who took our Lord's body down from the Cross,[15] came to the -city Sarras, where dwelt King Evelac, then a Saracen, who was at war with -his neighbour, Tholomes. Josephes, Joseph's son, warned Evelac against -going forth to battle unprepared, and, in answer to the King's questions -what he should do, told him of the new law and Gospel truth and the -Saviour's death, and fixed on his shield a cross of sandal. He was to -uncover this on the fourth day's fighting, and to call on the Lord. When -he did so he beheld a bleeding, crucified figure. He won the battle, and -on his telling the story his brother-in-law, Nasciens, received baptism. -The shield then restored to a man his lost hand. Evelac was baptized, and -guarded the shield in lordly fashion. Josephes came with his father to -Great Britain, where King Crudel threw them with many other Christians -into prison. Mordrains[16] and Nasciens then invaded Great Britain, -released Josephes and remained with him in the land. When Josephes was on -his deathbed, and Evelac asked him for a remembrance, then he bade King -Mordrains bring his shield, and with the blood streaming from his nose -marked on it a cross; this would always remain red, and no knight should -with impunity unhang the shield till Galahad should come, last of -Nasciens' line. Where Nasciens lay buried, there the shield was to be -kept. (7) Galahad draws near a tomb in the abbey graveyard, whence issues -a voice telling him not to approach and drive it out. But he does so, and -a smoke in man's form comes out; on opening the tomb a dead knight's body -is found lying therein, this is cast out. These things are a symbol: the -hard tombstone signifies the _hard-heartedness of the world_ (the hardship -which Jesus Christ had in this world);[17] the dead body those dead in -sin, and as in Christ's time when they slew Him and were harried out of -their land by Vespasian as a punishment; the smoke was a devil who fled -from Galahad because he was a virgin. (8) On the morrow Galahad rides -forth accompanied by Melians, a youth who had begged to be allowed to -serve him, and whom he had knighted. They separate at a cross road, -Melians takes the left hand road in spite of warning, comes to a tent -where hangs a golden crown, seizes it, meets a strange knight who -overthrows and had slain him but for Galahad coming to the rescue and -overcoming first one, then a second assailant. Melians is taken to an -abbey to be tended, and learns that the two knights who almost overpowered -him were his pride in taking the left hand path, his covetousness in -carrying off the crown of gold. (9) Galahad enters a hermitage to pray -there, and hears a voice bidding him proceed to the Castle of Maidens and -rid it of its bad customs. He encounters on the way seven knights whom he -must overcome, such was the custom of the castle. He forces them to -flight, and an old priest brings him the keys of the castle. He finds -therein numberless maidens, and learns that the former lord of the castle -had been, with his son, slain by the seven knights, who had striven -beforehand to carry off his daughter. She foretold that as they had gained -the castle for a maiden's sake, they would lose it through a maiden, and -be overcome by a single knight, whereupon they determined to make prisoner -every maiden passing that way. Galahad delivers the captives, and puts a -daughter of the former duke in possession of the castle. He learns then -that the seven brothers have been slain by Gawain, Gheriot, and Ywain. -(10) The story now returns to Gawain. He passes by the abbey where Galahad -found the shield, then that where Melians lay ill, is reproached by a -friar with being too sinful to be with Galahad, meets Gheheries, his -brother, meets Ywain on the morrow, meets the seven brothers who attack -them and are slain; then Gawain comes alone to a hermitage, confesses for -the first time since fourteen years, is admonished by the hermit, learns -that the Castle of Maidens signifies hell, the captives the good souls -wrongfully therein confined before Christ's coming, the seven knights the -seven sins. Gawain is pressed, but vainly, to make penitence. (11) The -story returns to Galahad. After wandering for awhile without adventures he -meets Lancelot and Perceval. They do not recognise him, not knowing his -_arms_ (shield),[18] and attack him. He overcomes them, but learning from -the words of a recluse, who sees the combat, that she really knows him, -and, fearing recognition, he hurries off.[19] (12) Perceval stays with the -recluse, and Lancelot starts in pursuit of the Unknown Knight. He comes -in the night to a stone cross near which stands (an old)[20] chapel. He -dismounts and enters, but an iron rail hinders his progress; through it he -sees an altar whereon _burn seven candles_ (a silver candlestick, a wax -taper).[21] He leaves the chapel, unsaddles his horse, and lies down to -sleep by the cross. Then comes a sick knight on a bier drawn by two -horses, dolourously lamenting. He looks at Lancelot, but says no word, -thinking him asleep, nor does Lancelot say aught, but remains half asleep. -And the sick knight laments, "_When may I have solace from the holy vessel -for the pain I suffer for such a small fault_ (was ever so much pain as is -upon me who have done no evil at all)?"[22] But Lancelot says no word, nor -when the candlestick comes towards the cross and the Holy Grail approaches -the sick knight, who prays he may be made whole to join likewise the -quest. Then crawling to the table whereon the vessel stands, and _touching -his eyes with_ (kissing) it, feels relief and slumbers. The Grail -disappears and Lancelot still says never a word, for which aftertimes much -mischance was his. The sick knight arises well, a squire appears and -_arms_ him (with Lancelot's sword and helm),[23] and brings him Lancelot's -steed, and the knight swears never to rest till he knows why the Holy -Grail appears in so many places of the Kingdom of Logres, and by whom it -was brought to England. So he departs, and _his squire carries off -Lancelot's armour_. Lancelot awakes wondering whether what he has seen be -dream or truth. And he hears a voice saying--harder than stone, bitterer -than wood, more despised than the fig tree--he must away, not pollute the -spot where is the Holy Grail. He wanders forth weeping, comes to a hermit, -confesses his great sin, his love for Guinevere, is admonished to tear it -from his heart, when there may still be hope for him. Lancelot promises, -and has the adventure at the chapel explained to him, and stays with the -hermit for penance and instruction. (13) The story now returns to -Perceval. The recluse orders he be well taken care of, she loves him well, -he is her nephew. She dissuades him from fighting Galahad as he wishes, -does he wish to die and be killed as his brothers _for their outrages_ (in -their combats and tournaments)? He and Galahad and Bors will achieve the -Quest. She is his aunt, formerly Queen of the Waste Land. _He asks about -his mother whom he fears he has badly treated, and learns she died when he -went to Arthur's court._[24] He asks further concerning the knight with -the red arms, and is told as follows:--Since Christ's coming were three -chief tables; first, the table at which Christ often ate with his -Apostles; second, the table of the Holy Grail, established in semblance -and remembrance of the first, by which so many miracles were wrought in -this land in the time of Joseph of Arimathea, in the beginning when -Christianity was brought to this country. He came with four thousand poor -companions. One day, wandering in a forest, they had nothing to eat, but -an old woman brought _twelve_ (ten) loaves, these they bought and they -were wroth with one another when they came to divide them. Joseph angry, -took the twelve loaves, made the people sit, and by virtue of the Holy -Grail multiplied the loaves to their need. At that table was a seat where -Josephes, son of Joseph, might sit, but none other, for, as the history -tells, the place was blessed by our Lord himself. Now two brothers, -relatives of Josephes, envied him his leadership, saying they were of as -good seed as he, and one sat in Josephes' seat, and was straightway -swallowed up by the earth, whence the seat was called the Dreaded Seat. -Last came the Round Table, made by Merlin's counsel, to show the roundness -of the world and of the firmament. And Merlin foretold that by companions -of this table should the truth of the Grail be known, and that three -should achieve it, two virgins and one chaste, and the one should surpass -his father as man surpasses wolf, and he should be master, and for him -Merlin made a great and wonderful seat, wherein none might sit unharmed -save he, and it was known as the Seat Perillous. And as at Whitsuntide the -Holy Spirit came to the Apostles in guise of fire, so at Whitsuntide -Galahad came clad in red armour. And on the day he came the questing for -the Grail began, which might not cease till the truth concerning it _and -the lance_ was known. To find Galahad, Perceval must first try Castle -_Gher_ (Goth) where dwells a cousin of Galahad, _and then Castle Corbenic -where dwells the Maimed King_. (14) His aunt then tells how after that her -husband fell in war against King Laban she withdrew into that wild place. -And her son went to serve King Pelles, their relative, and since two years -she only knows of him that he is following tournaments throughout Great -Britain. (15) On the morrow Perceval comes to a monastery, and seeing mass -being performed would enter but cannot, and sees a sick bed with a man or -woman lying on it, whom, as he rises when the body of our Lord is raised, -he sees to be an old man crowned, with his body full of wounds and crying -out, "Father, forget me not." He seems as if he were over _four hundred_ -(one hundred and four) years old. Perceval asks concerning these wonders, -and is told as follows:--When Joseph of Arimathea came to this land, the -Saracen, King Crudel, hearing of the Grail by which he lived, threw him -and his son Josephes and some hundred others into prison for forty days, -and forbade food to be given them. But they had the holy vessel with them. -When Mordrains and his brother-in-law, Seraphe, heard these things, they -assembled their host, landed in Britain, overcame Crudel, and freed -Joseph. On the morrow Evelac, as he was called before he became Christian, -desired to see the Holy Grail plainly, and though warned to desist pressed -forward to do so, and was struck blind and helpless. He accepted his -punishment submissively, but only prayed to Christ that he might survive -till _the good knight should come, the best[25] of his seed_ (the knight -who is to achieve the adventures of the Holy Grail). A voice answered his -prayer should be granted, and then he should receive the light of his eyes -and his wounds should be made whole. This happened _four hundred_ (one -hundred and four) years before, and it was that King Evelac whom Perceval -had seen, and during that while he had fed on nought else save the Lord's -body. (16) Perceval riding forth on the morrow is attacked by twenty -knights, sore pressed, and only rescued by the Red Knight's help, who then -disappears. (17) Perceval, having lost his horse, asks one vainly from a -passing squire, from whom it is shortly afterwards carried off by another -knight, whom Perceval, mounted on the squire's cob, attacks but is -overthrown. (18) At night a woman appears and offers him a horse if he -will do her will--she is, in truth, the enemy. He agrees, she mounts him, -he comes to a river, and, before essaying to ford it, makes the sign of -the cross, whereupon the horse rushes howling into the water. (19) -Perceval, rescued from this peril, finds himself on a wild island -mountain, full of savage beasts; he helps a lion against a snake and wins -its service. He is ill at ease on his island, but he trusts God, and is -not like those men of Wales where sons pull their fathers out of bed and -kill them to save the disgrace of their dying in bed. (20) That night, -sleeping by the lion's side, Perceval dreams of two women visiting him, -one mounted on a lion, the second on a serpent; this one reproaches him -for killing the serpent. On the morrow an old man comes ship-borne, -comforts Perceval with good counsel, and interprets his dream: the dame on -the lion was Christ's new law, she on the serpent the old law. (21) A -damsel then appears, warns Perceval against the old man, prepares for him -a rich banquet with good wine, not British, as in Great Britain they only -drink cervoise and other home-made drinks, and excites his passion. He is -on the point of yielding, but seeing the cross-handled pommel of his sword -crosses himself, and the damsel disappears in flames. Perceval pierces his -thigh with his sword in his contrition. The old man reappears, exhorts, -explains the various features of his temptation, and finally takes him -away with him in his ship. (22) The story now returns to Lancelot. After -three exhortations from the hermit he sets forth, and first meets a -servant, who assails him bitterly as an unfaithful traitorous knight, in -that having openly seen the Holy Grail doing its wonders before him, he -yet moved not from his seat. (23) He comes to a hermit's hut and finds the -hermit lamenting over the dead body of his companion, who, at his nephew, -Agaran's, request, had left the hermitage to aid him against his enemies, -and had been treacherously slain by the latter. These things are told by a -devil, which had entered into the dead hermit's body. Lancelot is -admonished at great length, receives stripes, puts on the dead hermit's -hair shirt, and finally leaves with the advice that he should confess -every week. (24) He meets a damsel who encourages him, but tells him he -will find no lodging for the night. _He dismounts at the foot of a cross -at the cross-ways, and has a vision of a man surrounded with stars, -crowned and accompanied by seven Kings and two knights, who pray to be -taken to heaven; a man descending from heaven orders one of the knights -away, whilst to the other he gives the shape of a winged lion, so that he -flies up to heaven and is admitted._[26] (25) Lancelot meets the knight -who had carried off his arms, and who attacks, but is overthrown by him. -(26) _He comes to a hermitage, confesses, tells his vision, and learns -that it has a great meaning in respect of his lineage, which must be -expounded at much length: forty-two years after the Passion of Christ, -Joseph of Arimathea left Jerusalem, came to Sarras, helped Evelac, who -received baptism at the hands of Josephes, together with his -brother-in-law, Seraphe (who took the name Nasciens), and who became a -pillar of the holy faith, so that the great secrets of the Holy Grail were -opened to him, which none but Joseph had beheld before, and no knight -after save in dream. Now Evelac dreamed that out of his nephew, son of -Nasciens, came forth a great lake, whence issued nine streams, eight of -the same size, and the last greater than all the rest put together; our -Lord came and washed in the lake which King Mordrains thus saw flowing -from Celidoine's belly. This Celidoine was the man surrounded by stars in -Lancelot's vision, and this because he knew the course of the stars and -the manner of the planets, and he was first King of Scotland, and the nine -streams were his nine descendants, of whom seven Kings and two -knights:--first, Warpus; second, Chrestiens;[27] third, Alain li Gros; -fourth, Helyas; fifth, Jonaans, who went to Wales and there took to wife -King Moroneus' daughter; sixth, Lancelot, who had the King of Ireland's -daughter to wife; seventh, Bans. These were the seven Kings who appeared -to Lancelot. The eighth stream was Lancelot himself, the elder of the -knights of the vision. The ninth stream was Galahad, begot by Lancelot -upon the Fisher King's daughter, lion-like in power, deepest of all the -streams._[28] (27) Lancelot comes to a castle with a meadow before it, -whereon a throng of black armoured knights is tourneying against knights -in white armour. Lancelot goes to the help of the former,[29] but is -captured, and on being released rides off lamenting. At night, as he -sleeps, a man comes from heaven and reproaches him with his ill faith. A -hermitess expounds the allegorical meaning of the adventure. The white -knights are those of Eliezer, son of King Pelles, the black those of -Argastes, son of King Helain; this symbolised the Quest, which was a -tournament between the heavenly knights and the earthly ones, and in that -Quest none might enter who was black with sin; and Lancelot though sinful, -having entered thereon had joined the black knights, and his capture by -the others was his overthrow by Galahad, and his lamentation his return -to sin, and it was our Lord who reproached him in his vision; let him not -depart from truth. (28) Lancelot comes to Lake Marchoise, is attacked by a -knight in black armour, who kills his horse and rides off; he lays down on -the shore and awaits trustfully God's help. (29) The story returns to -Gawain. After journeying many days adventureless, he meets Hector de -Mares. Neither has heard aught of Lancelot, Galahad, or Bohors. Travelling -together they come to a deserted chapel, where, passing the night, Gawain -dreams he sees in a meadow one hundred and fifty bulls all spotted, save -three, one being dingy, the two others being pure white. Of the one -hundred and forty-seven who set off to find better pasture many die and -some return, of the three one returns, but two remain between whom strife -arises and they separate. Hector dreams that he and Lancelot, being -companions, are attacked by a man who knocks Lancelot off his horse and -sits him on an ass, after which Lancelot, coming to a fair fountain, would -drink of it, but it vanishes; he, Hector, keeping his horse comes to a -castle, the lord of which refuses him admission for that he is too high -mounted. Whilst telling one another their dreams, a hand with a taper -appears and vanishes, and a voice tells them that, poor of belief as they -are, they cannot attain the Holy Grail. On their way to find a hermit who -may explain these wonders, Gawain is attacked by and kills a knight, -Ywains the Adulterer, son of King Urien. They then come to the hermit, -Nasciens, who explains the bulls as the companions of the Round Table, the -spotted ones those stained by sin, the three unspotted ones are the -achievers, two white, virgins--Galahad and Perceval--one dingy, having -once sinned carnally, Bors. The last part of the dream may not be -explained, as evil might come of it. In Hector's dream the two horses are -Pride and Ostentation. Lancelot's being seated on an ass signifies the -putting off of pride, the fountain is the Holy Grail. Both knights are too -full of sin to continue in the quest of the Grail. They ride forth and -meet with no adventure worth notice. (30) The story returns to Bors. After -first coming to a hermit, who exhorts him to abandon the Quest if he do -not feel himself free from sin, to whom he confesses, from whom he -receives absolution, and to whom he vows to eat nought save bread and -water till the Quest be achieved, he comes to a castle whose mistress is -sore oppressed by her sister, against whose champion, Priadam the Black, -she has vainly sought a defender. Bors promises to come to help. He passes -the night at the castle and will not sleep in the rich bed she offers him, -though in the morning he tumbles it as if he had lain in it. He overcomes -Priadam, and reinstates the lady in her lordship. (31) On the morrow he -meets his brother, naked, bound on a hack, being beaten with thorns by two -knights. At the same moment passes a very fair maiden being carried off by -a knight, and she cries to him for help. He is in anguish, but goes to the -maiden's help, wounds her would-be ravisher, and restores her to her -friends. (32) He then hurries after his brother, but meets a seeming monk -who makes him believe his brother is dead, and gives him an explanation of -dreams he has had. He then comes to a tower and is welcomed by its -inmates. A damsel offers him her love, and when he refuses threatens with -twelve other damsels to throw herself from the tower. Bors is full of -pity, but thinks they had better lose their souls than he his. They fall -from the tower, Bors crosses himself, and the whole vanishes, being a -deceit of the devil. His brother's corpse that had been shown him is also -gone. (33) On the morrow he comes to an abbey, where he learns that his -brother lives, and where all his dreams and adventures are allegorically -explained. He then meets Lionel, his brother, who reproaches him bitterly -for his conduct, and falls upon him with intent to kill. First a hermit, -then a passing knight, Calogrenant, would stop him, but he slays both. -Bors is at length, in spite of prayers and entreaties, compelled to draw -in self defence, but a voice tells him to flee, and a fiery brand comes -from heaven between them. Bors follows the command of the voice directing -him towards the sea, where Perceval awaits him. He comes to a ship covered -with white samite, and finds therein Perceval, who at first does not know -him again, and who tells him all that he has passed through. (34) The -story returns to Galahad. After countless adventures he finds himself one -day opposed to Gawain and Hector de Mares in a tournament; he deals the -former such a blow as knocks him out of his saddle. (35) He is brought to -the ship wherein are Perceval and Bors by a damsel, who accompanies them -until, fourteen days' sail from Logres, they come to a desert isle off -which is another ship, on which is written[30] that those who would enter -should see they were full of faith. The damsel then tells Perceval she is -his sister, _daughter of King Pellehem_. They enter the ship and find a -rich bed with a crown at its head, and at its foot a sword six inches out -of the scabbard, its tip a stone of all the colours in the world, its -handle of the bones of two beasts, the serpent Papagast, the fish -Orteniaus; it is covered with a cloth whereon is written that only the -first of his line would grasp the sword. Perceval and Bors both essay -vainly. Galahad, on being asked, sees written on the blade that he only -should draw who could strike better than others. The damsel tells the -story of the sword as follows:--When the ship came to the Kingdom of -Logres there was war between King Lambar, father to the Maimed King, and -King Urlain, heretofore Saracen, but newly baptised. Once Urlain, -discomfited, fled to the ship, and, finding therein the sword, drew it and -slew King Laban[31] with it, and that was the first blow struck with the -sword in the Kingdom of Logres, and there came from it such pestilence and -destruction in the land of the two kingdoms that it was afterwards called -the Waste Land. When Urlain re-entered the ship he fell down dead. (36) -Galahad, further examining the sword, finds the scabbard of serpent's -skin, but the hangings of poor stuff. On the scabbard is written that the -wearer must surpass his fellows, and the hangings be changed only by a -King's daughter and she a maid; on turning the sword over, the other side -is found black as pitch, and bearing words that he who should praise it -most should blame it most in his greatest need. Perceval's sister explains -this as follows: Forty years after our Lord's Passion, Nasciens, -Mordrains' brother-in-law, came to the Turning Isle, and found this ship, -and therein bed and sword, this last he coveted, but had not the hardihood -to draw it, though he stayed eight days food and drinkless longing for it; -on the ninth day a tempest drove him to another island, where, assailed by -a giant, he drew the sword, and though it snapped in two and thus -fulfilled the inscription, yet he overcame the giant. He afterwards met -Mordrains and told him of these wonders; Mordrains reunited the fragments, -then, in obedience to a voice, they left the ship, but in going Nasciens -was wounded for having dared to draw a sword of which he was not worthy, -thus he who praised it most had most reason to blame it. As for the other -words, _King Pelles,[32] called the Maimed King_ (a lame King who was my, -_i.e._, the damsel's, uncle) once came to this ship on the shore of the -sea over against Ireland, and entering it found the sword, drew but was -wounded through the thighs by a lance, _and might not be healed till -Galahad come_.[33] (37) They then examine the bed and find it has three -spindles; that in front, snow white; that behind, blood red; that above, -emerald green, and lest this be thought a lie the story turns from its -straight path to explain about these spindles. After Eve, yielding to the -devil's advice, had caused Adam to sin, and both knew themselves carnal -and were ashamed, and were driven forth from Paradise, Eve kept the branch -of the Tree of Life which she had plucked, and planted it and it grew to a -tree with branches and leaves white in token that Eve was a virgin when -she planted it. Sitting one day beneath the tree, God commanded them to -know one another carnally, and when they were ashamed to set about such -foul work sent darkness over them. Abel was thus begotten, and the Tree of -Life turned green. Afterwards Cain slew Abel underneath that same tree and -it turned red. At the Deluge it remained unharmed and lasted till -Solomon's time. Whilst the wise King was pondering over the malice of his -wife and of all women, a voice told him a woman of his line should bring -men more joy than her sex had caused sorrow, and that a virgin knight -should be the last of his lineage. His wife, whom he consults as to how he -shall let this knight know he had foreknowledge of his coming, advised the -building of the ship, and the taking of David's sword to be fitted with a -new hilt of precious stones, and a new pommel and scabbard, and placed in -the ship together with Solomon's crown on a rich bed; she furthermore had -three spindles made from the Tree of Life and from trees grown from it. -And when all was ready Solomon saw in dreams angels coming from heaven and -putting the different inscriptions on the sword and ship. (38) The story -speaks now of other things. New hangings had not been put on the sword, -this was to be done by a damsel. Perceval's sister supplies hangings made -of her own hair, and names the sword "The Sword of Strange Hangings," and -the scabbard "Memory of Blood," and Galahad girds on the sword. (39) On -the morrow they set sail and come to Castle Carchelois, in the March of -Scotland, the inmates whereof attack them but are all slain. Galahad is -sorry for those he has killed, but a priest tells him they are heathens, -and he has done the best work in the world, as the three knights who held -the castle had ravished their own sister and wounded their father, Count -Ernous, to death. Before the latter dies he urges Galahad _to go to the -assistance of the Maimed King_ (to undertake other adventures).[34] (40) -On the morrow they meet a white stag led by four lions; these come to a -hermitage, hear mass, the stag becomes a man and sits on the altar, the -lions a man, an eagle, a lion, and an ox, all winged. (41) On the morrow -Perceval takes Galahad's sword, which he will wear from henceforth. They -come to a castle, the inmates of which demand that Perceval's sister -should pay the custom of the castle, which is to give a dishful of blood -from her right arm. The three companions protect Perceval's sister against -overwhelming odds till nightfall, when, learning that the blood is asked -to heal the Lady of the Castle suffering from leprosy, Perceval's sister -sacrifices herself. Before dying she gives directions that her body is to -be put in a ship and buried in the Palace Spiritual in Sarras. Bors then -leaves his two companions to succour a wounded knight pursued by a knight -and a dwarf;[35] and Perceval and Galahad, after seeing the castle they -had thus left destroyed by fire from heaven in vengeance of the blood of -the good maidens which had there been shed, likewise separate. (42) The -story returns to Lancelot. He is at the Water of Marcoise, surrounded by -the forest and high rocks, but he does not lose faith in God; in obedience -to a voice he goes on board a passing ship and finds therein Perceval's -sister, whose story he learns from the letter at her head. After a month's -journeying a knight joins them who proves to be Galahad, and they pass -together half a year achieving marvellous adventures. After Easter, at the -new time when the birds sing their sweet and varied songs, they come to -land, and a knight in white arms bids Galahad leave his father, which he -does. (43) After a month's further wandering on the sea, Lancelot comes to -a castle guarded by two lions,[36] against whom he would at first defend -himself, but is reproved for trusting his strength rather than his -Creator. Entering, he comes to a room wherein are the Holy Vessel, and a -priest celebrating mass; Lancelot is warned not to enter, but when he sees -that the priest about to raise the body of God has a man put into his -hands, he cannot refrain from pressing forward to his aid, but is struck -down by a fiery wind and remains fourteen days dumb, food- and drinkless. -He finds he is in Castle Corbenic, and a damsel tells him his quest is -ended. King Pelles rejoices to see him, at dinner the Holy Grail fills the -tables so that living man could not think of greater plenty; whilst at -dinner Hector de Mares comes to the castle door, but is ashamed to enter, -hearing that Lancelot is within, and rides off pursued by the reproaches -and taunts of those of the castle. Lancelot returns to Arthur's court, -passing on the way the tomb of Bandamagus, whom Gawain had slain. (44) The -story returns to Galahad. He comes to an abbey wherein is King Mordrains, -who knows his approach, and asks that he may die in his arms; Galahad -takes him on his breast, Mordrains dies and all his wounds are found -healed. (45) Galahad cools the boiling fountain by putting his hand in it. -(46) Galahad delivers from the tomb where he had been burning three -hundred and fifty-four years his relative, Symeu, who thus expiated his -sin against Joseph of Arimathea. (47) Galahad rides five years before he -comes to the _house of the Maimed King_ (the court of King Peleur), and -during all the five years Perceval bears him company, and within that time -they _achieve the great adventures of the Kingdom of Logres_ (cast out the -evil adventures of the Island of Britain). (48) One day they met Bors, who -in the five years had not been in bed four times. The three come to -_Castle Corbenic_[37] (the court of King Peleur) _where they are greeted -by King Pelles, and where Eliezer, King Pelles' son, brings the broken -sword with which Joseph had been pierced through the thighs; Bors cannot -rejoin the pieces, Perceval can only adjust them together, Galahad alone -can make the sword whole, and it is then given to Bors_. (50) At -vesper-time a hot wind strikes the palace, and a voice orders all unfit to -sit at Christ's table to depart, as the true knights were to be fed with -Heaven's food. All leave save _King Pelles, Eliezer, his son, and his -niece, the most religious maid on the earth_ (a young maiden); to them -enter nine knights[38] and salute Galahad: three are from _Gaul_ (Wales), -three from Ireland, three from Denmark. _Then four damsels bring in on a -wooden bed a man, crowned, in evil plight, who greets Galahad as his -long-expected deliverer._ A voice orders out of the room him who has not -been a companion of the Quest, and straightway _King Pelles and Eliezer -and_ the damsel depart. From heaven comes a man clad like a Bishop and -borne in a chair by four[39] angels, who place him before the table upon -which stands the Holy Grail. Upon his forehead is written that he was -_Joseph_ (son of Joseph of Arimathea) first Bishop of Christendom, whereat -they wonder, as they know that man lived three hundred years before. He -kneels before the altar and opens the door of the _ark_ (chamber), and -four angels[39] issue, _two bearing burning lights, the third a cloth of -red samite, the fourth a lance bleeding so hard that the drops run into a -box he holds in his other hand_ (two with torches, the third with the -lance, the fourth holding the box into which the blood drops); the candles -are placed on the table, the cloth is placed on the holy vessel so that -the blood fell into it. Joseph then celebrates the Sacrament, and on his -raising the wafer, as it were a child descends from heaven and strikes -itself into the wafer, so that it takes man's form. Joseph then kisses -Galahad and bids him be fed by the Saviour's own hand, and vanishes. But -there comes out of the holy vessel, a man with hands bleeding and feet and -body, and says He will reveal His secrets, and give the high food so long -desired and toiled for. He gives the Sacrament to Galahad and his -companions, and explains that the Grail is the dish of the Last Supper, -and Galahad shall see it more fully in the City of Sarras, whither it is -going, Britain being unworthy of it, and whither he is to follow it with -Perceval and Bors; _but as he must not leave the land without healing the -Maimed King he is to take some of the blood of the lance and therewith -anoint his legs_.[40] Galahad asks why all may not come with him; but -Christ says they are twelve who have eaten as the Apostles were twelve, -and they must separate as the Apostles separated. _Galahad then heals the -Maimed King, who goes into an abbey of white monks._ (51) The three -companions, after sending messages to Arthur's court _through Estrois de -Gariles and Claudius, son of King Claudas_,[41] coming to Solomon's ship, -herein they find the Holy Grail, set sail; on landing bury Perceval's -sister, heal a cripple to help them carry the Grail-table, are cast in -prison by King _Escorant_ for a year, are fed by the Holy Grail; at -_Escorant's_ death Galahad is made King, fashions a tree of gold and -precious stones over the Grail and prays before it every morning as do his -companions. (52) On the anniversary of Galahad's crowning the three see -before the holy vessel a man clad like a Bishop, who begins mass and calls -Galahad to see what he has so longed to see, and at the sight Galahad -trembles very greatly, and he thanks God for letting him see that which -tongue may not describe nor heart think, and he begs that he may pass away -from this earthly life to the heavenly one. The Bishop then gives him the -body of God, and reveals himself as Josephus, son of Joseph of Arimathea. -Galahad kisses Perceval and Bors, and sends greetings to Lancelot through -Bors, his soul then leaves his body and angels take it away. A hand from -heaven then comes to the vessel and takes it and the lance, and bears it -heavenwards, so that since there was no man bold enough to say he has seen -the Holy Grail (except Gwalchmai once). (52) _Galahad's body is buried. -Perceval goes into a hermitage, where Bors stays with him for a year and -two months; Perceval dies, and is buried by Bors in Galahad's tomb; Bors -left alone in a place as strange as Babylon, sets sail for Britain, and -comes to Camelot, when all are greatly joyed to see him; he tells the -adventures of the Holy Grail; they are written down and kept in the Abbey -of Salisbury, and from these Master Walter Map drew to make his book of -the Holy Grail for the love of King Henry his lord, who had the story -translated from Latin into French. The story now is silent and tells no -more concerning the adventures of the Holy Grail._[42] - -=Grand St. Graal.=--(1) The writer salutes all who have faith in the Holy -Trinity. He does not name himself for three reasons: lest his declaration -that he received the story from God Himself be a stumbling block; lest his -friends pay less honour to the book if they know the author; lest if he -have made any blunder all the blame fall upon him. - -(2) In the year 717 after the Passion of Christ, as the writer lies in his -hut in one of the wildest parts of White Britain, on Good Friday Eve and -doubts of the Trinity, Christ appears to him and gives him a little book -not larger than a man's palm, and this book will resolve all his doubts; -He Himself has written it, and only he who is purified by confession and -fasting may read it. On the morrow the writer opens it and finds therein -four sections, headed each as follows: This is the book of thy lineage; -here begins the book of the Holy Grail; here is the beginning of the -terrors; here begin the marvels. As he reads lightning and thunder come -and other wonders. On Good Friday, as he is celebrating the service, an -angel raises him in spirit to the third heaven, and his doubts concerning -the Trinity are set at rest. When his spirit returns to his body he locks -up the book; but on Easter Sunday, when he would read further, finds it -gone; a voice says he must suffer to have the book back again, must go to -the plains of Walescog, follow a wonderful beast to Norway, and there find -what he seeks. He obeys, the beast leads him first to a hermit's, then -past the pine of adventures to a knight's castle, on the third day to the -queen's lake and a nunnery. After exorcising a hermit possessed of the -devil, he finds the book, and on his return Christ commands him to make a -fair copy before Ascension Day. He sets to work at once, on the fifteenth -day after Easter.[43] The book begins as follows: Few believe on Christ -at His crucifixion, among whom is Joseph of Arimathea, as the Holy -Scripture of the Grail testifies. He is in all things a good man. He lives -in Jerusalem with his wife and a son, Josephes (not the same Josephes who -so often quotes the Scripture, but not less learned than he), he it was -who passed his father's kin across sea to White Britain, since called -England, without rudder or sail, but in the fold of this shirt. Joseph, -having much loved the Lord, longs after His death to possess somewhat -having belonged to Him; goes to the house of the Last Supper, and carries -off the dish wherein He had eaten. Having been a knight of Pilate's for -seven years, he craves a boon of him, which is Christ's body. Pilate -grants it; Joseph descends the body from the Cross, places it in a -sepulchre, and, fetching the dish from his house, collects in it the blood -flowing from the body,[44] and finishes laying the body in the tomb. The -Jews hear of this, are angered, seize Joseph, throw him into prison in the -most hideous and dirtiest dungeon ever seen, feed him at first on bread -and water, but when Christ is found to have arisen, Caiaphas, Joseph's -jailor, lets him starve. But Christ brings the holy dish that Joseph had -sent back to his house with all the blood in it. Joseph is overjoyed. -Christ comforts him, and assures him he shall live and carry His name to -foreign parts. Joseph thus remains in prison. Meanwhile his wife, though -often pressed to marry, refuses until she shall have had sure tidings of -her husband; as for his son he will only marry Holy Church. (3) Forty -years go by; after Christ's death Tiberius Caesar reigned ten years, then -Caius, one year; then Claudius, fourteen years; then Noirons, in whose -reign S.S. Peter and Paul were crucified, fourteen years; then Titus, and -Vespasian, his son, a leper. The freeing of Joseph befalls in the third -year of Titus' reign and in this wise: Titus has vainly sought a leech to -heal Vespasian. At last a strange knight from Capernaum promises his help -and tells how he in his youth had been healed of the leprosy by a prophet. -The Emperor on hearing this sent to Judea to seek out that prophet; his -messenger comes to Felix, and orders him to have proclamation made for -aught Christ has touched; hereupon an old woman, Marie la Venissienne, -brings the cloth upon which the Saviour's likeness had painted itself when -she wiped His face. The messenger returns to Rome with this cloth and the -mere sight of it heals Vespasian, who straightway resolves to avenge -Christ's death. He goes to Jerusalem, Joseph's wife appears before him, -accuses the Jews of having made away with her husband; none of the Jews -know where he is save Caiaphas, who reveals the secret on condition that -he is to be neither burnt or slain. Vespasian himself goes down into the -prison and finds it as light as though one hundred candles had burnt in -it. He tells Joseph who he is, whereat the latter wondered, not thinking -he had been longer than from Friday to Sunday, not once had it been dark. -A voice tells Joseph not to fear, and that he will find the Holy Vessel at -his home. Joseph returns to Jerusalem with Vespasian, and points out to -him the abettors of Christ's death, whom Vespasian has burnt. Caiaphas is -set adrift in a boat. (4) The night before Vespasian returns to Rome, -Christ appears to Joseph and commands him to go forth and fill foreign -lands with his seed; he must be baptised, and must go forth without money -or aught but the dish; all heart can want or wish he shall have, all who -accompany him must be baptised likewise. Joseph is baptised by St. Philip, -then Bishop of Jerusalem, as is also Vespasian, concerning whom the story -is now silent. (5) Joseph preaches to his friends and relatives and -converts seventy-five of them. They leave Jerusalem and come to Bethany, -where the Lord appears to Joseph, promises him aid as once to the Jews in -the wilderness, commands him to make a wooden ark for the dish, which he -is to open when he wants to speak to Him, but no one is to touch it save -Joseph and his son Josephes; Joseph does as commanded, his troop is -miraculously fed, and on the eleventh day they come to the town of Sarras, -between Babilone and Salavandre, whence the Saracens have their name, and -not from Sara. (6) Joseph and his seventy-five companions enter the city -and go to the Temple of the Sun, to the seat of judgment, where the -Saracens are assembled with their lord, Evalach the Unknown: he had been a -man of prowess in his youth, but was now old; seven days before, the -Egyptians had beaten his army, and the council is now devising how -vengeance may be taken therefor. Joseph is greatly joyed at these events, -and when the council advises peace assures the King of victory, but he -must destroy his images and believe on Him who died on the Cross. Evalach -asks how one who could not save himself could save another. Joseph, in -answer, tells of Christ's birth, life, death, descent into hell, -resurrection, ascension, and of the sending of the Holy Ghost. Evalach -cannot understand either the Incarnation or the Trinity, and although -Joseph explains that the Virgin conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy -Ghost through her ear, and that her virginity was no more hurt than is -water when a sunbeam enters it, remains stubborn and calls his learned men -to his aid, but Joseph confounds these, and Evalach lodges the Christians -for the night and gives them good beds. (7) Evalach dreams of a tree-stock -whence spring three equal trunks and though three yet are truly one, also -of a room with a secret door of marble, through which a child passes -without opening it; a voice tells him this is a type of the miraculous -conception of Christ. (8) Meanwhile, Joseph, unable to sleep, prays for -comfort and adjures the Lord by all His mercies to help Evalach; he is -told by a voice he shall be sent for to explain the King's dream. Joseph -then goes to sleep with his wife, Helyab, but not as lustful folk do, for -there was nothing between them till the Lord commanded the begetting of -Galahad, and then, so full of love to the Saviour were they that they had -no desire. From Galahad came the high race which honoured the land of -White Britain, now called England. (9) The morrow morning Joseph and his -company worship before the ark (now the place wherein they were had been -called the Spiritual Palace by Daniel) when a soft sweet wind comes and -the Holy Ghost descends and Christ speaks and urges all to love Him; He -tells Josephes to draw near and take charge of His flesh and blood; -Josephes opens the door of the ark and sees a man all in red, and with him -five angels, each six winged, all in red, each with a bloody sword in his -left, and in their rights severally, a cross, nails, lance, sponge, and -scourge; Josephes sees Christ nailed to the Cross, and the blood running -down from His side and feet into the dish; he would enter the ark but -angels restrain him. Joseph, wondering at his son's state, kneels before -the ark and sees therein an altar covered with white cloths, under which -is a red samite one, covering three nails, a lance head all bloody, and -the dish he had brought, and in the middle of the altar an exceeding rich -vessel of gold and precious stones; seven angels issue from the ark with -water and watering pot (2), gold basins and towels (2), and gold censers -(3), an eighth carrying the holy dish, a ninth a head so rich and -beautiful as never mortal eye saw, a tenth a sword, three more with -tapers, lastly Jesus. The company of angels go over the house sprinkling -it with holy water, because it had heretofore been dwelt in by devils. -Christ tells Josephes he is to receive the sacrament of His flesh and -blood, and be made sovran shepherd over His new sheep; bishop's vestments -are brought out of the ark. Josephes is seated in a chair, which -afterwards made a Saracen King's eyes fly out of his head, is consecrated, -an angel keeps the holy oil wherewith all Kings of Britain were anointed -till the time of Uther Pendragon, of whom none of the many that have told -his history have rightly known why he was so called; the meaning of the -episcopal vestments is explained to Josephes, and his duties set forth. -(10) Josephes then goes into the ark and celebrates the sacrament using -Christ's words only, whereat bread and wine become flesh and blood, and in -place of the bread a child, which, though as bidden, he divides into three -parts yet is eaten as one whole; an angel puts patina and chalice into the -dish; Joseph and his company receive the sacrament in the form of a child; -Christ bids Josephes celebrate the sacrament daily; tells him that he and -Joseph are to go with Evalach's messengers now nigh at hand. Leucans, -Josephes' cousin, is appointed guardian of the ark. (11) Joseph and his -son go before the King and overcome all the heathen clerk's objections; -Josephes tells Evalach he will be given over to his enemies for three -days, and shall only escape by believing on Christ; the heathen idols are -smashed by a devil at the compelling of Josephes' two angels. A messenger -brings the news that King Tholomes has entered and is capturing the land, -and he will not rest till he be crowned at Sarras. Josephes tells the King -this ill-hap is to mind him of his lowly origin, he is son of a shoemaker -in an old city of France, Meaux, and was one of a tribute of one hundred -youths and one hundred maidens claimed by Augustus Caesar from France, as -here dwelt a prouder folk than elsewhere, and the two daughters of the -Count of the Town, Sevain, were among the tribute, and Evalach was among -their servants. When Felix was named Governor of Syria by Tiberius he had -taken Evalach with him, and held him in high honour until one day, angry -with Felix's son, Evalach slew him and had to fly, after which he entered -the service of Tholome Cerastre, King of Babylon, who had given him the -land he now ruled. Josephes further explains the King's dreams, and when -the latter declares himself willing to believe, asks for his shield, upon -which he fixes a red cross and tells him to look on it in his need and -pray to God and he shall be saved. (12) Evalach marches with his army -against Tholomes, is joined by his brother-in-law, Seraphe (whom he -thought hated him most of any man in the world) at the Queen's entreaty; -numerous combats ensue between the two armies; Seraphe performs prodigies -of valour; Evalach is taken prisoner, and in his need looks on the shield, -sees thereon Christ crucified, prays to God for help, a White Knight -appears, overcomes Tholomes, who is taken prisoner, and Evalach's army is -victorous. (13) Meanwhile Josephes, remaining in Sarras, has been -counselling Queen Sarraquite, secretly a Christian, since her mother was -cured of a bloody flux, and since Christ appeared to her when she was -afraid of the hermit her mother had led her to for baptism because he had -such a long beard; she dares not avow her faith for fear of her husband. -Josephes tells her of the battle which has taken place and of the White -Knight. (14) Evalach and Seraphe return; the King asks at once after the -Christians, and learns that he owes his victory to the Lord to whom also -Seraphe owed his strength in battle; the shield is uncovered, a man with a -wounded arm is healed by it, and then the cross vanishes; Seraphe turns -Christian, is baptised and receives the name Nasciens, he is straightway -healed of his wounds, exhorts Evalach to believe, and tells of Tholomes' -death. Evalach is baptised, and re-christened Mordrains, or -Slow-of-Belief. After baptising the town and destroying all images, -Josephes leaves three of his companions in charge of the Grail Ark, and -goes with the rest to Orcanz, turns out of an image a devil who had slain -Tholomes, and converts more of the heathen folk. (15) Meanwhile Mordrains -has ordered his people to be baptised or to leave his land; many take the -latter course and are met outside the town by a devil who wounds them -grievously, whereupon Josephes hurries to their aid, but is met by an -angel with a lance and smitten through the thigh for having left his -baptising work to trouble himself about contemners of God's law, and the -mark of the wound should stay with him all his life, and the iron spear -head remain in the wound so that ever after he limped, and he had later to -smart for it, as the tale will show in due season. Many more people are -converted, Bishops are left in the land and holy relics at Sarras. (16) -Josephes brings Mordrains, Sarraquite, and Nasciens to the holy shrine, -and shows them the vessel wherein is Christ's blood. Nasciens thinks he -has never seen aught to match it, and he gives it a name that since it has -never lost. For, says he, nothing he had seen before but somewhat -displeased him (li degraast), but this pleases him (li gree) entirely; he -further tells how once when a young man, hunting, as he stood deep in -thought a voice made itself heard, saying "Thou shall't never accomplish -what thou thinkest on until the wonders of the Grail are disclosed," and -he knows now this must be the Grail as every wish of his heart is -accomplished. And he draws nearer and lifts the vessel's lid and looks -therein, but straightway falls to trembling, feeling he can no longer see. -And he knew that the blindness was to punish his curiosity, and turning to -Josephes tells him that the iron shall not be drawn out of that wound -inflicted by the angel at Orcanz, nor he himself recover his sight until -Josephes, wounded, himself comes to draw out the iron. - -So they stand lost in thought, till a voice is heard, "After my vengeance -my healing" and an angel appears, touches Josephes' thigh with the lance -shaft, whereupon the head comes out, and from it drop great drops of blood -which the angel collects in a vessel, and wherewith he anoints Josephes' -wound, making it whole, and Nasciens' eyes, restoring to him his sight. -And the angel tells them that the meaning of the lance is that of the -beginning of the wonderful adventures which shall befall in lands whither -God purposes leading them; when the true knights should be separated from -the false ones, and the earthly knighthood become a heavenly one. And at -the beginning of those adventures the lance would drop blood as then, but -beforehand none; and then wonders would happen all over the world where -the lance was, great and terrible wonders, in recognition of the Holy -Grail and of the lance; and the marvels of the Grail should never be seen -save by one man alone; and by the lance wherewith Josephes was struck -should but one other man be struck, and he a King of Josephes' kin, and -the last of the good men; he should be struck through the two thighs, and -only healed when the Grail wonders were disclosed to the Good Knight, and -that one should be last of Nasciens' kin. Thus, as Nasciens was the first -to behold the wonders of the Grail, that one should be the last; so saith -the true crucified one, adding, "Upon the first and last of My new -ministers will I spend the vengeance of the adventurous lance in token of -Myself having received the lance stroke whilst on the Cross." And so many -days as Josephes had born the lance head in his wound so many days should -the marvellous adventures last. Now these days (_years_)[45] were -twenty-two. (17) Josephes explains Mordrains' vision, and makes him -destroy the image of a woman he had kept in a secret chamber, known, so he -thought, only to himself. (18) Josephes and his company go forth from -Sarras, but the tale tells nothing of them in this place, but keeps -straight on. On the following night Mordrains dreams that, sitting in -Sarras at table, of a sudden a thunderbolt strikes crown from his head and -the first mouthful from his lips; a great wind carries him up into a far -land where he is fed by a lion and lioness, and after a while an eagle -carries off Nasciens' son to a land whereof the inhabitants bow down -before him, and out of this nephew's belly comes a great lake giving rise -to nine streams, eight of equal breadth and depth, the ninth as wide and -deep as the remainder put together, and rushing and turbulent, and at -first foul and muddy, but afterwards clear and pure as a precious stone; -then comes down from heaven a man in likeness of one crucified, who bathes -hands and feet in the lake and eight streams, but in the ninth his whole -body. (19) Mordrains tells his vision to Nasciens and confesses to former -treacherous and jealous feelings he had against him; they seek counsel of -the priests, but none can expound the vision, and as they sit together a -great tumult is heard and the sound of a horn announcing "the beginning of -dread," and they fall senseless to the ground; but Mordrains is caught up -by the Holy Ghost and borne off. (20) Meanwhile Nasciens is accused by -Kalafier, a Christian-hater, of having made away with Mordrains, and is -cast into prison with Kalafier for gaoler. (21) Meanwhile Mordrains has -been carried off by the Holy Ghost to an island lying between Babylon, -Scotland, and Ireland, a high land from which the western sea can be -looked over as far as Spain; it was once a pirates' lair, but Pompey drove -them thence. To Mordrains comes a noble man who gives his name as -Tout-entour, comforts him, and exhorts him to steadfastness in the faith; -when he leaves a fair woman appears and tempts the King, who luckily does -not pay heed to her, and well for him, as he learns from the noble man -that she is Lucifer in disguise. He is assailed by many temptations; -storm, thunder, and lightning affright him; the wonderful bird Phoenix -attacks him and snatches the bread from his lips; Lucifer again visits him -and shows him Nasciens' dead body, but it is only an invention; finally, -all these trials withstood, the noble man comes again and expounds the -dream of the nine streams: the lake is a son of Nasciens, from whom -descend nine Kings, all good men and true, but the ninth surpassing all in -every virtue; he is the knight to whom the wonders of the Grail shall be -shown, and Christ shall bathe Himself wholly in him. (22) Meanwhile -Nasciens has been kept in prison together with his son, Celidoine -(Heaven-given) by Kalafier. But a miraculous hand appearing from out a -cloud strikes off Nasciens' fetters, and carries him out of the dungeon; -Kalafier pursues but is struck down by the hand; on his death bed he -orders that Celidoine be cast from the battlements, but nine hands bear -him up in mid air, whilst Kalafier, slain by fire from heaven, goes to -eternal death. Sarraquite, overjoyed to hear of her brother's escape, -sends out messengers to meet them. Meanwhile Nasciens' wife, Flegentyne, -has set out in search of her husband accompanied by the old knight, -Corsapias, and his son, Helicoras. (23) Now Nasciens has been carried -fourteen days journey off to the Turning Isle (concerning which many -wonders are told); all of these things are true, as Christ Himself has -written the book of the Holy Grail, and He never wrote aught else save the -Lord's Prayer for the disciples and the judgment upon the woman taken in -adultery. And no man is bold enough to say that since the Resurrection -Christ wrote aught else save this "haute escripture del S. Graal." (24) A -ship comes to Nasciens' isle which he would enter but for words warning -him against it unless he be full of faith. However, crossing himself he -enters [and finds therein the same wonders as those described in Queste, -Inc. 35, 36, 37, viz.:--the sword and the three spindles, precisely the -same story about which is told as in the Queste]. (25) Nasciens deeming -there must be magic in this, the ship splits in twain, and had well nigh -drowned him, but he regains the isle swimming, and on the morrow an old -man comes in a ship and gives him an allegorical explanation of what has -befallen him. (26) Meanwhile Celidoine, carried off by the hands to the -land of the heathen King Label, wins his favour by expounding a dream, -converts him, but at his death is cast adrift by the heathen barons in a -boat with a lion, and after three days comes to Nasciens' island. (27) The -two rejoice on their meeting, and leave the island together in Solomon's -ship, come after four days to another island, where Nasciens, attacked by -a giant, seizes Solomon's sword but it breaks in his hand, nevertheless, -with another sword he overcomes the giant. He chides Solomon's sword, but -Celidoine says it is some sin of his made it break. Thereafter they see a -ship approaching wherein is Mordrains. There is rejoicing between the -three, and much telling of past adventures. Nasciens shows the broken -sword to Mordrains, who, taking it in his hands, joins it together, -whereupon a voice bids them leave the ship; Nasciens, not obeying fast -enough, is wounded in the shoulder by a fiery sword in punishment of his -having drawn Solomon's sword. (28) The messengers sent out by Sarraquite -in search of Nasciens have, meantime, had many adventures, have come -across the daughter of King Label, suffered shipwreck, and been thrown -upon a desert isle formerly the home of the great physician, Ypocras (of -whom a long story is told how he was tricked by a Roman lady), been -tempted in divers fashions, but at last they are led to Mordrains, -Nasciens, and Celidoine. (29) On the third night a priest clad in white -comes walking on the sea, heals Nasciens' wound, and sends off Celidoine -in another ship. The remainder come to land, Mordrains and Sarraquite are -reunited; Nasciens' wife, Flegentyne, is sent for; and Label's daughter is -christened by Petrone, a holy man and kinsman of Joseph. She was after -Celidoine's wife, as my lord Robert of Borron testifies, who translated -this history from Latin into French after the holy hermit to whom our Lord -first gave it. (30) Nasciens sets forth in search of his son, his knights -follow on his track, and two are struck dead for their sins. Nasciens -comes again to Solomon's ship, is tempted by the devil in the shape of a -fair damsel, goes on board the ship and dreams as follows:--Celidoine is -in the promised land with all those who had left Sarras; he, Nasciens, -shall go thence likewise and never depart thence, nor shall the ship until -it take back the last of his line to Sarras, together with the Holy Grail, -and that shall be after three hundred years; and thereafter Celidoine -leads before him nine persons, all in guise of Kings, save the eighth who -was like a dog, and the ninth turns into a lion, and at his death the -whole world mourns over him. And the names of these, Nasciens' -descendants, are: Celidoine, Marpus, Nasciens, Alains li Gros, Ysaies, -Jonans, Lancelot, Bans, Lancelot, like unto a dog until his end, Galahad, -foul at the source, but afterwards clear, in whom Christ shall bathe -Himself wholly, and who shall end all the adventures. On the morrow it is -explained to Nasciens that the eighth of his descendants likens a dog on -account of his sins, and the ninth is foul at the beginning as engendered -in fornication and not as Holy Church wills. (31) The story, after -touching on Flegentyne, who retires to her own land, returns to Joseph, -who, with his son, Josephes, and his companions, has been wandering about. -Joseph is ordered by a voice from heaven to beget a son, whose name shall -be Galaad. At length the company comes to the sea shore and laments that -it has no ships; Joseph rebukes them, and says those may pass who have -kept chaste, whereupon four hundred and sixty come forward to confess -their lechery. Josephes is told to put forward the Grail-bearers, to take -the shirt off his back, and having spread it on the water, all the pure -companions shall find place on it. This happens, and all find place save -Symeu and his son, who are not as they should be, and who sink and are -well nigh drowned. The chosen company arrive on the morrow in Great -Britain, then full of Saracens and infidels. Josephes then prays for the -remainder of the company; a heavenly voice says they shall come in good -time, and that this is the promised land in which they shall multiply and -become the worthiest race anywhere. (32) Meantime Nasciens has been led in -Solomon's ship to those of Joseph's followers who had been left behind, as -the history of the Holy Grail testifies. After being warned against fresh -falling into sin they are brought over to Joseph, and are fed with as much -meat as they could want. But the fifth day the company, not having eaten -for a day, come to the tent of a poor woman, wherein are twelve loaves -about which they dispute. Josephes, referred to, breaks each loaf in -three, and having placed the Holy Grail at the head of the table by its -power the bread suffices for more than five hundred people. (33) Hereafter -the company comes to Castle Galafort, where Celidoine is found disputing -with the Saracen wise men. The Christians are well received by Ganort, and -shortly afterwards he and his people are baptised, one hundred and fifty -who refuse being drowned. Over their bodies a tower is built, the Tower of -Marvels, and thereafter, it is prophesied, a King named Arthur should -reign, and from one blow of a sword adventures should arise, lasting -twelve years, until the last descendant of Nasciens should end them, and -till that time no knight of Arthur's house should enter the tower without -having to fight as good a man as himself; thus should it be till he who -was to end the adventures appeared. So they build the tower, and it lasts -until Lancelot destroys it, as the "Tale of Arthur's Death" relates. (34) -Joseph's wife bears a son, who receives the name of Galahad, of the Castle -of Galafort. (35) The King of Northumberland, hearing of Ganort's -conversion, summons him to the court, and on his refusal attacks him, but -is defeated and slain by the Christians. (36) Josephes, his father, and -one hundred and fifty of the Christians, leaving Galafort, come to -Norgales, and are thrown into prison by King Crudel, who says, "Let them -be for forty days, and see if their vessel will feed them." Our Lord comes -to comfort them, and bids them be of good cheer, He will send an avenger -to slay these dogs. (37) Our Lord, in the likeness of one crucified, then -appears to Mordrains, bids him set forth with wife and children and King -Label's daughter and Nasciens' wife and go to Great Britain, there to -avenge him on King Crudel. Mordrains hearkens, and shortly after sets -forth with all his household, leaving his land in charge of Duke Ganor. On -the way a devil carries off the captain of the ship, who had lusted after -Queen Flegentyne. They arrive in Britain and rejoin their friends; great -is the joy; Nasciens' queen is like to have died of joy, and swoons twelve -times. (38) Mordrains sends word to Crudel to set the Christians free, and -on his refusal marches against, overthrows, and slays him, but is -grievously wounded, though he suffers no pain. Josephes and his companions -are freed, and thanksgivings are made before the Grail. On the morrow, as -Josephes is officiating before the holy vessel, Mordains presses near to -see it, in spite of a warning voice; he loses his sight and the power of -his body; he confesses his folly, but prays he may not die till the Good -Knight's coming, the ninth of Nasciens' descendants. A voice promises him -this, and that when the Good Knight comes he shall recover his sight and -his wounds be healed; but three hear this promise beside Mordrains -himself, Joseph, Josephes, and Nasciens. (39) Mordrains is brought to -Galafort, where Celidoine marries King Label's daughter and begets a son, -Nasciens. Mordrains then, after giving his wife and shield into Nasciens' -keeping, retires to a hermitage, and builds a monastery of the White -Monks, and stays there till Perceval sees him and Galahad, too, as the -"Tale of the Holy Grail" tells. (40) Josephes leaves Galafort, and, coming -to Camelot, converts many of the people, whereat King Agrestes, being -grieved, is baptised with false intent, and after Josephes' departure -persecutes the Christians, and is punished by madness and death. Josephes -returning, buries the martyrs, whose blood had blackened a cross, which -keeps the name of the "Black Cross," till the Good Knight, Lancelot of the -Lake's son comes. (41) Josephes comes to a hill called Hill of the Giant; -'tis a Friday, and Brons is sitting next him at the Grail-table, but -between the two is space for a man to sit, and Brons, Josephes' kinsman, -asks him why he does not invite some one to fill it. Josephes answers, -only he who is a holier man than any present can fill that place, as it -typifies Christ's seat at the Last Supper, and is empty waiting His -coming, or whom He shall send. Such of the company as are in mortal sin -take this saying as presumption and fable, and Moys declares his -willingness to sit in it if his companions will ask Josephes' leave. They -do so, and though Josephes minds them how Moys might hardly come to -Britain, and though he solemnly warns Moys himself, he gives his leave. -Moys takes the seat, and at once seven flaming bands from heaven seize -upon him and carry him off to a far place burning like a dry bush. The -people repent, and, in answer to their enquiries, Josephes tells them the -day shall come when they shall know where Moys is. (42) After the meal -Josephes, at Brons' request, has the latter's twelve sons up before him, -and asks them whether they will be wedded or not. Eleven choose wedding, -but the twelfth virginity and the service of the Holy Grail. Josephes, -overjoyed, having married the other eleven, appoints him guardian of the -Grail at his death, and he might leave the guardianship afterwards to whom -he would. (43) Josephes and his companions pass through Britain converting -the heathen. Now the Grail only gives food to such as are not in sin, and -once as the troop is encamped by a lake, Peter, a kinsman of Josephes', -bears it through the ranks, and all are fed with the best food, save the -sinners; these complain, and beg Josephes to pray for them, whereupon he -bids Brons' youngest son, the same he had chosen as Grail-keeper, Alains -le Gros (not that Alains, Celidoine's son, _he_ was king and wore a crown, -but this one never) take the net from the Grail-table and fish with it in -the pond. Alains does so and catches one fish, a big one, but say they, -'Twill not be enough; however, Alains, having shared it in three, and -having prayed it might suffice, all are fed. Alains is called in -consequence the Rich Fisher, and all the Grail-keepers after him bear this -name, but they were more blessed than he, being crowned Kings whereas he -never wore crown. (44) Joseph, leaving his companions, comes into the -Forest of Broceliande, meets a Saracen who would lead him to his sick -brother, but is himself slain by a lion. Joseph is thrown in prison and -wounded in the thigh by the men of the sick knight's castle, but, -obtaining leave to visit the sick knight, heals him, and brings back to -life the Saracen slain by the lion; both brothers are baptised; a fragment -of the sword remaining in the wound, Joseph draws it out, and laying it -with the remainder of the sword prophecies it shall not be made whole till -he come who shall achieve the adventures of the Holy Grail. (45) Joseph, -returning to his companions, finds them in doubt as to how they shall -cross a great water, they pray for guidance, and a white hart appears, -followed by four stags, and leads them across, all save Chanaan, who -crosses later in a fisherman's boat. Josephes, in answer to Alain and -Pierron, explains the hart and lions as Christ and the Evangelists, and -Christ would appear in that wise afterwards to Arthur, Mordred, and -Lancelot. (46) The Christians come to a house where burns a great fire, -out of which is heard a lamentable voice; it is that of Moys; at Josephes' -prayer rain falls from heaven and quenches half the flames, but he may not -be wholly delivered until the Good Knight, Galahad, come. (47) The -Christians come into the land of King Escos, whence Scotland has its name. -The Holy Grail refuses meat to Chanaan and to Symeu, Moys' father, whereat -enraged, Symeu attacks Pierre and wounds him, and Chanaan slays his -twelve brethren. Symeu is carried off by devils, whilst Chanaan's grave -bursts out in flames, which may not quench till Lancelot come. (48) -Meanwhile Pierre's wound having become worse, he is left behind with a -priest, who leads him to the sea shore, and, at his request, places him in -a boat; this carries him to the isle of the heathen king, Orcanz, whose -daughter finding him on the sea shore dying, has pity on him and tends him -secretly till he is healed. Her father requires a champion, Pierre offers -himself, conquers, converts, and baptises Orcanz, who takes the name -Lamer, and marries his daughter, and King Luces comes to the wedding and -is overjoyed. From him came Gauvain, son of King Lot of Orcanie. Mordred -was no true son of Lot's, but of Arthur's. Gauvain is thus of the seed of -Joseph of Arimathea. (49) Josephes after fifteen years' wanderings comes -back to Galafort, and finds his brother Galahad grown up; by Josephes' -advice the men of Hocelice take Galahad for their king, and he became the -ancestor of Ywain, son of Urien. Once whilst riding he comes to Symeu's -fiery grave, which may not be quenched till Galahad, the Good Knight, -comes. At Galahad's death he is buried in an abbey he founds to allay -Symeu's pains, and the tombstone of his grave may not be lifted until by -Lancelot. (50) Joseph dies shortly after Galahad's crowning, and Josephes, -feeling death near, pays a last visit to Mordrains, who begs for a token -from him. Josephes asks for the king's shield, and with blood gushing from -his nose marks on it a red cross, gives it to Mordrains, and says no one -shall hang it on his neck without rue till Galahad do so; the shield is -placed on Nasciens' tomb. On the morrow Josephes dies; his body is carried -afterwards into Scotland to still a famine, and is buried in the Abbey of -Glays. (51) Before his death he has confided the Grail to Alain. The -latter comes with his brethren, one of whom, Josue, is unmarried, to the -Terre Foraine, converts the King and people, and marries Josue to his -daughter. Here is the resting-place of the Holy Grail; a lordly castle is -built for it, hight Corbenic, which is Chaldee, and signifies "holy -vessel." At Josue's wedding, such is the power of the Holy Grail, that all -present are as filled as if they had eaten the finest meats they could -think of. And that night the King, baptized Alfasem, sleeping in the -castle, beholds the holy vessel covered with crimson samite, and a man all -flaming tells him no mortal may sleep where the Holy Grail rests, and -wounds him through both thighs, and bids others beware of sleeping in the -Palace Adventurous. And afterwards many a knight essayed the adventure, -but lost his life, till Gauvain came, and he, though he kept his life, had -such shame and mischance as he had not had for the Kingdom of Logres' -sake. (58) Alain and Alfasem die; Josue becomes King and Grail-keeper, and -after him Aminadap, Catheloys, Manaal, Lambor, all Kings and known as the -Fisher, and Lambor fighting with his enemy, Bruillant, pursues him to the -sea shore, and Bruillant finds there Solomon's ship and enters it, and -finds the sword with which he slays Lambor, and this was the first blow -struck with that sword in Great Britain, and such great woes sprang -therefrom that no labourers worked, nor wheat grew, nor fruit trees bore, -nor fish was found in the waters, so that the land was known as the Waste -Land. But Bruillant falls dead for drawing the sword. After Lambor, -Pelleans, wounded in the two thighs in a battle of Rome, whence he was -always called the Maimed King, and he might not heal till Galahad the Good -Knight come; and from him descends Pelles, and on his daughter does -Lancelot of the Lake beget Galahad. (59) Nasciens, Flegentyne, and -Sarraquite die on the self-same day. Celidoine reigns, and is followed by -Marpus, he by Nasciens, Alain li Gros, Ysaies, Jonas, Lancelot, Bans, -Lancelot of the Lake. Here the story ends of all the seed of Celidoine, -and returns to speak of Merlin, which my lord Robert of Borron thus -begins.[46] - - In making up the slips, the summary of Borron's poem dropped out. In - order not to disturb the page form, which was fixed before the - omission was noticed, it has been inserted after the Grand St. Graal - with a subpagination. - -=Robert de Borron's Poem: Joseph of Arimathea.=--(1) Before Christ's -coming all folk went to Hell, but He came born of a Virgin that He might -bring them out of Hell. He took flesh what time Judaea was under Rome and -Pilate governed it. Now a soldier of Pilate's loved Christ but dared not -show it. Of Christ's few disciples one was bad, his chamberlain, and he -betrayed Him to the Jews. (2) On Thursday Jesus gathers His disciples; -Judas' question, the washing of the feet, the kiss of betrayal follow. -When the Jews carry off Jesus, one of them takes the very fair vessel -wherein He made His sacrament, and gave it to Pilate, who keeps it till he -learns Jesus' death. (3) Joseph is angry hereat, and claims pay for his -and his five knights five years' free service, and his pay is Christ's -body. Pilate grants it him, and Joseph hastens to the Cross, but the -guards deny him, whereon he complains to Pilate, who sends Nicodemus to -see he obtain it, and also gives Joseph the vessel. (4) Joseph and -Nicodemus descend the body, and wash it, which makes the blood flow -afresh. Joseph puts the blood in the vessel, wraps the body in a fine -cloth and entombs it. The descent into Hell and the Resurrection follow. -(5) The Jews are incensed against Joseph and Nicodemus; the latter -escapes, but Joseph is thrust into a horrible and dark prison. To him -Christ appears with His vessel, in a great light, and instructs Joseph, -telling him for his love to Him he shall have the symbol of His death and -give it to keep to whom he would; He then gives Joseph the great, precious -vessel wherein is His holiest blood. Joseph wonders, having hidden it in -his house. Joseph is to yield the vessel to three persons only, who are to -take it in the name of the Trinity. No Sacrament shall ever be celebrated -but Joseph shall be remembered. But Joseph must be taught concerning the -Sacrament; the bread and wine are Christ's flesh and blood, the tomb is -the Altar; the grave-cloth the Corporal, the vessel wherein the blood was -put shall be called Chalice, the cup-platten signifies the tombstone. All -who see Joseph's vessel shall be of Christ's company, have fulfilment of -their heart's wish and joy eternal. (_The author adds_: I dare not, nor -could not, tell this but that I had the great book wherein the histories -are written by the great clerks, therein are the great secrets written -which are called the Graal.) Christ leaves Joseph, who remains in prison, -no man heeding him (6) until, when Vespasian, the Emperor's son, was a -leper, a pilgrim comes to Rome and tells of Christ's cures, and lays his -head Vespasian could be cured could anything of Christ's be brought to -Rome. The Emperor sends messengers, who hear Pilate's story of the -Crucifixion and about Joseph. The Jews are called together, and one tells -of Verrine, who is brought before the messengers, and she relates how she -wiped Christ's face and thus got the likeness of Him. They take her to -Rome, Vespasian is healed, and sets forth to revenge Christ's death. He -kills many Jews, burning some. One Jew offers to find Joseph, and tells -the story of his imprisonment. Vespasian is let down into the prison and -finds Joseph alive, who, to his amazement, welcomes him by name, and -reads him a lecture on Biblical history and Christian Faith. Vespasian is -converted, and sells the Jews at the rate of thirty for a penny. (7) -Joseph exhorts his kin, among them his sister, Enygeus, and -brother-in-law, Hebron. They agree to believe, and to follow him. He sets -off with them and they dwell for long in far-off lands. For awhile things -go well, but then all the host does turns to naught; 'tis on account of -carnal sin. The host complains to Hebron that they and their children die -of hunger. (8) Hebron reports this to Joseph, who goes weeping and kneels -before the vessel and asks why his followers suffer? A voice from the Holy -Ghost answers he is not in fault, but he is to set the vessel before the -people, and to mind him how He, Christ, had eaten with His disciples, and -how the false disciple was detected. In the name of that table whereat -Christ last ate, Joseph is to prepare another, and then to call his -brother-in-law, Brons, and make him go into the water to catch a fish, and -the first he catches Joseph is to put it on the table, and then to take -the vessel, put it on the table, cover it with a towel, and then place -Hebron's fish opposite it. The people are then to be called, who will soon -see wherein they have sinned. And Joseph is to sit where Christ sat at the -Last Sacrament, with Brons at his right. And Brons is to draw back one -seat, to signify the seat of Judas, and the seat thus left empty is not to -be filled until Enygeus have a child by Brons, her husband, and when that -child is born there shall be his seat. The people is then to be bidden sit -down to the grace of our Lord. Joseph does all this; part of the people -sit, part do not, the sitters are filled with sweetness and the desire of -their heart, the others feel nought. One of the sitters, named Petrus, -asks if they feel nothing, and tells them it is because they are defiled -with sin. The sinners then depart, but Joseph bids them come back day by -day. Thus Joseph detects the sinners, and thus is the vessel first proved. -(9) Joseph tells the sinners it severs them from the others, as it holds -no company with nor has love towards any sinner. The sinners ask the name -of the vessel: it is called _Graal_, as it is agreeable to all who see it. -Now all this is verity, hence we call this the Story of the Grail, and it -shall be henceforth known as the Grail. (10) One sinner remains, Moyses, a -hypocrite (here a gap which can be filled up from the prose versions: -Moyses seats himself in the empty seat, whereupon the earth opens and -swallows him). (11) Joseph prays to Christ that as He came to him in -prison, and promised He would come to his aid when in trouble, so now He -would show him what has become of Moyses. The voice tells Joseph again -about the empty seat, and how that the one at Joseph's table was not to be -filled until the third man come, whom Hebron should beget and Enygeus -bear, and _his_ son should fill the seat. Moyses had stayed behind only to -deceive, he had his deserts, no more should be heard of him in fable or -song until _he_ come who should fill the empty seat. (12) In course of -time Brons and Enygeus have twelve sons and are greatly bothered with -them, and ask Joseph what is to be done with them. Joseph prays before the -vessel; eleven will marry, one remain single; this one is Alain. Joseph -is told by the voice when he consults the vessel about this nephew, to -relate all about Christ's death and about the vessel, to tell Alain that -from him shall issue an heir who is to keep the vessel; Alain is to take -charge of his brethren and sisters and go westwards. An angel will bring a -letter for Petrus to read, telling him to go whither he lists; he will -say: the vale of Avaron; thither shall he go and wait for the son of -Alain, and shall not pass away until that one come, and to him shall -Petrus teach the power of the vessel, and say what has become of Moyses, -and then may he die. (13) All happens as foretold by the voice; the letter -comes for Petrus, who declares his intention of departing for the vale of -Avaron, bidding the host pray God he may never go against His will. Alain -leaves with his brethren, and, as Joseph taught him, preaches the name of -Jesus Christ. (14) Petrus stays one day more; it is, says an angel, the -Lord sends to Joseph, that he may see and hear the things of the vessel. -The angel continues: The Lord knows Brons for a worthy man, and 'twas, -therefore His will he should go fishing; he is to keep the vessel after -Joseph, who must instruct him properly especially concerning the holy -words which God spake to Joseph in the prison, which are properly called -the Secrets of the Grail; Brons is to be called the Rich Fisher from the -fish he caught; all the people are to go westwards; Brons is to wait for -the son of his son, and to give him the vessel, then shall the meaning of -the blessed Trinity be made known; after the vessel has been given to -Brons, Petrus is to go, as he may then truly say he has seen Hebron, the -Rich Fisher, put in possession of the vessel; when all this is done, -Joseph is to go to perfect joy and life pardurable. (15) On the morrow -Joseph tells them the angel's message, save the words of Christ in the -prison, which he tells to the Rich Fisher alone. The latter is then put in -possession of Grail and headship; Joseph stays three days with him, then -the Good Fisher goes away--in the land where he was born--and Joseph -remains.[47] - -Master Robert de Borron should doubtless tell where Alain went, Hebron's -son, and what became of him; what life Petrus led, and what became of him; -what became of the long-lost Moyses; where the Rich Fisher went, and where -he stayed. It were well to assemble these four things, but this no man -could do save he had first heard tell the greatest history of the Grail, -which is all true; and in this time I tell it to my Lord Walter, never had -the great history of the Grail been told by mortal man. If God gives me -strength I will assemble these four parts if I can find them in a book, -meanwhile I must go on to the fifth and forget the four. (Then follows the -Merlin). - -=Robert de Borron's Poem: Merlin.=--(In order to give all the materials -for the discussion of Birch-Hirschfeld's theory of the Grail legend in the -next chapter, a brief summary of the Merlin is added. A full one may be -found in Birch-Hirschfeld, pp. 166, _et seq._) - -The devil, incensed at Christ's victory over him, in revenge begets by -fraudful malice upon a virgin, a son, who is to be the wisest of mankind, -and to oppose Christ's teaching. This is Merlin, who at eighteen months is -able to save his mother, threatened with the doom of unchastity. -Afterwards he is brought to King Vortigern, to whom he expounds the -mystery of the unfinished tower. Vortigern is driven from his throne by -Pendragon, with whom Merlin stands in high honour; equally so with his -successor, Uter Pendragon, for whom he builds the Round Table, leaving one -place empty to be filled in the time of Uter's successor. He then helps -the King to satisfy his passion for Yguerne, and takes charge of Arthur, -their son. When the latter grows up to be a youth he fulfils the adventure -of the sword in the anvil, and is proclaimed King. "And I, Robert of -Borron, writer of this book, may not speak longer of Arthur till I have -told of Alain, son of Brons, and how the woes of Britain were caused; and -as the book tells so must I what man Alain was, and what life he led, and -of his seed and their life. And when I have spoken of these things I will -tell again of Arthur." - -(Then follows in one solitary MS., the Didot-Perceval summarised above, p. -28. As will be seen, it does not tell what man Alain was, nor does it -refer to him at all save in the most passing way). - - - - -CHAPTER III. - - The legend formed of two portions: Early History of Grail, Quest--Two - forms of each portion distinguished--Grouping of the various - versions--Alternative hypotheses of development--Their bearing upon - the alleged Celtic origin of the Grail--Closer examination of the - various accounts of the Grail: The first use made of it and its first - possessor; its solace of Joseph; its properties and the effect - produced by it; its name; its arrival in England; the Grail-keeper and - his relationship to the Promised Knight--Three different stages in the - development of the Queste--The work and the qualification of the - Promised Knight--Conclusions: Priority over Early History of - Quest--Chronological arrangement of the versions. - - -The information afforded by the summaries enables us to take a general -view of the legend as a whole, and to attempt a more accurate -chronological classification of its varying forms. It will have been seen -that the legend is formed of two distinct portions: the one dealing with -the origin and wanderings (Early History) of the Grail, the other with its -Quest. The two portions are found combined in the Joseph and -Didot-Perceval and in the Grand St. Graal and Queste considered each as -one organic whole. Versions A, Chrestien and his continuators; C, -Didot-Perceval taken by itself; D, Queste; F, Wolfram, and G, Perceval le -Gallois, treat only of the Quest. Versions B, Metrical Joseph, and E, -Grand St. Graal, only of the Early History. But in nearly all the -versions, no matter of which portion, references are to be found to the -other, and when the versions are carefully examined, it is found that of -each portion there exist two entirely different forms. Taking the Early -History first, versions A, B, C, D, E, and G, in so far as they deal with -it at all, relate much as follows: the Grail is the vessel which our Lord -used at the Last Supper, which, given by Pilate to Joseph, served the -latter to receive the blood flowing from the body of the dead Christ, -sustained him miraculously during his captivity, was, after his release, -used by him to test the faith of his followers, and was brought to England -by Joseph (A, D, E), by Brons (B, C), and was finally confided by Joseph -to his brother-in-law, Brons, to be kept until the coming of the latter's -grandson (versions B and C), or was left in charge of Alain, son of Brons, -from whom it passed to his brother Josue, in whose line it remained until -the Good Knight should come (version E). But F, Wolfram makes the Grail a -vessel of "lapsit exillit" (_i.e._, lapis herilis, or lapsus ex coelis, or -lapis electrix), which, after the fall of the rebel angels, was given in -charge to Titurel and his dynasty, and by them preserved in the Grail -Castle, Montsalvatch, guarded by a sacred order of Knighthood whom it -chooses itself. So far, therefore, as the Early History is concerned all -the versions, save one, are in the main of the same class, the differences -between them being, apparently, ones of development and not of origin. - -Turning now to the Quest, two classes are likewise to be distinguished: in -the first the hero is Perceval, in the second there are three heroes, -Galahad, Perceval, and Bors, chief of whom is Galahad. To the first class -belong versions A, Chrestien, etc., C, Didot-Perceval; F, Wolfram; and G, -Perceval le Gallois; whilst D, Queste, alone of the versions which recount -the Quest only, belongs to the other class. It is followed, however, by E, -Grand St. Graal, in so far as the latter has any reference to the Quest. -In the other Early History version, namely B, Metrical Joseph, the name of -the hero who is to achieve the Quest is not mentioned, but the indications -concerning him agree more closely with the march of the story in C, -Didot-Perceval, than with those of D, Queste; it must therefore be ranged -in the first class. The main incident in the versions of this class is the -hero's visit to the castle of a sick king, his beholding there the Grail -in company with other relics, his neglect on the first visit to ask the -meaning of what he sees, his punishment, second visit to the Grail Castle, -and attainment of his end, whether healing of the Sick King or winning of -the Grail kingship. The two versions, H, Peredur, and I, Sir Perceval, -which belong to the Grail cycle, though they do not mention the Grail, and -although I, Sir Perceval, does not contain the above-mentioned incident, -must likewise be placed in this class, as must also the Gawain episodes -of Diu Crone. In the second class this main incident is missing, though -several of its less important features are present in altogether different -connection. The story in D, Queste, is largely made up of adventures -tallying often detail for detail with those in the Early History version, -E, Grand St. Graal, with which it shares similarity in the Quest form. - -Whilst each portion of the legend exists in two forms, the great majority -of versions in both cases belong to one form. Looking for the moment upon -D and E as one whole, there is in both cases only one minority-version, -viz., for the Early History, F, Wolfram, for the Quest D-E, Queste, Grand -St. Graal. And each of these is only in a minority as far as one portion -of the legend is concerned, D-E, agreeing with the majority in the Early -History, and F in the Quest. Taking the average of all the versions there -results what may be called the _Joseph of Arimathea form_ as the type of -the Early History; the _Perceval form_ as the type of the Quest. As a -rule, it may be confidently assumed that the larger number of versions -represent an older form, an assumption strengthened so far as the Early -History is concerned by the fact that the minority version, F, Wolfram, -can historically be proved to be one of the latest in date of all the -versions, and, so far as the Quest is concerned, by the following -considerations:--The minority version, D-E, has three heroes, of whom -Perceval is second in importance only to the chief hero, Galahad, indeed -he occupies as large a space in the narrative. This position can be due -only to his being the original achiever of the Quest. It is obviously -inadmissible that seven or eight versions should have conspired to pick -out one only, and that one the second, of the three heroes of the Queste, -and should have made him the sole hero, whilst it is easy to understand -that the author of D, Queste, dissatisfied for certain reasons with the -older forms of the story, yet not daring to alter it so far as to entirely -burke the original hero, should have taken the course he did. - -Two alternative hypotheses now naturally suggest themselves. The two parts -of the legend may really form one organic whole, although more frequently -found asunder than combined, or the one part may be an explanatory and -supplementary after-thought. If the first hypothesis be accepted, it is -natural to look upon the Metrical Joseph and the Didot-Perceval as the -first and last parts of a trilogy, which, as presenting the legend in its -fullest and most orderly shape, has a claim to being the oldest form of -the story, and the main, if not the only, source of all other versions. -If, on the other hand, the second hypothesis be exact, if one part of the -legend be later than the other, and has been artificially welded into one -with it, that version in which this fusion is most perfect, instead of -being the earliest is, with greater likelihood, one of the latest forms. -How do these alternative hypotheses affect the special object of these -studies--the investigation of the alleged Celtic element in the Grail -romances? In this way. If the Early History be an integral part of the -romance, the probabilities in favour of a purely Christian legendary -origin for the Grail itself are immensely increased, and the utmost the -Celtic partisan could hope to show was that a Christian legend had somehow -or other been strongly influenced by Celtic popular traditions. But if the -reverse be true the probabilities are at once in favour of the Christian -legendary element being the intruding one, and the chief aim of the Celtic -partisan will be to disengage the present versions of the Quest from the -traces left upon them by the Early History, and to accumulate as many -parallels as possible between the residuum and admittedly genuine Celtic -tradition. It by no means follows, however, that the acceptance of the -second hypothesis involves the acceptance of the Celtic origin of the -Grail. The romance as we have it--Quest, Early History--may be the fusion -of two elements, one of which, the Christian legendary, may claim _all_ -that is connected with the mystic vessel. Were it otherwise our task would -be greatly simplified. For the mere fact that what may be called the -non-Grail members of the cycle, _i.e._, H, Peredur, and I, Sir Perceval, -know nothing of the Early History, gives no uncertain hint as to which -portion of the romance is the original, and which the accretion. Two -points have then to be investigated--the relationship one to the other of -Early History and Quest; and, if the Quest is found to be the older -portion, whether the Grail really belongs to it, or whether its presence -in the various forms of the story as we now have them may not be due to -the Early History. An examination of the various passages in which the -Grail is mentioned will furnish material towards settling the first point. -Such an examination may profitably omit all reference to Wolfram, to the -prose Perceval le Gallois, from which little is apparently to be gained -respecting the oldest forms of the legend, and to Heinrich von dem -Tuerlin's version of the Gawain episodes. It must also neglect for the -nonce the two non-Grail members of the cycle (the Mabinogi and Sir -Perceval) as their testimony is either of little or of the highest value -according as the Quest is or is not found to be the oldest portion of the -romance. With these exceptions all the versions furnish elements of -comparison, though little is to be got, as far as the point under -discussion is concerned, from what is apparently the latest section of the -Conte du Graal, Gerbert's poem. - -The consideration of the second point will necessitate comparison of the -various Quest forms among themselves, and the examination of numerous -Celtic stories which present analogies with them. - - -_The Grail: the first use made of it and its first Possessor._ - -We learn nothing from Chrestien respecting the early history of the Grail, -nor is Gautier more communicative if the Mons MS. version be followed. The -intercalation, A IIA, however, and Manessier give full details. According -to the former: - - ... c'est icel Graal por voir - Que nostre Sires tant ama - Que de son saint sanc l'anora - Au jor que il fu en croix mis. (16-19) - -According to the latter: - - C'est li vassiaus, ce sacies-vous, - U ens li sains sans presious - Nostre Segnor fu receus - Quant de la lance fu ferus. (35,017-20) - -We learn from the former that "Josep le fist fere" (v. 22), and that he -used it to collect the blood that flowed from each foot of our Lord as He -hung on the Cross (verses 30-39), whilst the latter leaves it uncertain -who the first possessor was, and who held the Grail to receive our Lord's -blood. The information given in versions B, is as might be expected, much -fuller. B I, Metr. Jos., which calls it "un veissel mout gent," tells how -Christ used it, He "feisoit son sacrement" in it; how it was found by a -Jew, who delivered it up to Pilate, by whom it was given to Joseph, and by -him used to receive the blood which bursts forth again from Christ's -wounds when the body has been taken down from the Cross.--C, -Didot-Perceval: Brons, after relating how Longis pierced the Lord's body -as it hung on the Cross, says of the Grail, "en cest vessel gist le sanc -que Joseph recueilli qui decoroit par terre" (p. 483).--E, Grand St. -Graal: Joseph himself finds the vessel out of which Christ had eaten, -takes it home, and when he has received the body from Pilate, fetches the -vessel and collects in it all the blood flowing from the wound he can (I, -pp. 23, 24). Curiously enough, the very MS. which gives this version has -an illustration of Joseph sitting under the Cross and collecting the blood -as it drops from the wounds in side and feet. Three different accounts of -how the Grail came into Joseph's possession and to what use he put it thus -exist:-- - - (1) The Grail is the vessel in which Christ's blood was received as He - hung upon the Cross (Pseudo-Gautier, Manessier, Didot-Perceval, and an - illustration in a MS. of the Grand St. Graal); Joseph had had it made - (Pseudo-Gautier). - - (2) The Grail is the vessel which had been used by Christ at the Last - Supper. It is used as a receptacle for the blood of Christ after His - body has been taken down from the Cross (Metr. Jos.). - - (3) Same as No. 2, with minor alterations, such as that it was Joseph - who found the holy vessel himself (Grand St. Graal). - - -_The Grail: its Solace of Joseph._ - -Chrestien and Gautier are again silent, but from A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, we -learn that Joseph was wont to pray before the Grail, that he was, in -consequence, imprisoned in a high tower by the Jews, delivered thence by -the Lord, whereupon the Jews resolve to exile him with Nicodemus, and -that sister of his who had a likeness of Christ (verses 60-110). -Manessier, in the Mons MS. version, passes this over, but A IIIA, has the -following important passage:-- - - En une charte orrible et lede - Fu mis Joseph sanz nul arreste; - - * * * * - - XL ans ilecques estut - C'onques ne menja ne ne but; - Mais Damediex li envoioit - Le Saint Graal que il veoit - II foiees ou III le jor; (V. pp. 153-4.) - -In the B versions this episode is one of capital importance. B I., Joseph -is put into prison, because the Jews suspect him of having stolen away -Christ's body. To him in the dungeon, "qui estoit horrible et obscure" (v. -703), appears Christ, who hands him the Grail, whereat he is surprised, as -he had hidden it in a house where none knew of it (v. 860), and addresses -him as follows:-- - - En ten povoir l'enseigne aras - De ma mort et la garderas - Et cil l'averunt a garder - A cui tu la voudras donner. (847-50) - -These will be three-- - - Joseph, bien ce saras garder, - Que tu ne le doiz commander - Qu'a trois persones qui l'arunt. - Ou non dou Pere le penrunt - Et dou Fil et dou Saint-Esprit (871-75) - -The offices Joseph rendered to Christ's body were symbolical of the -Sacrament: the sepulchre is the altar; the sheet in which the body was -wrapped the corporal; the vessel in which the blood was received shall be -called chalice; and by the patina upon which it rests is signified the -tombstone (v. 901-912). Finally Christ promises Joseph that:-- - - Tout cil qui ten veissel verrunt, - En ma compeignie serunt; - De cuer arunt emplissement - Et joie pardurablement. (917-20) - -The prose versions repeat this account in the main, but with some -important additions, thus: B II, Cange MS., adds after Christ's last -words, "Lors li aprant Jhesu Christ tex paroles que ja nus conter ne -retraire ne porroit," etc. (I, 227); when Christ hands the vessel to -Joseph, "Tu tiens lou sanc as trois personnes en une deite, qui degota des -plaies de la char au fil," etc. (I, 225-26); after the description of the -Grail, "lou Graal c'est a dire sor lou caalice."... In C, Didot-Perceval, -the Holy Ghost, speaking to Brons, commands him to reveal to Perceval, -"icelles paroles segroies qu'il (_i.e._, Christ) aprist a Joseph en la -prison," which, adds the narrator, "je ne vous puis dire ne ne doi" (I, -483). E, Grand St. Graal: The Jews, angry at Joseph's having taken -Christ's body down from the Cross, throw him into "la plu hideuse chartre -qui onques fust veue" and when they hear of the Lord's resurrection -propose to starve him; but Christ comes to him, brings him for comfort "la -sainte esceuele que ostoie en sa maison a tot le sanc qu'il Auoit -requelli," and comforted him much, and assured him that he should not die -in prison but come out safe and sound, and his name be glorified. And -Joseph "fu en la prison ... tant qu'il demoura xlii ans" (pp. 25-26).[48] -Here again are three distinct accounts:-- - - (1) That of Pseudo-Gautier, which merely mentions Joseph's devotions - to the Grail, and does not connect that devotion with any solace - during his captivity. - - (2) That of the B versions, in which Christ Himself brings the holy - vessel to the captive, and connects it with certain promises and - recommendations which He makes to him; the vessel shall remain with - his seed, but it is to be in charge of three persons, a symbol of the - Trinity. The services rendered by Joseph to Christ's body are - connected with the Mass. The late (prose) drafts of this version - insist still more upon the sacramental nature of the Grail. - - (3) The Grand St. Graal and Pseudo-Manessier introduce a fresh - element--the Grail is the material means by which Joseph is sustained - (forty years according to the one, forty-two years according to the - other version) without food or drink. - -The great importance of the incident in the B versions is most remarkable -when contrasted with the comparative indifference displayed by the other -versions, and notably by the Grand St. Graal, which, at the first blush, -looks so like a mere amplification of B, still more remarkable the -agreement between the prose versions of B, with C, Didot-Perceval, -respecting Christ's words to Joseph against B I, Metr. Jos. It is -difficult to decide which of the two versions is the older; B I, after -Christ's words, has the following important passage:-- - - Ge n'ose conter ne retreire, - Ne je ne le pourroie feire, - Neis, se je feire le voloie, - Se je le grant livre n'avoie - Ou les estoires sunt escrites, - Par les granz clers feites et dites: - La sunt li grant secre escrit - Qu'en numme le Graal et dit. - -which may either have been the reason why the prose versions, followed by -the Didot-Perceval, speak as they do about the secret words, or may be the -versifier's excuse for giving those secret words themselves, _i.e._, the -explanation of the mysteries of the Grail in its relation to the -Sacrament, in which case the verse would be later than the prose -forms.[49] Finally, it would seem that Pseudo-Manessier, A IIIA, and the -Grand St. Graal drew their information one from the other or from a common -source. - - -_Properties and Effect of the Grail._ - -In Chrestien these seem to be of a purely physical nature; the Grail is -borne uncovered through the hall at every meal (4,470-79), it feeds the -Fisher King's father-- - - D'une seule oiste li sains hom - Quant en ce Greal li aporte - Sa vie sostient et conforte - Tant sainte cose est li Graaus. (7,796-99) - -the most direct testimony in Chrestien to its sacred nature. In Gautier, -likewise, the physical properties are insisted upon in the following -passages:-- - - Lors vit parmi la sale aler - La rice Greail ki servoit - Et mist le pain a grant esploit. (20,114-16) - - Moult mangierent a grant loisir; - Adonques veissies servir - Le Greail moult honestement. (20,142-43) - -but in verses 28,078-81 a remarkable spiritual effect is attributed to -it-- - - Car li diables ne decoit - Nul homme ki le jor le voie, - Ne ne le met en male voie - Por faire pecie creminal. - -In A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, the physical side alone is insisted upon-- - - Et de quanqu'il lor ert mestiers - Les fornissoit a tel plente - Com s'il n'eust neant couste; (12-14) - - Et li Graaux par tot aloit - Et pain et vin par tot portoit - Et autres mes a grant plante. (171-74) - -Manessier makes no special reference to the properties of the Grail. - -In the B versions it is the spiritual power of the Grail which is dwelt -upon. Christ's words to Joseph have already been quoted (_supra_, p. 71), -and the use which the latter puts the Grail to, and which is specially -indicated to Joseph by the Holy Ghost, is in accordance with them. The -Grail is to serve him as a touchstone to distinguish the sinners of his -company-- - - Car il n'a a nul pecheour - Ne compaignie ne amour; (2,629-30) - -whereas to those who have not defiled themselves with sin it brings - - La douceur, l'accomplissement - De leur cueurs tout entierement; (2,565-67) - -so that according to them-- - - ... Cuers ne pourroit, - A pourpenser ne soufiroit - Le grant delit que nous avuns - Ne la grant joie en quoi nous suns. (2,609-12) - -This testing power of the Grail is especially brought into play when the -vessel is placed on the table in connection with the fish which Brons -caught, and which won him the name of the Rich Fisher. - -C, Didot-Perceval, has only one reference, "ne il ne covient mie en sa -compagnie pechier" (I, 483), agreeing with B and with Gautier's lines -28,079-80. - -In D, Queste, we revert to the physical gifts of the Grail. "And as soon -as it entered the door of the hall the whole court was filled with -perfumes ... and it proceeded to every place in the hall. And as it came -before the tables it filled them with every kind of meat that a man would -wish to have." When it comes in, "Every one looked at each other, and -there was not one that could say a single word;" when it goes out, "Every -one recovered his speech" (D II, pp. 442-43). There is no allusion to a -gathering at which the Grail is used to test the state of grace of its -devotees. E, Grand St. Graal, shows a curious mixture of the two ideas; -the Grail feeds its worshippers, but only those who are "de sainte vie," -to them it bring "toutes le boines viandes ke cuers d'omme pourroit -penser," but "li pecheour n'auoient ke mangier." This version shows itself -here, as in so many other passages, one of the latest in date, embodying -and reconciling as it does the conceptions of the older -versions--conceptions which it is difficult to derive, either from a -common source or from one another. If it were not for the solitary phrase -of Gautier's, lines 28,079, etc. (a passage which affords the strongest -proof against the homogeneity of that part of the Conte du Graal which -goes under Gautier's name), there would be an unbroken chain of testimony -as to the food-giving power of the Grail on the part of the earlier A -versions, supported by the Queste in opposition to the spiritual gifts -insisted on by the B and E, Grand St. Graal, forms. It is in any case -difficult to believe that if the writer of the Queste, with his strong -tendency to mystic allegory, had had before him the highly spiritual -presentment of the Grail-power found in B, he would have neglected it in -favour of the materialistic description he uses. In one point this version -differs from all others, the dumbness with which the Grail strikes those -to whom it appears.[50] - - -_Name of Grail._ - -Whilst the majority of versions afford no explanation of the name of the -Grail, B and C attach a curious punning meaning to it, thus B I, Metr. -Jos.: - - Par droit Graal l'apelera; - Car nus le Graal ne verra, - Ce croi-je, qu'il ne li agree; (2,659-61) - -and C, Didot-Perceval, "Et por ce l'anpelon-nos Graal, qu'il agree as -prodes homes" (p. 483). E, Grand St. Graal, seems to follow these versions -in Nasciens' words, "Car tout mi pense sont accompli, puis ke ie voi chou -qui en toutes choses me plaist et m'agree" (I, 212). Is such a punning -explanation more consonant with the earliness or the lateness of the -versions in which it is found? If the meaning of "Greal" as cup or vessel -was a perfectly well-established one, it is difficult to see why in the -first treatment of the subject it should have been necessary to explain -the word at all. - - -_Arrival of the Grail in England._ - -Neither A I, Chrestien, nor A II, Gautier, give any indication how the -Grail came to England; not until we come to A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, do we -learn anything on the subject. It is there related (v. 139-48) how Joseph -and his companions take ship and sail till they come to the land promised -Joseph by God--the White Isle, namely, a part of England; and how (v. -161-66) Joseph, finding that "sa vitaille li falloit," prays God to lend -him that Grail in which he had collected the holy blood. The prayer is -granted and the Grail appears and feeds the company. A III, Manessier, -simply says that Joseph, after leaving Sarras, carried the Grail about -with him, then in a singularly enigmatic passage (the Fisher King is -speaking):-- - - Et, quant il furent departis, - Il s'en ala en son pais, - Et tout partout u il aloit - La loi Jhesucrist essaucoit. - Puis vint en cest pais manoir, - Od lui le saint Greal, por voir. - Josep qui en Dieu se fia - Icest pais edefia. (35,123-30) - -The B versions account is much more elaborate, and demands the most -careful analysis. In B I, Metr. Jos., the first mention of the West is -found in Christ's words to Joseph concerning his nephew, Alain, who is to -keep the Grail, to take charge of his brothers and sisters, and - - Puis s'en ira vers occident - Es plus loiteins lius que pourra; (3,100-01) - -further that Petrus is likewise to go "es vaus d'Avaron" (3,123), it being -added that-- - - Ces terres trestout vraiement - Se treient devers occident. (3,125-26) - -Effectively we learn (v. 3,262, etc.) that Alain leads his brothers into -strange lands. But the Grail remains behind, and in v. 3,353, etc., an -angel declares it necessary that all the people should go to the West, -that Brons should have the vessel, that he should go straight to the West, -and that Petrus, after seeing the Grail safe in Brons' keeping, is to go -likewise. Joseph follows the angel's command, and three days after he has -committed the Grail to Brons' hands. - - Ainsi Joseph se demoura. - Li boens Pescherres s'en ala - (Dont furent puis meintes paroles - Contees, ki ne sunt pas foles) - En la terre lau il fu nez, - Et Joseph si est demourez. (3,455-60) - -A puzzling passage, as it is difficult to be sure whether line 3,459 -refers to the Fisher or to Joseph, a point of obvious importance, as in -the latter case it would indicate that Joseph in this version does not go -West. On turning to the prose versions, some remarkable variations are -found in the corresponding passages; thus B II, Cange MS. (I, 265) after -relating how Brons finds wives for his children, adds, "Mais ancor estoit -la crestientez moult tenue et moult novele en ce pais que l'an apeloit la -bloe Bretaigne que Joseph avoit novellement convertie a la creance de -Jhesu-Christ," words which would seem to indicate that the writer imagined -Joseph and his company _already_ in England. The corresponding passage to -v. 3,445-60 runs thus: Ensinc se departirent, si s'en ala li riches -peschierres dont maintes paroles furent puis, en la grant Bretaigne et -ensinc remest Joseph et fina en la terre et ou pais ou il fu envoiez de -par Jhesu-Crist (275). B III, Didot MS, accentuates the punning reference -to Avalon in the angel's message to Joseph, "Come li monde ... va en -avalant covient-il que toute ceste gent se retraie en occident" (p. 330). -The final passage runs thus: "Eynsi se despartirent Joseph et Bron: et -Joseph s'en ala en la terre et el pais ou il fust nez et ampris la terre" -(p. 332). Thus the testimony of these versions favours the application of -v, 2,459 in Metr. Jos. to Joseph. From C, Didot-Perceval, we obtain an -account similar in parts to that of the B versions, the most direct -reference being in the speech of the hermit, Perceval's uncle, "Biaus -nies, saches que a la table la ou Joseph fist et je meismes oimes la voiz -de saint esperit qui nos comenda venir en loingteines terres en occident, -et comenda le riche pecheor mon pere que il venist en cestes parties, la -ou li soleil avaloit" (449-50), where the punning reference to Avalon is -again prominent, and where, apparently, the passage of Joseph himself to -England is not indicated. An entirely different form of the legend is -found in D and E. In the former (D II, 450) it is briefly stated, "And -afterwards it happened to Joseph, and Joseph his father, and a number of -his family with them, to set out from the city of Sarras, and they came as -far as Great Britain"; again, p. 467, Perceval's aunt relates how when -Joseph of Arimathea came, and his son Joseph with him, to Great Britain, -there came with them about 4,000 people, all of whom are fed by ten -loaves, placed on the table, on the head of which is the Grail. E, Grand -St. Graal, dwells specially upon Josephe; he is referred to in I, p. 22, -as having passed "le lignage ioseph son pere outre mer iusqu'en la bloie -bertaigne qui ore a nom engleterre," and II, 123, etc., gives a full -account of how the passage is effected; how the Grail-bearers are sent -first, and supported through the water by its power; how, when Josephe -takes off his shirt, and his father Joseph puts his foot upon it, it -swells until it holds 250 persons. These two accounts agree better with -that of A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, than with any of the others; indeed, a -passage in the latter (v. 125-29), which tells how Joseph committed the -portrait of our Lord, made by Verrine, to the mercy of the sea, may have -given the hint for the miraculous shirt story of the Grand St. Graal. In -this version, too, as in D, Queste, we first hear of the passage to -England, and then the Grail appears at the miraculous feeding of the -travellers. The versions thus fall into two clearly-defined groups, Joseph -being the Grail-bearer in the one, Brons in the latter. The latter class -is represented by the Metrical Joseph and the Didot-Perceval alone, if we -except the Berne MS. form of a portion of the Conte du Graal, which, in -its finish, has obviously copied the Metrical Joseph. To the former class -belong all the other versions. Nay, more, one of the prose forms of -Borron's poems is interpolated, so as to countenance the Joseph-account of -the bringing of the Grail to England. Moreover, Borron's account of the -whole transaction is ambiguous and obscure; at first Alain is the destined -hero, long passages being devoted to him, and the keeping of the mystic -vessel being expressly reserved to him. Yet he leaves, quite quietly, -nothing more being heard of him, and the same machinery of angelic -messages is set in motion for Brons, to whom, henceforth, the chief _role_ -is assigned. Does not this show that there were from the outset two -accounts of the evangelisation of Britain, one, attributing it to Joseph, -of wider popularity, and followed solely by the majority of the romances, -whilst Borron, who gave greater prominence to the other account, has -maladroitly tried to fuse the two into one? In any case it would be -remarkable were the legend of purely Christian origin, and were the -Metrical Joseph its earliest form, and source of the other forms, that its -testimony on such an important point should be contradicted by nearly -every other version. - -Do the foregoing facts throw any light upon the question whether the two -sections of the romance are originally independent, and which is the -earlier? It is the later forms of the Quest alone which mention Joseph. -But if he be really the older of the two personages to whom, in the Early -History, the evangelisation of Britain is attributed, this would of itself -go a long way to proving that the two portions of the romance only came -into contact at a late stage of their development, and that the Quest is -the older. It is otherwise if Brons be looked upon as the original -Grail-bringer; the same causes which led to his exclusion from the other -versions of the Early History might have kept him out of most versions of -the Quest, and his presence in one Quest version could be claimed as a -proof of the homogeneity of the romance. For the present, it is sufficient -to mark the fact that what may be called the Brons form of the Early -History is in a minority. - - -_The Grail-Keeper and his relationship to the Promised Knight._ - -In the A versions the Grail-keeper is the Fisher King, uncle to the hero -of the Quest, Perceval. The relationship is first plainly put in -Chrestien, where the hermit, speaking to Perceval of the Grail, says-- - - Cil qui l'en sert, il est mes frere - Ma soeur et soie fu ta mere, - Et del rice Pesceour croi - Que il est fius a celui roi - Qui del Graal servir se fait. (7,789-94) - -The origin of his name is fully explained in the passage (v. 4,685-98), -which tells of his being wounded in battle by a lance-thrust through his -two thighs, of his sufferings, and of his only solace being fishing from -a boat. How the Grail came into his possession C does not say. Gautier has -no occasion to mention these facts, but from Manessier we learn that -Joseph, having converted the land, died therein; that the Fisher King is -of his seed, and that if God wills the Grail will never have its dwelling -elsewhere than with him (35,130-36); that he, the Fisher King, had a -brother, Goon Desert, treacherously slain by Partinal, who broke his sword -in the murderous act. Goon's body and the fragments of the sword being -brought by his niece to the Fisher King, he wounds himself with them, -"parmi les gambes en traviers," and may not be healed until a knight -should come to weld the fragments together and avenge his brother's death. - -Pseudo-Gautier tells how Joseph, dying, prays that the Grail may remain -with his descendants-- - - Si fist il, c'est verite fine, - Qu' apres sa mort n'en ot sesine - Nus hom, tant fust de son lignage - Se il ne fu del haut parage. - Li riches Pescheor, por voir, - En fu estret et tuit si oir - Et des suens fu Greloguevaus - Ausi en refu Percevaus. (183-90) - -Manessier disagrees, it will have been noticed, with Chrestien respecting -the cause of the Fisher King's wound, and neither he nor the other -continuators of Chrestien make any mention of that enigmatic personage the -Fisher King's father, so casually alluded to by Chrestien (v. 7,791-99). -Perceval according to them is a direct descendant of Joseph, Brons being -as entirely ignored here as in the transport of the Grail to England. - -In the B versions the Grail-keeper is Brons, and the Promised Knight is -his son or grandson, for a close examination again shows that two varying -accounts have been embodied in one narrative. In the passage where the -Holy Ghost, speaking to Joseph, tells him of the empty place to be left at -the table he is to make, the following lines occur:-- - - Cil lius estre empliz ne pourra - Devant qu' Enygeus avera - Un enfant de Bron sen mari, - Que tu et ta suer amez si; - Et quant li enfes sera nez, - La sera ses lius assenez; (2,531-37) - -followed closely by the prose versions: B II, Cange MSS., "ne icil leux ne -pourra estre ampliz tant que le filz Bron et Anysgeus ne l'accomplisse" -(I, 254); B III, Didot MS., "Cist leus ne porra mie estre ampliz devant ce -que li fist Bron l'ampleisse" (I, 316). But afterwards a fresh account -appears; in the second message of the Holy Ghost, Joseph is told: - - Que cist luis empliz ne sera - Devant que li tierz hons venra - Qui descendra de ten lignage - Et istera de ten parage, - Et Hebruns le doit engenrer - Et Enygeus ta sueur porter; - Et cil qui de sen fil istra, - Cest liu meismes emplira. (2,789-96) - -In the corresponding passages both B II and III have the following -significant addition, "et I. autre (_i.e._, place) avoc cestui qui el nom -de cestui sera fonde" (I, 261), "raemplira ce leu et I. autre qui en leu -decestu isera fondez" (I, 322), which effectually disposes of M. Hucher's -attempt (I, 254, note) to harmonise the two accounts by the remark that in -the first one "il ne s'agit pas de la Table ronde ou c'est Perceval qui -remplit le lieu vide." Henceforth the legend follows the second account. -To Alain, son of Brons, is revealed that - - ... de lui doit oissir - Un oir malle, qui doit venir. (3,091-92) - -Petrus is to wait for "le fil Alein," Brons is to wait for "le fil sen -fil," and when he is come to give him the vessel and Grail (3,363-67). B -II, Cange MS., again makes a characteristic addition to the promise to -Alain "et si li di que de lui doit issir un oirs masles, a cui la grace de -mon veissel doit repairier" (I, 267). - -C, Didot-Perceval, follows the second account of B. Perceval is son to -Alain li Gros, grandson to Brons, the rich Fisher King, "et cil rois -pecheors est en grant enfermetez, quar il est vieil home et plains de -maladies" (I, 418), and nephew to the hermit, "un des fiz Bron et frere -Alein" (I, 448), though curiously enough when he tells Brons that he knows -him to be father of his father, the latter addresses him as "bieaux nies" -(I, 483). In any case whether B and C do or do not afford proof of a -nearer relationship than that of grandson and grandfather between the -Grail-keeper and the achiever of the Quest, the chronology which bridges -over 400 years in two generations is equally fantastic. - -In D, Queste, no less than three different accounts are to be -distinguished, corresponding certainly to three stages in the development -of this version due to the influence of other versions of the legend. The -earliest is that preserved in D II, the Welsh translation of a now lost -French original. The Promised Knight is Galahad, son of Lancelot, -grandson, on the mother's side, of King Pelles (ch. iv). The Grail is kept -at the court of King Peleur (ch. lxvii), the name of which is apparently -Corbenic (ch. lxiv). The Lame King is mentioned by Perceval's sister (ch. -xlix), as a son of King Lambar, who fought with King Urlain and slew him, -and in consequence of that blow the country was wasted; afterwards (ch. -l.) his lameness is set down to his folly in attempting to draw the magic -sword, for which, though there was not in Christendom a better man than -he, he was wounded with a spear through the thigh. She also speaks of him -here as her uncle. The Grail quest is not connected in any way with the -healing of this Lame King. In the text printed by Furnivall, Galahad is -first introduced as Lancelot's son and Pelles' grandson, but when he comes -to Arthur's court he bids his returning companion, "salues moi tous chiaus -del saint hostel et mon _oncle le roi pelles_ et mon _aioul le riche -pescheour_." Guinevere's ladies, according to this version, prophesy that -Galahad will heal the Lame King. A long account, missing in D I, is given -by the hermit to Lancelot of his ancestry as follows (p. 120):--Celidoine, -son of Nasciens, had nine descendants, Warpus, Crestiens, Alain li Gros, -Helyas, Jonaans, Lancelot, Ban, Lancelot himself, Galahad, in whom Christ -will bathe himself entirely. Perceval is son of a King Pellehem (p. 182). -The Lame King is Pelles, "que l'on apiele lo roi mehaignie" (p. 188); he -is at Corbenic when Lancelot comes there. When Galahad and his companions -arrive at his court a sick man wearing a crown is brought in, who blesses -Galahad as his deliverer. After the appearance of the Grail, Galahad heals -him by touching his wound with the spear. The third account, from the -version of the Queste printed with the Lancelot and the Mort Artur in -1488, at Rouen, by Gaillard le Bourgeois,[51] makes Galahad send greetings -to the Fisher King and to his _grandfather, King Pelles_; it adds to -Perceval's sister's account of how Pelles was wounded, the words, "he was -Galahad's grandfather;"[52] it adds to the account of Lancelot's visit to -the Grail Castle, the words, "this was Castle Corbenic, where the Holy -Grail was kept." Before discussing these differences it is advisable to -see what the Grand St. Graal says on these points. Here Alain, the Fisher -King, son of Brons, is a virgin, and when Josephe commits the Grail to his -care he empowers him to leave it to whom he likes (II, 360--39.) In -accordance with this Alain leaves the Grail to his brother Josue, with the -title of Fisher King. Josue's descendants are Aminadap, Catheloys, Manaal, -Lambor (who was wounded by Bruillans with Solomon's sword, whence arose -such a fierce war that the whole land was laid desert).[53] Pelleans, -wounded in battle in the ankle, whence he had the name Lame King, Pelles, -upon whose daughter Lancelot begets Galahad, who is thus, on the mother's -side, ninth in descent from Brons, brother to Joseph. Galahad's descent is -likewise given from Celidoine, son of Nasciens, as follows: Marpus, -Nasciens, Alains li Gros, Ysaies, Jonans, Lancelot, Bans, Lancelot, -Galahad, who in thus counting Celidoine is tenth in descent from Nasciens, -Joseph's companion, (vol. ii, ch. xxxix.) So far the story is fairly -consistent, although there is a difference of one generation between -father's and mother's genealogy. But ch. 17, in a very important passage, -introduces a different account. The angel is expounding to Josephe and -Nasciens the marvels of the lance; to Josephe he says, "de cheste lance -dont tu as este ferus; ne sera iamis ferus ke vns seus hom. Et chil sera -rois, et descendra de ton lignaige, si serra li daerrains des boins. Chil -en sera ferus parmi les cuisses ambedeus," and will not be healed till the -Good Knight come, "et chil ... serra li daerrains hom del lignaige -nascien. Et tout ausi com nasciens a este li premiers hom qui les -meruelles du graal a veues; autresi sera chil li daerrains qui les -verra.[54] Car che dist li urais crucefis. 'Au premier home du precieus -lignaige, et au daerrain, ai iou deuise a demonstrer mes meruelles.' Et si -dist enchore apres. 'Sour le premier et sour le daerrain de mes menistres -nouuiaus qui sont enoint et sacre a mon plaisir, espanderai iou la -venianche de la lanche auentureuse'" (I, 216-17), _i.e._, the last of -Josephe's line shall be the only man wounded by the lance, the last of -Nasciens' line shall be the deliverer. But according to Galahad's -genealogy, given above, it is _not_ the last of Josephe's line -(represented by his cousin Josue) who is the Wounded King, for Galahad -himself is as much the last in descent from Josephe as from Nasciens, and -even if we take the words to apply only to the direct male descendants of -Josue, there is still a discrepancy, as not Pelles, but Pelleant, his -father, is the "roi mehaignies." If the Wounded King were really the last -of Josephe's line, _i.e._, Pelles, Galahad would be his grandson, as -Percival is to Brons. Taking the two versions D. and E. together, some -idea may be gathered from them of the way in which the legend has grown, -and of the shifts to which the later harmonisers were put in their -attempts to reconcile divergent accounts. In the first draft of the -Queste, Galahad has nothing to do with the Lame King, the latter remains -Perceval's uncle, the very relationship obtaining in Chrestien. Galahad -has supplanted Perceval, but has not stepped into the place entirely. The -second draft of the Queste endeavours to remedy this by clumsily -introducing the Lame King and his healing, missing in the first draft, -into the great Grail scene at the end, an idea foreign to the original -author of the Queste, who, having broken with Perceval as chief hero, also -broke with the distinctive Quest incident as far as the chief hero is -concerned. But a strange blunder is committed; the second draft, anxious -to make Galahad's grandfather both Fisher and Lame King, actually speaks -of Pelles as Galahad's uncle, in direct contradiction to its own -indication. The third draft corrects this mistake, and tries by different -explanatory interpolations to confirm the relationship of Galahad to the -Lame King, and the identity of his castle with the Grail Castle. The -author of the Grand St. Graal now appears on the scene, appropriates the -story about King Lambar, father to the Lame King, Percival's uncle, makes -him an ancestor of Galahad, and gives a name to his son, Pelleant (which -name creeps back into the second draft of the Queste as that of Perceval's -father), and thus derives Galahad on the mother's side from Brons, -although it escapes him that he thus gives the lie to the prophecy which -he puts in the angel's mouth, that it is the last of Josephe's seed who is -to be lamed by the lance, and that he has not given his Lambor fictitious -ancestors enough to equalize the genealogies. - -We are thus led back to the relationship of uncle and nephew as the -earliest subsisting between the Grail King and the achiever of the Quest, -and we find in those versions which supplant Perceval by Galahad a story -told of the former's great uncle, King Lambar, by no means unlike that -told of his uncle in the A versions, and that there, as here, the cause of -the woe brought upon the hero's family is one of the magic talismans which -the hero is in quest of and by means of which he is to achieve his quest. -We further notice that in so far as the Early History influences the Quest -forms, it is the later versions in which its influence is apparent, and it -is the Joseph, not the Brons form, which exercises this influence. Not -until we come to the Grand St. Graal, an obvious and bold attempt to -embody previous versions in one harmonious whole, does the Brons form make -itself felt. - - -_Work of the Promised Knight._ - -In Chrestien we can only guess at what the results of the successful -achievement of the Quest would have been by the reproaches addressed to -the hero upon the failure of his first visits to the Grail Castle; he -would have mended all things, and-- - - Le bon roi ki est mehaignies; - Que tous eust regaengnies - Ses membres, et tiere tenist, - Et si grans bien en avenist; (4,763-67) - -many evils will flow from his failure, and the cause of it is the sin he -has committed in leaving his mother, who thereupon died of grief -(4,768-71); again the Loathly Damsel reproaches him that the Rich King -would have been healed of his wound, he would have kept in peace his land, -which he never may again, for now - - Dames en perdront lor maris - Tieres en seront essilies, - Et pucieles deconsellies; - Orfenes, veves en remanront - Et maint Chevalier en morront. (6,056-60) - -Gautier de Doulens gives a vivid description of the effect of Gawain's -partially successful visit to the Grail King; the character of the -landscape changes at once-- - - N'estoit pas plus que mienuis, - Le soir devant, que Dex avoit - Rendu issi com il devoit - As aiges lor cors el pais; - Et tout li bos, ce m'est avis, - Refurent en verdor trove, - Si tos com il ot demande - Por coi si sainnoit en l'anstier - La lance; si devoit puplier - Li regnes; mais plus ne pupla - Por tant que plus ne demanda. (20,344-55) - -All the country folk both bless and curse Gawain. - - Sire, mors nous as et garis, - Tu dois estre lies et maris; - Car grant aise nos as done, - S'en devons tout mercier De; - Et si te devons moult hair - Pour con que nel vosis oeir - Le Greail, por coi il servoit, - Ne de la joie ki devoit - La venir ne poroit nus dire, - Si en doit avoir duel et ire. (20,357-66) - -In Manessier, when Perceval has finally accomplished the Quest by the -slaying of Partinal, and has come for the third time to the Grail Castle -(though even then he only reaches it after long wanderings and lights upon -it by chance), news whereof is brought to the King;-- - - Li rois, a grant joie et grant feste - Est maintenant salis en pies - Et se senti sain et haities. (44,622-24) - -Perceval is crowned King after his uncle's death, and reigns for seven -years. - -Thus, in the A versions, the healing of the Maimed King, and the -consequent restoration to fertility and prosperity of his land, such are -the tasks to be achieved by the hero of the Quest. In the B versions an -entirely different series of conceptions is met with. Brons, the Fisher -King, is to wait for his grandson, and to hand him the vessel which he -received from Joseph. When this is done the meaning of the Trinity is to -be known--[55] - - Lors sera la senefiance - Accomplie et la demonstrance - De la benoite Trinite, - Qu'avons en trois parz devisee. (3,371-74) - -Besides this, the Promised Knight is to visit Petrus, who may not pass -away till he comes, and from whom he is to learn the power of the vessel, -and the fate of Moys (v. 3,127-36). Finally, when he comes he is to fill -the empty seat, and to find Moys, of whom it is said-- - - De lui plus ne pallera-on - Ne en fable ne en chancon, - Devant que cil revenra - Qui li liu vuit raemplira: - Cil-meismes le doit trouver. (2,815-19) - -Here the only indication which can possibly be tortured into a hint of the -waiting of a sick king for his deliverer is the reference to Petrus. It is -not a little remarkable that when the latter is leaving for England, he -asks for the prayers of the company that he may not fall into sin, and -lose the love of God (v. 3320-35) Does this presuppose a version in which -he _does_ sin, and is consequently punished by disease, from which only -the Promised Knight may heal him? - -On turning to C, a totally distinct account of what the Quest achiever is -to do presents itself. He seats himself, it is true, in the empty seat, -but it goes nigh with him that he suffers the fate of Moys, from which he -is only preserved by the great goodness of his father, Alain (p. 427). He -does not find Moys; Petrus is not once mentioned by name, nor does -Perceval visit anyone who may not die till he come, and from whom he -learns the power of the vessel, saving always the Fisher King, for the -references to whom see _supra_, p. 83. This Fisher King is "veil home et -plains de maladies, ne il n'aura james sante devant un chevalier que ya a -la Table ronde aserra, sera prodons vers Deu et vers sainte eglise et ait -fait tant d'armes que il soit le plus alosez del monde. Et lors vendra a -la maison au riche roi pecheor et quant il aura demande de quoi li Graus -sert, tantost sera li roi gariz de de sa'nfermete et cherront li -enchentement de Bretaigne et sera la prophetic accomplie" (p. 419). Again, -p. 427 "li riches rois pecheors est cheuz en grant maladie et en grant -enfermete, ne il peust morir devant que uns de XXX chevalier, qui ci sunt -asis, ait tant fait d'armes et de chevalerie qu'il soit li mieudres -chevalier del monde." Again, p. 427, "Et quant il (_i.e._, the Fisher -King) sera gariz, si ira, dedanz li III jorz, de vie a mort, et baillera a -celui chevalier, le vesseau et li aprendra le segroites paroles qui li -aprist Joseph; et lors ampliz de la grace du Sainct Esprit et cherront li -enchentement de la Bretaigne et les afaires." Again, when Perceval has -come for the second time to the Fisher King's, and has asked the question -and learnt the secret words, he remained there "et moult fust prodons et -cheirent les enchentement de la terre de Bretaigne et par tout le monde." -Here, then, are the Sick King, the mysterious question, the healing, and -the effect upon the land (note how the enchantments of Britain are -insisted upon), as in the A versions. The only points of contact with B -are that Brons is like Petrus in not being able to die till Perceval come, -and that his infirmity seems to be ascribed mainly to his age, and not to -a wound, which at first sight seems to agree better with the vague -indications of B than with the positive statement of A. - -Two accounts, each fairly definite and consistent, are thus forthcoming -respecting the object of the Quest, the one represented by A and C, the -other by B. What light is thrown upon the matter by the remaining -versions, and which of these two accounts do they support? Neither from -the Queste, D, nor from the Grand St. Graal, E, can any clear conception -of the Quest be gathered. Both have a great deal to say about the -adventures and the wonders of the Grail, but absolutely nothing comes of -the achievement so far as the Grail itself, or as Galahad and his two -companions are concerned. It goes to the East, they with it, they become -hermits and die. But in proportion as the main object of the Quest becomes -less definite, the number of secondary objects increases. In D, Queste, -Galahad is to achieve the adventure of the Seat Perillous (ch. iii, iv); -he is to wear the shield left by Joseph to Mordrains (ch. x); he is to -release from life Mordrains himself, struck with blindness for approaching -too near the Grail (ch. xxiii); he (according to the second draft of the -Queste), is to release King Pelles (his grandfather, according to draft -3), wounded through both ankles for trying to draw the sword; he is to -release Simei, burning in a fiery grave for that he once sinned against -Joseph of Arimathea (ch. lxvi). To this sufficiently long list the Grand -St. Graal adds the resoldering of the sword broken by Joseph--"Ha espee, -iamais ne sera resaudee deuant ke chil te tenra qui les hautes auentures -del Saint Graal devra asoumir" (II, 264); the delivery of Moys from out -the furnace where he burns, not for always "ains trouuera enchore merchi -et pardon. Mais che qu'il a mesfait, espanira il en tel maniere qu'il en -sera en fu iusc' a tant ke li boines chiualiers uenra" (II, 277). Moys -likewise speaks of Galahad as one who "achieura les auentures de la grant -bertaigne" (II, 279-80). Finally, Pelleur wounded (mehaignies de ii -cuisses) "en vne bataille de rome" is to be released, "il ne peut garir de -la plaie deuant ke galaad, li tres boins chiualers, le vint visiter. Mais -lors sans faille gari il" (II, p. 373). - -The Queste knows nothing of Petrus, but in the Grand St. Graal he turns -up at the end in the same casual way as Brons, and converts King Luces -(II, 3356-3), _i.e._ is thus brought into connection with Geoffrey of -Monmouth's form of the conversion of Britain legend. - -The foregoing statement confirms all that has previously been urged as to -the lateness of both Queste and Grand St. Graal. The author of the former -again shows himself a daring, but not over skilful, adapter of older -legends, the author of the latter an unintelligent compiler, whose sole -aim it is to lengthen out his story by the introduction of every incident -he can lay his hands upon. But although late, they may nevertheless throw -light upon the question which, of the two strongly differentiated accounts -of the object of the Grail quest which have been noted, has the better -claim to be looked upon as the older one. The Conte du Graal and the -Didot-Perceval agree, as has been seen, against the Metrical Joseph, in -making the main object of the Grail-seeker the healing of a maimed or the -release from life of a supernaturally old King. This _motif_, it is not -too much to say, is the pivot upon which in the Conte du Graal all turns; -in the Metrical Joseph it is barely hinted at. - -The Queste, if looked at closely, is found to bear witness to the Conte du -Graal form. As is seen from the summary (_supra_, p. 41, Inc. 12) it has -the very incident upon which so much stress is laid in Chrestien's poem, -the visit to the Sick King, the omitted question, the consequent -misfortune. True, all this has been transferred from the original hero, -Perceval, to the father of the new hero Galahad, and, true, the final -object which the Queste proposes, in so far as it proposes any definite -object, to its Grail-seeker is of a different character. But the fact that -this object is not stated in the same way as in the Metrical Joseph, -whilst that found in the Conte du Graal _is_ embodied though in a -different connexion, points unmistakably to what may be called the healing -_motif_ as the older one. Here, again, the Metrical Joseph is in a -minority, and it is not even followed by that very version, the -Didot-Perceval, which has been ascribed to the same author, and claimed as -an integral portion of the same trilogy.[56] - - -_Qualifications of the Promised Knight._ - -Neither Chrestien, Gautier, nor Manessier lay any stress upon special -qualifications in the quest-hero for the achievement of his task. In -Chrestien, as already stated, (_supra_, p. 87), it is exclusively the sin -of which Perceval has been guilty in leaving his mother which prevents his -achieving the Quest at his first visit to the Grail Castle (v. 4,768-71 -and 7,766-74), whilst the continuator makes no attempt at any explanation -of the hero's repeated failures. Not until Gerbert does a fresh _motif_ -show itself in the poem, but then it is a remarkable one; if Perceval has -been hitherto unable to attain the goal he has so long striven for, it is -because he has been unfaithful to his first love, Blanchefleur (VI, p. -182); he must return and wed her before he is fit to learn the full secret -of the Grail.[57] - -The other Quest versions are on this point in striking contrast to -Chrestien. The words of C, Didot-Perceval, have already been noted, -(_supra_, p. 89). Again the damsel, reproaching the hero after his first -failure, addresses him thus:--"Mes je sai bien por quoi tu l' as perdu, -por ceque tu ni es pas si sage ne si vaillant, ne n'as pas fet tant -d'armes; ne n'ies si prodons que tu doies avoir le sanc nostre (sire) en -guarde" (p. 467). - -It is significant to note in this connection that it is only after -Perceval has overcome all the best knights of the Round Table, including -Gawain (the companion hero, as will be shown later, of the oldest form of -the story), and thereby approved himself the best knight of the world, -that Merlin appears and directs him to the Grail Castle.[58] The talk -about Holy Church would seem to be an addition, and the original ideal a -purely physical one. - -In the Queste the qualification of the hero has become the main feature -of the legend, the pivot upon which everything turns. The one thing -necessary is that the hero should be a virgin, and the story is one long -glorification of the supreme virtue of chastity. Yet even here the warlike -deeds of Galahad are dwelt upon in a way that points to a different ideal. -Traces, though slight ones, may be found in C, Didot-Perceval, of the -importance attached to the chastity of the hero; thus his hermit uncle -admonishes him, "ne vous chaille de gesir aveuc fame, quar cest un peche -luxurious et bien sachiez, que la pichie que vous avez fait, vous ont neu -a trover la maison Bron," and in the adventure with the damsel of the -hound, although he had (p. 440) solicited her favours, and she had -promised them if he brought her the head of the white stag, yet (p. 470) -when he returns to her and she offers herself to him, he pleads his quest -as a reason for not even passing one night with her. In Gautier de -Doulens, on the contrary, everything passes in accordance with the -orthodox custom of the day--when knights were as punctual in demanding as -ladies scrupulous in granting the fulfilment of such bargains. But here, -again, references to chastity seem to be additions, and rather unskilful -ones, whilst in the Queste they are the vital spirit of the story. - -What results from the foregoing is much as follows:-- - -The Perceval form of the Quest is certainly the older of the two, and -underlies in reality the Galahad form. When cleared from the admixture of -Christian mystic elements it appears as a coherent and straightforward -story, in which nothing necessarily presupposes the Early History. The -influence of the latter is, however, distinctly traceable. As far as -Chrestien himself is concerned, nothing can be asserted with certainty as -to the origin, extent, and nature of that influence; in the case of his -continuators it can be definitely referred to that form of the Early -History which is represented by the Queste and the Grand St. Graal (save -in the solitary instance of the Berne fragment of Gautier de Doulens). The -later in date the sections of the Conte du Graal, the more strongly marked -is the influence of the Early History, and _pari passu_ the increasing -prominence given to the Christian mystic side of the Grail. - -Of the Early History two forms can be distinguished. In the one, Joseph -and the group of persons whom he converts in the East are made the means -of bringing Christianity to Britain. The Grail is dwelt upon almost solely -in its most material aspect. This form is closely connected with the -Galahad Quest, and its chronology has been elaborately framed to correctly -bridge over the difference in time between the Apostolic and Arthurian -ages. It has also affected, as remarked above, the later versions of the -Perceval Quest. The second or Brons form knows nothing of the companions -of Joseph, who is only indirectly the means of the conversion of Britain, -the real evangelists being kinsmen of his who bear decided Celtic names. -These kinsmen are related as grandfather and father (or simply father or -uncle), to a hero whose exploits are to be dealt with in a sequel. There -is strong insistence upon the spiritual character of the Grail, which is -obviously intended to play an important part in the promised sequel. No -traces of this form are to be found in any version (saving always the -above-mentioned fragment of Gautier), until we come to the Grand St. -Graal, with which such portions as do not conflict with the Joseph form -are embodied. - -The Didot-Perceval, although formally in contact with the Brons Early -History, is not really the sequel announced in that work. It differs -profoundly from it in the most essential feature of the story, the nature -of the task laid upon the hero. Upon examination this appears to be of the -same nature as that of the Conte du Graal, with a seasoning of the -Christian mystic element. It was, however, _intended_ for a sequel to the -Metrical Joseph, a fact which may be taken as a proof that Borron never -completed his plan of a Joseph-Merlin-Grail trilogy of which we possess -the first two parts. - -The first of the two points marked for investigation at the outset of this -chapter may thus be considered settled. The Quest is originally -independent of and older than the Early History. And although in no -instance can the versions of the former be said to be entirely free from -the influence of the latter, yet in the older forms the traces are such as -to be easily separated from the primitive elements of the story. - -The versions which have been examined may now be arranged in the following -order:-- - - (1) Chrestien's portion of the Conte du Graal. The oldest form of the - Perceval Quest, but presupposing an Early History. - - (2) Gautier de Doulens followed Chrestien, in all probability, almost - immediately. Even less can be gathered from him than from Chrestien - respecting the earliest form of the Early History, but this is - probably represented by - - (3) Pseudo-Gautier, which in all likelihood gives the outline of the - work made use of by Queste and Grand St. Graal. Pseudo-Gautier is - almost certainly some years later than Gautier, as the Berne MS. - scribe found it necessary to seek for information in - - (4) Borron's poem, probably written towards the end of the twelfth - century, but which for some reason remained unknown for a time, - although it afterwards, as evidenced by the number of MSS., became - popular. There is every reason to believe that Borron knew nothing of - any other Early History. His work, as we have it, is abridged and - arranged. Meanwhile - - (5) Queste had appeared. The author probably used the same Early - History as Pseudo-Gautier. He knew the Conte du Graal, and wrote in - opposition to it with a view to edification. He certainly knew nothing - of Borron's poem, or he could not have failed, with his strong - mystical tendencies, to dwell upon the spiritual and symbolic - character of the Grail. - - (6) The Grand St. Graal, an earlier draft of the work, now known under - that title. Probably an enlarged version of the hypothetical original - Early History; wanting all the latter portions relating to Brons and - his group, which were added to it when Borron's poem became known. - This work must have appeared before 1204 (in which year it is referred - to by Helinandus), and, as Chrestien wrote his poem about 1189-90, it - follows that at least half-a-dozen works belonging to the Grail cycle - came out in the last twelve years of the twelfth century. - - (7) Manessier and - - (8) Gerbert brought out independent endings to the Conte du Graal from - 1216 to 1225. It was probably shortly after this time that Borron's - poem became known, and that it was incorporated with the Grand St. - Graal, which assumed the shape under which it has come down to us. - - (9) The Didot-Perceval is probably the latest in date of all the - members of the cycle. - -Before proceeding to examine our second point, which is whether the Grail -itself really belongs to the original form of the Quest, or has been -introduced into the Quest versions from the Early History, it will be -advisable to summarise the opinions and researches of previous -investigators. Light will thus be thrown upon many points of interest -which have not received special examination in these pages. A theory of -the origin and development of the cycle, which is in many respects -directly opposed to the conclusions we have reached, will also be fully -set forth, and an opportunity will thus be given for testing by adverse -criticism the soundness of our method of investigation, and of the results -to which it has led us. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -SKETCH OF THE LITERATURE CONNECTED WITH THE GRAIL CYCLE. - - Villemarque--Halliwell--San Marte (A. Schulz)--Simrock--Rochat-- - Furnivall's reprint of the Grand St. Graal and of Borron--J. F. - Campbell--Furnivall's Queste--Paulin Paris--Potvin's Conte du - Graal--Bergmann--Skeat's Joseph of Arimathea--Hucher: Grail Celtic, - date of Borron--Zarncke, Zur Geschichte der Gralsage; Grail belongs - to Christian legend--Birch-Hirschfeld develops Zarncke's views: Grand - St. Graal younger than Queste, both presuppose Chrestien and an - earlier Queste, the Didot-Perceval, which forms integral part of - Borron's trilogy; Mabinogi later than Chrestien; various members of - the cycle dated--Martin combats Birch-Hirschfeld: Borron later than - Chrestien, whose poem represents oldest stage of the romance, which - has its roots in Celtic tradition--Hertz--Criticism of - Birch-Hirschfeld. - - -Monsieur Th. de la Villemarque's researches form a convenient starting -point, both on account of the influence they exercised upon later -investigation, and because he was the first to state with fulness and -method the arguments for the Celtic origin of the legend. They appeared -originally in the volume entitled "Contes populaires des anciens Bretons -precedes d'un essai sur l'origine des epopees chevaleresques de la Table -Ronde" (Paris, 1842), and comprising a French translation of the -Mabinogion of Geraint and Peredur, with introductory essays and detailed -explanatory notes. The translation of Peredur is preceded by a study of -Chrestien's poem, in which the following conclusions are stated: The Grail -is Celtic in origin, the French term being equivalent to the Welsh _per_, -and having a like meaning, basin. It is the Druidic basin alluded to by -Taliessin, the same which figures in the Mabinogi of Branwen, which -appears in the oldest folk-tales of Brittany, and which is sought for in -the twelfth century Mabinogi by Peredur, _i.e._, the Basin-Seeker. The -original occult character of the Druidic basin, and of the lance, the -bardic symbol of undying hatred to the Saxon, disappears in the Mabinogi, -the tone and character of which are purely romantic. Composed among a -people comparatively unused to the chivalrous ideal, it breathes, however, -a rude and harsh spirit. But such as it is, it forms the groundwork of -Chrestien's poem. Comparison between the two demonstrates the simple -character of the Welsh romance, and shows how the French poet sought to -transform it by an infusion of feudal courtliness and religious mysticism. -In its last stage of development the story reverts to its pristine, -occult, and mystic character. - -Much of what M. de la Villemarque says is sound and telling; but, -unfortunately, although well aware that the French poem is the work of -three men and not of one, he yet treats it as an organic whole, and thus -deprives the larger part of his comparison of all value. Moreover, he -supports his thesis by arguments based upon a Breton poem (the story of -which is similar to that of Perceval's youth), ascribed without the shadow -of evidence to the end of the tenth century. - -In 1861 M. de la Villemarque reprinted his work with extensive additions, -under the title of "Les Romans de la Table Ronde et les Contes des Anciens -Bretons." The section summarised above remained substantially unaltered, -but considerable extension was given to the author's views concerning the -mode of development of the romances. The points chiefly insisted upon are: -the similarity of metre between the Welsh poem and the French metrical -romances; the delight of the Plantagenet kings in the Welsh traditions and -the favour showed them; and the early popularity of the Welsh and Breton -singers. Villemarque's last word upon the subject is that the Welsh -storytellers received from the ancient bards a pagan tradition, which, -changed in character and confounded with the Mystery of the Sacrament, -they handed on to the romance writers of Northern France and Germany, who -gave it a fresh and undying life. - -Villemarque's views were worked up by Mr. Baring Gould in his essay on the -Sangreal ("Curious Myths of the Middle Ages," 1867) and in this form or in -their original presentment won wide acceptance as the authoritative -exposition of the Celtic origin of the cycle. - -In England, Mr. Halliwell, when editing, in 1844, the Thornton Sir -Perceval, derived it from Chrestien and his continuators, in spite of the -omission of Lance and Grail, on account of the sequence of incidents being -the same. The Mabinogi is alluded to as an adaptation of Chrestien. The -supposition that Perceval's nick-name, "le Gallois," implies the Welsh -origin of the story is rejected as absurd. - -In Germany the Grail-cycle formed the subject of careful investigation on -the part of San Marte (A. Schulz) for some years prior to 1840. From 1836 -to 1842 he brought out a modern German translation of Wolfram von -Eschenbach's Parzival, accompanied by an elaborate essay on the genesis of -the legend, and in 1841, "Die Arthur-Sage und die Maehrchen des rothen -Buchs von Hergest." In the latter work a careful analysis of the Mabinogi -leads to the following conclusions:--Locale and persons are purely Welsh; -tone and character are older than the age of the Crusades and Knighthood; -it may be looked upon with confidence as the oldest known source of the -Perceval _sage_. In comparing the Mabinogi with Kiot's (_i.e._, Wolfram's) -version, stress is laid upon the task imposed upon Peredur, which is held -to be different in character and independent in origin from the Grail -Quest in Kiot. The Thornton Sir Perceval is claimed as the representative -of an early Breton _jongleur_ poem which knew nothing of the Grail story. -In the former work Wolfram von Eschenbach's poem is accepted, so far as -its framework is concerned, as a faithful echo of Kiot's, the Provencal -origin of which is proved by its Oriental and Southern allusions. The -Provencals may have obtained the Peredur _sage_ direct from Brittany, they -at any rate fused it with the Grail legend. Their version is an artistic -whole, whereas the North French one is a confused string of adventures. -Chrestien's share in the latter is rightly distinguished from that of his -continuators, and these are dated with fair accuracy. Robert de Borron is -mentioned, but as a thirteenth century adapter of earlier prose versions; -the Grand St. Graal is placed towards the middle of the thirteenth -century. In analysing the Joseph of Arimathea form of the legend, the -silence of the earlier British historians concerning Joseph's -evangelisation of Britain is noted, and 1140 is given as the earliest -date of this part of the legend. The captivity of Joseph arises probably -from a confusion between him and Josephus. There is no real connection -between the Joseph legend and that of the Grail. Wolfram's Templeisen -agree closely with the Templars, one of the main charges against whom was -their alleged worship of a head from which they expected riches and -victuals, and to which they ascribed the power of making trees and flowers -to bloom.[59] - -San Marte's translation of Wolfram was immediately (1842) followed by -Simrock's, whose notes are mainly directed against his predecessor's views -on the origin and development of the Grail legend. The existence of Kiot -is contested; the _differentia_ between Wolfram and Chrestien are unknown -to Provencal, but familiar to German, poetry. The Grail myth in its oldest -form is connected with John the Baptist. Thus in the Mabinogi the Grail is -represented by a head in a platter; the head the Templars were accused of -worshipping has probably the same origin; the Genoese preserved the Sacro -Catino, identified by them with the Grail, in the chapel of St. John the -Baptist; Chrestien mentions with especial significance, St. John's Eve -(Midsummer Eve). The head of St. John the Baptist, found, according to the -legend, in the fourth century, was carried later to Constantinople, where -in the eleventh century it is apparently used to keep an emperor from -dying (even as of the Grail, it is told, no one could die the day he saw -it). If Wolfram cuts out the references to the Baptist, _en revanche_ he -brings Prester John into the story. The essential element in the Grail is -the blood in the bowl, symbol of creative power as is the Baptist's head, -both being referable to the summer equinox. Associated with John the -Baptist is Herodias, who takes the place of an old Germanic goddess, -Abundia, as John does of Odin or Baldur.[60] The essence of the myth is -the reproductive power of the blood of the slain god (Odin-Hackelberend, -Baldur, Adonis, Osiris). As the Grail may only be seen by those to whom -God's grace is granted, so in the German folk-tale the entrance to the -hollow mounds wherein lies treasure or live elves is only visible to -Sunday children or pure youths. Thus, too, no man may find the grave of -Hackelberg (Odin). Such caves, when entered, close upon the outgoing -mortal as the Grail Castle portcullis closes upon Parzival. Many of -Gauvain's adventures appear in German folk-tradition. As to Parzival's -youth "it cannot be doubted that we have here a variation of the Great -Fool folk-tale (Dummling's Maerchen) found among all people. It is hard to -say what people possessing this tale brought it into contact, either by -tradition or in writing, with the Grail story, but that people would have -the first claim among whom it is found in an independent form." The -Mabinogi explanation of the Grail incident is unacceptable, and the -Mabinogi itself is later than Chrestien, as is shown by its foolish -invention of the witches of Gloucester, and by its misrendering the -incident of the dwarves greeting Peredur. In the original folk-tale the -ungainly hero was _laughed at_, not greeted. The Thornton Sir Perceval may -possibly contain an older version of Perceval's youth than any found -elsewhere. Wolfram's poem represents, however, the oldest and purest form -of the Grail myth, which, originally pagan, only became fully -Christianised in the hands of the later North French poets. - -Simrock's speculations, though marred by his standing tendency to claim -over much for German tradition, are full of his usual acute and ingenious, -if somewhat fanciful, learning. His ignorance of Celtic tradition -unfortunately prevented his following up the hint given in the passage -quoted above which I have adopted as one of the mottoes of the present -work. - -In 1855 Rochat published ("Ueber einen bisher unbekannten Percheval li -Gallois," Zurich) selections from a Berne MS. containing part of Gautier -de Doulens' continuation of Chrestien (v. 21,930 to end, with thirteen -introductory and fifty-six concluding original lines, _cf._ p. 19), and -entered at some length into the question of the origin and development of -the Grail legend. The Mabinogi, contrary to San Marte's opinion, is placed -after Chrestien. Villemarque's ballad of Morvan le Breiz is the oldest -form of the Perceval _sage_, then comes the Thornton Sir Perceval, a -genuine popular production derived probably from a Welsh original. In -spite of what San Marte says, the Grail incident is found in the Mabinogi, -and it might seem as if Chrestien had simply amplified the latter. On San -Marte's theory of the (Southern) origin of the Grail myth, this, however, -is impossible, and the fact that the Mabinogi contains this incident is a -proof of its lateness. - -Up to 1861 all writers upon the Grail legend were under this disadvantage, -that they had no complete text of any part of the cycle before them,[61] -and were obliged to trust largely to extracts and to more or less -carefully compiled summaries. In that year Mr. Furnivall, by the issue for -the Roxburghe Club of the Grand St. Graal, together with a reprint of -Robert de Borron's poem (first edited in 1841 by M. Franc. Michel), -provided students with materials of first-rate importance. His -introductory words are strongly against the Celtic origin of the story, -and are backed up by a quotation from Mr. D. W. Nash, in which that -"authority who really knows his subject" gives the measure of his critical -acumen by the statement that the Mabinogi of Peredur can have nothing to -do with the earliest form of the legend, because "in Sir T. Malory, -Perceval occupies the second place to Galahad." In fact, neither the -editor nor Mr. Nash seems to have tried to place the different versions, -and their assertions are thus of little value, though they contributed, -nevertheless, to discredit the Celtic hypothesis. San Marte, in an essay -prefixed to the first volume, repeated his well-known views respecting the -source of Wolfram's poems, and, incidentally, protested against the idea -that the Mabinogi is but a Welshified French romance. - -In 1862 the accomplished editor of the "Popular Tales of the West -Highlands," Mr. J. F. Campbell, published in his second volume (p. 152) -some remarks on the Story of the Lay of the Great Fool, which ended thus, -"I am inclined ... to consider this 'Lay' as one episode in the adventures -of a Celtic hero, who, in the twelfth century became Perceval le -chercheur du basin. He too, was poor, and the son of a widow, and half -starved, and kept in ignorance by his mother, but, nevertheless ... in the -end he became possessed of that sacred basin, le Saint Graal, and the holy -lance, which, though Christian in the story, are manifestly the same as -the Gaelic talismans which appear so often in Gaelic tales, and which have -relations in all popular lore--the glittering weapon which destroys, and -the sacred medicinal cup which cures." I have taken these words as a motto -for my studies, which are, indeed, but an amplification of Mr. Campbell's -statement. Had the latter received the attention it deserved, had it, for -instance, fallen into the hands of a scholar to whom Simrock's words -quoted on p. 101 were familiar, there would, in all probability, have been -no occasion for the present work. - -The publication of texts was continued by Mr. Furnivall's issue, in 1864, -for the Roxburghe Club, of the Quete del Saint Graal from a British Museum -MS. The opening of twelve MSS. from the Bibliotheque Nationale is likewise -given, and shows substantial unity between them and Mr. Furnivall's text. -In 1868 Mons. Paulin Paris published, in the first volume of his "Romans -de la Table Ronde," a general introduction to the Round Table cycle, and a -special study upon the Metrical Joseph and the Grand St. Graal. A large -share of influence is assigned to Celtic traditions through the medium of -Breton _lais_. The Early History of the Grail is a British legend, and -embodies the national and schismatic aspirations of the British Church. -The date given in the prologue to the Grand St. Graal, and repeated by -Helinandus, is accepted as the genuine date of a redaction of the legend -substantially the same as that found later in the Grand St. Graal. The -word "Grail" is connected with the Latin _gradale_, modern gradual, and -designated the book in which the tradition was first written down. The -Grand St. Graal is anterior to Chrestien's poem, and Robert de Borron's -poem in the first draft preceded the Grand St. Graal, and was written -between 1160 and 1170, but he subsequently revised it towards 1214, as is -shown by his alluding, l. 3,490, "O mon seigneur, Gauter _en peis_" (where -the underlined words are equivalent to the Latin _in pace_) to Gautier of -Montbeliard in the past tense. From 1868 to 1870 M. Potvin brought out -his edition of the Conte du Graal, and of the prose Perceval le Gallois -from Mons MSS. In the after-words priority is claimed for the latter -romance over all other members of the cycle, and three stages are -distinguished in the development of the legend--Welsh national--militant -Christian--knightly--the prose romance belonging to the second stage, and -dating substantially from the eleventh century. The lance and basin are -originally pagan British symbols, and between the lines of the Grail -legend may be read a long struggle between heretic Britain and orthodox -Rome. The Perceval form of the Quest is older than the Galahad one. The -Joseph of Arimathea forms are the latest, and among these the Grand St. -Graal the earliest. - -Conclusions as paradoxical as some of these appear in Dr. Bergmann's "The -San Greal, an Enquiry into the Origin and Signification of the Romance of -the S. G.," Edinburgh, 1870. The idea of the Grail is due entirely to -Guyot, as also its connection with the Arthurian cycle. Chrestien followed -Guyot, but alters the character of the work, for which he is reproved by -Wolfram, who may be looked upon as a faithful representative of the -earlier poet. Chrestien's alterations are intended to render the poem more -acceptable in knightly circles. On the other hand Walter Map found Guyot -too secular and heretical, and wrote from a purely ecclesiastical -standpoint the Latin version of the legend in which the Grail is -associated with Joseph of Arimathea. This version forms the basis of -Robert de Borron, author of the Grand St. Graal and of the continuators of -Chrestien. Although Bergmann denies the Celtic origin of the Grail itself, -he incidentally accepts the authenticity of the Mabinogi of Peredur, and -admits that the whole framework of the story is Celtic. - -In the endeavour to prove the paradox that one of the latest, most highly -developed, and most mystic of all the versions of the legend (viz., -Wolfram's) really represents the common source of them all, Bergmann is -compelled to make the most gratuitous assumptions, as a specimen of which -may be quoted the statement that the _roi-pecheur_ is originally the -_sinner_ king, and that it is by mistake that the North French _trouveres_ -represent him as a _fisher_. - -Bergmann's views passed comparatively unnoticed. They are, indeed, -alluded to with approval in Professor Skeat's edition of Joseph of -Arimathea, a fourteenth century alliterative abridgement of the Grand St. -Graal (E. E. Text Soc., 1871). In the editor's preface the Glastonbury -traditions concerning the evangelisation of Britain by Joseph are taken as -a starting point, two parts being distinguished in them, the one -_legendary_, tallying with William of Malmesbury's account, and, perhaps, -of considerable antiquity, the other _fabulous_, introducing the -personages and incidents of the romances and undoubtedly derived from -them. Some twenty years after the publication of the "Historia Britonum" -Walter Map probably wrote a Latin poem, from which Robert de Borron, the -Grand St. Graal, and, perhaps, the other works of the cycle were derived. -"Grail" is a bowl or dish. Chrestien may have borrowed his Conte du Graal -from Map; the "Quest" is probably an after-thought of the romance writers. - -Speculations such as these were little calculated to further the true -criticism of the Grail cycle. Some few years later, in 1875, the then -existing texts were supplemented by M. Hucher's work, so often quoted in -these pages. In an introduction and notes displaying great research and -ingenuity, the following propositions are laid down:--The Grail is Celtic -in origin, and may be seen figured upon pre-Christian Gaulish coins. -Robert de Borron's poem may be called the Petit St. Graal, and its author -was a lord of like-named territory near Fontainebleau, who between 1147 -and 1164 made large gifts to the Abbey of Barbeaux, which gifts are -confirmed in 1169 by Simon, son of said Robert. About 1169 Robert came to -England, met Walter Map, and was initiated by him into the knowledge of -the Arthurian romance, and of the legend of the Holy Grail. Between 1170 -and 1199 he entered the service of Walter of Montbeliard and wrote (in -prose) the Joseph of Arimathea and the Merlin. At a later period he -returned to England, and wrote, in conjunction with Map, the Grand St. -Graal. This is shown by MS. 2,455 Bibl. Nat. (of the Grand St. Graal): "Or -dist li contes qui est estrais de toutes les ystoires, si come Robers de -Borons le translatait de latin en romans, a l'ayde de maistre Gautier -Map." But Helie de Borron, author of the Tristan and of Guiron le -Courtois, calls Robert his friend and kinsman. Helie has been placed -under Henry III, who has been assumed to be the Henry to whom he dedicates -his work; if so can he be the friend of Robert, who wrote some fifty years -earlier? Helie should, however, be placed really under Henry II. Robert -wrote originally in prose; the poem contains later etymological and -grammatical forms, though it has occasionally preserved older ones; -besides in v. 2,817 etc. (_supra_, p. 83) it refers to the deliverance of -Moys by the Promised Knight, and thus implies knowledge of the Grand St. -Graal; this passage is omitted by most of the prose versions, thus -obviously older. Then the poem is silent as to the Christianising of -Britain mentioned by one prose version (C.). We may accept Borron's -statement as to his having dealt later with the histories of Moys and -Petrus, and as to his drawing his information from a Latin original. -Merlin is the pivot of Borron's conception. In comparing the third part of -his trilogy (Joseph of Arimathea, Merlin, Perceval) with Chrestien it must -be born in mind that Chrestien reproduces rather the English -(Joseph--Galahad), than the French (Brons--Perceval) form of the Quest, -and this, although the framework of Chrestien and Robert's Perceval is -substantially the same. Chrestien's work was probably preceded by one in -which the Peredur story as found in the Mabinogi was already adapted to -the Christianised Grail legend. There are frequent verbal resemblances -between Robert and Chrestien (_i.e._, Gautier, Hucher never distinguishing -between Chrestien and his continuators) which show a common original for -both. It is remarkable that Chrestien should never mention Brons, and that -there should be such a difference in the stories of the Ford Perillous and -the Ford Amorous. It is also remarkable that Robert, in his Perceval, -should complain that the _trouveres_ had not spoken of the Good Friday -incident which is to be found in Chrestien. - -M. Hucher failed in many cases to see the full significance of the facts -he brought to light, owing to his incorrect conception of the development -of the cycle as a whole, and of the relation of its component parts one to -the other. He made, however, an accurate survey of the cycle possible. The -merit of first essaying such a survey belongs to Zarncke in his admittedly -rough sketch, "Zur Geschichte der Gralsage," published in the third -volume (1876) of Paul and Braune's Beitraege.--The various forms may be -grouped as follows: (1) Borron's poem, (2) Grand St. Graal, (3) Quete, (4) -Chrestien, (5 and 6) Chrestien's continuators, (7) Didot MS. Perceval, (8) -Prose Perceval li Gallois. Neither the Spanish-Provencal nor the Celtic -origin of the legend is admissible; it has its source wholly in the -apocryphal legends of Joseph of Arimathea, in which two stages may be -distinguished; the first represented by the Gesta Pilati and the Narratio -Josephi, which tell how Christ appeared to Joseph in prison and released -him therefrom; the second by the Vindicta Salvatoris, which combines the -legends of the healing of Tiberius with that of Titus or Vespasian. Joseph -being thus brought into contact with Titus, the space of time between the -two is accounted for by the forty years captivity, and the first hint was -given of a miraculous sustaining power of the Grail. Borron's poem is -still purely legendary in character; the fish caught by the rich fisher is -the symbol of Christ; the incident of the waiting for the Promised Knight -belongs, however, not to the original tradition but to a later style of -Christian mysticism. The Grand St. Graal and the Quete extend and develop -the _donnee_ of the poem, whilst in Chrestien tone, atmosphere, and -framework are profoundly modified, yet there is no reason to postulate for -Chrestien any other sources than Nos. 1-3, the differences being such as -he was quite capable of deliberately introducing. As for No. 7 (the -Didot-Perceval) it is later than Chrestien and his continuators, and has -used both. Wolfram von Eschenbach had only Chrestien for his model, Kiot's -poem being a feigned source. The legend of the conversion of Britain by -Joseph is no genuine British tradition; William of Malmesbury's account of -Glastonbury is a pamphlet written to order of the Norman Kings, and -incapable of serving as a representative of Celtic tradition. The passages -therein relating to Joseph are late interpolations, disagreeing with the -remainder of his work and disproved by the silence of all contemporary -writers. - -Zarncke's acute article was a praiseworthy attempt to construct a working -hypothesis of the growth of the cycle. But it is full of grave -misconceptions, as was, perhaps, inevitable in a hasty survey of such an -immense body of literature. The versions are "placed" most incorrectly. -The argumentation is frequently marred by _a priori_ reasoning, such as -that Chrestien, the acknowledged leading poet of the day, could not have -copied Kiot, and by untenable assertions, such as that Bran, in the -Mabinogi of Branwen, the daughter of Llyr, is perhaps a distant echo of -Hebron in Robert de Borron's poem. He had, however, the great merit of -clearing the ground for his pupil, A. Birch-Hirschfeld, and urging him to -undertake what still remains the most searching and exhaustive survey of -the whole cycle: "Die Sage vom Gral," etc. As Birch-Hirschfeld's analysis -is at present the only basis for sound criticism, I shall give his views -fully:--The Grand St. Graal, as the fullest of the versions dealing with -the Early History of the Grail, is the best starting-point for -investigation. From its pronounced religious tone monkish authorship may -be inferred. Its treatment of the subject is not original as is shown by -(1) the repetition _ad nauseam_ of the same motive (_e.g._, that of the -lance wound four times), (2) the pedigrees, (3) the allusions to -adventures not dealt with in the book, and in especial to the Promised -Knight. The testimony of Helinand (see _supra_, p. 52), which is of -first-rate importance, does not allow of a later date for the Grand St. -Graal than 1204. On turning to the Queste it is remarkable that though -sometimes found in the MSS. in conjunction with the Grand St. Graal it is -also found with the Lancelot, and, when the hero's parentage is -considered, it seems more likely that it was written to supplement the -latter than the former work. This supposition is adverse to any claim it -may lay to being held the earliest treatment of the subject, as it is -highly improbable that the Grail legend occupied at the outset such an -important place in the Arthurian romance as is thus accorded to it. Such a -claim is further negatived by the fact that the Queste has three heroes, -the second of whom is obviously the original one of an older version. In -estimating the relationship between the Grand St. Graal and the Queste it -should be borne in mind that the latter, in so far as it deals with the -Early History, mentions only Joseph, Josephe, Evelach (Mordrain) and -Seraphe (Nascien), from whom descends Galahad; that it brings Joseph to -England, and that it does not give any explanation of the nature of the -Grail itself. It omits Brons, Alain, the explanation of the name "rich -fisherman," the name of Moys, although his story is found in substantially -the same shape as in the Grand St. Graal, and is silent as to the origin -of the bleeding lance. If it were younger than and derived from the Grand -St. Graal alone, these points, all more important for the Early History -than the Mordrain episodes would surely have been dwelt upon. But then if -the Grand St. Graal is the younger work, whence does it derive Brons, -Alain, and Petrus, all of whom are introduced in such a casual way? There -was obviously a previous Early History which knew nothing of Josephe or of -Mordrain and his group, the invention of the author of the Queste, whence -they passed into the Grand St. Graal, and were fused in with the older -form of the legend. There is, moreover, a positive reference on the part -of the Grand St. Graal to the Queste (vol. ii., p. 225). The author of the -Queste introduced his new personages for the following reasons: He had -already substituted Galahad for the original hero, and to enhance his -importance gives him a fictitious descent from a companion of Joseph. From -his model he learnt of Joseph's wanderings in the East, hence the Eastern -origin of the Mordrain group. In the older form the Grail had passed into -the keeping of Joseph's nephew, in the Queste the Promised Knight descends -from the nephew of Mordrain; Brons, as the ancestor of the original Quest -hero necessarily disappears in the Queste, and his place is in large -measure taken by Josephe. The priority of the Queste over the Grand St. -Graal, and the use of the former by the latter may thus be looked upon as -certain. But if Mordrain is the invention of the Queste, what is the -meaning of his illness, of his waiting for the Promised Knight, of the -bleeding lance, and of the lame king whom it heals? These seem to have no -real connection with the Grail, and are apparently derived from an older -work, namely, Chrestien's Conte du Graal. - -Chrestien's work, which ended at v. 10,601, may be dated as having been -begun not later than 1189 (_vide_ _supra_, p. 4). Its unfinished state -accounts for its having so little positive information about the Grail, as -Chrestien evidently meant to reserve this information for the end of the -story. But this very freedom with which the subject is handled is a proof -that he had before him a work whence he could extract and adapt as he saw -fit; moreover we have (Prologue, v. 475, etc.) his own words to that -effect. With Chrestien's account of the Grail--a bowl bejewelled, of -wondrous properties, borne by a maiden, preceded by a bleeding lance, -accompanied by a silver plate, guarded by a king wounded through both -ankles (whose only solace is fishing, whence his surname), ministering to -the king's father, sought for by Perceval, nephew to the fisher king, its -fate bound up with a question which the seeker must put concerning it--may -be compared that of the Queste, in which nothing is known of a question by -which the Grail kingship may be obtained (although it relates the same -incident of Lancelot), which knows not of one wounded king, centre of the -action, but of two, both of secondary importance (though possibly -Chrestien's Fisher King's father may have given the hint for Mordrain), in -which the lance is of minor importance instead of being on the same level -as the Grail. Is it not evident that the Queste took over these features -from Chrestien, compelled thereto by the celebrity of the latter's -presentment? The Queste thus presupposes the following works: a Lancelot, -an Early History, a Quest other than that of Chrestien's, and finally -Chrestien as the lame king and lance features show. It thus falls between -1189 (Chrestien begun) and 1204 (Grand St. Graal ended). - -With respect to the three continuators of Chrestien it would seem that -Gautier de Doulens' account of the Grail, as found in the Montpellier MS., -knowing as it does only of Joseph, and making the Fisher King and Perceval -descendants of his, belongs to an older stage of development than that of -Manessier and Gerbert, both of whom are familiar with the Mordrain group, -and follows that of the original version upon which both the Queste and -the Grand St. Graal are based. There is nothing to show that Gautier knew -of the Queste, whilst from Gautier the Queste may have possibly have taken -Perceval's sister and the broken sword. Gautier would thus seem to have -written immediately after Chrestien, and before the Queste, _i.e._, about -1195. As for the date of the other two continuators, the fact of their -having used the Queste is only one proof of the lateness of their -composition (as to the date of which see _supra_, p. 4). It must be noted -that whilst in their account of the Grail Chrestien's continuators are in -substantial accord with the Queste versions, and yet do not contradict -Chrestien himself, they add considerably to his account of the lance. This -is readily explained by the fact that as Chrestien gave no information -respecting the origin of either of the relics, they, the continuators, had -to seek such information elsewhere; they found all they could wish -respecting the Grail, but nothing as to the lance, the latter having been -first introduced by Chrestien, and the Queste versions knowing nothing -respecting it beyond what he told. Thus, thrown upon their own resources, -they hit upon the device of identifying the lance with the spear with -which Jesus was pierced as He hung on the Cross. This idea, a most natural -one, may possibly have been in Chrestien's intent, and _may_ have been -suggested to him by the story of the discovery of the Holy Lance in -Antioch half a century before. It must, however, be admitted that the -connection of the lance with the Grail legend in its earliest form is very -doubtful, and that Celtic legends may possibly have furnished it to -Chrestien, and indicated the use to which he intended putting it. The -analysis, so far, of the romances has resulted in the presupposition of an -earlier form; this earlier form, the source or basis of all the later -versions of the legend, exists in the so-called Petit St. Graal of Robert -de Borron. Of this work, found in two forms, a prose and a poetic one, the -poetic form, _pace_ Hucher, is obviously the older, Hucher's proofs of -lateness going merely to show that the sole existing MS. is a recent one, -and has admitted new speech-forms;[62] moreover the prose versions derive -evidently from one original. The greater simplicity of the poem as -compared with the Grand St. Graal proves its anteriority in that case; -Paulin Paris' hypothesis that the poem in its present state is a second -draft, composed after the author had made acquaintance with the Grand St. -Graal, is untenable, the poem's reference (v. 929 etc.) to the "grant -livre" and to the "grant estoire dou Graal," written by "nul home qui -fust mortal" (v. 3,495-6) not being to the Grand St. Graal, but having, -on the contrary, probably suggested to the writer of the latter his -fiction of Christ's being the real author of his work. The Grand St. Graal -used the poem conjointly with the Queste, piecing out the one version by -help of the other, and thereby entirely missing the sequence of ideas in -the poem, which is as follows: Sin, the cause of want among the people; -the separation of the pure from the impure by means of the fish (symbol of -Christ) caught by Brons, which fish does not feed the people, but, in -conjunction with the Grail, severs the true from the false disciples; -punishment of the self-willed false disciple; reward of Brons by charge of -the Grail. In the Grand St. Graal, on the contrary, the fish is no symbol, -but actual food, a variation which must be laid to the account of the -Queste. In a similar way the two Alains in the Grand St. Graal may be -accounted for, the one as derived from the poem, the second from the -Queste. As far as conception is concerned, the later work is no advance -upon the earlier one. To return to Borron's work, which consists of three -sections; there is no reason to doubt his authorship of the second, -Merlin, or of the third, Perceval, although one MS. only of the former -mentions the fact, and it is, moreover, frequently found in connection -with other romances, in especial with the Lancelot; as for Perceval, the -silence of the unique MS. as to Borron is no argument, as it is equally -silent in the Joseph of Arimathea section. All outward circumstances go to -show that Borron divided his work into three parts, Joseph, Merlin, -Perceval. But, if so, the last part must correspond in a fair measure to -the first one; recollect, however, that we are dealing with a poet of but -little invention or power of giving unity to discordant themes, and must -not expect to find a clearly traced plan carried out in every detail. Thus -the author's promise in Joseph to speak later of Moses and Petrus seems -not to be fulfilled, but this is due to Borron's timidity in the invention -of new details. What _is_ said of Moses does not disagree with the Joseph, -whereas a later writer would probably follow the Grand St. Graal account; -as for Petrus he is to be recognised in the hermit Perceval's uncle. There -may be some inconsistency here, but Borron _can_ be inconsistent, as is -shown by his treatment of Alain, who at first vows to remain virgin, and -afterwards marries. But a graver argument remains to be met; the lance -occurs in Perceval--now _ex hypothesi_ the first introduction of the lance -is due to Chrestien. The lance, however, only occurs in two passages, both -obviously interpolated. The identity of authorship is evident when the -style and phraseology of the two works are compared; in both the Grail is -always _li graaux_ or else _li veissel_, not as with the later versions, -_li saint graaux_; both speak of _la grace dou graal_; in both the Grail -is _bailli_ to its keeper, who has it _en guarde_; the empty seat is _li -liu vit_, not the _siege perilleux_. The central conception, too, is the -same--the Trinity of Grail-keepers symbolising the Divine Trinity. The -secret words given by Christ with the Grail to Joseph in prison, by him -handed on to Brons, are confided at the end of the Perceval by Brons to -the hero--and there is no trace of the Galahad form of the Quest, as would -inevitably have been the case had the Perceval been posterior in date to -the Queste. As the Perceval is connected with the Joseph, so it is equally -with the Merlin; it is remarkable that neither Merlin nor Blaise play a -prominent part in the Queste versions, but in Borron's poem Merlin is the -necessary binding link between the Apostolic and Arthurian ages. Again the -whole character of the Perceval speaks for its being one of the earliest -works of the cycle; either it must have used Chrestien and Gautier or they -it; if the former, is it credible that just those adventures which were -necessary to supply the ending to the Joseph could have been picked out? -But it is easy to follow the way in which Chrestien used the Perceval; -having the three-part poem before him he took the third only for his -canvas, left out all that in it related to the first two parts, all, -moreover, that related to the origin and early history of the Grail; the -story of the childhood is half indicated in the Perceval, and Chrestien -may have had Breton lays with which to help himself out; all relating to -the empty seat is left out as reaching back into the Early History; the -visit to Gurnemanz is introduced to supply a motive for the hero's conduct -at the Grail Castle; the wound of the Fisher King is again only an attempt -of Chrestien's to supply a more telling motive; as for the sword Chrestien -invented it; as he also did the Grail-messenger, whose portrait he copied -from that of Rosette la Blonde. The order of the last episodes is altered -by Chrestien sensibly for the better, as, with him, Perceval's doubt comes -first, then the Good Friday reproof, then the confession to and absolution -by the hermit; whereas in the Perceval the hero after doubt, reproof, and -absolution rides off again a-tourneying, and requires a second reproof at -Merlin's hands. It is easy to see here which is the original, which the -copy. Chrestien thus took with clear insight just what he wanted in the -Perceval to fit out his two heroes with adventures.[63] As for Borron's -guiding conception, his resolve to have nothing to do with the Early -History made him neglect it entirely; he only cared to produce a knightly -poem, and we find, in consequence, that he has materialised all the -spiritual elements of his model. Gautier de Doulens' method of proceeding -was much simpler: he took over all those adventures that Chrestien -purposely left out, and they may be found brought together (verses -22,390-27,390) with but few episodes (Perceval's visit to Blanchefleur, -etc.) entirely foreign to the model amongst them.[64] The Perceval cannot -be later than Gautier, as otherwise it could not stand in such close -relationship to the Joseph and Merlin; it must, therefore, be the source -of the Conte du Graal, and a necessary part of Borron's poem, which in its -entirety is the first attempt to bring the Joseph of Arimathea legend into -connection with the Arthur _sage_. The question as to the origin of the -Grail would thus seem answered, the Christian legendary character of -Borron's conception being evident; but there still remains the possibility -that that conception is but the Christianised form of an older folk-myth. -Such a one has been sought for in Celtic tradition. The part played by -Merlin in the trilogy might seem to lend colour to such an hypothesis, but -his connection with the legend is a purely artificial one. Nor is the -theory of a Celtic origin strengthened by reference to the Mabinogi of -Peredur. This knows nought of Merlin, and is nearer to Chrestien than to -the Didot-Perceval, and may, indeed, be looked upon as simply a clumsy -retelling of the Conte du Graal with numerous additions. A knowledge of -the Didot-Perceval on Chrestien's part must be presupposed, as where could -he have got the Fisher King and Grail Castle save from a poem which dealt -with the Early History of the Grail, a thing the Mabinogi does not do. -But, it may be said, Chrestien used the Mabinogi conjointly with Borron's -poem. That the Welsh tale is, on the contrary, only a copy is apparent -from the following considerations:--It mixes up Gurnemanz and the Fisher -King; it puts in the mouth of Peredur's _mother_ an exclamation about the -knights, "Angels they are my son," obviously misread from Perceval's -exclamation to the same effect in Chrestien's poem; _Perceval's_ -love-trance over the three blood drops in the snow is explained in -Chrestien by the hero's passion for Blanchefleur, but is quite -inexplicable in the Mabinogi; again, in the Welsh tale, the lance and -basin episode is quite a secondary one, a fact easily explained if it is -looked upon as a vague reminiscence of Chrestien's unfinished work; -moreover the Mabinogi lays great stress upon the lance, which has already -been shown to belong to a secondary stage in the development of the -legend. Again the word Graal occurs frequently in old Welsh literature, -and invariably in its French form, never translated by any equivalent -Welsh term. As for the name Peredur, it is understandable that the Welsh -storyteller should choose the name of a national hero, instead of the -foreign name Perceval; the etymology Basin-Seeker is untenable. There is -no real analogy between the Grail and the magic cauldron of Celtic fable, -which is essentially one of renovation, whereas the Grail in the second -stage only acquires miraculous feeding, and in the third stage healing -powers. It is of course not impossible that such adventures in the -Mabinogi, as cannot be referred directly to Chrestien, may belong to a -genuine Peredur _sage_. - -The question then arises--was Robert de Borron a simple copyist, or is the -legend in its present form due to him, _i.e._, did _he_ first join the -Joseph of Arimathea and Grail legends, or had he a predecessor? Now the -older Joseph legends know nothing of his wandering in company of a -miraculous vessel, Zarncke having shown the lateness of the one commonly -ascribed to William of Malmesbury. Nor is it likely Borron had before him -a local French legend as Paulin Paris (Romania, vol. i.) had supposed; -would he in that case have brought the Grail to England, and left Joseph's -fate in uncertainty? The bringing the Grail to England is simply the -logical consequence of his conception of the three Grail-keepers (the -third of British blood), symbolising the Trinity, and of the relation of -the Arthurian group to this central conception; where the third -Grail-keeper and the third of the three wondrous tables were, there the -Grail must also be. What then led Borron to connect the sacramental vessel -with the Joseph legend? In answering this question the later miraculous -properties of the Grail must be forgotten, and it must be remembered that -with Borron it is only a vessel of "grace;" this is shown in the history -of (Moys) the false disciple, which obviously follows in its details the -account of the Last Supper, and of the detection of Judas by means of the -dish into which Jesus dips a sop, bidding the betrayer take and eat. -Borron's first table being an exact copy of the Last Supper one, _his_ -holy vessel has the property of that used by Christ. In so far Borron was -led to his conception by the story as told in the canonical books; what -help did he get from the Apocrypha? His mention of the Veronica legend and -certain details in his presentment of Vespasian's vengeance on the Jews -(_e.g._, his selling thirty for a penny) show him to have known the -Vindicta Salvatoris, in which Joseph of Arimathea appears telling of his -former captivity from which Christ Himself had delivered him. Thus Borron -knew of Joseph's living when Vespasian came to Jerusalem. From the Gesta -Pilati he had full information respecting the imprisonment of Joseph; he -combined the accounts of these two apocryphal works, substituting a simple -visit of Christ to Joseph for the deliverance as told in the Gesta Pilati, -and making Vespasian the deliverer, whereto he may have been urged by -Suetonius' account of the freeing of _Josephus_ by Vespasian (Vesp. ch. -v.). But why should Joseph become the Grail-keeper? Because the fortunes -of the vessel used by the Saviour symbolise those of the Saviour's body; -as _that_ was present at the Last Supper, was brought to Pilate, handed -over to Joseph, was buried, and after three days arose, so with the Grail. -Compare, too, Christ's words to Joseph (892, etc.) in which the symbolical -connection of the laying in the grave and the mass is fully worked out. -Thus Joseph who laid Christ's body in the grave is the natural guardian of -the symbol which commemorates that event, thus, too, the Grail is the -natural centre point of all the symbolism of mass and sacrament, and thus -the Grail found its place in the Joseph legend, ultimately becoming its -most important feature. Need Perceval's question detain us? May it not be -explained by the fact that as Joseph had to apply twice for Christ's body, -so his representative, the Grail-seeker, had to apply twice for the symbol -of Christ's body, the Grail? But it is, perhaps, best to consider the -question and the Fisher King's weakness as inventions of Borron's, -possibly derived from Breton sources, the ease with which the hero fulfils -a task explained to him beforehand favouring such a view. Borron, it must -be noticed, had no great inventive power; in the Joseph he is all right so -long as he has the legend to follow; in the Merlin and the Perceval he -clings with equal helplessness to the Breton sagas, confining himself to -weaving clumsily the adventures of the Grail into the regular Arthur -legend. - -The question as to the authorship of the Grand St. Graal and the Queste, -the latter so confidently attributed to W. Map, may now profitably be -investigated. Map, who we know flourished 1143-1210 (see _supra_, p. 5), -took part in all the political and social movements of his time. If we -believe the testimony of the MSS. which ascribe to him the authorship of -the following romances: (1) the Lancelot, in three parts; (2) the Queste; -(3) the Mort Artur; (4) the Grand St. Graal, he would seem to have shown a -literary activity quite incompatible with his busy life, when it is -remembered how slow literary composition was in those days. Nor can it be -reconciled with the words of Giraldus Cambrensis,[65] although Paulin -Paris (Rom. i. 472) has attempted such a reconciliation by the theory that -the words _dicere_ and _verba dare_ referred to composition in the -vernacular, and that Map was opposing not his _oratorical_ to Gerald's -_literary_ activity, but his _French_ to Gerald's _Latin_ works. Against -this initial improbability and Gerald's positive testimony must be set, it -is true, the witness of writers of the time and of the MSS. The most -important is that of Helie de Borron in his prologue to Guiron le -Courtois.[66] After telling how Luces de Gast was the first to translate -from the Latin book into French, and he did part of the story of Tristan, -he goes on: "Apries s'en entremist maistre Gautiers Map qui fu clers au -roi Henry et devisa cil l'estoire de monseigneur Lancelot du Lac, que -d'autre chose ne parla il mie gramment en son livre. Messiers Robers de -Borron s'en entremist apres. Je Helis de Borron, par la priere monseigneur -de Borron, et pour ce que compaignon d'armes fusmes longement, en -commencai mon livre du Bret." Again in the epilogue to the Bret,[67] "Je -croi bien touchier sor les livres que maistres Gautiers Maup fist, qui fit -lou propre livre de monsoingnour Lancelot dou Lac; et des autres granz -livres que messires Robert de Berron fit, voudrai-je prendre aucune flor -de la matiere ... en tel meniere que li livres de monsoingnour Luces de -Gant et de maistre Gautier Maapp et ciz de monsoingnour Robert de Berron -qui est mes amis et mes paranz charnex s'acourderont au miens livres--et -je qui sui appelex Helyes de Berron qui fui engendrez dou sanc des gentix -paladins des Barres qui de tous tens ont ete commendeour et soingnor -d'Outres en Romenie qui ores est appelee France." Now Helie cannot -possibly belong to the reign of Henry II (+ 1189) as asserted by Hucher -(p. 59), as he speaks of Map in the past tense (_fu_ clers), and Map -outlived Henry, moreover the mention of Romenie proves the passage to have -been written after the foundation of the Latin Empire in 1304. Helie's -testimony is thus not that of an immediate contemporary, and it only shows -that shortly after Map's death the Lancelot was ascribed to him. It is, -moreover, in so far tainted, that he speaks with equal assurance -respecting the great Latin book which of course never existed; nor can we -believe him when he says that he was the comrade of Robert de Borron, as -this latter wrote before Chrestien, and must have been at least thirty -years older than Helie, who in the Guiron (written about 1220) calls -himself a young man. How is it with the testimony of the MSS.? Those of -the Lancelot have unfortunately lost their colophon, owing to the Queste -being almost invariably added; those of the Queste show as a rule a -colophon such as the one quoted by Paulin Paris from the Bibl. Nat., MS. -6,963 (MSS. Franc II., p. 361): "Maistre Gautiers Map les estrait pour son -livre faire dou Saint-Graal, pour l'amor del roy Henri son seignor, qui -fist l'estore translater dou latin en francois." A similar statement -occurs in a MS. of the Mort Artur (Bib. Nat. 6,782.). Both are equally -credible. Now as the King can only be Henry II (+ 1189) and as the Queste -preceded the Mort Artur it must be put about 1185, and Chrestien's Conte -du Graal about 1180, an improbably early date when it is recollected that -the Conte du Graal is Chrestien's last work. The form, too, of these -colophons, expressed as they are in the third person, so different from -the garrulous first person complacency with which Luces de Gast and Helie -de Borron announce their authorship, excites the suspicion that we have -here not the author's own statement, but that of a copyist following a -traditional ascription. Whether or no Map wrote the Lancelot, it may -safely be assumed that he did not write the Queste, or _a fortiori_ the -Grand St. Graal. The tradition as to his authorship of these romances may -have originated in Geoffrey's mention of the Gualterus archidiaconus -Oxenfordensis, to whom he owed his MS. of the Historia Regum Britanniae. A -similar instance of traditional ascription on the part of the copyist may -be noted in the MSS. of the Grand St. Graal, the author of which is -declared to be Robert de Borron. The ordinary formulae (quoted _supra_, p. -5) should be compared with Borron's own words in the Joseph (_supra_, p. -5) and the difference in form noted. What proves these passages to be -interpolations is that the author of the Grand St. Graal especially -declares in his prologue that his name must remain a secret. The colophons -in question are simply to be looked upon as taken over from the genuine -ascription of Borron's poem, and there is no positive evidence as to the -authorship of either the Queste or the Grand St. Graal; both works are -probably French in origin, as is shown by the mention of Meaux in the -Grand St. Graal. As for the date of Borron's poem, a _terminus ad quem_ is -fixed by that of the Conte du Graal (1180); and as the poem is dedicated -to Gautier of Montbeliard, who can hardly have been born before 1150, and -who must have attained a certain age before he could become Robert's -patron, it must fall between the years 1170 and 1190. - -The results of the investigation may be summed up as follows: the origin -of the Grail romances must be sought for in a Christian legend based -partly upon the canonical, partly upon the uncanonical, writings. This -Christian legend was woven into the Breton sagas by the author of the -oldest Grail romance; the theories of Provencal Spanish, or Celtic origin -are equally untenable, nor is there any need to countenance the fable of a -Latin original. Chronologically, the versions arrange themselves thus:-- - - (1) Between 1170 and 1190 (probably about 1183) Robert de Borron wrote - his trilogy: Joseph of Arimathea--Merlin--Perceval. Sources: Christian - legend (Acta, Pilati, Descensus Christi, Vindicta Salvatoris) and - Breton sagas (Brut?). Here the Grail is simply a vessel of grace. - - (2) About 1189 Chrestien began his Conte du Graal, the main source of - which was the third part of Borron's poem. Marvellous food properties - attributed to the Grail; introduction of the bleeding lance, silver - dish, and magic sword. - - (3) Between 1190 and 1200 Gautier de Doulens continued Chrestien's - poem. Main sources, third part of (1) and first part of same for Early - History--introduction of broken sword. - - (4) Between 1190 and 1200 (but after Gautier?) the Queste du St. Graal - written as continuation to the Lancelot. Sources (1) and (2) (for - lance) and perhaps (3). New personages, Mordrain, Nascien, etc., - introduced into Early History. - - (5) Before 1204 Grand St. Graal written, mainly resting upon (4) but - with use also of first part of (1). - - (6) Between 1214 and 1220. Manessier's continuation of the Conte du - Graal. For the Early History (5) made use of. - - (7) Before 1225 Gerbert of Montreuil's additions to Manessier. Both - (4) and (5) used. - - (8) About 1225 Perceval li Gallois; compiled from all the previous - versions.[68] - -That part of Birch-Hirschfeld's theory which excited the most attention in -Germany bore upon the relationship of Wolfram to Chrestien (see _infra_, -Appendix A). In other respects his theory won very general acceptance. The -commendatory notices were, however, of a slight character, and no new -facts were adduced in support of his thesis. One opponent, however, he -found who did more than rest his opposition upon the view of Wolfram's -relationship to Chrestien. This was E. Martin, who ("Zeitschrift fuer d. -Alterthumskunde," 1878, pp. 84 etc.) traversed most of Birch-Hirschfeld's -conclusions. Whilst accepting the priority of Queste over Grand St. Graal -he did not see the necessity of fixing 1204 as a _terminus ad quem_ for -the latter work as we now have it, as Helinandus' statement might have -referred to an older version; if the Grand St. Graal could not be dated -neither could the Queste. As for the Didot-Perceval there was nothing to -prove that it was either Borron's work or the source of Chrestien and -Gautier. Birch-Hirschfeld's arguments to show the interpolation of the -lance passages were unsound; it was highly improbable either that -Chrestien should have used the Perceval as alleged, or that Borron, the -purely religious writer of the Joseph, should have changed his style so -entirely in the Perceval. Moreover, Birch-Hirschfeld made Borron dedicate -a work to Gautier of Montbeliard before 1183 when the latter must have -been quite a young man, nor was there any reason to discredit Helie de -Borron's testimony that he and Robert had been companions in arms, a fact -incredible had the one written forty years before the other. The work of -Chrestien and his continuators must be looked upon as the oldest we had of -the Grail cycle. It was likely that older versions had been lost. A Latin -version might well have existed, forms such as Joseph de Barimaschie -(_i.e._, ab Arimathea) pointed to it. Martin followed up this attack in -his "Zur Gralsage, Untersuchungen," Strasburg, 1880. A first section is -devoted to showing that Wolfram must have had other sources than -Chrestien, and that in consequence such portions of his presentment as -differ from Chrestien's must be taken into account in reconstructing the -original form of the romance. The second and third sections deal with -Heinrich von dem Tuerlin's "Die Crone," and with the earliest form of the -tradition. Gawain's second visit to the Grail Castle, as told of by -Heinrich (_supra_, p. 26) has features in common with the widely-spread -traditions of aged men slumbering in caves or ruined castles, unable to -die until the right word is uttered which breaks their spell. This -conception differs from the one found in all the other versions inasmuch -as in them the wonder-working question releases, not from unnaturally -prolonged life, but from sore disease. Can a parallel be found in Celtic -tradition to this sufferer awaiting deliverance? Does not Arthur, wounded -well nigh to death by his nephew Modred, pass a charmed life in Avalon, -whither Morgan la Fay carried him for his healing, and shall he not return -thence to free his folk? The original conception is mythic--the summer god -banished by the winter powers, but destined to come back again. The _sage_ -of Arthur's waiting, often in some subterranean castle, is widely spread, -two of the earliest notices (those of Gervasius of Tilbury, in the "Otia -Imperialia," p. 12 of Liebrecht's edition, and of Caesarius of -Heisterbach) connect it with Etna--the tradition had followed the Norman -Conquerors of Sicily thither--and from Sicily it would seem to have -penetrated to Germany, being first found in German tradition as told of -Frederick II. Again Gerald (A.D. 1188) in the "Itinerarium Cambriae" -(Frankfort, 1603, p. 827, L. 48) tells of a mountain chain in the -South-East of Wales: "quorum principalis Cadair Arthur dicitur i. Cathedra -Arthuri, propter gemina promontorii cacumina in cathedrae modum se -praeferentia. Et quoniam in alto cathedra et in ardua sita est, summo et -maximo Britonum Regi Arthuro vulgari nuncupatione est assignata." The -Eildon Hills may be noted in the same connection, "in which all the -Arthurian chivalry await, in an enchanted sleep, the bugle blast of the -adventurer who will call them at length to a new life" (Stuart Glennie, -"Arthurian Localities," p. 60). If the Grail King is Arthur, the bleeding -lance is evidently the weapon wherewith he was so sorely wounded. And the -Grail? this is originally a symbol of plenty, of a joyous and bountiful -life, hence of Avalon, that land of everlasting summer beyond the waves, -wherein, as the Vita Merlini has it, they that visit Arthur find -"planitiem omnibus deliciis plenam." Of those versions of the romance in -which the Christian conception of the Grail is predominant, Robert de -Borron's poem (composed about 1200) is the earliest, and in it, _maugre_ -the Christianising of the story, the Celtic basis is apparent: the Grail -host go a questing Avalonwards; the first keepers are Brons and Alain, -purely Celtic names, the former of which may be compared with Bran; the -empty seat calls to mind the _Eren stein_ in Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's -Lanzelot, whereof (verse 5,178) _ist gesaget daz er den man niht vertruoc -an dem was valsch oder haz_. Admitting the purely Christian origin of the -Grail leads to this difficulty: the vessel in which Christ's blood was -received was a bowl, not an open or flat dish like that used in -commemoration of the Last Supper. Evidently the identification of the -Grail with the Last Supper cup is the latest of a series of -transformations. Nor can the Christian origin of the legend be held proved -by the surname of Fisher given to the Grail-keeper. True, neither -Chrestien nor Wolfram explains this surname, whilst in Borron's poem there -is at least a fish caught. But if the fish had really the symbolic meaning -ascribed to it would not a far greater stress be laid upon it? In any case -this one point is insufficient to prove the priority of Borron, and it is -simpler to believe that the surname of Fisher had in the original Celtic -tradition a significance now lost. Birch-Hirschfeld's theory supposes, -too, a development contrary to that observed elsewhere in mediaeval -tradition. The invariable course is from the racial-heathen to the -Christian legendary stage. Is it likely that in the twelfth century, a -period of such highly developed mystic fancy, an originally Christian -legend should lose its mystic character and become a subject for minstrels -to exercise their fancy upon? In the earlier form of the romance there is -an obvious contrast between the task laid upon the Grail quester and that -laid upon Gawain at Castle Marvellous. The first has suffered change by -its association with Christian legend; but the second, even in those -versions influenced by the legend, has retained its primitive Celtic -character. The trials which Gawain has to undergo may be compared with -those imposed on him who seeks to penetrate into the underworld, as -pictured in the Purgatorium S. Patricii, in the Visio Tnugdali, etc. This -agrees well with the presentment of Castle Marvellous, an underworld realm -where dwell four queens long since vanished from Arthur's court, and -which, according to Chrestien (verse 9,388), Gawain, having once found, -may no longer leave. One of these queens is Arthur's mother, whom a -magician had carried off, a variant it would seem of the tradition which -makes Arthur's father, Uther, win Igerne from her husband by Merlin's -magic aid. Many other reminiscences of Celtic tradition may be found in -the romances--Orgeleuse, whom Gawain finds sitting under a tree by a -spring, is just such a water fairy as may be met with throughout the whole -range of Celtic folk-lore, and differs profoundly from the Germanic -conception of such beings. - -W. Hertz, in his "Sage vom Parzival und dem Gral" (Breslau, 1882) -following, in the main, Birch-Hirschfeld, lays stress upon the two -elements, "_legend_" and "_sage_" out of which the romance cycle has -sprung. He does not overlook many of the weak points in Birch-Hirschfeld's -theory, _e.g._, whilst fully accepting the fish caught by Bron as the -symbol of Christ, he notices that the incident as found in Robert de -Borron, whom he accepts as the first in date of the cycle writers, is not -of such importance as to justify the stress laid upon the nickname "rich -fisher," by all the _ex hypothesi_ later writers. The word "rich" must, he -thinks, have originally referred to the abundant power of conversion of -heathen vouchsafed to the Grail-keeper, but even Robert failed to grasp -the full force of the allusion. Against Birch-Hirschfeld he maintains that -the connection of Joseph with the conversion of Britain in all the -versions shows that the legend must have assumed definite shape first on -British soil, and he looks upon the separatist and anti-papal tendencies -of the British Church as supplying the original impulse to such a legend. -The Grail belongs originally wholly to the "Legend;" only in the later -versions and in Wolfram, owing to the latter's ignorance of its real -nature, does it assume a magic and popular character. The lance, on the -other hand, is partly derived from the Celtic _sage_. The boyhood of -Perceval is a genuine folk-story, a great-fool tale, and had originally -nothing to do with the Grail, as may plainly be seen by reference to the -Thornton Sir Perceval, the most primitive form of the story remaining, the -Mabinogi, and the modern Breton tale of Peronnik, deriving directly or -indirectly from Chrestien. As for the question, although it presented much -that seemed to refer it to folk-tradition, as for instance in Heinrich von -dem Tuerlin's version, where Gawain's putting the question releases the -lord of the castle and his retainers from the enchantment of -life-in-death, yet the form of the question, "Je vos prie que vous me diez -que l'en sert de cest vessel," shows its original connection with the -Grail cultus, and necessitates its reference to the "Legend." Existing -versions fail, however, to give any satisfactory account of the question. -It is a matter of conjecture whether in the earliest form of the legend -(which Hertz assumes to have been lost) it was found in the same shape as -in the Didot-Perceval. - -Birch-Hirschfeld's theory has already been implicitly criticised in -Chapter III. The considerations adduced therein, as well as Martin's -criticisms and Hertz's admissions, preclude the necessity of examining it -in further detail. Formally speaking, the theory rests upon the assumption -that we have Borron's work substantially as he wrote it, an assumption -which, as shown by the difference in _motif_ between the Metrical Joseph -and the Didot-Perceval, is inaccurate. Again, the theory does not account -for the silence of all the other versions respecting Brons and that -special conception of the Grail found in Borron's poem. Nor does it offer -any satisfactory explanation of the mysterious question which -Birch-Hirschfeld can only conjecture to have been a meaningless invention, -_eine harmlose Erfindung_, of Borron's. In fact, only such, portions of -the cycle are exhaustively examined as admit of reference to the alleged -originating idea, and a show of rigorous deduction is thus made, the -emptiness of which becomes apparent when the entire legend, and not one -portion only, is taken into account. Despite the learning and acuteness -with which it is urged, Birch-Hirschfeld's theory must be rejected, if it -were only because, as Martin points out, it postulates a development of -the legend which is the very opposite of the normal one. We cannot admit -that this vast body of romance sprang from a simple but lofty spiritual -conception, the full significance of which, unperceived even by its -author, was totally ignored, not only, were that possible, by Chrestien -and his continuators, but by the theologising mystics who wrote the Grand -St. Graal and the Queste--aye, and even by the latest and in some respects -the most theologically minded of all the writers of the cycle, the author -of the Prose Perceval le Gallois and Gerbert. We must say, with Otto Kuepp -(Zacher's Zeitschrift, XVII, 1, p. 68), "die jetzt versuchte christliche -Motivierung ist ganz ungluecklich geraten und kann in keiner Weise -befriedigen." - -The field is thus clear for an examination of the Quest with a view to -determining whether the Grail really belongs to it or not. The first step -is to see what relationship exists between the oldest form of the Quest -and what have been called the non-Grail members of the cycle--_i.e._, the -Mabinogi of Peredur ab Evrawc and the Thornton MS. Sir Perceval. As -preliminary to this inquiry, an attempt must be made to determine more -closely the relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du -Graal--whether it be wholly derived from the latter, or whether it may -have preserved through other sources traces of a different form of the -story than that found in Chrestien.[69] - - - - -CHAPTER V. - - Relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du Graal--The former - not the source of the latter--Relationship of the Conte du Graal and - the Mabinogi--Instances in which the Mabinogi has copied - Chrestien--Examples of its independence--The incident of the blood - drops in the snow--Differences between the two works--The machinery of - the Mabinogi and the traces of it in the Conte du Graal--The - stag-hunt--The Mabinogi and Manessier--The sources of the Conte du - Graal and the relation of the various parts to a common original--Sir - Perceval--Steinbach's theory--Objections to it--The counsels in the - Conte du Graal--Wolfram and the Mabinogi--Absence of the Grail from - the apparently oldest Celtic form. - - -In examining the relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du Graal, -the sequence of the incidents is of importance. This is shown in the -subjoined table (where the numbers given are those of the incidents as -summarized, chapter II), in which the Didot-Perceval sequence is taken as -the standard. - - --------------------------------------------------------------- - DIDOT-PERCEVAL. | CHRESTIEN. | - --------------------------------|-----------------------------| - Inc. |Inc. | - 2. Perceval sets forth in |11. Only after the reproaches| - quest of the rich fisher. | of the loathly damsel | - | does Perceval first set | - | forth in quest of the | - | Grail. | - | | - 3. Finds a damsel weeping over | 8. In so far as finding a | - a knight. Adventure with | damsel weeping over a | - dwarf and the Orgellos | dead knight, and (9) for | - Delande. | overcoming the Orgellous | - | de la Lande. | - | | - 4. Arrival at the Chessboard | ... ... ... ... | - Castle. Adventure of the | | - stag hunt and loss of the | | - hound. | | - | | - 5. Meeting with sister; | ... ... ... ... | - instruction concerning the | | - Grail; vow to seek it. | | - | | - 6. Meeting with, confession |15. _After_ the Good Friday | - to, and exhortation from | incident. | - hermit uncle. | | - | | - 7. Disregard of uncle's | ... ... ... ... | - exhortations (slaying a | | - knight), through thinking | | - of damsel of the | | - Chessboard. | | - | | - 8. Meeting with Rosette and | ... ... ... ... | - Le Beau Mauvais (the | | - loathly damsel). | | - | | - 9. Adventure at the Ford with | ... ... ... ... | - Urbains. | | - | | - 10. The two children in the | ... ... ... ... | - tree. | | - | | - 11. First arrival at Grail | 7. ... ... ... ... | - Castle. | | - | | - 12. Reproaches of the wayside | 8. In so far as in both the | - damsel. | hero is reproached by a | - | wayside damsel. | - | | - 13. Meeting with the damsel who | ... ... ... ... | - had carried off the stag's | | - head and hound, and second | | - visit to Castle of the | | - Chessboard. | | - | | - 14. Period (7 years) of despair |15. ... ... ... ... | - ended by the Good Friday | | - incident. | | - | | - 15. Tournament at Melianz de |13. But told of Gawain not | - Lis. Merlin's reproaches. | of Perceval. | - | | - 16. Second arrival at Grail | ... ... ... ... | - Castle Achievement of Quest.| | - --------------------------------------------------------------- - - --------------------------- - GAUTIER DE DOULENS. - --------------------------- - Inc. - ... ... ... ... - - - - - - 9. In so far as a damsel - is foundlamenting over - a knight. - - - - 7 and 8. - - - - - 12. - - - - 12. - - - - 12. In so far as a knight - is slain, but _before_ - the meeting with the - hermit. - - - 11. - - - - 9. Ford Amorous; _entirely - different adventure_. - - 20. _One_ child. - - - ... ... ... ... - - - ... ... ... ... - - - - 13 and 18. Many adventures - being intercalated. - - - - - ... ... ... ... - - - - ... ... ... ... - - - 22. - - --------------------------- - -The different sequence in the Didot-Perceval and Chrestien may be -explained, as Birch-Hirschfeld explains it, by the freedom which Chrestien -allowed himself in re-casting the work; but why should Gautier, who, _ex -hypothesi_, simply took up from Chrestien's model such adventures as his -predecessor had omitted, have acted in precisely the same way? If the -theory were correct we should expect to find the non-Chrestien incidents -of the Didot-Perceval brought together in at least fairly the same order -in Gautier. A glance at the table shows that this is not the case. In one -incident, moreover, the Didot-Perceval is obviously right and Gautier -obviously wrong, namely, in his incident 12, where the slaying of the -knight before the hero's meeting the hermit takes away all point from the -incident. An absolutely decisive proof that that portion of the Conte du -Graal which goes under Gautier's name (though it is by no means clear that -all of it is of the same age or due to one man), cannot be based upon the -Didot-Perceval as we now possess it, is afforded by the adventure of the -Ford Amorous or Perillous, which in the two versions is quite dissimilar. -This incident stands out pre-eminent in the Didot-Perceval for its wild -and fantastic character. It is a genuine Celtic _maerchen_, with much of -the weird charm still clinging to it that is the birthright of the Celtic -folk-tale. It is inadmissible that Gautier could have substituted for this -fine incident the commonplace one which he gives. - -If, then, it is out of the question that Gautier borrowed directly from -the Didot-Perceval, how are the strong resemblances which exist in part -between the two versions to be accounted for? Some of these resemblances -have already been quoted (_supra_, p. 75), the remainder may be usefully -brought together here.[70] - -First arrival at the Castle of the Chessboard-- - - DIDOT-PERCEVAL. GAUTIER. - - Li plus biaux chasteaux del monde Le bel castiel que je vos dis - et vit le pont abeissie et la . . . . . - porte defferme (p. 439). Et vit si bieles les entrees - Et les grans portes desfremees - (22,395, etc.); - -The damsel exhorts him not to throw the chessman into the water-- - - Votre cors est esmeuz a grant Car cou serait grans vilonie (22,503). - vilainie faire (p. 440). - -Perceval having slain the stag, sees its head carried off-- - - Si vint une veille sor un palestoi Une puciele de malaire - grant aleure et prist le brachet Vint cevaucant parmi la lande - et s'en ala or tot (p. 442). Voit le braket, plus ne demande - Par le coler d'orfrois le prist - . . . . . . - Si s'en aloit grant aleure - (22,604, etc.). - -On Perceval threatening to take it away from her by force she answers-- - - Sire Chevalier, force n'est mie Force a faire n'est mie drois - droit et force me poez bien Et force me poes vos faire (22,640). - faire (p. 443). - -In the subsequent fight with the Knight of the Tomb, he, overcome-- - - Se torna vers le tonbel grant Que fuiant vait grant aleure - aleure et li tombeaux s'enleva Vers l'arket et la sepouture - contre moultet chevalier s'en Si est entres plus tost qu'il pot - feri enz (p. 444). (22,723, etc.). - -In the description of Rosette (the loathly damsel)-- - - Ele avoit le col et les mains plus Le col avoit plus noir que fer - noires et le vier, que fer... (25,409). - (p. 453). - -When the loathly damsel and her knight come to Arthur's court, Kay jests -as follows:-- - - Lors pria (_i.e._, Kay) le chevalier Biaus sire, - par la foi que il devoit, le roi, Dites moi, si Dex le vos mire, - qui li deist ou il l'avoit prise et Si plus en a en vostre terre, - si en porroit une autre tele avoir, Une autele en iroie querre - si il l'aloit querre (p. 457). Si jou le quidoie trover - (25,691 etc.). - -These similarities are too great to be accidental. It will be noticed, -however, that they bear chiefly upon two adventures: that of the -chessboard and stag hunt, and that of the loathly maiden. As to the -latter, it is only necessary to allude to Birch-Hirschfeld's idea that -Rosette is the original of the damsel who reproaches Perceval before the -court with his conduct at the Grail Castle, a theory to state which is to -refute it. The former adventure will be closely examined in the following -section. There is no need to suppose direct borrowing on the part of one -or the other versions to account for the parallel in these two incidents; -a common original closely followed at times by both would meet the -requirements of the case. It is difficult to admit that the author of the -Didot-Perceval used Gautier's continuation and not Chrestien's original, -especially when the following fact, strangely overlooked by both -Birch-Hirschfeld and Hucher, is taken into account: Perceval on his first -arrival at the Grail Castle keeps silence (as will be seen by a reference -to the summary, _supra_, p. 31), because, "li souvenoit du prodome qui li -avoit deffandu que ne fust trop pallier," etc. As a matter of fact, the -"prodome" had forbidden nothing of the sort, and this casual sentence is -the first allusion to the motive upon which Chrestien lays so much stress -as explaining his hero's mysterious conduct at the Grail Castle. Evidently -the Didot-Perceval, which, to whoever considers it impartially, is an -obvious abridgment and piecing together of material from different -sources, found in one of its sources an episode corresponding to that of -Gonemans in Chrestien. But its author, influenced probably by the Galahad -version of the Quest, substituted for the "childhood" opening of this -hypothetical source the one now found in his version, and the Gonemans -episode went with the remainder of that part of the story. When the hero -comes to the Grail Castle, the author is puzzled; his hero knows -beforehand what he has to do, sets out with the distinct purpose of doing -it, and yet remains silent. To account for this silence the author uses -the motive belonging to a discarded episode, but applies the words to his -hermit, forgetting that he had put no such words into his mouth, and that, -attributed to him, the injunction to keep silence became simply -meaningless. Is the model treated in this way by the Didot-Perceval -Chrestien's poem? Hardly, for this reason. After the Good Friday incident -occurs the remarkable passage, quoted (_supra_, p. 31), as to the silence -of the _trouveres_ respecting it. Chrestien gives the incident in full, -and the author of the Perceval could have had no reason for his stricture, -or could not have ventured it had he been using Chrestien's work. Two -hypotheses then remain; the unknown source may have been a version akin to -that used by Chrestien and Gautier, or it may have been a summary -abridgment of the Conte du Graal, in which, _inter alia_, the Good Friday -incident was left out. In either case the presence of the passage in the -Perceval is equally hard of explanation; but the first hypothesis is -favoured by the primitive character of the incident of the Ford Perillous, -and several other features which will be touched upon in their place. The -Didot-Perceval would thus be an attempt to provide an ending for Borron's -poem by adapting to its central _donnee_ a version of the Perceval _sage_ -akin to that which forms the groundwork of the Conte du Graal, its author -being largely influenced by the Galahad form of the Quest as found in the -_Queste_. If this view be correct, the testimony of Perceval (wherever not -influenced by Borron's poem or the _Queste_) is of value in determining -the original form of the story, the more so from the author's evident want -of skill in piecing together his materials. It will, therefore, be used in -the following section, which deals with the relationship of the Conte du -Graal and the Mabinogi of Peredur ab Evrawc. - -_Relationship of the Conte du Graal and the Mabinogi._--As was seen in -Chapter IV, opinion began with Monsieur de Villemarque by accepting the -Mabinogi as the direct source of the Conte du Graal, and has ended with -Zarncke and Birch-Hirschfeld in looking upon it as a more or less direct -copy. The most competent of living scholars in this matter, M. Gaston -Paris, has expressed himself in favour of this opinion in his recent -article on the Lancelot story (Romania, 1886).[71] Before dealing with the -question as presented in this form, Simrock's view, differing as it does -from that of all other investigators, deserves notice. He, too, looks upon -the Mabinogi as derived from Chrestien, and yet bases his interpretation -of the myth underlying the romance upon a feature, the bleeding head in -the dish, found only in it. But if the Mabinogi have really preserved here -the genuine form of the myth, it must represent an older version than -Chrestien's, and if, on the other hand, Chrestien be its only source, the -feature in question cannot belong to the earliest form of the story. -Simrock's theory stands then or falls in this respect by the view taken of -the relationship between the two versions, and need not be discussed until -that view has been stated. - -To facilitate comparison, the incidents common to the two stories are -tabulated as under, those of the Mabinogi being taken as the standard:-- - - MABINOGI. CONTE DU GRAAL. - - Inc. Inc. _Chrestien._ - 1. Encounter with the knights. 1. - - 2. Adventure with the damsel of 2. - the tent. - - 3. Avenging of the insult to 3 and 4. - Guinevere; incident of the - dwarves; departure from Court. - - 5. Arrival at house of first uncle 5. Gonemans. - (found fishing); instruction in - arms. - - 6. Arrival at house of second uncle 7. Uncle found fishing; - (Grail Castle). First sight of talismans, Grail and lance. - the talismans (head in basin and - lance). - - 7. Reproaches of foster-sister whom 8. Reproached by his cousin; also - he finds lamenting over a dead instructed by her about the - knight. magic sword. - - 8. Adventure with the damsel of the 6. Blanchefleur, Gonemant's - besieged castle who offers niece. - herself to hero. - - 9. Second meeting with the lady of 9. - the tent. - - 10. First encounter with the - sorceresses of Gloucester, who - are forced to desist from - assailing hero's hostess. - - 11. Adventure of the drops of blood 10. - in the snow. - - 20. Reproaching of Peredur before 11. - the Court by the loathly damsel. - - 21. Gwalchmai's adventure with the 14. - lady whose father he had slain. - - 22. Peredur's meeting the knight on 15. Hermit, hero's uncle. - Good Friday, and confession to - priest. - _Gautier._ - 24. Arrival at the Castle of Wonders Inc. 7, 8, and partly 13 and 18. - (Chessboard Castle); stag hunt; - loss of dog; fight with the - black man of the cromlech. - - 25. Second arrival at the (Grail) 22. In so far as Gautier ends his - castle; achievement of the Quest part of the story here with - by destruction of sorceresses of the hero's second arrival at - Gloucester. "Thus it is related the Grail Castle, but no - concerning the Castle of similarity in the incidents. - Wonders." - -The sequence is thus exactly the same in the Mabinogi and in Chrestien, -with the single exception of the Blanchefleur incident, which, in the -French poem precedes, in the Welsh tale follows, the first visit to the -Grail Castle. The similarity of order is sufficient of itself to warrant -the surmise of a relation such as that of copy to original. If the -Mabinogi be examined closely, much will be found to strengthen this -surmise. Thus, Birch-Hirschfeld has pointed out that when Peredur first -sees the knights, and on asking his mother what they may be, receives the -answer, "Angels, my son"; this can only be a distorted reminiscence of -Perceval's own exclamation, - - ... Ha! sire Dex, Merchi! - Ce sont angle que je voi ci! (1,349-50). - -as the hero's mother would be the last person to describe thus the knights -whom she has done her best to guard her son from knowledge of. Again, -Simrock has criticised, and with reason, the incident of Peredur's being -acclaimed by the dwarf on his arrival at Arthur's court as the chief of -warriors and flower of knighthood. In the corresponding incident in -Chrestien, the hero is told laughingly by a damsel that he should become -the best knight in the world, and she had not laughed for ten years, as a -fool had been wont to declare. This is an earlier form than that of the -Mabinogi, and closer to the folk-tale account. Thus, to take one instance -only, in Mr. Kennedy's Giolla na Chroicean Gobhar (Fellow with the -Goat-skin) [Fictions of the Irish Celts, p. 23], the hero comes to the -King of Dublin, as Peredur to Arthur, clad in skins and armed with a club. -"Now, the King's daughter was so melancholy that she didn't laugh for -seven years, but when she saw Tom of the Goat-skin knock over all her -father's best champions, then she let a great sweet laugh out of her," and -of course Tom marries her, but not until he has been through all sorts of -trials, aye, even to Hell itself and back. In Chrestien, the primitive -form is already overlaid; we hear nothing further of the damsel moved to -laughter nor of the prophetic fool; and in the Mabinogi it seems obvious -that the hailing of the hero, added in Chrestien to the older laughter, -has alone subsisted. Birch-Hirschfeld takes exception likewise to the way -in which Peredur's two uncles are brought upon the scene, the first one, -corresponding to Gonemans in Chrestien, being found fishing instead of the -real Fisher King, the lord of the Castle of the Magic Talismans, whilst at -the latter's, Peredur has to undergo trials of his strength belonging -properly to his stay at the first uncle's. Evidently, says -Birch-Hirschfeld, there has been a confusion of the two personages. Again, -when Peredur leaves his second uncle on the morrow of seeing the bleeding -head and spear, it is said, "he rode forth with his uncle's permission." -Can these words be a reminiscence of Chrestien's? - - Et trueve le pont abaiscie, - Con li avoit ensi laissie - Por ce que rien nel detenist, - De quele eure qu'il venist - Que il ne passat sans arriest (4,565-69). - -We shall see later on that in the most primitive form of the unsuccessful -visit to the Castle of the Talismans the hero finds himself on the morrow -on the bare earth, the castle itself having vanished utterly. The idea of -permission being given to leave is diametrically opposed to this earliest -conception, and its presence in the Mabinogi seems only capable of -explanation by some misunderstanding of the story-teller's model. - -The Blanchefleur incident shows some verbal parallels, "The maiden -welcomed Peredur and put her arms around his neck." - - Et la damosele le prent - Par le main debonnairement (3,025-26) - Et voit celi ajenouillie - Devant son lit qui le tenoit - Par le col embraciet estroit (3,166-68). - -Can, too, the "two nuns," who bring in bread and wine, be due to the "Il -Abeies," which Perceval sees on entering Blanchefleur's town? It may be -noticed that in this scene the Welsh story-teller is not only more chaste, -but shows much greater delicacy of feeling than the French poet. Peredur's -conduct is that of a gentleman according to nineteenth century standards. -Chrestien, however, is probably nearer the historical reality, and the -conduct of his pair-- - - S'il l'a sor le covertoir mise - - * * * * - - Ensi giurent tote la nuit. - -is so singularly like that of a Welsh _bundling_ couple, that it seems -admissible to refer the colouring given to this incident to Welsh sources. -Another scene presenting marked similarities in the two works is that in -which the hero is upbraided before the court by the loathly damsel. In the -Mabinogi she enters riding upon a _yellow_ mule with _jagged thongs_: in -Chrestien-- - - Sor une _fauve mule_ et tint - En sa main destre une escorgie (5,991-2). - -"Blacker were her face and her two hands than the blackest iron covered -with pitch." - - Ains ne veistes si noir fer - Come ele ot les mains et le cor (5,998-99). - -"And she greeted Arthur and all his household except Peredur." - - Le roi et ses barons salue - Tout ensamble comunalment - Fors ke Perceval seulement (6,020-3). - -In the Mabinogi, Peredur is reproached for not having asked about the -streaming spear; in Chrestien "la lance qui saine" is mentioned first -although the Grail is added. Had Peredur asked the meaning and cause of -the wonders, the "King would have been restored to health, and his -dominions to peace." - - Li rices rois qui moult s'esmaie - Fust or tos garis de sa plaie - Et si tenist sa tiere en pais (6,049-51). - -Whereas now "his knights will perish, and wives will be widowed, and -maidens will be left portionless"-- - - Dames en perdront lor maris, - Tieres en seront essilies, - Et pucieles desconsellies; - Orfenes, veves en remanront - Et maint chevalier en morront (6,056, etc.). - -In the "Stately Castle" where dwells the loathly damsel, are five hundred -and sixty-six knights, and "the lady whom he loves best with each," in -"Castle Orguellos" five hundred and seventy, and not one "qui n'ait s'amie -avoeques lui." "And whoever would acquire fame in arms and encounters and -conflicts, he will gain it there if he desire it." - - Que la ne faut nus ki i alle, - Qui la ne truist joste u batalle; - Qui viout faire chevalerie, - Si la le quiert, n'i faura mie (6,075, etc.). - -"And whoso would reach the summit of fame and honour, I know where he may -find it. There is a castle on a lofty mountain, and there is a maiden -therein, and she is detained a prisoner there, and whoever shall set her -free will attain the summit of the fame of the world." - - Mais ki vorroit le pris avoir - De tout le mont, je quie savoir - Le liu et la piece de terre - U on le porroit mius conquerre; - - * * * * - - A une damoisiele assise; - Moult grant honor aroit conquise, - Qui le siege en poroit oster - Et la puciele delivrer (6,080, etc.). - -In this last case certainly, in the other cases probably, a direct -influence, to the extent at least of the passages quoted, must be -admitted. But before concluding hastily that the Welsh story-teller is the -copyist, some facts must be mentioned on the other side. Thus the incident -of the blood drops in the snow, which Birch-Hirschfeld sets down as one of -those taken over by the Mabinogi, with the remark that the Welsh story -contains no trace of a passion as strong as Perceval's for Blanchefleur, -has been dealt with by Professor H. Zimmer in his "Keltische Studien," -vol. ii, pp. 200. He refers to the awakening of Deirdre's love to Noisi by -similar means, as found in the Irish saga of the Sons of Usnech (oldest -MS. authority, Book of Leinster, copied before 1164 from older MSS.) as -evidence of the early importance of this _motif_ in Celtic tradition. The -passage runs thus in English: "As her foster-father was busy in winter -time skinning a calf out in the snow, she beheld a raven which drank up -the blood in the snow; and she exclaimed, 'Such a man could I love, and -him only, having the three colours, his hair like the raven, his cheeks -like the blood, his body like the snow.'" - -Now the Mabinogi says, almost in the same words--the blackness of the -raven and the whiteness of the snow, and the redness of the blood he -compared to the hair and the skin and the two red spots upon the cheek of -the lady that best he loved. In Chrestien there is no raven, and the whole -stress is laid upon the _three_ drops of blood on the snow, which put the -hero in mind of the red and white of his lady's face. As Zimmer justly -points out, the version of the Mabinogi is decidedly the more primitive -of the two; and that, moreover, as the incident does not figure at all in -what Birch-Hirschfeld presumes to be Chrestien's source, the -Didot-Perceval, the following development of this incident must, _ex -hypothesi_, have taken place. In the Didot-Perceval the hero is once upon -a time lost in thought. To explain this, Chrestien invents the incident of -the three drops of blood in the snow; the Mabinogi, copying Chrestien, -presents the incident in almost as primitive a form as the oldest known -one! Here, then, the Mabinogi has preserved an older form than Chrestien, -alleged to have been its source in all those parts common to both. Nor is -it certain that the fact of Peredur's undergoing the sword-test in the -Talisman Castle _does_ show, as Birch-Hirschfeld maintains, that the Welsh -story-teller confused the two personages whom he took over from Chrestien, -Gonemans and the Fisher King. The sword incident will be examined later -on; suffice here to say that no explanation is given in the Conte du Graal -of the broken weapon; whereas the Mabinogi does give a simple and natural -one. But these two instances cannot weaken the force of the parallels -adduced above. In determining, however, whether these may not be due to -Chrestien's being the borrower, the differences between the two versions -are of even more importance than the similarities. - -What are these? The French romances belonging to the Perceval type of the -Grail quest give two versions of the search for the magic talismans, that -of the Conte du Graal and that of the Didot-Perceval. The latter -pre-supposes an early history which, as already shown, cannot be looked -upon as the starting point of the legend without postulating such a -development of the latter as is inadmissible on _a priori_ grounds, and as -runs counter to many well-ascertained facts. The former is not consistent -with itself, Manessier's finish contradicting Chrestien's opening on such -an essential point as the cause of the maimed king's suffering. Still the -following outline of a story, much overlaid by apparently disconnected -adventures, may be gathered from it. A hero has to seek for magic -talismans wherewith to heal an uncle wounded by his brother, and at the -same time to avenge him on that brother. What, on the other hand, is the -story as told in the Mabinogi? A hero is minded by talismans to avenge -the death of a cousin (and the harming of an uncle); it is not stated that -the talismans pass into his possession. It is difficult to admit that -either of these forms can have served as direct model to the other. If the -Mabinogi be a simple copy of the Conte du Graal, whence the altered -significance of the talismans? whence also the machinery by means of which -the hero is at last brought to his goal, and which is, briefly, as -follows? The woe which has befallen Peredur's kindred is caused by -supernatural beings, the sorceresses of Gloucester; his ultimate -achievement of the task is brought about by his cousin, who, to urge him -on, assumes the form (1) of the black and loathly damsel; (2) of the -damsel of the chessboard, who incites him to the Ysbydinongyl adventure, -reproves him for not slaying the black man at once, and then urges him -into the stag hunt; (3) of the lady who carries off the hound and sends -him to fight against the black man of the cromlech; "and the cousin it was -who came in the hall with the bloody head in the salver and the lance -dripping blood." The whole of the incidents connected with the Castle of -the Chessboard, which appear at such length in both the Conte du Graal and -the Didot-Perceval, but without being in any way connected with the main -thread of the story, thus form in the Mabinogi an integral portion of that -main thread. Would the authors of the Conte du Graal have neglected the -straight-forward version of the Welsh tale had they known it, or could, on -the other hand, the author of the Mabinogi have worked up the disconnected -incidents of his alleged model into an organic whole? Neither hypothesis -is likely. Moreover the Conte du Graal and the Didot-Perceval, if examined -with care, show distinct traces of a machinery similar to that of the -Welsh story. Thus in Chrestien, Perceval, on arriving at the Fisher -King's, sees a squire bringing into the room a sword of such good steel -that it might break in but one peril, and this the King's niece (_i.e._, -Perceval's cousin) had sent her uncle to bestow it as he pleased; and the -King gives it to the hero for-- - - ... biaus frere ceste espee - Vous fu jugie et destinee (4,345-6). - -After Perceval's first adventure at the Grail Castle it is his "germaine -cousine" (4,776) who assails him with her reproaches; she knows all about -the sword (4,835-38) and tells him, how, if it be broken he may have it -mended (4,847-59). So far Chrestien, who furthermore, be it noted, makes -Blanchefleur Perceval's lady-love, likewise his cousin, she being niece to -Gonemans (3,805-95). A cousin is thus beloved of him, a cousin procures -for him the magic sword, a cousin, as in the Mabinogi, incites him to the -fulfilment of the quest, and gives him advice which we cannot doubt would -have been turned to account by Chrestien had he finished his poem. Turning -now to Gautier, in whose section of the poem are to be found the various -adventures growing out of the chessboard incident, this difference between -the Mabinogi and himself may be noted. In the former, these adventures -caused by Peredur's cousin serve apparently as tests of the hero's -strength and courage. The loss of the chessboard is the starting-point of -the task, and the cousin reappears as the black maiden. Nothing of the -sort is found in Gautier. True, the damsel who reproaches Perceval is in -so far supernatural, as she is a kind of water-nix, but it is love for her -which induces the hero to perform the task; she it is, too, who lends him -the dog, and she is not identified with the "pucelle de malaire" who -carries it off (22,604, etc.). But later on Perceval meets a knight who -tells him that a daughter of the Fisher King's (thus also a cousin of -Perceval) had related to him how a knight had carried off a stag's head -and hound to anger another good knight who had been at her father's court, -and had not asked as he should concerning the Grail, for which reason she -had taken his hound and had refused him help to follow the robber knight -(23,163, etc.). This makes the "pucelle de malaire" to be Perceval's -cousin, and she plays the same _role_ as in the Mabinogi. True, when later -on (Incident 13) Perceval finds the damsel, nothing is said as to her -being the Fisher King's daughter; on the contrary, as will be seen by the -summary, a long story is told about the Knight of the Tomb, brother to her -knight, Garalas, and how he lived ten years with a fay. She is here quite -distinct from the lady of the chessboard to whom Perceval returns later. -The version found in the Didot-Perceval agrees with the Mabinogi as -against Gautier in so far that the hero is in love with the mistress of -the castle, and not with the damsel who reproaches him for throwing away -the chessmen. This reproaching damsel is not in any way identified with -the lady who carries off the hound, who is described as "une vieille," and -of whom it is afterwards told "elle estoit quand elle voloit une des plus -belles damoiselles du monde. Et est cele meismes que mon frere (the -brother of the Knight of the Tomb, who here, as in Gautier, is the lover -of a fay) amena a la forest," _i.e._, she is the fay herself, sister to -the lady of the Chessboard Castle, who hated her and wished to diminish -her and her knight's pride (p. 469). Here, again, a connection can be -pieced out between the various personages of the adventure; and it appears -that the hero is driven to his fight against the Knight of the Tomb by a -fair damsel transformed into a mysterious hag.[72] The Mabinogi thus gives -one consistently worked-out conception--transformed hag = Peredur's -cousin--which may be recovered partly from that one of the two discordant -versions found in Gautier which makes the pucelle de malaire to be the -Fisher King's daughter, hence Perceval's cousin, and connects the stag -hunt with the Grail incident, partly from the Didot-Perceval, which tells -how the same pucelle de malaire is but playing a part, being when she -wills one of the fairest maids of the world. Now we have seen that the -stag hunt is just one of those portions of the story in which are found -the closest verbal similarities between Gautier de Doulens and the -Didot-Perceval. It is, therefore, perplexing to find that there is not -more likeness in the details of the incident. But the similarities pointed -out concern chiefly the first part of the incident, and are less prominent -in the latter part (the hero's encounter with the Knight of the Tomb). -This, taken together with the difference in the details of the incident -just pointed out, strengthens the opinion expressed above, that the -Didot-Perceval and Gautier are not connected directly but through the -medium of a common source, the influence of which can be seen distinctly -in certain portions of either story, and that when this source fails they -go widely asunder in their accounts. That such an hypothesis is not -unreasonable is shown by the fact that Gautier has two contradictory forms -of this very story, one of which, that which makes the hound-stealing -damsel a daughter of the Fisher King, is on all fours with the Mabinogi, -whilst the other is more akin to, though differing in important respects -from, that of the Didot-Perceval. In this case, at least, Gautier must -have had two sources, and if two why not more? - -It may be urged in explanation of the similarities between Gautier and the -Mabinogi, that the author of the latter used Gautier in the same free way -that he did Chrestien, but that getting tired towards the close of his -work he abridged in a much more summary fashion than at first. If the -comparison of the versions of the stag hunt found in either work be not -sufficient to refute this theory, the following consideration may be -advanced against it: if the Mabinogi derives entirely from the Conte du -Graal, how can the different form given to the Grail episode be accounted -for?--if it only knew Chrestien, where did it get the chessboard adventure -from, and if it knew Gautier as well as Chrestien why did it not finish -the Grail adventure upon the same lines as it began, _i.e._, partly in -conformity with its alleged model? - -Is Manessier any nearer than Gautier to the Mabinogi in the later portion -of the tale? The chief points of the story told by him may be -recapitulated thus:--The Grail damsel is daughter of the Fisher King, the -damsel of the salver, daughter of King Goon Desert, his brother (_i.e._, -both are cousins to Perceval); Goon Desert, besieged by Espinogre, defeats -him, but is treacherously slain by his nephew Partinal, the latter's sword -breaking in the blow. Goon's body is brought to the Fisher King's castle, -whither the broken sword is likewise brought by Goon's daughter to be kept -until a knight should come, join together the pieces, and avenge Goon's -death. In receiving the sword the Fisher King wounds himself through the -thighs, and may not be healed until he be avenged on Partinal. Perceval -asks how he may find the murderer, the blood vengeance (faide = O.H.G. -Fehde) being on him. Perceval fights with Partinal, slays him, cuts off -his head as token of his victory, returns to the Fisher King's castle, -lighting upon it by chance, heals the Fisher King by the mere sight of the -head, which is fixed on a pike on the highest battlements. At the death of -his uncle Perceval succeeds him as King of the Grail Castle. Here, then, -as in the Mabinogi, the story turns definitely upon a blood feud; the same -act which brings about the death of one relative of the hero, also causes, -indirectly, it is true, the laming of another, even as in the Mabinogi the -same supernatural beings kill Peredur's cousin and lame his uncle; the -cousin reappears again, bringing the magic sword by whose aid alone the -hero can accomplish the vengeance, and uttering the prediction the -fulfilment of which will point out the destined avenger. Finally, if the -Mabinogi seems to lay special stress upon the head of the murdered man, -Manessier lays special stress upon the head of the murderer. Now it is -quite evident that the Mabinogi cannot have copied Manessier. It has been -alleged that the Welsh story-teller, adapting Chrestien to the taste of -his fellow countrymen, substituted a blood feud for the Grail Quest, but -what reason would he have had for thus dealing with Manessier? He had -simply to leave out the Christian legendary details, which in Manessier -are, one can hardly say, adapted to the older form of the story, to find -in that older form a clear and straightforward account with no admixture -of mystical elements. It is impossible to explain the strong general -similarity of outline with the equally marked divergences of detail -(Sorceresses of Gloucester instead of Partinal, etc.,) except by saying -that both, though going back to a common legendary source, are unconnected -one with another. - -The facts thus dealt with may be recapitulated as follows:--There is -marked similarity in general outline between the Mabinogi and the Conte du -Graal in the adventures common to both; in that portion of the Conte du -Graal due to Chrestien there occur, moreover, many and close verbal -parallels, and the corresponding part of the Mabinogi is told at greater -length than the remainder of the incidents common to both works. That -which answers in the Mabinogi to the Grail Quest forms a clear and -straightforward whole, the main features of which may be recovered from -the Conte du Graal, but in varying proportions from the various sections -of that work. Thus the indications of this Mabinogi talisman quest, the -central intrigue, as it may be called, of the tale, are in Chrestien of -the slightest nature, being confined to passing hints; in Gautier they are -fuller and more precise, though pointing to a version of the central -intrigue different, not only in details but in conception, from that of -the Mabinogi; in Manessier alone is there agreement of conception, -although the details still vary. Finally, those portions of the Mabinogi -which are in closest verbal agreement with Chrestien contain statements -which cannot easily be reconciled with this central intrigue. - -These facts seem to warrant some such deductions as these. Bearing in mind -that the Mabinogi is an obvious piecing together of all sorts of incidents -relating to its hero, the only connecting link being that of his -personality, its author may be supposed, when compiling his work, to have -stretched out his hand in all directions for material. Now a portion of -the Peredur _sage_ consisted of adventures often found elsewhere in the -folk-tale cycles of the Great Fool and the Avenging Kinsman--cycles which, -in Celtic tradition, at least, cover almost the same ground as the one -described by J. G. von Hahn under the title, "Die Arische Aussetzung und -Rueckkehr-Formel." In the original of the Mabinogi this portion probably -comprised the childhood and forest up-bringing, the visit to Arthur with -the accompanying incidents, the training by the uncle (who _may_ have been -the Fisher King), the arrival at the (bespelled) castle, where the hero is -to be minded of his task by the sight of certain talismans and of his -cousin's head, the reproaches of the loathly damsel, her subsequent -testing of the hero by the adventures of the chessboard, stag hunt, etc., -the hero's final accomplishment of the task, vengeance on his kindred's -enemies, and removal of the spells. There would seem to have been no such -love story as that frequently found in stories of the Great Fool class, -_e.g._, in the Irish one (_supra_, p. 134). This original was probably -some steps removed from being a genuine popular version; the incidents -were presented in a way at once over-concise and confused, and some which, -as will be seen in the next chapter, the living folk-tale has preserved -were left out or their significance was not recognized. What more natural -than that the author of the Mabinogi in its present form, knowing -Chrestien, should piece out his bare, bald narrative with shreds and -patches from the Frenchman's poem? The moment Chrestien fails him, he -falls back into the hurried concision of his original. His adaptation of -Chrestien is done with singularly little skill, and at times he seems to -have misunderstood his model. He confines his borrowing to matters of -detail, not allowing, for instance, Chrestien's presentment of the Grail -incident to supersede that of his Welsh original. In one point he may, -following Chrestien, have made a vital change. It seems doubtful whether -the Welsh source of the Mabinogi knew of a maimed king, an uncle to be -healed through the hero's agency; the sole task may have been the avenging -the cousin's death. True the "lame uncle" appears at the end, but this may -be due to some sudden desire for consistency on the arranger's part. But -whether or no he was found in the Welsh story preserved in the Mabinogi, -he certainly played no such leading part as in the Conte du Graal. The two -stories deal with the same cycle of adventures, but the object of the hero -is not the same in both, and, consequently, the machinery employed is not -quite the same. The present Mabinogi is an unskilful fusion of these two -variations upon the one theme.[73] - -Light is also thrown by this investigation upon the question of -Chrestien's relationship to his continuators. Birch-Hirschfeld's theory -that the Didot-Perceval was the source of Chrestien and Gautier has -already been set aside. Apart from the reasons already adduced, the fact -that it does not explain from whence Manessier got his ending of the story -would alone condemn it. It must now be evident that Chrestien and two of -his continuators drew from one source, and this a poem of no great length -probably, the main outlines of which were nearly the same as those of the -Welsh proto-Mabinogi given above, with this difference, that the story -turned upon the healing of the uncle and not the avenging the cousin's -death. This poem, which seems also to have served, directly or indirectly, -as one of the sources of the Didot-Perceval, had probably departed from -popular lines in many respects, and _may_, though this would be an -exceedingly difficult question to determine, have begun the incorporation -of the Joseph of Arimathea legend with its consequent wresting to purposes -of Christian symbolisms of the objects and incidents of the old folk-tale. - -Such an incorporation had almost certainly begun before Chrestien's time, -and was continued by him. There can be little doubt that he dealt with his -model in a free and daring spirit, altering and adding as seemed best to -him. This alone explains how Manessier, slavishly following the common -original, tells differently the cause of the lame king's wound. Gautier, -who lacked Chrestien's creative power, though he often equals him in the -grace and vivacity of his narrative, seems to have had no conception of a -plan; the section of Conte du Graal which goes under his name is a mere -disorderly heap of disconnected adventures brought together without care -for consistency. But for this very reason he is of more value in restoring -the original form of the story than Chrestien, who, striving after -consistency, harmony, and artistic development of his tale, alters, adds -to, or retrenches from the older version. Gautier had doubtless other -sources besides the one made use of by Chrestien. This does not seem to be -the case with Manessier, who, for this portion of the story, confined -himself to Chrestien's original, without taking note of the differences in -_motif_ introduced by his predecessor. What is foreign to it he drew from -sources familiar to us, the Queste and Grand S. Graal, from which more -than two-thirds of his section are derived. - -In working back to the earliest form of the Perceval-_sage_, Mabinogi and -Conte du Graal are thus of equal value and mutually complementary. Both -are second-hand sources, and their testimony is at times sadly corrupt, -but it is from them chiefly that information must be sought as to the -earlier stages of development of this legendary cycle. They do not by -themselves give any satisfactory explanation of the more mysterious -features of the full-blown legend, but they do present the facts in such a -way as to put out of court the hypothesis of a solely Christian legendary -origin. Before proceeding further it will be well to see if the English -Sir Perceval has likewise claims to be considered one of the versions -which yield trustworthy indications as to the older form of the story. - -This poem, described by Halliwell as simply an abridged English version of -the Conte du Graal, has, as may be seen by reference to Ch. IV, been -treated with more respect by other investigators, several of whom, struck -by its archaic look, have pronounced it one of the earliest versions of -the Perceval _sage_. It has quite lately been the object of elaborate -study by Paul Steinbach in his dissertation: "Uber dem Einfluss des -Crestien de Troies auf die altenglische literatur," Leipzig, 1885. The -results of his researches may be stated somewhat as follows: the two works -correspond incident for incident down to the death of the Red Knight, the -chief differences being that Perceval is made a nephew of King Arthur, -that the death of his father at the hands of the Red Knight is explained -as an act of revenge on the part of the latter, that Arthur recognizes his -nephew at once, and tells him concerning the Red Knight, and that the -burning of the Red Knight, only hinted at in Chrestien's lines-- - - Ains auroie par carbonees. - Trestout escarbellie le mort, etc. (2,328-9). - -is fully told in the English poem. After the Red Knight incident the -parallelism is much less close. The English poem has incidents to itself: -the slaying of the witch, the meeting with the uncle and nine cousins, the -fight with the giant for the ring, the meeting with and restoring to -health the mother. Of the remaining incidents, those connected with -Lufamour are more or less parallel to what Chrestien relates of his hero's -adventure with Blanchefleur, and that of the Black Knight, with that of -the Orgellous de la Lande in Chrestien. Of the 2,288 verses of the English -poem the greater part may be paralleled from Chrestien, thus:-- - - P. of G. Cr. - 1-160 485-940 - 161-188 941-1,206 - 189-256 1,207-82 - 257-320 1,283-1,554 - 321-432 1,555-1,828 - 433-80 1,829-1,970 - 481-600 2,091-2,170 - {2,055-90 - 601-56 {2,135-59 - {2,171-2,225 - 657-740 2,268-2,312 - 741-820 2,313-2,398 - 1,061-1,108 4,000-4,060 - 1,109-1,124 5,511-553 - 1,381-1,540 5,600-5,891 - 953-1,012} - 1,125-1,380} {2,900-3,960 - 1,541-1,760} {4,088-94 - 1,761-1,808 4,095-4,150 - 1,809-1,951 4,865-5,375 - -the incidents comprised v. 821-952 and 1,953-2,288, being the only one -entirely unconnected with Chrestien. This general agreement between the -two works shows the dependence of the one on the other. But while -evidently dependent, the English poem, as is shown by the differences -between it and its French original, belongs at once to a less and to a -more highly developed stage of the Perceval _sage_. The differences are -thus of two kinds, those testifying to the writer's adherence to older, -probably Breton, popular traditions and those due to himself, and -testifying to the skill with which he has worked up his materials and -fitted portions of Chrestien's poem into an older framework. Of the first -kind are: the statement that Perceval meets with three knights instead of -five as in Chrestien, the English poem agreeing here with the Mabinogi; -the mention of his riding on a _mare_ and of his being clad in goat-skins, -the English poem again agreeing rather with the Mabinogi than with -Chrestien, and showing likewise points of contact with the Breton ballads -about Morvan lez Breiz, printed by Villemarque in the Barzaz Breiz. The -combat with the giant may likewise be paralleled from the Lez Breiz cycle -in that hero's fight with the Moorish giant. These points would seem to -indicate knowledge on the author's part of popular traditions concerning -Perceval forming a small cycle, of which the departure from, and return to -the mother were the opening and closing incidents respectively. This form -of the story must have been widely spread and popular to induce the author -to leave out as much as he has done of Chrestien's poem in order to bring -it within the traditional framework. He accomplished his task with much -skill, removing every trace of whatever did not bear directly upon the -march of the story as he told it. In view of this skill differences which -tend to make the story more consequent and logical may fairly be ascribed -to him. Such are: the making Perceval a nephew of Arthur, the mention of a -feud between the Red Knight and Perceval's father, the combat with the -witch arising out of Perceval's wearing the Red Knight's armour, and the -other adventures which follow eventually from the same cause, the feature -that the ring taken by Perceval from the lady in the tent is a magic one, -endowing its wearer with supernatural strength, the change made between -this ring and his mother's which prepares the final recognition, etc. The -original poem probably ended with the reunion of mother and son, the last -verse, briefly mentioning the hero's death, being a later addition. To sum -up, Sir Perceval may be looked upon as the work of a folk-singer who -fitted into the old Breton framework a series of adventures taken partly -from Chrestien, partly from the same Breton traditions which were -Chrestien's main source, and with remarkable skill avoided all such -incidents as would not have accorded with the limits he had imposed upon -himself. - -Against this view of Steinbach's it might be urged that a writer as -skilful as the author of Sir Perceval is assumed to be could easily have -worked Chrestien's Grail episode into his traditional framework. A more -plausible explanation, assuming the theory to be in the main correct, -might be found in the great popularity in this country of the Galahad form -of the Quest, and the consequent unwillingness on the author's part to -bring in what may have seemed to him like a rival version. Steinbach has -not noticed one curious bit of testimony to the poem's being an abridgment -of an older work, more archaic in some respects than Chrestien. When the -hero has slain the Red Knight he knows not how to rid him of his armour, -but he bethinks him-- - - ... "My moder bad me - Whenne my dart solde brokene be, - Owte of the irene brenne the tree, - Now es me fyre gnede" (749-52). - -Now the mother's counsel, given in verses xxv-vi are solely that he should -be "of mesure," and be courteous to knights; nothing is said about burning -the tree out of the iron, nor does any such counsel figure either in -Chrestien or in the Mabinogi, which in this passage has copied, with -misunderstandings, the French poet.[74] The use of Chrestien by the author -of Sir Perceval seems, however, uncontestable; and, such being the case, -Steinbach's views meet the difficulties of the case fairly well. It will -be shown farther on, however, that several of the points in which the -German critic detects a post-Chrestien development, are, on the contrary, -remains of as old and popular a form of the story as we can work back to. -Accepting, then, the hypothesis that Sir Perceval, like the Mabinogi, has -been influenced by Chrestien, what is the apparent conclusion to be drawn -from the fact that the former omits the Grail episode altogether, whilst -the latter joins Chrestien's version to its own, presumably older one, so -clumsily as to betray the join at once? May it not be urged that -Chrestien's account is obviously at variance with the older story as he -found it? may not the fact be accounted for by the introduction of a -strange element into the thread of the romance? This element would, -according to Birch-Hirschfeld, be the Christian holy-vessel legend, and it -would thus appear that the Grail is really foreign to the Celtic -tradition. Let me recapitulate briefly the reasons already urged against -such a view. The early history of the Grail, that part in which the -Christian element prevails, must certainly be regarded as later than the -Quest, to which it could not have given rise without assuming such a -development of the romance as is well nigh incredible--the Quest versions, -moreover, all hang together in certain respects, and point unmistakably to -Celtic traditions as their source. These traditions must then be examined -further to see if they contain such traces of the mystic vessel as are -wanting in the Mabinogi and the English poem, and as may have given rise -to the episode as found in the French romances. As Perceval is the oldest -hero of the Quest, and as the boyhood of Perceval, forming an integral -part of all the oldest Quest versions presents the strongest analogies -with the folk-tale of the Great Fool, it is this tale which must now be -examined. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - - The Lay of the Great Fool--Summary of the Prose Opening--The Aryan - Expulsion and Return Formula--Comparison with the Mabinogi, Sir - Perceval, and the Conte du Graal--Originality of the Highland - tale--Comparison with the Fionn legend--Summary of the Lay of the - Great Fool--Comparison with the stag hunt incident in the Conte du - Graal and the Mabinogi--The folk-tale of the twin brethren--The fight - against the witch who brings the dead to life in Gerbert and the - similar incident in the folk-tale of the Knight of the Red - Shield--Comparison with the original form of the Mabinogi--Originality - of Gerbert. - - -One of the most popular of the poetic narratives in the old heroic -quatrain measure still surviving in the Highlands is the "Lay of the Great -Fool" (Laoidh an Amadain Mhoir), concerning which, according to Campbell, -vol. iii., p. 150, the following saying is current:--"Each poem to the -poem of the Red; each lay to the Lay of the Great Fool; each history to -the history of Connal" (is to be referred as a standard). This Lay, as -will be shown presently, offers some remarkable similarities with the -central Grail episode of the quest romances, but before it is investigated -a prose opening often found with it must be noticed. This prose opening -may be summarised thus from Campbell, vol. iii., pp. 146, _et seq._ - -There were once two brothers, the one King over Erin, the other a mere -knight. The latter had sons, the former none. Strife broke out between the -two brothers, and the knight and his sons were slain. Word was sent to the -wife, then pregnant, that if she bore a son it must be put to death. It -was a lad she had, and she sent him into the wilderness in charge of a -kitchen wench who had a love son. The two boys grew up together, the -knight's son strong and wilful. One day they saw three deer coming towards -them; the knight's son asked what creatures were these--creatures on which -were meat and clothing 'twas answered--it were the better he would catch -them, and he did so, and his foster-mother made him a dress of the deer's -hide. Afterwards he slew his foster-brother for laughing at him, caught a -wild horse, and came to his father's brother's palace. He had never been -called other than "Great fool," and when asked his name by his cousin, -playing shinty, answered, "Great Fool." His cousin mocked at him, and was -forthwith slain. On going into the King's (his uncle's) presence, he -answered in the same way. His uncle recognised him, and reproaching -himself for his folly in not having slain the mother with the father, went -with him, as did all the people. - -In my article on the Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula among the Celts -("Folk-Lore Record," vol. iv.), I have shown that this tale is widely -distributed in the Celtic Heldensage as well as in the Celtic folk-tale. -Before noticing the variants, a word of explanation may be necessary. The -term, Arische Aussetzungs-und Rueckkehr-Formel, was first employed by J. G. -v. Hahn in his Sagwissenschaftliche Studien (Jena, 1876), to describe a -tale which figured in the heroic literature of every Aryan race known to -him. He examined fourteen stories, seven belonging to the Hellenic -mythology, Perseus, Herakles, Oedipus, Amphion and Zethos, Pelias and -Neleus, Leukastos and Parrhasius, Theseus; one to Roman mythic history, -Romulus and Remus; two to the Teutonic Heldensage, Wittich-Siegfried, -Wolfdietrich; two to Iranian mythic history, Cyrus, Key Chosrew; two to -the Hindu mythology, Karna, Krishna. I was able to recover from Celtic -literature eight well-defined variants, belonging to the Fenian and -Ultonian cycles of Irish Heldensage (heroes, Fionn and Cu-Chulaind); to -Irish mythic history, Labraidh Maen; to the folk-tale still living in the -Highlands, Conall and the Great Fool; to the Kymric Heldensage, -Peredur-Perceval, Arthur, and Taliesin. An examination of all these tales -resulted in the establishing of the following standard formula, to the -entirety of which it will of course be understood none of the tales -answer:-- - - I. Hero born-- - (_a_) Out of wedlock. - (_b_) Posthumously. - (_c_) Supernaturally. - (_d_) One of twins. - - II. Mother, princess residing in her own country. - - III. Father-- - (_a_) God } - (_b_) Hero } from afar. - - IV. Tokens and warning of hero's future greatness. - - V. He is in consequence driven forth from home. - - VI. Is suckled by wild beasts. - - VII. Is brought up by a (childless couple), or shepherd, or widow. - - VIII. Is of passionate and violent disposition. - - IX. Seeks service in foreign lands. - - IXA. Attacks and slays monsters. - - IXB. Acquires supernatural knowledge through eating a fish, or other - magic animal. - - X. Returns to his own country, retreats, and again returns. - - XI. Overcomes his enemies, frees his mother, seats himself on the - throne. - -I must refer to my article for a full discussion of the various Celtic -forms of this widely-spread tale, and for a tabular comparison with the -remaining Indo-European forms analysed by J. G. von Hahn. Suffice to say -here that the fullest Celtic presentment of the _motif_ is to be found in -the Ossianic Heldensage, the expelled prince being no other than Fionn -himself. The Celtic form most closely related to it is that of the Great -Fool summarised above, the relationship of Peredur-Perceval with which is -evident. In both, the father being slain, the mother withdraws or sends -her son into the wilderness; in both he grows up strong, hardy, ignorant -of the world. Almost the same instances of his surpassing strength and -swiftness are given; in the Mabinogi by celerity and swiftness of foot he -drives the goats and hinds into the goat-house; in the Highland folk-tale -he catches the wild deer, and seeing a horse, and learning it is a beast -upon which sport is done, stretches out after it, catches and mounts it; -in Sir Perceval he sees-- - - ... A fulle faire stode - Offe coltes and meres gude, - Bot never one was tame (v. xxi.). - -and "smertly overrynnes" one.--The Great Fool then comes to his uncle, in -whom he finds the man who has killed his father. Sir Perceval likewise -comes to his uncle, and gets knowledge from him of his father's slayer; in -Chrestien and the Mabinogi no relationship is stated to exist between -Arthur and the hero. The manner of the coming deserves notice. In the -Conte du Graal, entering the hall the hero salutes the King twice, -receives no answer, and, turning round his horse in dudgeon, knocks off -the King's cap. - -In the English poem-- - - At his first in comynge, - His mere withowtenne faylynge, - Kiste the forehevede of the Kynge, - So nerehande he rade (v. xxxi.). - -He then demands knighthood or-- - - Bot (unless) the Kyng make me knyghte, - I shall him here slaa (v. xxxiii.). - -In the Great Fool the horse incident is wanting, but the hero's address to -his uncle is equally curt: "I am the great fool ... and if need were it is -that I could make a fool of thee also." The incident then follows of the -insult offered to Arthur by the Red Knight. Here, be it noted, the -Mabinogi version is much the ruder of the three, "the knight dashed the -liquor that was in the goblet upon her (Gwenhwyvar's) face, and upon her -stomacher, and gave her a violent blow in the face, and said," &c.; in -Chrestien the incident is not directly presented, but related at -second-hand, and merely that the discourteous knight took away the goblet -so suddenly that he spilt somewhat of its contents upon the queen, and -that she was so filled with grief and anger that well nigh she had not -escaped alive; in Sir Perceval the knight takes up the cup and carries it -off. Now it is a _lieu commun_ of Celtic folk-tales that as a King is -sitting at meat, an enemy comes in mounted, and offers him an insult, the -avenging of which forms the staple of the tale. A good instance may be -found in Campbell's lii., "The Knight of the Red Shield." As the King is -with his people and his warriors and his nobles and his great gentles, one -of them says, "who now in the four brown quarters of the Universe would -have the heart to put an affront on the King?"--then comes the rider on a -black filly, and, "before there was any more talk between them, he put -over the fist and he struck the King between the mouth and the nose." It -is noteworthy that this tale shows further likeness to the Mabinogi-Great -Fool series, generally, in so far as it is the despised youngest who out -of the three warriors that set off to avenge the insult succeeds, even as -it is the despised Peredur who slays the Red Knight, and specially in what -may be called the prophecy incident. With the exception of the opening -incidents, this is the one by which the "formula" nature of the Perceval -_sage_ is most clearly shown. In the Mabinogi it is placed immediately -after the hero's first encounter with the sorceresses of Gloucester: "by -destiny and foreknowledge knew I that I should suffer harm of thee," says -the worsted witch. The Conte du Graal has only a trace of it in the Fisher -King's words as he hands the magic sword to Perceval-- - - ... Biaus frere, ceste espee - Vous fu jugie et destinee (4345-6), - -whilst in Sir Perceval a very archaic turn is given to the incident by -Arthur's words concerning his unknown nephew-- - - The bokes say that he mone - Venge his fader bane (v. xxxvi.). - -This comparison is instructive as showing how impossible it is that -Chrestien's poem can be the only source of the Mabinogi and Sir Perceval. -It cannot be maintained that the meagre hint of the French poet is the -sole origin of the incident as found in the Welsh and English versions, -whilst a glance at my tabulation of the various forms of the Aryan -Expulsion and Return formula ("Folk-Lore Record," vol. iv.) shows that the -foretelling of the hero's greatness is an important feature in eight of -the Celtic and five of the non-Celtic versions, _i.e._, in more than -one-third of all the stories built up on the lines of the formula. It is -evident that here at least Mabinogi and Sir Perceval have preserved a -trait almost effaced in the romance. In the above-mentioned Highland tale -the incident is as follows: the hero finds "a treasure of a woman sitting -on a hill, and a great youth with his head on her knee asleep"; he tries -to wake the sleeper, even cuts off his finger, but in vain, until he -learns how it was in the prophecies that none should rouse the sleeping -youth save the Knight of the Red Shield, and he, coming to the island, -should do it by striking a crag of stone upon his breast. This tale, as -already remarked, shows affinity to the Perceval saga in two incidents, -and is also, as I have pointed out ("Folk-Lore Record," vol. v., -Mabinogion Studies), closely allied to a cycle of German hero and -folk-tales, of which Siegfried is the hero. Now Siegfried is in German -that which Fionn is in Celtic folk-lore, the hero whose story is modelled -most closely upon the lines of the Expulsion and Return formula. We thus -find not only, as might be expected, affinity between the German and -Celtic hero-tales which embody the formula, but the derived or allied -groups of folk-tales present likewise frequent and striking -similarities.[75] - -Another Highland tale (Campbell, lviii., The Rider of Grianaig) furnishes -a fresh example of this fact. Here, also, the deeds to be done of the hero -were prophesied of him. But these deeds he would never accomplish, save he -were incited thereto and aided therein by a raven, who in the end comes -out as a be-spelled youth, and a steed, a maiden under spells, and the -spells will not go off till her head be off. Even so Peredur is urged on -and helped by the bewitched youth. In other respects, there is no likeness -of plan and little of detail[76] to the Mabinogi, certainly no trace of -direct influence of the Welsh story upon the Highland one. - -It may, however, be asserted that all of these tales are derived more or -less directly from the French romance. This has been confidently stated of -the Breton ballad cycle of Morvan le Breiz (Barzaz Breiz) and of the -Breton Maerchen, Peronik l'idiot (Souvestre, Foyer Breton), and I have -preferred making no use of either. In the matter of the Scotch and Irish -tales a stand must be made. The romance, it is said, may have filtered -down into the Celtic population, through the medium of adaptations such as -the Mabinogi or Sir Perceval. Granted, for argument sake, that these two -works are mere adaptations, it must yet follow that the stories derived -from them will be more or less on the same lines as themselves. Is this -so? Can it be reasonably argued that the folk-tale of the Great Fool is a -weakened copy of certain features of the Mabinogi, which itself is a -weakened copy of certain features of the French poem? Is it not the fact -that the folk-tale omits much that is in the Mabinogi, and on the other -hand preserves details which are wanting not alone in the Welsh tale but -in Chrestien. If other proof of the independent nature of these tales were -needed it would be supplied by the close similarity existing between the -Great Fool opening and the Fionn legend. This is extant in several forms, -one of which, still told in the Highlands (Campbell's lxxxii.), tells how -Cumhall's son is reared in the wilderness, how he drowns the youth of a -neighbouring hamlet, how he slays his father's slayer, and wins the magic -trout the taste of which gives knowledge of past and to come, how he gets -back his father's sword and regains his father's lands, all as had been -prophesied of him. Another descendant of the French romance it will be -said. But a very similar tale is found in a fifteenth century Irish MS. -(The Boyish Exploits of Finn Mac Cumhall, translated by Dr. J. O'Donovan -in the Transactions of the Ossianic Society, vol. iv.); Cumhall, slain by -Goll, leaves his wife big with a son, who when born is reared by two -druidesses. He grows up fierce and stalwart, overcomes all his age-mates, -overtakes wild deer he running, slays a boar, and catches the magic salmon -of knowledge. An eighteenth century version given by Kennedy ("Legendary -Fictions," p. 216) makes Cumhall offer violence to Muirrean, daughter of -the druid Tadg, and his death to be chiefly due to the magic arts of the -incensed father. It will hardly be contended that these stories owe their -origin to adaptations of Chrestien's poem. But in any case no such -contention could apply to the oldest presentment of Fionn as a formula -hero, that found in the great Irish vellum, the Leabhar na h'Uidhre, -written down from older materials at the beginning of the twelfth century. -The tract entitled "The cause of the battle of Cnucha" has been translated -by Mr. Henessey ("Revue Celtique," vol. ii., pp. 86, _et seq._). In it we -find Cumhall and Tadhg, the violence done to the latter's daughter, the -consequent defeat and death of Cumhall, the lonely rearing of Fionn by his -mother, and the youth's avenging of his father. I must refer to my paper -in the "Folk-Lore Record" for a detailed argument in favour of the L.n.H. -account being an euhemerised version of the popular tradition, represented -by the Boyish Exploits, and for a comparison of the Fionn _sage_ as a -whole with the Greek, Iranian, Latin, and Germanic hero tales, which like -it are modelled upon the lines of the Expulsion and Return formula. I have -said enough, I trust, to show that the Fionn _sage_ is a variant (a far -richer one) of the theme treated in the boyhood of Perceval, but that it, -and _a fortiori_ the allied folk-tales are quite independent of the French -poem. It then follows that this portion of Chrestien's poem must itself be -looked upon as one of many treatments of a theme even more popular among -the Celts than among any other Aryan race, and that its ultimate source is -a Breton or Welsh folk-tale. - -The genuine and independent nature of the Great Fool prose opening being -thus established, it is in the highest degree suggestive to find in the -accompanying Lay points of contact with the Grail Legend as given in -Chrestien. Three versions of this Lay have been printed in English, that -edited by Mr. John O'Daly (Transactions of the Ossianic Society, vol. vi., -pp. 161, _et seq._); Mr. Campbell's (West Highland Tales, vol. iii. pp. -154, _et seq._) and Mr. Kennedy's prose version (Bardic Stories of -Ireland, pp. 151, _et seq._). O'Daly's, as the most complete and -coherent, forms the staple of the following summary, passages found in it -alone being italicised.[77] - -_Summary of the Lay of the Great Fool._--(1) There was a great fool who -subdued the world by strength of body; (2) _He comes to the King of -Lochlin to win a fair woman, learns she is guarded by seven score heroes, -overthrows them, and carries her off_; (C. and K. plunging at once _in -medias res_, introduce the Great Fool and his lady love out walking); (3) -The two enter a valley, are meet by a "Gruagach" (champion, sorcerer), in -his hand a goblet with drink; (4) The Great Fool thirsts, and though -warned by his lady love drinks deep of the proffered cup; the "Gruagach" -departs and the Great Fool finds himself minus his two legs; (5) The two -go onward, and ("swifter was he at his two knees than six at their -swiftness of foot;" C.) A deer nears them followed by a white hound, the -Great Fool slays the deer and seizes the hound; (6) whose owner coming up -claims but finally yields it, and offers the Great Fool food and drink -during life; (7) The three fare together (the glen they had passed through -had ever been full of glamour) till they come to a fair city filled with -the glitter of gold, dwelt in solely by the owner of the white hound and -his wife, "whiter than very snow her form, gentle her eye, and her teeth -like a flower"; (8) She asks concerning her husband's guests, and, -learning the Great Fool's prowess, marvels he should have let himself be -deprived of his legs; (9) The host departs, leaving his house, wife, and -store of gold in the Great Fool's keeping, he is to let no man in, no one -out should any come in, nor is he to sleep; (10) Spite his lady love's -urgings the Great Fool yields to slumber, when in comes a young champion -and snatches a kiss from the host's wife, ("She was not ill pleased that -he came," C.); (11) The Great Fool's love awakening him reproaches him for -having slept--he arises to guard the door, in vain does the intruder offer -gold, three cauldrons full and seven hundred townlands, he shall not get -out; (12) _At the instigation of the host's wife_ the intruder restores -the Great Fool's legs, but not then even will the hero let him go--pay for -the kiss he must when the host returns; threats to deprive him of his legs -are in vain, as are likewise the entreaties of the host's wife (All this -is developed with great prolixity in O'Daly, but there is nothing -substantial added to the account in C.); (13) Finally the intruder -discloses that he himself is the host, and he was the Gruagach, whose -magic cup deprived the Great Fool of his legs, and he is, "_his own gentle -brother long in search of him, now that he has found him he is released -from sorcery_." The two kiss (C. and K. end here). (14) The two brothers -fare forth, encounter a giant with an eye larger than a moon and an iron -club, wherewith he hits the Great Fool a crack that brings him to his -knees, but the latter arising closes with the giant, kills him and takes -his club, the two then attack four other giants, three of whom the Great -Fool slays with his club, and the fourth yields to him. The brothers take -possession of the giant's castle and all its wealth. - -There are obvious similarities between the Lay and the story found in the -Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal. A stag hunt is prominent in both, and -whilst engaged in it the hero falls under "illusion," in both too the -incident of the seizure of the hound appears, though in a different -connection. Finally in the Lay, as in the Mabinogi, the mover in the -enchantment is a kinsman whose own release from spells depends upon the -hero's coming successfully out of the trials to which he exposes him. But -while the general idea is the same, the way in which it is worked out is -so different that it is impossible to conceive of the one story having -been borrowed from the other. What can safely be claimed is that the -Great Fool, counterpart of Peredur-Perceval in the adventures of his youth -and up-bringing, is also, to a certain extent, his counterpart in the most -prominent of his later adventures, that of the stag hunt. It is thus -fairly certain that all this part of the Conte du Graal is, like the -_Enfances_, a working up of Celtic folk-tales. The giant fight which -concludes the Lay may be compared with that in Sir Perceval and in Morvan -le Breiz, and such a comparison makes it extremely likely that the -incident thus preserved by independent and widely differing offshoots from -the same folk-tale stem, belongs to the oldest form of the story. - -The analogies of the Lay with the Perceval _sage_ are not yet exhausted. -In virtue of the relationship between the two chief characters, the Lay -belongs to the "twin-brother cycle." This group of folk-tales, some -account of which is given below,[78] is closely related on the one hand -to the "dragon slayer" group of _maerchen_, on the other hand to the -Expulsion and Return formula tales. In many versions of the latter (the -most famous being that of Romulus and Remus) the hero is one of twins, -and, after sharing for a while with his brother, strife breaks out between -them. In the folk-tale this strife leads to final reconciliation, or is -indeed a means of unravelling the plot. In the hero-tale on the other hand -the strife mostly ends with the death or defeat of the one brother. It -would seem that when the folk-tale got associated with a definite hero -(generally the founder and patron of a race) and became in brief a -hero-tale, the necessity of exalting the race hero brought about a -modification of the plot. If this is so the folk-tale group of the "two -brothers" must be looked upon as older than the corresponding portion of -the Expulsion and Return hero-tales, and not as a mere weakened echo of -the latter. To return to the twin-brother features. The Peredur-Perceval -_sage_ has a twin-sister, and is parallel herein to the Fionn _sage_ in -one of its forms ("How the Een was set up"), though curiously enough not -to the Great Fool folk-tale (otherwise so similar to "How the Een was set -up"), which, as in the Lay, has a brother. But beyond this formal -recognition of the incident in the Perceval _sage_, I am inclined to look -upon the Perceval-Gawain dualism as another form of it. This dualism has -been somewhat obscured by the literary form in which the _sage_ has been -preserved and the tendency to exalt and idealise _one_ hero. In the -present case this tendency has not developed so far as to seriously -diminish the importance of Gawain; _his_ adventures are, however, left in -a much more primitive and _maerchenhaft_ shape, and hence, as will be shown -later on, are extremely valuable in any attempt to reach the early form of -the story.[79] - -If Simrock's words quoted on the title page were indeed conclusive--"If -that race among whom the 'Great Fool' folk-tale was found independent of -the Grail story had the best claim to be regarded as having wrought into -one these two elements"--then my task might be considered at an end. I -have shown that this race was that of the Celtic dwellers in these -islands, among whom this tale is found not only in a fuller and more -significant form than elsewhere, but in a form that connects it with the -French Grail romance. But the conclusion that the Conte du Graal is in the -main a working up of Celtic popular traditions, which had clustered round -a hero, whose fortunes bore, in part, a striking resemblance to those of -Fionn, the typical representative of the Expulsion and Return formula -cycle among the Celts, though hardly to be gainsaid, does not seem to help -much towards settling the question of the origin of the Grail itself. The -story would appear to be Celtic except just the central incident upon -which the whole turns. For the English Sir Perceval, which undoubtedly -follows older models, breathes no word of search for any magic talisman, -let alone the Grail, whilst the Mabinogi, which is also older in parts -than the Conte du Graal, gives a different turn to and assigns a -different _motif_ for the hero's conduct. The avenging of a kinsman's harm -upon certain supernatural beings, and the consequent release from -enchantment of another kinsman, supply the elements of a clear and -consistent action to which parallels may easily be adduced from -folk-tales, but one quite distinct from the release of a kinsman through -the medium of certain talismans and certain magic formulae. Numerous as -have been the points of contact hitherto established between Celtic folk -belief and the French romance, the parallel would seem to break down at -its most essential point, and the contention that the Grail is a foreign -element in the Celtic legend would still seem to be justified. Before, -however, this can be asserted, what I have called the central episode of -the romance requires more searching and detailed examination than it has -had, and some accessory features, which, on the hypothesis of the -Christian legendary origin of the Grail, remain impenetrable puzzles must -be commented upon. And another instructive point of contact between -romance and folk-tale must be previously noticed, connected as it is with -stories already dealt with in this chapter. - -In the latest portion of the Conte du Graal, the interpolation of Gerbert, -the following incident occurs:--The hero meets four knights carrying their -wounded father, who turns out to be Gonemans, the same who armed him -knight. He vows vengeance upon Gonemans' enemies, but his efforts are at -first of no avail. As fast as in the daytime he slays them, at night they -are brought back to life by "Une vieille" who is thus described:-- - - La poitrine ot aguee et seche; - Ele arsist ausi come une esche - Si on boutast en li le fu.[80] - - * * * * - - La bouche avoit grant a merveilles - Et fendue dusqu'as oreilles, - Qu'ele avoit longues et tendans; - Lons et lez et gausnes les dans - Avoit. (Potvin vi., 183, 184.) - -She carries with her - - II. barisiax d'ivoire gent; - -containing a "poison," the same whereof Christ made use in the Sepulchre, -and which serves here to bring the dead back to life and to rejoin heads -cut off from bodies. She goes to work thus:-- - - A la teste maintenant prise, - Si l'a desor le bu assise; - -then taking the balm - - Puis en froie celui la bouche - A cui la teste avoit rajointe; - Sor celui n'ot vaine ne jointe - Qui lues ne fust de vie plaine. - -Perceval stops her when she has brought back three of her men to life; she -recognises in him her conqueror: - - Bien vous connois et bien savoie - Que de nului garde n'avoie - Fors que de vous; car, par mon chief - Nus n'en peust venir a chief - Se vous non ... - -So long as she lives, Perceval shall be powerless to achieve his Quest. -She wars against Gonemant by order of the King of the Waste City, who ever -strives against all who uphold the Christian faith, and whose chief aim it -is to hinder Perceval from attaining knowledge of the Grail. Perceval gets -possession of somewhat of the wonder-working balm, brings to life the most -valiant of his adversaries, slays him afresh after a hard struggle, in -which he himself is wounded, heals his own hurt, and likewise Gonemant's, -with the balsam. Compare now Campbell's above-cited tale, the Knight of -the Red Shield. The hero, left alone upon the island by his two -treacherous companions, sees coming towards him "three youths, heavily, -wearily, tired." They are his foster-brothers, and from the end of a day -and a year they hold battle against the Son of Darkness, Son of Dimness, -and a hundred of his people, and every one they kill to-day will be alive -to-morrow, and spells are upon them they may not leave this (island) for -ever until they kill them. The hero starts out on the morrow alone -against these enemies, and he did not leave a head on a trunk of theirs, -and he overcame the Son of Darkness himself. But he is so spoilt and torn -he cannot leave the battle-field, and he lays himself down amongst the -dead the length of the day. "There was a great strand under him below; and -what should he hear but the sea coming as a blazing brand of fire, as a -destroying serpent, as a bellowing bull; he looked from him, and what saw -he coming on the shore of the strand, but a great toothy carlin ... there -was the tooth that was longer than a staff in her fist, and the one that -was shorter than a stocking wire in her lap." She puts her finger in the -mouth of the dead, and brings them alive. She does this to the hero, and -he bites off the finger at the joint, and then slays her. She is the -mother of the Son of Darkness, and she has a vessel of balsam wherewith -the hero's foster-brothers anoint and make him whole, and her death frees -them from her spells for ever.[81] This "toothy carlin" is a favourite -figure in Celtic tradition. She re-appears in the ballad of the -Muilearteach (probably Muir Iarteach, _i.e._, Western Sea), Campbell, -iii., pp. 122, _et seq._, and is there described as "the bald russet one," -"her face blue black, of the lustre of coal, her bone tufted tooth like -rusted bone, one deep pool-like eye in her head, gnarled brushwood on her -head like the clawed-up wood of the aspen root." In another version of the -ballad, printed in the Scottish Celtic Review, No. 2, pp. 115, _et seq._, -the monster is "bald red, white maned, her face dark grey, of the hue of -coal, the teeth of her jaw slanting red, one flabby eye in her head, her -head bristled dark and grey, like scrubwood before hoar."[82] The editor -of this version, the Rev. J. G. Campbell, interprets the ballad, and -correctly, no doubt, "as an inroad of the Personified Sea." There is no -connection, save in the personage of the "toothy carlin," between the -ballad and the folk-tale.[83] - -It is impossible, I think, to compare Gerbert's description of the witch -with that of the Highland "Carlin" without coming to the conclusion that -the French poet drew from traditional, popular Celtic sources. The wild -fantasy of the whole is foreign in the extreme to the French temperament, -and is essentially Celtic in tone. But the incident, as well as one -particular feature of it, admits of comparison: the three foster-brothers -of the Highland tale correspond to the four sons of Gonemant, who be it -recollected, represents in the Conte du Graal, Peredur-Perceval's uncle in -the Mabinogi; in both, the hero goes forth alone to do battle with the -mysterious enemy; the Son of Darkness answers to the King of the Waste -City; the dead men are brought back to life in the same way; the release -of the kinsman, from spells, or from danger of death, follows upon the -witch's discomfiture. And yet greater value attaches to the incident as -connected with the Mabinogi form of the story; in Gerbert, as in the -Mabinogi, the hero's uncle is sick to death, his chief enemy is a -monstrous witch (or witches), who foreknows that she must succumb at the -hero's hands.[84] Something has obviously dropped out from the Mabinogi. -May it not be those very magic talismans, the winning of which is the -chief element of the French romances, and may not one of the talismans -have been the vessel of life-restoring balsam which figures in Gerbert and -the Highland tales?[85] The study of subsidiary versions and incidents may -thus throw upon the connection of the Grail with the Perceval romance a -light which the main Celtic forms of the latter have not hitherto yielded. - -The Thornton MS. Sir Perceval differs in this incident from both Manessier -and Gerbert. As in Gerbert and the Highland Tale the hero meets his uncle -and cousins; there is the same fight with the mother of the enemy of his -kin, the hideous carlin, but it precedes, as does also the slaying of that -enemy, the meeting of uncle and nephews. There is thus no room for the -healing _motif_ for which the unconscious avenging of the father's death -is substituted. These differences bear witness both to the popular and -shifting nature of the traditions upon which the romances are based, and -to the fact that the avenging of a blood feud was the leading incident of -its earliest form. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - - The various forms of the visit to the Grail Castle in the - romances--Conte du Graal: Chrestien; Gautier-Manessier; - Gautier-Gerbert--Didot-Perceval--Mabinogi--Conte du Graal: Gawain's - visit to the Grail Castle--Heinrich von dem Tuerlin--Conte du Graal: - Perceval's visit to the Castle of Maidens--Inconsistency of these - varying accounts; their testimony to stories of different nature and - origin being embodied in the romances--Two main types: feud quest and - unspelling quest--Reasons for the confusion of the two types--Evidence - of the confusion in older Celtic literature--The Grail in Celtic - literature: the gear of the Tuatha de Danann; the cauldron in the - Ultonian cycle; the Mabinogi of Branwen; vessel of balsam and glaive - of light in the contemporary folk-tale--The sword in Celtic - literature: Tethra; Fionn; Manus--Parallels to the Bespelled Castle; - the Brug of Oengus, the Brug of Lug, the Brug of Manannan Mac Lir, - Bran's visit to the Island of Women, Cormac Mac Art, and the Fairy - Branch; Diarmaid and the Daughter of King Under the Waves--Unspelling - stories: The Three Soldiers; the waiting of Arthur; Arthur in Etna; - the Kyffhaeuser Legend, objections to Martin's views concerning - it--Gawain's visit to the Magic Castle and Celtic parallels; The Son - of Bad Counsel; Fionn in Giant Land; Fionn in the House of Cuana; - Fionn and the Yellow Face--The Vanishing of the Bespelled - Castle--Comparison with the Sleeping Beauty cycle--The "Haunted - Castle" form and its influence on Heinrich's version--The Loathly - Grail Messenger. - - -The analysis of the various versions has shown that the Conte du Graal is -the oldest portion of the vast body of French romance which deals with the -Grail, and that it presents the earliest form of the story. The -examination of the theories put forward to explain the genesis and growth -of the legend has shown how untenable is that hypothesis which makes the -Christian legend the starting point of the cycle. The comparison of the -Conte du Graal with Celtic legends and folk-tales has shown that the -former is in the main a North French retelling of tales current then, as -now, among the Celtic peoples of Britain, and probably of Brittany. One -thing alone remains unexplained, the mysterious Grail itself. Nor has any -light been thrown from Celtic sources upon the incident of the hero's -visit to the Castle of Talismans, his silence, and the ensuing misfortune -which overtakes him. Where this incident does appear in a Celtic version, -the Mabinogi, it is not brought in connection with the Grail, and it bears -obvious traces of interpolation. The utmost we have been able to do is to -reconstruct from scattered indications in different Celtic tales a -sequence of incidents similar to that of the French romance. Let us, then, -return to what may be called the central incident of the Grail legend in -its older and purer form. And let us recall the fact that the hypothesis -which finds a Christian origin for the whole legend has no explanation to -offer of this incident. Birch-Hirschfeld can merely suggest that -Perceval's question upon which all hinges is "eine harmlose Erfindung -Borron's," a meaningless invention of Borron's. It is, indeed, his failure -to account for such an essential element of the story that forms one of -the strongest arguments against his hypothesis. - -In the first place it must be noticed that the incident of a hero's visit -to a magic castle, of his omission whilst there to do certain things, and -of the loss or suffering thereby caused, occurs not once, but many times; -not in one, but in many forms in the vast body of Grail romance, as is -seen by the following list, which likewise comprises all the occasions on -which one or other of the questers has come near to or succeeded in seeing -the Grail:-- - - (1) CHRESTIEN: (Inc. 7). Perceval's first visit to the Grail Castle. - Question omitted. - - (2) GAUTIER: (Inc. 22). Perceval's second visit to the Grail Castle. - Question put-- - - _Incident breaks off in middle, and is continued in one version by_:-- - - (2A) MANESSIER, who sends off the hero on a fresh quest, which is - finished in - - (3) MANESSIER: (Inc. 21). Perceval's third visit to Grail Castle. - The question is not mentioned. Hero's final success. - - _In another version by_:-- - - (4) GERBERT: (Inc. 1-3). Perceval is sent forth anew upon Quest. He - has half put the question and been partially successful. - - (5) GERBERT: (Inc. 21). Perceval's third visit to Grail Castle. - Question not mentioned. Hero's success. - - _Besides these forms of the episode in the Conte du Graal of which - Perceval is the hero, we have_:-- - - (6) GAUTIER: (Inc. 3). Gauvain's first visit according to one, second - visit according to another version. Question half put, partial - success. - - _And finally a somewhat similar incident of which Perceval is the hero - in_:-- - - (7) GAUTIER: (Inc. 12). Visit to the Castle of Maidens. Untimely sleep - of hero. - - So far the Conte du Graal. Of the versions closely connected with it - we have: - - (8 & 9) WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH: Two visits of Perceval to Grail - Castle. Question omitted at first, put in second, and crowned with - success. - - (10 & 11) MABINOGI OF PEREDUR: (Inc. 6-25). Two visits of hero to - Grail Castle. Question omitted at first. Second visit successful. No - mention of question. - - (12 & 13) DIDOT-PERCEVAL: (Inc. 11-16). Two visits of Perceval to - Grail Castle. Question omitted at first, put at second, and crowned - with success. - - In a German romance, which presents many analogies with that portion - of the Conte du Graal which goes under Gautier's name: - - (14) HEINRICH VON DEM TUeRLIN: Gawain's first visit to Grail Castle. - Question put. Success. Allusion to previous unsuccessful visit of - Perceval. - - Finally in the QUESTE versions we have four variants of the incident-- - - (15) QUESTE: (Inc. 12). Lancelot at the cross-road, omission to ask - concerning the Grail. - - (15) QUESTE: (Inc. 15). Perceval heals Mordrains. - - " (Inc. 43). Lancelot comes to Grail Castle. Partial - fulfilment of his Quest. - - " (Inc. 48). The three questers come to the Grail Castle. - -On looking at the list we notice that the Conte du Graal knows of three -visits on the part of the principal hero to the Castle of Talismans: 1, 2, -3, or 1, 2-4, 5, and of one visit (or two) of the secondary hero; whilst -Wolfram, the Mabinogi, and the Didot-Perceval know of two only. Heinrich -von dem Tuerlin gives only one visit to _his_ chief hero, though he -mentions a former one by the secondary hero. In Wolfram, and the -Didot-Perceval, the incident may be compared in the Conte du Graal with 1 -and 2; in the Mabinogi with 1 and 5; in Heinrich with 6. The Queste forms -of the incident are obviously dependent upon those of the Conte du Graal, -although they have been strongly modified. As for 7, it would seem to be a -form of the incident which has been entirely unaffected by the Christian -symbolism which has influenced all the others. - -It will be advisable to recapitulate the leading features of the incident -as found in the different versions. Where the summaries in Chapter II -afford detailed information about it, the recapitulation will be brief, -but it will be necessary to give at least one version at much greater -length than heretofore. - -In the Conte du Graal (1) the hero finds a King fishing, who directs him -to his castle. Just as he deems the fisher has deceived him the castle -bursts upon his sight. He enters, is led into a square room wherein is a -bed sitting on which is an old man wrapped in sables; before him is a -great fire of dry wood; 400 men might sit in the hall. The King rises to -greet him; as they sit, a squire enters with a sword which had but two -fellows, sent by the King's niece for the hero to whom it was destined. -The hall is light as it may be. A squire enters holding a lance by the -middle; all can behold the drop of blood which flows from the point upon -the holder's hand. There follow him two squires with candlesticks, each -with ten candles, in either hand; a damsel holding a Grail, which gives -out a light as greater than that of the candles as the sun outshines the -stars; and another damsel with a plate of fine gold. The procession passes -from one into the other room. The hero refrains from asking who is served -by the Grail. After playing at chess with the King they dine, and again -the Grail passes, uncovered, at each dish. The hero would fain ask what -was done with it, and is about to do so, but puts off the question. On the -morrow he sees no one in the castle, the doors of the rooms he had been in -the eve before are shut, no one answers; and, mounting his horse, which he -finds ready saddled, he sets forth over the drawbridge, which closes of -itself behind him, without learning why lance bleeds or whither the Grail -is borne. (2) At the second visit the hero comes into a magnificent room, -ornamented with fine gold and stars of silver, wherein on a vermeil couch -the rich King is sitting. The hero is fain forthwith to ask about Grail -and bleeding lance, but must sit him down by the rich King and tell of his -adventures, about the chapel in which lay the dead Knight, and the black -hand, the child in the tree and the tree full of candles. The King makes -him eat before answering his questions. Whilst at meat a damsel, fairer -than flowers in April, enters with the Holy Grail, another with the lance, -a squire with the broken sword. The hero asks about these talismans. But -first the King answers the questions about the earlier wonders; the -talismans he will tell of after meat. The hero insists to know about the -sword. The King bids him put it together--can he do so he will learn about -the Knight in the Chapel, and after that about the talismans. Save for one -flaw the hero succeeds, whereupon the King says he knows no one in the -world better than he, embraces him, and yields him up all in his house. -The squire who brought the sword returns, wraps it in a cendal, and -carries it off. - - 2A. The King bids the hero eat. 4. The hero would hold it sin if - Lance and Grail, and a fair silver he did not ask concerning the - dish pass before them, the latter Grail. The King first submits him - held by a damsel. The hero sighs to the sword test.[86] The - and begs to learn about these existence of the flaw is - three. He is told about lance, apparently held to constitute - Grail, Grail-bearing damsel, failure, due to the hero's sin in - dish-bearing damsel, and in quitting his mother so abruptly. - answer to further questions, In the night the hero has a - learns the history of the broken vision, which warns him to hasten - sword, and of the chapel haunted to his sister's aid. On the morrow - by the black hand. After sleeping the Grail Castle has vanished. - in a splendid bed[87] he sets Mounting his horse, which stands - forth on the morrow on the sword ready saddled, he rides forth. - quest (the slaying of Partinal). After a vain essay to gain - entrance to a magnificent castle, - 3. Having accomplished which, and in which he breaks his sword, and - lighted chancewise upon the Grail thereby loads upon himself seven - Castle, the King, apprised by a further years of adventure, but - squire and forthwith healed, meets learns how the sword may be made - the hero who shows him head and whole again, he finds the land - shield. At table lance and Grail which the day before was waste - pass, borne by two maidens; fertile and peopled. The peasants - delectable meats fill the dishes-- hail him: the townsmen come forth - all are filled and satisfied who in his honour--for through him the - behold the Holy Grail and the lance folk have won back lands and - that bleeds. Thereafter enters a riches. A damsel tells him how: at - squire holding a silver dish the Court of the Fisher King he - covered with red samite; the had asked about the Grail. At her - talismans pass thrice; the King castle he has his sword mended. - thanks the hero for having slain (Later the hero learns that his - his enemy and thereby rid him of failure to win the Grail comes - great torment. Asks his name, from his not having wedded his - learns that he is his nephew, and lady-love). - offers him his kingdom. - 5. Hero is directed by a cross to - the Court of the Fisher King. The - latter makes him sit by his side - and tell his adventures, when he - would fain learn about the Grail. - The same procession then passes - as in (2), save that sword instead - of being broken is simply - described as not resoldered. The - hero says he has been twice before - with the King, and reproaches him - for not having answered his - questions, although he had - resoldered the sword to the King's - great joy. The King then bids him - shake the sword, which he does, - and the flaw disappears. The King - is overjoyed, and the hero is now - worthy of knowing everything.[88] - -In comparing with these versions of the incident that found in the -Didot-Perceval, we find that the hero at his first visit is welcomed by -the squires of the castle, clad in a scarlet cloak, and placed upon a -rich bed, whilst four sergeants apprise Brons of his arrival, and the -latter is carried into the hall where sits the hero, who rises to greet -him. Brons questions him before they sit down to meat. The mystic -procession is formed by squire with lance bleeding, damsel with silver -dish, squire with the vessel holding our Lord's blood. On the morrow the -hero sees no one, and finds all the doors open. At his second visit there -is no mention of difficulty in finding the castle. This time the King -rises to greet him; they talk of many things and then sit down to meat. -Grail and worthy relics pass, and the hero asks who is served by the -vessel which the squire holds in his hands. Straightway the King is healed -and changed; overjoyed he first asks the hero who he is, and, on learning -it, tells him concerning lance and Grail, and afterwards, at the bidding -of a heavenly voice, the secret words which Joseph taught him, Brons. - -In the Mabinogi the castle lies on the other side of a meadow. At his -first visit the hero finds the gates open, and in the hall a hoary-headed -man sits, around whom are pages who rise to receive the hero. Host and -guest discourse and eat, seated beside one another. The sword trial -follows, and the hero is declared to have arrived at two-thirds of his -strength. The two youths with the dripping spear enter, amid the -lamentation of the company, are followed by the two maidens with the -salver wherein is a man's head, and the outcry redoubles. On the morrow -the hero rides forth unmolested. - -At the second visit the castle is described as being in a valley through -which runs a river. The grey-headed man found sitting in the hall with -Gwalchmai is described as lame. - -So far we have recapitulated the leading features of Perceval's dealings -at the Talismans Castle in the Conte du Graal and in the most closely -allied versions. But Perceval, the chief hero, has, as we have already -seen, an under-study in Gauvain. And the Gauvain form of the incident -deserves as close examination as the Perceval form. - -(6) Gauvain has met a knight, stranger to him, with whom he travels to -Caerleon. Whilst in his company the stranger is slain by a dart cast by -whom no one knows. Before dying he bids Gauvain take his arms and his -horse; he knows not why he has been slain, he never harmed anyone. Gauvain -suspects and accuses Kex, upon whom he vows to prove the murder, and sets -forth to learn the unknown's name. After affronting the adventure of the -black hand[89] in the chapel and long wanderings, he finds himself one -evening at the opening of a dark, tree-covered road at whose further end -he spies a light. Tired and fasting he lets his horse go at its will, and -is led to a castle where he is received with great honour as though he -were expected. But when he has changed his dress the castle folk see it is -not he whom they thought. In the hall is a bier whereupon lie cross and -sword and a dead knight. Canons and priests raise a great lamentation over -the body. A crowned knight enters and bids Gauvain sit by his side. Then -the Grail goes through the room, serving out meats in plenty, and acting -the part of a steward, whereat Gauvain is astounded. He next sees a lance -which drips blood into a silver cup. From out the same room whence come -the talismans, the King issues, a sword in his hand, the sword of the dead -knight, over whom he laments--on his account the land languishes. He bids -Gauvain essay to make the sword whole, but Gauvain cannot, and is told his -quest may not be accomplished. After his toils and wanderings Gauvain is -sleepy, but he struggles against sleep, and asks about bleeding lance and -sword and bier. Whilst the King is answering him he goes to sleep. On -awakening he is on the sea shore, arms and steed by his side.[90] He then -meets with the peasantry, and is told of the changed condition of the -land in a passage already quoted (p. 87). Had he asked about the Grail -"por coi il servoit," the land had been wholly freed. - -Heinrich von dem Tuerlin's account of Gauvain's visit to the Grail Castle -differs, as will be seen by the Summary, p. 27, which it is unnecessary to -repeat, more from that of Gautier than from the Perceval visit of the -Conte de Graal, with which it has the common feature, that the person -benefitted by the transaction is the Lord of the Magic Castle. As will -already have been noticed it stands alone in the conception that the -inmates of the castle are under the enchantment of death-in-life from -which the question frees them. - -There still remains to be noticed (7) the incident of Perceval's visit to -the Castle of Maidens, so closely analogous in certain details to the -Grail Castle visit, and yet wholly disassociated from it in the conduct of -the story. Perceval, wandering, sees across a river in fair meadow land a -rich castle built of marble, yellow and vermeil. Crossing a bridge he -enters, and the door at once closes behind him. No one is in the hall, in -the centre of which is a table, and hanging to it by a steel chain a -hammer. Searching the castle he still finds no one, and no one answers to -his call. At length he strikes upon the table three blows with the hammer. -A maiden appears, reproaches him, and disappears. Again he waits, and -again he strikes three blows. A second damsel appears, and tells him if he -strike afresh the tower will fall, and he be slain in its fall. But as he -threatens to go on, the damsel offers to open the door and let him forth. -He declares he will stay till morning, whereupon the damsel says she will -call her mistress. The hero bids her haste as he is not minded to wait -long, and warns her that he still holds the hammer. Other damsels then -show themselves, disarm and tend the hero, and lead him through a splendid -hall into a still more splendid one, wherein a hundred fair and courteous -maidens, all of like age and mien, and richly dressed, rise at his -approach and hail him as lord. The hero deems himself in paradise, and -"sooth 'tis to be in paradise to be with dames and maids; so sweet they -are, the devil can make naught of them, and 'tis better to follow them -than to hearken to sermons preached in church for money." The dame of the -castle bids the hero sit him down by her. "White she is as a lily, rosier -than on a May morn a fresh blown rose when the dew has washed it." She -asks him his name, and on hearing how he had wandered lonely three days -ere meeting with the castle, tells him he might have wandered seven ere -finding where to partake of bread and meat. He is well feasted. In reply -to his questions about the castle, and how is it no man may be seen in it, -he learns he is in the Maidens' Castle, all the inmates of one kin and -land, of gentle birth; no mason put his hand to the castle, no serf toiled -at it. Four maids built it, and in this wise: Whatever knight passed, and -entering, beheld the door closed, and no man meeting him--if craven he -struck no blow with the hammer, and on the morrow he went forth unheeded; -but if wise and courteous he struck the table, and was richly entertained. -As the lady tells this tale the hero, overcome with much journeying, falls -asleep and is laid to bed by the maidens. On the morrow he wakes beneath a -leafy oak, and never a house in sight. - -It is surely superfluous to point out that the foregoing recapitulation of -the various forms under which this incident has come down to us gives the -last blow to the theory which makes Christian symbolism the starting -point, and the Didot-Perceval the purest representative of the legend. We -should have to admit not only that the later romance writers entirely -misunderstood the sense of their model, but that, whilst anxiously casting -about in every direction for details with which to overlay it, they -neglected one of its most fertile hints--that of the secret words handed -down through Joseph from Christ Himself to the successful Grail quester. -What a mine of adventures would not Gautier, Gerbert, and all the other -unknown versifiers, who added each his quota to the Conte, have found in -those "secret words?" Nay, more, we must admit that so much in love were -they with this incident they misunderstood, that they repeated it in -half-a-dozen varying forms, and finally eliminated from it every trace of -its original element. There are theories which ask too much and which must -be set on one side, even if one has nothing equally ingenious and -symmetrical to set in their place. - -Three things strike one in considering this incident apart from the other -adventures with which it is associated; the want of consistency in those -versions which, formally, are closely related, an inconsistency which we -have already noted in dealing with the legend as a whole; the repetition -of the same incident with almost similar details, but with a different -animating conception; and the fact that some of the secondary forms -testify to that same thread of story which we have already extracted from -the comparison of the Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal in their entirety. -Not only is the conception of the Quest different in Chrestien and -Manessier or Chrestien-Gerbert, but the details are different, the centre -of interest being shifted from the omitted question to the broken sword. -In Manessier the _denoument_ is brought about without any reference to the -question, in Gerbert the reference is of the most perfunctory kind. Again -we find the same machinery of Grail, lance, and other talismans, which in -Chrestien-Manessier serves to bring about the hero's vengeance on his -uncle's murderer, in Chrestien-Gerbert the re-union of the lovers and the -winning of the Grail Kingship, used in the Gawain quest with the evident -object of compassing vengeance upon the slayer of the unknown knight. And, -thirdly, this secondary form is in close agreement with the -Mabinogi--here, as there, the sword test takes place at the Fisher King's; -here, as there, it immediately precedes the passing of the talismans; -here, as there, it is only partially successful; here, as there, is a -tangible reminder of the object of the quest, in the dead body of the -unknown knight in the one case, in the head swimming in blood in the -other. And here we may note that of the two forms in which the _Queste_ -reproduces this incident, the one which holds the more prominent position -in the narrative, the one of which Lancelot is the hero, closely resembles -that secondary form in the Conte du Graal which is connected with Gawain. -The wounded knight whom Lancelot beholds at the crossways borne into the -chapel upon a bier, and clamouring for the succour of the Grail, recalls -forcibly the dead knight of the Gawain quest. It is, perhaps, still more -significant that when the Queste does reproduce the Perceval form, it is -only in its externals, and the mystic vessel, which in the older version -is obviously a means of achieving the quest, has, in the later one, -become the end of that quest. - -It seems impossible to resist the following conclusions:--The many forms -of the incident found in the Grail romances are not variants of one, and -that an orderly and logical original; they testify to the fact that in the -body of popular tradition which forms the basis of these romances the -incident of the visit to a magic castle was a common one, that it entered -into the thread of stories, somewhat similar in outline and frequently -centered in the same hero, but differing essentially in conception, and -that the forms in the romances which are most likely to keep close to the -traditional model are those secondary ones with which the innovating -spirit, whether due to the genius of the individual artist, or to -intruding Christian symbolism, has least concerned itself. There is -apparently but one case in the Conte du Graal, that of Perceval's visit to -the Castle of Maidens, which has been modified by neither of these -influences. - -To accept these conclusions is to clear the ground. If we rid our minds of -the idea that there is _a Grail legend_, a definite fixed sequence of -incidents, we need not be discouraged if we fail to find a prototype for -it in Celtic tradition or elsewhere. We shall be prepared to examine every -incident of which the Grail is a feature upon its own merits, and -satisfied if we can find analogies to this or that one. And by so doing we -are more likely to discover the how and why of the development of the -legends as we find them in the romances. - -Leaving subsidiary details out of account, we may bring all the instances -in which the Grail appears under two formulas: that of the kinsman -avenging a blood feud by the means of the three magic talismans, sword and -lance and vessel; and that of the visit to the Bespelled Castle, the -inmates of which enjoy, thanks to the magic vessel, a supernaturally -prolonged life, from which they are released by the hero's question -concerning that vessel. The one we may call the feud quest, the other the -unspelling quest. The Proto-Mabinogi belonged, as we have already seen -(_supra_, p. 139), to the first class, and accordingly we find that all -relating to the question is obviously interpolated from Chrestien. -Chrestien's model belonged, in all probability if not wholly, chiefly to -the first class, and accordingly we find that Manessier, certainly more -faithful than Chrestien to that original, lays no stress upon the -question. But in Chrestien himself there is a mixture of the two formulas; -the question and the food-producing qualities of the magic vessel have -been incorporated in the feud formula. Once started upon this track the -legend continues to mingle the formulas. The mystic procession, which -probably owes its form to Chrestien, is repeated with monotonous sameness -by his continuators; the machinery of the feud quest almost invariably -doubles that of the visit to the Bespelled Castle, and _vice versa_. Thus -Heinrich von dem Tuerlin, along with the most archaic presentment of the -unspelling quest, has that procession of the talismans which properly -belongs to the feud quest; and, to complete his conception, we must turn -to incidents at present set in the framework of the other formula. For the -effect upon the land produced by the hero's action at the Castle of -Talismans is obviously analagous to, though of directly contrary nature -to, that produced upon the inmates of the Bespelled Castle. They are dead -though they seem quick, the land is full of life though it seems waste. -The question which frees the one from the spell of life-in-death, frees -the other from the spell of death-in-life.[91] The Didot-Perceval has the -complete conception. Perceval's question not only releases Brons, who may -not die until then, but it also ends the enchantment of Britain. - -The identity of hero in stories originally dissimilar was one reason for -the confusion between the two formulas; the nature of the Grail was -another. Its attributes were in all probability not very clearly defined -in the immediate models of the French romance writers; these found it -enveloped in mysterious haze, which simple story-tellers, such as Gautier, -did not try to clear up, and which gave free play to the mystic -imaginings of those writers who used romance as a vehicle for edification. -The one tangible thing about it in stories of the one class, its food -producing-power, has left its trace upon every one of the romances. But we -shall also find in our survey of Celtic literature that this attribute, as -well as that of healing or restoring to life, is found indifferently in -stories of both the classes, to the fusion of which we refer the Grail -legends in their present form. Another link between the two formulas is -formed by the sword. It is almost invariably found associated with the -healing vessel of balsam in task stories connected with the feud quest of -the Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal; it is also a frequent feature in the -legend of the unsuccessful visit to the Bespelled Castle.[92] Finally, the -most important reason for running into one the stories derived from these -two formulas, and the one which could hardly fail to lead to the fusion, -is to be found in the identity of the myth which underlies both -conceptions. The castle to which the avenger must penetrate to win the -talismans, and that to which the hero comes with the intent of freeing its -lord, are both symbols of the otherworld. - -Bearing in mind this double origin of the Grail, and reviewing once more -the entire cycle, we note that, whilst it is that presentment of the magic -vessel due to the second formula which is most prominent in the romances, -the feud quest has furnished more and more varied sequences of incident, -and is the staple of the oldest literary Celtic form (the Proto-Mabinogi) -and of those North French forms which are most closely akin to it. Here -the magic vessel is at best one of three equally potent treasures; as a -matter of fact its _role_ in this section of the romances is, as we have -seen, inferior to that of the sword. Obviously intended to be the -immediate cause of restoration to life or health of the hero's kinsman, -its functions have been minimised until they have been forgotten. If this -is so already in the Proto-Mabinogi and in the model of the Conte du -Graal, we may expect to find that elsewhere in Celtic tradition the magic -vessel is of less account than sword or lance. - -We should likewise misconceive the character of popular tradition if we -expected to find certain attributes rigidly ascribed to the mystic vessel -in this or that set of stories. The confusion we have noted in the -romances may be itself derived from older traditions. Certain it is that -in what maybe looked upon as the oldest account of the vessel[93] in -Celtic literature (although the form in which it has reached us is -comparatively modern), there is a vessel of abundance associated with -three other talismans, two of them being sword and lance. The Tuatha de -Danann (the race of fairies and wizards which plays a part in Irish -tradition analogous to that of Gwydion ap Don, Gwynn ap Nudd, and their -kin in Welsh) so runs the tradition preserved by Keating in his History of -Ireland (Book I, ed. by Joyce, Dublin, 1880, p. 117), had four treasures: -The Lia Fail, the stone of Fate or Virtue ("now in the throne upon which -is proclaimed the King of the Saxons," _i.e._, the stone brought by Edward -I., from Scone); the sword that Lug[94] Lamhfhada (Lug the Longhanded) was -wont to use; the spear the same Lug used in battle; the cauldron of the -Dagda, "_a company used not ever go away from it unsatisfied_." Keating -followed old and good sources, and although the passage I have underlined -is not to be found in all MSS. of his work (_e.g._, it is missing in that -translated by Halliday), and although the verse which he quotes, and which -probably goes back to the eleventh century, whilst the traditions which -it embodies may be regarded as a couple of centuries older, does not -mention this property of the Dagda's[95] Cauldron, it may, I think, be -assumed that the tradition here noticed is genuine, and that a vessel akin -to the Grail, as well as talismans akin to those that accompany the Grail, -formed part of the gear of the oldest Celtic divinities.[96] - -This conclusion appears no rash one when we consider the further -references to the cauldron in Middle Irish Literature. The Battle of Magh -Rath, a semi-historical romance relating to events which took place in the -seventh century, is ascribed by its editor, Dr. J. O'Donovan, to the -latter half of the twelfth century. It relates (pp. 51, _et seq._) how the -sons of the King of Alba sought to obtain from their father the "Caire -Ainsicen" so called, because "it was the caire or cauldron which was used -to return his own proper share to each, and no party ever went away from -it unsatisfied, for whatever quantity was put into it there was never -boiled of it but what was sufficient for the company according to their -grade or rank." The mediaeval story-teller then goes on to instance similar -cauldrons to be met with in the older history of Ireland. These may nearly -all be referred to the oldest heroic Irish cycle, the Ultonian, of which -Cuchulainn is the most prominent figure. This cycle, in its origin almost -if not wholly mythic, was at an early date (probably as early as the -eighth century) euhemerised, and its gods and demi-gods made to do duty as -historical personages living at the beginning of the Christian era. It is, -indeed, not improbable that actual historical events and personages of -that period may have coloured and distorted the presentment of the myth; -and it is highly probable that the substance of these stories does go back -to that age, as they are almost entirely free from any admixture of -Christian elements, and such admixture as there is can be readily detected -as the handiwork of the tenth and eleventh century monks by whom these -tales were written in MSS. which have for the most part come down to us. -The cauldron is found with the same properties as those set forth in the -Battle of Magh Rath, in two of the most celebrated tales of this cycle, -the Toghail Bruighne da Derga, and the Tale of Mac Datho's pig. - -Turning from Irish to Welsh literature we may note that the Grail has -frequently been compared with the cauldron of Bran in the Mabinogi of -Branwen, the daughter of Llyr. I have dealt with this tale fully -(Folk-Lore Record, Vol. V.), and see no reason to depart from the -conclusion I then arrived at; namely, that it goes back in the main to the -eleventh or tenth century. Here, the revivifying power of the vessel is -dwelt upon, "The property of it is that if one of thy men be slain to-day, -and be cast therein, the morrow he will be as well as ever he was at his -best, except that he will not regain his speech." We cannot fail to recall -that in the Queste which, as far as the Grail itself is concerned, must be -referred on the whole to the feud quest formula, when the sacred vessel -appears the assembled company is struck dumb.[97] - -Later Celtic folk-literature has followed the Mabinogi rather than the -older Irish legend in its account of the mystic vessel. Where it appears -in the folk-tale its function is to heal or to bring back to life. We may -leave out of account for the present the references in the Welsh "bardic" -literature to the cauldron of Ceridwen, chief among which is that in the -Mabinogi of Taliesin. I am far from thinking that this literature deserves -the wholesale condemnation that has been passed upon it, but it has been -too little and too uncritically studied to afford, as yet, a firm basis -for investigation. We are on surer ground in dealing with the living -folk-tale. Thus the tale of Fionn's Enchantment, although belonging more -properly to the other formula, may be noticed here as containing a cup of -balsam, the washings of which restore the maimed Fionn to complete health. -Mr. Campbell, who has noted the tale, remarks that the cup of healing is -common in all the Fenian stories, which is what we should naturally -expect, seeing the close connection between Fionn and Peredur (Rev. Celt. -I., p. 194). Other instances have already been given in Chapter VI. of the -appearance of the vessel of balsam in connection with the glaive of light, -and of its use in bringing back to life the hero's enemies. And here it -maybe noted that almost the very mode in which it is introduced in the -folk-tales may be paralleled from the romances. The Grail appears to -Perceval and Hector, lying well nigh dead upon the field of battle, and -makes them whole, even as the vessel of balsam revivifies the dead -warriors whom Conall Gulban has just slain, and heals the latter. It is, -perhaps, only a coincidence that the angel in the one, the Carlin in the -other case, appear in a great flashing of light. But, as a rule, in those -task-stories which otherwise present such close similarities to the feud -quest of the Proto-Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal, the mystic vessel has -dropped out altogether, and the sword is the chief if not the only -talisman. This is the case in Campbell, I., the young King of Easaidh -Ruadh, and in XLVI. Mac Iain Direach. In one instance the glaive of light -is met with outside the task group, in Campbell XLI., the Widow and her -Daughters, variant ii (a Bluebeard story), and here it is found associated -with the vessel of balsam. In the folk-tales, then, as in one section of -the Conte du Graal, the healing vessel is decidedly of less account than -the avenging or destroying weapon. This, as the sword, plays such an -important part in the French romances that an examination of its _role_ in -Celtic literature will repay examination. - -Besides the already quoted instances in which the sword of light -accompanies the vessel of balsam as one of the treasures which reward the -hero's quest, but in which it does not otherwise affect the march of the -story, we find others in which the sword is either that weapon which -causes the woe, the subject of the story, or else is the one means of -testing the hero's fitness for his quest. In either case it is parallel to -the sword of the Grail romances. Apart from these special instances there -are general references in the oldest Irish literature to the -quasi-supernatural nature attributed to the sword. Thus the Leabhar -Gabhala, or Book of Invasions, the tenth and eleventh century tract in -which Irish mythology was euphemerised into an historical relation of the -pre-Christian invasion of Ireland, has a passage relating to the sword of -Tethra, King of the Fomori,[98] which spake, and, adds the Christian -scribe, the ancient Irish adored swords.[99] This is borne out by a -passage in the Seirglige Conculainn, a story belonging to the Ultonian -cycle, which Mr. Whitley Stokes has translated (Rev. Celt. I., 260). The -men of Ulster, when showing their trophies, had their swords upon their -thighs, "for their swords used to turn against them where they made a -false trophy." - -The Christian transcriber notes that it was reasonable for the pagan Irish -to trust their swords "because demons used to speak from out them." To -return to the sword of Tethra. The most famous battle of Irish mystic -history is that of Mag-Tured, in which the Tuatha de Danann, the gods of -light and life, overcome their enemies the Fomori. Ogma, the champion of -the Tuatha de Danann, wins the sword of Tethra, and as he cleans it it -tells him the many and great feats it had wrought. - -It is, however, in the second of the great heroic cycles of the ancient -Irish, the Fenian or Ossianic, that we find the sword put to a use which -strongly recalls that of the romances. Not until the hero is able to wield -the weapon so that it break not in his hand, or to weld it together so -that no flaw appears,[100] is he fit to set forth on the quest. In -Campbell's LXXVII., "How the Een was set up," Fionn applies for his sword -to Ullamh Lamhfhada[101] (Ullamh the Longhanded), who gives him the most -likely sword and the best he found. The hero takes it, shakes it, casts it -out of the wooden handle and discards it. Thrice is this repeated, and -when the right weapon is in Fionn's hand, he quells utterly all he -sees.[102] Now how had Fionn obtained this sword originally? By slaying -black Arcan, his father's slayer. It may, I think, be looked upon as -certain that in an earlier form of the story, the weapon in question would -turn out to be the one with which the treacherous deed was done, and -Fionn, a counterpart of Peredur in his bringing up, would also be his -counterpart in this incident.[103] For the sword with which Partinal slew -Goon Desert is treasured up for the use of Perceval, but only after a -repeated essay is he held worthy of it.[104] - -The sword incident reappears in a tale of Campbell's, Manus (Vol. III.), -which presents some very remarkable analogies with the romances. Manus is -driven into various adventures by his aunt; an armourer of his -grandfather offers to get him a sword; but all given to him he breaks save -the armourer's old sword, and it beat him to break that. The armourer then -gives him a cloth, "When thou spreadest it to seek food or drink, thou -wilt get as thou usest." Subsequently, helped by a lion, he achieves many -feats. He comes to the help of the White Gruagach by fetching the blood of -a venemous horned creature belonging to the King over the Great World, by -which alone the White Gruagach could be restored to life when the magic -trout with which his life was bound up had been slain. Afterwards he -accompanies him against his enemy the Red Gruagach, who is slain, and his -head stuck on a stake. This Red Gruagach is apparently the father of the -aunt who so persecutes Manus.[105] - -This examination of the sword incident shows that the Mabinogi has -preserved the original form of the story, and links afresh this portion of -the Conte du Graal with the other Celtic stories belonging to the -Expulsion and Return formula group, with which it has so much else in -common. In all the formula-stories, except those of the Conte du Graal and -the Proto-Mabinogi, the hero has to avenge his father, not his uncle; and -it is highly suggestive that at least one version of the Perceval cycle -(the Thornton romance) follows suit. With this remark we may take leave of -the feud quest. - -Many and interesting as have been the parallels from the older Celtic -literature to the feud quest, they are far outweighed by those which that -literature affords to the second formula--the visit to the Bespelled -Castle--which we have noted in the romances. - -From the recapitulation (_supra_, pp. 173, _et. seq._) we may learn -several things. The castle lies, as a rule, on the other side of a river; -the visitor to it is under a definite obligation; he must either do a -certain thing, as, _e.g._, in Perceval's visit to the Castle of Maidens, -strike on the table three blows with the hammer, or he must put a certain -question, or again he must abstain from certain acts, as that of falling -asleep (Perceval and Gawain) or drinking[106] (Gawain, in Heinrich von dem -Tuerlin). Disregard of the obligation is punished in various ways. In the -case of the Castle of Maidens the craven visitor is allowed to fare forth -unheeded without beholding the marvels of the castle; but, as a rule, the -hero of the adventure finds himself on the morrow far away from the -castle, which has vanished completely. The inmates of this castle fall -into two classes--they are supernatural beings like the maidens, who have -apparently no object to gain from their mortal visitor, but who love -heroism for its own sake, and are as kindly disposed towards the mortal -hero in the folk-lore and mythology of the Celts as gods, and especially -goddesses, are in the mythic lore of all other races; or they suffer from -an over-lengthened life, from which the hero alone can release them. This -latter feature, seen to perfection only in Heinrich von dem Tuerlin, is -apparent in the Didot-Perceval, and has, in the Conte du Graal, supplied -the figure of the old man, father to the Fisher King, nourished by the -Grail. - -These features sufficiently indicate that the Magic Castle is the realm of -the other world. The dividing water is that across which lies Tir-na n-Og, -the Irish Avalon, or that Engelland dwelt in by the shades which the -inhabitants of the Belgian coast figured in the west.[107] In Celtic lore -the earliest trace of this realm is found, as is the earliest trace of -Grail and sword, in connection with the Tuatha de Danann, that race of -dispossessed immortals which lives on in the hollow hill sides, and is -ever ready to aid and cherish the Irish mythic heroes. The most famous -embodiment of this conception in Irish myth is the Brug na Boine, the -dwelling place of Oengus,[108] son of the Dagda, and the earliest account -of it is that contained in the Book of Leinster, the second of the two -great Irish vellums written down in the twelfth century. It is a land of -Cockayne; in it are fruit trees ever loaded with fruit, on the board a pig -ready roasted which may not be eaten up, vessels of beer which may not be -emptied, and therein no man dies.[109] But Oengus is not the only one of -the Tuatha de Danann who has such a fairy palace. The dwelling place of -Lug is of the same kind, and in the story of the Conception of -Cuchulainn,[110] which tells how the god carried off Dechtire, sister of -Conchobor, and re-incarnated himself in her as the great Ulster hero, we -learn that when Conchobor and his men go in search of Dechtire and her -fifty maidens, they first come to a small house wherein are a man and -woman; the house suddenly becomes a splendid mansion,[111] therein are the -vanished maidens in the shape of birds (and all sorts of goods, and dishes -of divers sorts, known and unknown; never did they have a better night, in -the morning they found themselves houseless, birdless in the east of the -land, and they went back to Emain Macha).[112] Although no prohibition is -mentioned the similarity in parts of this story, which, it must be -repeated, is older than the introduction of Christianity in Ireland, to -the romances is evident. Another famous Brug of the Tuatha de Danann is -that of Manannan Mac Lir. Among the visitors was Bran, the son of Febal, -whose story may be found in the Leabhar na h' Uidhre, the oldest of the -great Irish vellums.[113] One day as he was alone in his palace there came -to him soft, sweet music, and he fell asleep. When he awoke a silver -branch, covered with flowers, was at his side. A short while after, as he -was in the midst of his kinsfolk, his chiefs, and his nobles, an unknown -damsel appeared, and bid him to her in the land of _Sidhe_, and then -vanished, and with her the branch. Bran set sail, and with him thirty men. -After two days' wandering they met Manannan Mac Lir. They continued their -journey until they came to an island dwelt in solely by women; their queen -it was who had sent for Bran. He stayed with her a while, and then came -back to Ireland. - -But the most famous of the visits to the Brug of Manannan is that of -Cormac Mac Art, whom the Irish legendary annals place in the third century -of our era, and bring into connection with Fionn. The story, though only -known to us from later MSS., can be traced back to the tenth century at -least, as the title of it figures in a list preserved in the Book of -Leinster, and as it is apparently alluded to by the eleventh century -annalist, Tighernach.[114] The following summary is from a version, with -English translation by Mr. Standish Hayes O'Grady, in the third volume of -the Ossianic Society's publications. - -Of a time that Cormac was in Liathdruim he saw a youth having in his hand -a glittering fairy branch, with nine apples of red gold upon it.[115] And -this was the manner of that branch, that when any one shook it, men -wounded and women with child would be lulled to sleep by the sound of the -very sweet fairy music which those apples uttered, and no one on earth -would bear in mind any want, woe, or weariness of soul when that branch -was shaken for him. Cormac exchanged for this branch his wife and son and -daughter, overcoming their grief by shaking the branch. But after a year, -Cormac went in search of them. And he chanced upon a land where many -marvels were wrought before his eyes, and he understood them not. At -length he came to a house wherein was a very tall couple, clothed in -clothes of many colours, and they bade him stay. And the man of the house -brought a log and a wild boar, and if a quarter of the boar was put under -a quarter of the log, and a true story was told, the meat would be cooked. -At Cormac's request the host told the first story, how that he had seven -swine with which he could feed the world, for if the swine were slain, and -their bones put in the sty, on the morrow they would be whole again; and -the hostess the second, how that the milk of her seven white kine would -satisfy the men of the world. Cormac knew them for Manannan and his wife, -and then told his story how he had lost and was seeking for wife and -children. Manannan brought in the latter, and told Cormac it was he who -gave him the branch, that he might bring him to that house. Then they sat -down to meat, and the table-cloth was such that no food, however delicate, -might be demanded of it, but it should be had without doubt; and the -drinking cup was such that if a false story was told before it, it went in -four pieces, and if a true one, it came whole again, and therewith was the -faith of Cormac's wife made evident. And Manannan gave branch and cloth -and goblet to Cormac, and thereafter they went to slumber and sweet sleep. -Where they rose upon the morrow was in the pleasant Liathdruim. - -The foregoing examples have been akin to the incident of the Maiden -Castle. We have seen the race of immortals caring for the sons of men, -signalling out and alluring to themselves the brave and wise hero. In the -tales we are now about to examine the benefit conferred by the visitor -upon the inmates of the Magic Castle is insisted upon. But we must first -notice a tale which presents many of the incidents of the Grail romances, -without actually belonging to the same story group as they. In Campbell's -No. LXXXVI, the Daughter of King Under the Waves, Diarmaid, the fairest -and bravest of the Fenian heroes, weds a fay who, as her description -indicates, belongs to the same order of beings as the damsels who lure -away Connla and Bran, the son of Febal. She comes to him in loathly guise, -and the other heroes shrink from her; but Diarmaid, courteous as he is -brave, gives her the shelter of tent and bed and has his reward. She -builds for him such a castle as the fay mistress of the Knight of the -Black Tomb (_supra_, p. 17) builds for her lover. But she warns him that -after a threefold reproach as to how he found her she would have to leave -him. Through the cunning of Fionn he is led to break the taboo and "it was -in a mosshole he awoke on the morrow. There was no castle, or a stone left -of it on another." Diarmaid sets forth to seek his wife, he finds her -ailing to death, and to be cured she must have three draughts from the cup -of the King of the Plain of Wonder. Helped by a little russet man, he gets -the talisman, as was prophesied of him; but, advised by the little russet -man, he gives the maiden to drink out of a certain well, which changes -their love into aversion, and he returns to the light of day. - -This last feature should be noted as characteristic. The mortal lover -always tires sooner than the fay mistress. Oisin cannot stay in Tir-na -n-Og. Perceval gives but one night to the Lady of the Chessboard. - -We now come to the "unspelling" stories, and I will cite in the first -place one which is the most striking testimony I know of to the influence -of this formula upon Celtic mythic lore. There is a widely spread -folk-tale of a hero robbed of three magic gifts and getting them back -thus; by chance he eats some fruit or herb which changes him into an ass, -causes his nose to grow, sets horns upon his head, or produces some -equally unpleasant result. Another herb he finds heals him. Armed with -specimens of either, he wins back his talismans. In Grimm it is No. 122, -Der Krautesel, and in Vol. III., p. 201, variants are given. In one the -hero is one of three soldiers, and he receives the gifts from a little -grey man. But neither here nor in the variants given by Dr. R. Koehler -(Orient und Occident, II., p. 124) is the opening the same as in -Campbell's No. X.--The Three Soldiers. - -The three come to a house in the wilderness dwelt in by three girls who -keep them company at night, but disappear during the day. In the house is -a table, overnight they eat off it, and when they rise the board is -covered, and it would not be known that a bit had ever come off it. At the -first night's close one soldier gets a purse never empty; at the second, -the next one a cloth always filled with meat; and the third, the youngest -(the hero), a transporting whistle. But as they leave he must needs ask -them who they are, and they burst out crying, "They were under charms till -they could find three lads who would spend three nights with them without -putting a question--had he refrained they were free." - -In one variant the time of probation lasts a year, and the talismans are: -a cup that empties not, and a lamp of light, the table-cloth of meat, and -a bed for rest. In another the damsels are swanmaids,[116] and the -visitors are bidden "not to think nor order one of us to be with you in -lying down or rising up."[117] - -There can, I think, be little doubt that this last variant represents the -oldest form of the story, and that the swanmaid damsels belong to the -otherworld, as do the daughter of King Under the Waves and the maiden who -fetches Connla. There is nothing surprising in swanmaids being the object -of a taboo, this is so invariably the case in myth and folk-lore that it -is needless to accumulate instances; what is unique to my knowledge, I -speak under correction, is the fact of these damsels being in possession -of the talismans, one of which is so obviously connected with the Grail. -It may be noted that the obligation laid upon the hero is the direct -opposite of that in the Grail romances, in the one case a question must -not be asked, in the other it must. In this respect Campbell's tale of -course falls into line with all the widely spread and varying versions of -the Melusine legend. The supernatural wife always forbids her husband some -special act which, as is perhaps natural, he can never refrain from doing. - -The next form of the Bespelled Castle legend is one which has attained far -greater celebrity than any other on account of its traditional association -with historical personages. It pictures the inmate of the castle as a -King, with his warriors around him, sunk into magic sleep, and awaiting a -signal to come forth and free his folk. To many English readers this -legend will be more familiar in connection with Frederick Barbarossa[118] -or with Holger the Dane than with any Celtic worthy. Yet the oldest -historic instance is that of Arthur.[119] I have quoted (_supra_, p. 122) -Gerald's words relating to the mountain seat of Arthur. A more definite -tradition, and one closely resembling the episode in the Grail romances, -is the one noted by Gervasius of Tilbury[120] (c. 1211 A.D.). A groom of -the Bishop of Catania, following a runaway horse even to the summit of -Mount Etna, found himself in a far reaching plain, full of all things -delightful. A marvellous castle rose before him, wherein lay Arthur on a -royal bed, suffering from the wound inflicted upon him by Modred his -nephew, and Childeric the Saxon, and this wound broke out afresh each -year. The King caused the horse to be given to the groom, and made him -many rich presents.[121] - -This tradition of Arthur in Sicily raises some very interesting questions. -For one thing it is a fresh example of the tremendous and immediate -popularity of the Arthurian legend. It also shows with what rapidity a -tradition, however remote in its origin from a particular spot, may -associate itself with that. Of more immediate interest to us is the -question whether this tradition has any direct connection with the Grail -romances, whether it has shaped or been shaped by them. Martin refers the -Maimed King of the romances to the same myth-root as the wounded Arthur -waiting in Etna or in Avalon till his wound be healed and he come forth. -It seems to me more likely that in so far as the wound is concerned there -is a coincidence merely between the two stories, and that the Wounded King -belongs properly to the feud quest. I do not, however, deny that the fact -of the Lord of the Bespelled Castle, of the otherworld, being sometimes -pictured as suffering from an incurable wound, may have aided that fusion -of the two strains of legend which we find in the romances. - -It is not my purpose to examine here in detail the innumerable versions of -this widely-spread tradition[122], the more so as I have been able to -trace no exact parallel to that presentment of the story found in Heinrich -von dem Tuerlin and in the Didot-Perceval. No other version of this form of -the legend, to my knowledge, pictures the Bespelled King as awaiting the -deliverance of death at the hands of his visitor. Before endeavouring to -find a reason for the singularity of Heinrich's account, I will first -quote one variant of the common form of the legend which has not been -printed before save by myself in the Folk-Lore Journal, Vol. I., p. -193.[123] King Arthur sleeps bespelled in the ruins of (Richmond) Castle. -Many have tried to find him but failed. One man only, Potter Thompson by -name, wandering one night among the ruins chanced upon the hall wherein -sat the King and his men around a table upon which lay a horn and a sword. -Terrified, he turned and fled, and as he did so a voice sounded in his -ears-- - - "Potter Thompson, Potter Thompson, - Had'st thou blown the horn, - Thou had'st been the greatest man - That ever was born." - -for then he would have freed Arthur from his magic sleep. Never again -could he reach that hall. - -This version, besides being practically inedited has the merit of -exemplifying that association of the sword with the Lord of the Bespelled -Castle to which I have already alluded. - -The instances of the visit to the otherworld which have thus far been -collected from Celtic mythic literature, and which have been used as -parallels to the unspelling quest of the romances, are more closely akin -to one example of this incident, Perceval's visit to the Castle of -Maidens, than to that found in Heinrich and the Didot-Perceval. None, -indeed, throw any light upon that death-in-life which is the special -feature in these two works. All are of one kind in so far as the -disposition of the inmates towards the visitor is concerned; he is -received with courtesy when he is not actually allured into the castle, -and the trials to which he is subjected are neither painful nor -humiliating. But it will not have escaped attention that the Conte du -Graal contains another form of the visit, one which I have hitherto left -unnoticed, in Gawain's visit to the Magic Castle. A new conception is here -introduced: the Lord of the Castle[124] is an evil being, who holds -captive fair dames and damsels; they it is, and not he, whom the hero must -deliver, and the act of deliverance subjects him to trial and peril -(_supra_, p. 14, Chr. Inc. 17). Let us see if this form affords any -explanation of the mysterious features of Heinrich's version. This -incident may, it is easily conceivable, be treated in two ways; the hero -may be a worthy knight and succeed, or a caitiff and fail. A story of this -latter kind may throw some light upon Gawain's adventures at the Magic -Castle. The story in question (The Son of Bad Counsel) is ascribed by -Kennedy, Legendary Fictions, pp. 132, _et seq._, to an author of the -early eighteenth century, Brian Dhu O'Reilly, and traced back to an older -Ossianic legend--Conan's delusions in Ceash, of which Kennedy prints a -version, pp. 232, _et seq._ The hero of the story comes to the Castle of a -Gruagach, named the Giant of the Unfrequented Land, and his wife, daughter -to the King of the Lonesome Land. The name of the castle is the Uncertain -Castle. Very fair is their daughter, and she is proffered to the hero for -his promised aid against other fairy chieftains. After playing at -backgammon with the Gruagach, the hero lays himself to bed. He is -assailed, as he fancies, by great dangers from which he hastens to flee, -and, waking, finds himself in a ridiculous plight with his lady-love, and -the other folk of the castle laughing at him. In the morning he awakes, -"and his bed was the dry grass of a moat." - -The names of the personages in the story at once recall those of the -romances--the Waste Land or Forest, the Castle Perillous, and the -like--and one of the trials, the being shot at with fairy darts, is the -same as that to which Gawain is exposed in the Conte du Graal. But it is -interesting chiefly as being a version of a wide-spread tale of how gods -or heroes penetrating to the other world are made mock of by its inmates. -In Scandinavian mythology the story is well-known as Thor's visit to -Utgarth Loki. It is equally well-known in the Fionn saga, and, considering -the many points of contact we have hitherto found between Fionn and the -Grail hero, the Fenian form claims our notice. The oldest preserved form -of the story, that in the Book of Leinster, has been printed with -translation by Mr. Whitley Stokes, Revue Celt., Vol. VII., pp. 289, _et -seq._--Fionn comes at nightfall with Cailte and Oisin to a house he had -never heard of in that glen, knowing though he was. A grey giant greets -them; within are a hag with three heads on her thin neck, and a headless -man with one eye protruding from his breast. Nine bodies rise out of a -recess, and the hideous crew sing a strain to the guests; "not melodious -was that concert." The giant slays their horses; raw meat is offered them, -which they refuse; the inmates of the house attack them; they had been -dead had it not been for Fionn alone. They struggle until the sun lights -up the house, then a mist falls into every one's head, so that he was dead -upon the spot. The champions rise up whole, and the house is hidden from -them, and every one of the household is hidden.--In the later Fenian saga -(later that is as far as the form in which it has come down to us is -concerned) the story closely resembles Thor's visit. Kennedy (Bardic -Stories, pp. 132, _et seq._) has a good version.[125]--Fionn and his -comrades follow a giant, on his shoulders an iron fork with a pig -screeching between the prongs, behind him a damsel scourging him. They -follow them to a house wherein is an aged hoary-headed man and a beautiful -maid, a rough giant cooking the hog, and an old man having twelve eyes in -his head, a white-haired ram, and a hag clad in dark ash coloured garment. -Two fountains are before the house: Fionn drinks of one which at first -tastes sweet, but afterwards bitter to death; from the other, and though -he never suffered as much as while drinking, when he puts the vessel from -his lips he is as whole as ever he was. The hog is then shared; the ram -left out of count revenges itself by carrying out the guest's share, and -smite it with their swords as they may, they cannot hurt it. The hag then -throws her mantle over the guests, and they become four withered -drooping-headed old men; on the mantle being removed they resume their -first shape. These wonders are explained. The giant is _sloth_, urged on -by _energy_; the twelve-eyed old man is the _world_; and the ram the -_guilt of man_; the wells are _truth_ and _falsehood_; the hag _old age_. -The warriors sleep and in the morning find themselves on the summit of -Cairn Feargaill with their hounds and their arms by them. - -This tale betrays its semi-literary origin at once; and, though there is -no reason to doubt that the Irish Celts had a counterpart to Thor's -journey to Giantland, I am inclined to look upon the version just -summarised as influenced by the Norse saga. Certain it is that the popular -version of Fionn's visit to Giantland is much more like the eleventh -century poem, preserved in the Book of Leinster, than it is like the -mediaeval, "How Fionn fared in the House of Cuana." I have already alluded -(_supra_, p. 186) to one feature of the tale of Fionn's enchantment, but -the whole tale is of interest to us.--As Fionn and his men are sitting -round the fire boasting of their prowess in comes a slender brown hare and -tosses up the ashes, and out she goes. They follow her, a dozen, to the -house of the Yellow Face, a giant that lived upon the flesh of men. A -woman greets them, and bids them begone before the Face returns, but Fionn -will not flee. In comes the Face and smells out the strangers. Six of the -Fenians he strikes with a magic rod, "and they are pillars of stone to -stop the sleety wind." He then cooks and devours a boar, and the bones he -throws to the Fenians. They play at ball with a golden apple, and the Face -puts an end to Fionn's other comrades. Hereafter he wrestles with Fionn, -and the griddle is put on the fire till it is red hot, and they all get -about Fionn and set him on the griddle till his legs are burnt to the hips -('twas then he said, "a man is no man alone"), and stick a flesh-stake -through both his hams, so that he could neither rise nor sit, and cast him -into a corner. But he manages to crawl out and sound his horn, and -Diarmaid hears it and comes to his aid, and does to the Face as the Face -did to Fionn, and with the cup of balsam which he wins from him makes -Fionn whole.--It is not necessary to dwell on the parallel between -Diarmaid healing his uncle Fionn, wounded with a stake through the two -thighs, by winning the cup of balsam, and Perceval healing his uncle -(mehaignie des II cuisses) by the question as to the Grail. This, alone, -would be sufficient to show us what _role_ the Grail played in the oldest -form of the feud quest before the latter was influenced by the visit to -the Bespelled Castle. - -If we look at the stories we have just summarised, we shall easily -understand the meaning of the Magic Castle vanishing at dawn. As sleep is -brother to death, so are night and its realm akin to the otherworld; many -phantoms haunt them and seem quick and strive with and often terribly -oppress the mortal wanderer through this domain, but with the first gleam -of sunlight they vanish, leaving no trace behind them, and the awakening -hero find himself in his own place. The conditions of the visit to the -otherworld are thus partly determined by man's nightly experience in that -dreamland which he figures to himself as akin to, if not an actual -portion of the land of shades. This visit, as we have seen, is conceived -of in several ways. Its object is almost invariably to win precious -talismans; all we have comes to us from our forefathers, and it is natural -to suppose that in the world whence they came, and whither they go back, -is to be found all that man seeks here, only in a form as more wonderful -than earthly objects as the dwellers in the otherworld are mightier and -cleverer than man. At times the talismans are held by beneficent beings, -who either gladly yield them to the mortal visitor, or from whom they may -be won by the exhibition of valour and magnanimity; at times by evil -monsters with whom the mortal must strive. In either case the visitor -arrives at nightfall and in the morning awakes to the life of this earth. - -The secondary or Gawain form of the myth, as found in the Conte de Graal, -may help us to understand Heinrich's version. It is to free imprisoned -damsels that Gauvain undergoes the trials of the Magic Castle. Now the -effect of his visit in the German poem is to free the sister of -Gansguoter, who, with her maidens, remains when the other inmates of the -castle, released by the question, have utterly vanished.[126] But what -means the death-in-life condition of the King and his men? Is it merely an -expedient to account for their sudden vanishing at daylight? I rather see -here the influence of another form of the unspelling myth, one that mixed -with Christian elements has powerfully impressed the popular imagination, -and is in many European countries the only one in which this old myth -still lives on.[127] - -The inmates of the Magic Castle or house are in this form figured as men -doomed for some evil deed to haunt that particular spot, until some mortal -is bold enough to win their secret and bring them rest. One would think -that under the circumstances they would be as amiable as possible to any -visitor. But the older form of the story persists, and they have not -terrors or trials enough for the man who is to be their deliverer. I will -only quote one version, from Irish sources.[128] - -A youth engages to sleep in a haunted castle. If he is alive in the -morning he will get ten guineas and the farmer's daughter to wife. At -nightfall he goes thither, and presently three men in old-fashioned dress -come down in pieces through a hole in the ceiling, put themselves -together, and begin playing at football. Jack joins them, and towards -daybreak he judges they wish him to speak, so he asks them how he can give -them rest if rest they want. "Them is the wisest words you ever spoke," is -answered to him. They had ground the poor and heaped up wealth evilly. -They show him their treasure, and tell him how to make restitution. As -they finish, "Jack could see the wall through their body, and when he -winked to clear his sight the kitchen was as empty as a noggin turned -upside down." Of course Jack does as he is told, and has the daughter to -wife, and they live comfortably in the old castle.[129] - -We have here, it seems to me, the last echo of such a story as one of -those which enter into the Grail romances. In Heinrich's version, as -elsewhere in these romances, different story types can be distinguished, -different conceptions are harmonised. Many, indeed, are both the early -conceptions and the varying shapes in which they embodied themselves, to -be traced in the complex mass of the romances. That a kinsman is bound to -avenge a blood feud, and that until he does so his kin may suffer from -ailment or enchantment and their land be under a curse; that the -otherworld is a land of feasting and joyousness and all fair things; that -it contains magic treasures which he who is bold may win; that it is -peopled with beings whom he may free by his courage; that it is fashioned -like dreamland--all these ideas find expression. - -If the foregoing exposition be accepted we have a valuable criterion for -the age of the immediate originals of the romances. That famous version of -the legend which pictured the dwellers in the otherworld as Kings, spell -bound, awaiting the releasing word to come forth and aid their folk, to -which special circumstances gave such wide popularity in the later middle -ages, causing it to supplant older tales of gods dwelling in the hollow -hills, this version has left no trace upon the romances. These must, -therefore, be older than the full-blown Arthurian legend. One or two minor -points may be briefly noticed. The ship in which is found the magic sword -which wounds all bold enough to handle it save the destined Knight may be -thought to have taken the place of an older island. The loathly Grail -messenger shows the influence of the two formulas: as coming from the -Bespelled Castle,[130] type of the otherworld, she should be radiantly -fair; as the kinswoman of the destined avenger, under spells until the -vengeance be accomplished, she is hideous in the last degree. - -But before we take leave of this incident we must examine two features -upon which, as yet, no light has been thrown, the meaning of the epithet -the _Fisher_ King, and the hero's silence upon his first visit to the -Castle of Talismans. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - - The Fisher King in the Conte du Graal, in the Queste, and in Borron - and the Grand St. Graal--The accounts of latter complete each - other--The Fish is the Salmon of Wisdom--Parallel with the Fionn - Saga--The nature of the Unspelling Quest--The Mabinogi of Taliesin and - its mythological affinities--Brons, Bran, Cernunnos--Perceval's - silence: Conte du Graal explanation late; explanation from the Fionn - Saga--Comparison of incident with _geasa_; nature of latter; - references to it in Celtic folk-tales and in old Irish literature, - Book of Rights, Diarmaid, Cuchulainn--_Geasa_ and _taboo_. - - -The Conte du Graal, as we have seen, offers no satisfactory explanation of -the Fisher King. By Chrestien he is represented on Perceval's first -meeting with him as angling from a boat steered by his companion (v. -4,187); he directs Perceval to his castle. Perceval is afterwards informed -that, being wounded and consequently unable to mount on horseback, fishing -is his only solace, whence the name applied to him (vv. 4,681, _et seq._). -This is practically all the Conte du Graal has to say about him, as the -continuators, whilst repeating the epithet, add no fresh details. Indeed -in none of the after-visits of Perceval is the King represented as -fishing, or is there the slightest reference to, let alone insistence -upon, this favourite occupation of his. It is another proof of the -inadequacy of Birch-Hirschfeld's theory of the development of the legend, -that it represents Chrestien, who, _ex hypothesi_, divested Borron's poem -of its religious character, as retaining this feature due wholly to -religious symbolism, whilst the continuators with their obvious fondness -for such symbolism entirely neglected it. The Queste, which in so far as -the quest portion is concerned is formally connected with the Conte du -Graal, says nothing about the Fisher, nor does that section of the Grand -St. Graal which presents the same Early History as the Queste. In -Borron's poem, on the other hand, and in that later section of the Grand -St. Graal which agrees with it, an explanation is given of the epithet. -According to Borron, Brons catches a fish at Joseph's bidding; Joseph, -having placed the vessel on the table and covered it with a towel, takes -the fish and lays it opposite the vessel; the people are then called -together, and it is possible to distinguish the sinners from the righteous -(vv. 2,500-2,600). Joseph is afterwards told by an angel, that, as Brons -was a good man, it was the Lord's will he should catch the fish (vv. -3,310, _et seq._), and he is to be called the Rich Fisher (v. 3,348). In -the Grand St. Graal (Vol. II., pp. 248, _et seq._) not Brons but his son -Alain is bidden by Joseph to fish, and this with a view to providing food -for the sinners of the company whom the Holy Vessel leaves unsatisfied. -Alain fishes from a boat with a net. He catches but one fish, and there -are at first murmurs, but Joseph, by virtue of Alain's prayers, multiplies -the fish so that it feeds the host, and thus Alain wins the name of Rich -Fisher. - -These accounts complete each other. Chrestien dwells upon the continued -act of fishing which, for aught to the contrary we learn from him or his -continuators, is always fruitless. Borron and the Grand St. Graal dwell -upon the one successful haul, and especially upon the miraculous -properties of the one fish caught. Reading the two accounts together, we -find that the Fisher King passes his life seeking for a fish which, when -caught, confers upon him the power of distinguishing good from evil, or -enables him to furnish an inexhaustible meal to his men. - -The Conte du Graal has been shown to derive more of its substance from the -feud quest--the Didot-Perceval from the unspelling quest. Borron's poem, -as far as its primitive Celtic elements are concerned, is probably to be -ranged with the Didot-Perceval, to which many links unite it. We may, -therefore, turn to Celtic stories belonging to either of these formulas -for parallel features. The inexhaustible nature of the fish at once -recalls the pigs of Manannan Mac Lir (_supra_, p. 194); they, too, can -feed a multitude. But it is in stories formally connected with the feud -quest that we find what I venture to suggest is an adequate explanation of -the nature of the Fisher King and of the fish. The latter is, I think, -the Salmon of Wisdom,[131] which appears so often and so prominently in -Irish mythic lore; and the former is that being who passes his life in -vain endeavours to catch the wonderful fish, and who, in the moment of -success, is robbed of the fruit of all his long toils and watchings. I am -prepared to admit that the incident as found in Borron's poem has been -recast in the mould of mediaeval Christian symbolism, but I think the older -myth can still be clearly discerned and is wholly responsible for the -incident as found in the Conte du Graal.[132] - -Let us first look at the Irish story. This is found in an account, to -which allusion has already been made, of the Boyish Exploits of Finn Mac -Cumhail.[133] It is there told how Finn seeks his namesake, Finn-eges, to -learn poetry from him, as until then he durst not stay in Ireland for fear -of his foes. Now Finn-eges had remained seven years by the Boyne, watching -the salmon of Linn-Feic, which it had been foretold Finn (himself as he -thought) should catch and know all things afterwards. Finn, who conceals -his name, takes service with him and the salmon is caught. Finn is set to -watch it while it roasts, but warned not to eat of it. Inadvertently he -touches it with his thumb, which he burns, and carries to his mouth to -cool. Immediately he becomes possessed of all knowledge, and thereafter he -had only to chew his thumb to obtain wisdom. Finn-eges recognises that the -prophecy has been fulfilled, and hails his pupil as Finn. - -It is needless to dwell upon the archaic features of this tale, which -represents the hero seeking service of a powerful magician, from whom he -hopes to learn the spells and charms that may guard him against his foes. -Here, as in many other portions of the Ossianic saga, Fionn is strikingly -like a Red Indian medicine man, or the corresponding wizard among other -savage tribes. It is more to our purpose to note that this tale contains -the fullest presentment of Fionn as hero of the Expulsion and Return -Formula, and that a similar incident is to be found in the lives of other -heroes of the formula (notably Siegfried: the Adventure with Mimir.) Now, -as we have already seen that Peredur-Perceval is a formula hero, there is -nothing remarkable in finding an analogous incident in his _sage_. A -formal connection is thus at once made out. But we must look into the -matter a little closer, as the incident found in the romances is but a -faint echo, and that in part distorted by alien conceptions, of the -original story. - -The unspelling quest in one form resolves itself ultimately into the -hero's search for riches, power, or knowledge, in prosecution of which he -penetrates to the otherworld. This is figured in the Grail romances both -by Brons' or Alain's (who here answers to Fionn) catching the wonderful -fish, and by Peredur-Perceval coming to the house of Brons, the Fisher -King (who here answers to Finn-eges), winning from him the mysterious -vessel of increase, and learning the secret words which put an end to the -enchantments of Britain. In the Grail romances the idea of wisdom is not -associated with the Grail, the vessel, at all; it is either bound up with -the fish, as in the Irish tale, or is the possession of the Fisher King as -the wonder-working spells are the possession of Finn-eges. - -But in the Welsh tradition which corresponds to that of Fionn and the -salmon, it is the vessel, the cauldron, or rather the drink which it -holds, which communicates the gift of wisdom and knowledge. I allude, of -course, to the story of Gwion, set by Ceridwen to watch the cauldron of -inspiration, inadvertently tasting its contents, becoming thereby filled -with knowledge, pursued by Ceridwen, who swallows him, and in whom he -re-incarnates himself as Taliesin, the Allwise Bard. Campbell had already -(Vol. IV., p. 299) drawn attention to the similarity of the two stories, -and equated Fionn, father of Oisin, with Gwion, father of Taliesin; and, -as Professor Rhys has now (Hibbert Lectures, p. 551) given the equation -his sanction, it may be accepted as philologically sound. - -I have hitherto refrained in the course of these studies from making any -use of the Mabinogi of Taliesin, or of references to the cauldron of -Ceridwen of a like nature with those contained in that tale; but it will, -I think, be admitted now that the Welsh Mabinogi, however late in form, -and however overlaid it may be with pseudo-archaic bardic rubbish, does go -back to a primitive stratum of Celtic mythology. - -In connection with this myth the name Brons is of high import. This -catcher of the fish, this lord of the Grail, at once suggests Bran, who is -also a guardian of the magic cauldron. Professor Rhys (pp. 85-95) shows -reason for looking upon Bran (as he is presented in the Mabinogi of -Branwen) as the representative of an old Celtic god, Cernunnos, that -Celtic Dis from whom, as Caesar reports, the Gauls claimed descent, and -who, as god of the otherworld and the shades was also god of knowledge and -riches. We are thus brought back again to the fundamental conception of -the Grail quest. - -It is to this tale that I would turn for one of the possible explanations -of Perceval's silence at the Court of the Fisher King. That the romance -writers did not understand this incident is evident from the explanation -they give. - -Gonemans' moral advice to his nephew on the evil of curiosity may have its -foundation in a possible feature of the original, about which I shall -speak presently; or it may simply be an expedient of Chrestien's or of his -immediate model. In either case its present form is obviously neither old -nor genuine. The silence of Perceval may, perhaps, be referred to the same -myth-root as Fionn's concealment of his name whilst in the service of -Finn-eges.[134] This prohibition might extend not only to the disclosing -of his name by the mortal visitor to the realm of the shades, but to the -utterance of any words at all. As he might not eat or drink in the -underworld, so he might not speak lest he lose the power to return to the -land of the living. One tale we have seen (_supra_, p. 195) does contain -this very injunction to say no word whilst in company of the dwellers in -the Bespelled Castle. In this case we should have to assume that two -varying redactions of the theme have been maladroitly fused into one in -the romances--that, namely, which bids the visitor to the otherworld -abstain from a certain act, and that which, on the contrary, bids him -perform a certain act, failure of compliance with the injunction being -punished in either case. The positive injunction of one form of the story -is used as an explanation of the hero's failure in another. - -An alternative hypothesis is that whilst the hero's unreadiness of speech, -the cause of his want of success at his first visit, comes wholly from the -unspelling quest, the motive by which the romances seek to account for -that unreadiness comes from the feud quest. The latter, as has been shown, -is closely akin to many task-stories; and it is a frequent feature in such -stories, especially in the Celtic ones, that the hero has to accomplish -his quest in spite of all sorts of odd restrictions which are laid upon -him by an enemy, generally by a step-mother or some other evil-disposed -relative. In the language of Irish mythic tradition Perceval would be -under _geasa_ to ask no questions, and Gonemans' advice would be the last -faint echo of such an incident. The form which such prohibitions take in -Celtic folk-tales is very curious. The _gess_ is generally embodied in a -magical formula, the language of which is very old and frequently -unintelligible to the narrators themselves. As a rule, the hero, by advice -of a friendly supernatural being, lays a counterspell upon his enemy. -Thus, in "How the Great Tuairsgeul was put to Death" (Scot. Celt. Rev. I., -p. 70) the magician "lays it as crosses and charms that water leave not -your shoe until you found out how the Great Tuairsgeul was put to death." -The hero retorts by laying the same charms that the magician leave not the -hillock until he return. In Campbell, No. XLVII., Mac Iain Direach, the -stepmother, "sets it as crosses, and as spells, and as the decay of the -year upon thee; that thou be not without a pool of water in thy shoe, and -that thou be wet, cold, and soiled until, etc.;" and the hero bespells -her, "that thou be standing with the one foot on the great house and the -other foot on the castle: and that thy face be to the tempest whatever -wind blows, until I return back." The formula in Campbell, No. LI, the -Fair Gruagach is very archaic. "I lay thee under spells, and under -crosses, under holy herdsmen of quiet travelling, wandering woman, the -little calf, most feeble and powerless, to take thy head and thine ear and -thy wearing of life from off thee if thou takest rest by night or day; -where thou takest thy breakfast that thou take not thy dinner, and where -thou takest thy dinner that thou take not thy supper, in whatsoever place -thou be, until thou findest out in what place I may be under the four -brown quarters of the globe." - -These instances will suffice to show the nature of the _gess_ in Celtic -folk-lore, but some references to older Irish literature are necessary to -show its great importance in the social and religious life of the race. -O'Donovan (Book of Rights, p. xlv.) explains the word _geasa_ as "any -thing or act forbidden because of the ill luck that would result from its -doing;" also "a spell, a charm, a prohibition, an interdiction or -hindrance." This explanation occurs in the introduction to a poem on the -restrictions (_geasa_) and prerogatives (_buada_) of the Kings of Eire, -found in the Book of Ballymote (late fourteenth century) and Book of Lecan -(early fifteenth century). The poem is ascribed to Cuan O'Lochain (A.D. -1024), and, from the historical allusions contained in it, O'Donovan looks -upon it as in substance due to that poet, and as embodying much older -traditions. Some of these _geasa_ may be quoted. For the King of Eire, -"that the sun should rise upon him on his bed in Magh Teamhrach;" for the -King of Leinster, "to go round Tuath Laighean left hand-wise on -Wednesday;" for the King of Munster, "to remain, to enjoy the feast of -Loch Lein from one Monday to another;" for the King of Connaught, "to go -in a speckled garment on a grey speckled steed to the heath of Luchaid;" -for the King of Ulster, "to listen to the fluttering of the flocks of -birds of Luin Saileach after sunset."[135] Even these instances do not -exhaust the force or adequately connote the nature of this curious -institution. In the Irish hero-tales _geasa_ attach themselves to the hero -from his birth up, and are the means by which fate compasses the downfall -of the otherwise invincible champion; thus it is a _gess_ of Diarmaid that -he never hunt a swine, and when he is artfully trapped into doing it by -Fionn he meets his death; it is a _gess_ of Cuchulainn's that he never -refuse food offered him by women, and as he goes to his last fight he -accepts the poisoned meal of the witches though he full well knows it will -be fatal to him.[136] But, besides this, _geasa_ may also be an appeal to -the hero's honour as well as a magic charm laid upon him, and it is -sometimes difficult to see by which of the two motives the hero is moved. -Thus Graine, wife of Fionn, lays _geasa_ upon Diarmaid that he carry her -off from her husband, and though he is in the last degree unwilling he -must comply.[137] - -Enough has been said to show that we have in the _geasa_ a cause quite -sufficient to explain the mysterious prohibition to ask questions laid -upon Perceval, if the first explanation I have offered of this prohibition -be thought inadequate. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - - Summing up of the elements of the older portion of the - cycle--Parallelism with Celtic tradition--The Christian element in the - cycle: the two forms of the Early History; Brons form older--Brons and - Bran--The Bran conversion legend--The Joseph conversion legend: Joseph - in apocryphal literature--Glastonbury--The head in the platter and the - Veronica portrait--The Bran legend the starting point of the Christian - transformation of the legend--Substitution of Joseph for - Bran--Objections to this hypothesis--Hypothetical sketch of the growth - of the legend. - - -I have now finished the examination of all those incidents in the Grail -Quest romances which are obviously derived from some other sources than -Christian legend, and which are, indeed, referred by pronounced adherents -of the Christian-origin hypothesis to Celtic tradition. I have also -claimed a Celtic origin for features hitherto referred to Christian -legend. This examination will, I trust, convince many that nearly all the -incidents connected with the Quest of the Grail are Celtic in their -origin, and that thus alone can we account for the way in which they -appear in the romances. The latter are, as we have seen, in the highest -degree inconsistent in their account of the mystic vessel and its -fortunes; the most cursory examination shows the legend to be composed of -two parts, which have no real connection with each other; the older of -these parts, the Quest, can easily be freed from the traces of Christian -symbolism; this older part is itself no homogeneous or consistent tale, -but a complex of incidents diverse in origin and character. These -incidents are: the rearing of the hero in ignorance of the world and of -men; his visit to the court of the King, his uncle; his slaying of his -father's murderer, the trial made of him by means of the broken sword; his -service with the Fisher King; his quest in search of the sword and of the -vessel by means of which he is to avenge the death or wounding of his -kinsman; his accomplishment of this task by the aid of a kinsman who is -under spells from which he will not be loosed until the quest be ended; -the adventure of the stag-hunt, in which the bespelled kinsman tests the -hero's skill and courage; the hero's visit to the Castle of Talismans; the -prohibition under which he labours; his failure to accomplish certain -acts; the effects of his failure; his visit to the Magic Castle, the lord -of which is under the enchantment of death-in-life; his visit to the -Castle of Maidens; his visit to the Castle Perillous; and his deliverance -of the captive damsels by means of the trials which he successfully -undergoes. To one and all of these incidents Celtic parallels have been -adduced; these have in each case been drawn from stories which present a -general similarity of outline with the Grail romances, or share with them -similar guiding conceptions, whilst at the same time they are so far -disconnected with them that no hypothesis of borrowing can account for the -features they have in common. The inconsistencies of the romances have -been explained by the fusion into one of two originally distinct groups of -stories, and this explanation is confirmed by the fact that traces of this -fusion may readily be found in the parallel Celtic tales. These latter, -when studied by scholars who never thought of comparing them with the -Grail romances, have been found to contain mythical elements which other -scholars had detected independently in the romances. Those features of the -romances which have perplexed previous students, the Fisher King and the -omitted question, have been explained from the same group of Celtic -traditions, and in accordance with the same scheme of mythical -interpretation which have been used to throw light upon the remainder of -the cycle. Finally, the one Celtic version of the Grail Quest, the -Mabinogi, which presents no admixture of Christian symbolism, has been -shown, when cleared of certain easily distinguishable interpolations, to -be genuine in character, and to present the oldest form of one of the -stories which enters into the romances. - -I have tried not to force these parallels, nor to go one step beyond what -the facts warrant. I have also tried to bear in mind that a parallel is of -no real value unless it throws light upon the puzzling features in the -development of the romances. I thus rest my case, not so much upon the -accumulative effect of the similarities which I have pointed out between -the romances and Celtic tradition, as upon the fact that this reference of -the romances to certain definite cycles of Celtic myth and legend makes us -understand, what otherwise we cannot do, how they came by their present -shape. It now remains to be seen if this reference, can in any way explain -the Christian element in the legend, which I have hitherto left almost -entirely out of account. Birch-Hirschfeld's hypothesis is condemned, in my -opinion, by its failure to account for the Celtic element; although I do -not think an explanation of a late and intruding feature is as incumbent -upon me as that of the original Celtic basis of the legend is upon him, I -yet feel that an hypothesis which has nothing to say on such a vital point -can hardly be considered satisfactory. It is the Christian transformation -of the old Celtic myths and folk-tales which gave them their wide vogue in -the Middle Ages, which endowed the theme with such fascination for the -preachers and philosophers who used it as a vehicle for their teaching, -and which has endeared it to all lovers of mystic symbolism. The question -how and why the Celtic tales which I have tried, not unsuccessfully I -trust, to disentangle from the romances were ever brought into contact -with Christ and His disciples, and how the old mystic vessel of healing, -increase, and knowledge became at last the sacramental cup, must, -therefore, be faced. The hypotheses set forth in the preceding page might -be accepted in their entirety, and the merit of this transformation still -be claimed, as Birch-Hirschfeld claims it, for the North French poets, to -whom we owe the present versions of the romances. On first reading -Birch-Hirschfeld's book, I thought this claim one of the flaws in his -argument, and, as will be seen by reference to Chapter IV., other -investigators, who accept the Christian origin of the larger part of the -legend, hold that it has been shaped in these islands, or in accordance -with Celtic traditions now lost. I think we can go a step farther. A -number of myths and tales have been used to illustrate the romances. In -them may be found the personages through whom probably took place the -first contact between Celtic mythic tradition and Christian legend. - -We must revert for one moment to the results obtained in Chapter III. by -an examination of the way in which the Grail and its fortunes are -mentioned in the romances. We there distinguished two forms of the -distinctively Christian portion of the legend, the Early History. In both -Joseph is the first possessor and user of the holy vessel, but in one its -farther fortunes are likewise bound up with him or with his seed. He, or -his son, it is who leads the Grail host to Britain, who converts the -island, and by whom the precious vessel is handed down through a chosen -line of kings in anticipation of the promised Knight's coming. In the -other form, on the contrary, Joseph has nothing to do with Britain, which -is converted by Brons and his son, Alain; Brons is the guardian of the -holy vessel, and, in one version, the fisher of the mystic fish, whilst in -another his son takes this part. There is repeated insistence upon the -connection between the Grail host and Avalon. Finally Brons is the -possessor of "secret words," and may not die until he has revealed them to -his grandson. - -This account is, we saw, later in form than the Joseph one. As we have it, -it was written after the greater portion of the Conte du Graal, after that -redaction of the Early History made use of by the author of the Queste and -of the first draft of the Grand St. Graal. Its influence only makes itself -felt in the later stages of development of the legend. But none the less -it clearly represents an older and purer form of the Early History than -that of the Queste and of Chrestien's continuators. It has not been -doctored into harmony with the full-blown Arthurian legend as the Joseph -Early History has. It is still chiefly, if not wholly, a legend, the main -purport of which is to recount the conversion of Britain. - -Such a legend is surely more likely to have been shaped by Welsh or Breton -monks than by North French _trouveres_. And when we notice the Celtic -names of the personages, and their connection with the Celtic paradise, -Avalon, there can remain little, if any, doubt respecting the first home -of the story. We may thus look upon Brons, owner of a mystic vessel, -fisher of a mystic fish, as the hero of an early conversion legend. But -the name Brons has at once suggested to most students of the cycle that of -Bran. The latter is, as we saw in the last Chapter, the representative of -an old Celtic god of the otherworld. He is the owner of the cauldron of -renovation. He is also the hero in Welsh tradition of a conversion legend, -and is commonly known as Bran the Blessed. Unfortunately the only -explanation we have of this epithet occurs in a late triad, to which it is -not safe to assign an earlier date than the fourteenth century. He is -described therein as son of Llyr Llediath, "as one of the three blissful -Rulers of the Island of Britain, who first brought the faith of Christ to -the nation of the Cymry from Rome, where he was seven years a hostage for -his son Caradawc."[138] But if late in form this triad may well embody an -old tradition. It gives the significant descent of Bran from Llyr, and -thereby equates him with Mannanan Mac Lir, with whom he presents otherwise -so many points of contact. It is quite true that the Bran legend, as is -pointed out to me by Professor Rhys, is mentioned neither in the earliest -genealogies nor in Geoffrey. But it should be noted that the Grand St. -Graal does bring one member of the Brons group, Petrus, into contact with -King Luces, the Lucius to whom Geoffrey ascribes the conversion. Again, -the epithet "blessed" is applied to Bran in the Mabinogi of Branwen, -daughter of Llyr. I have placed this tale as a whole as far back as the -eleventh-tenth centuries, and my arguments have met with no opposition, -and have won the approval of such authorities as Professor Windisch and -Monsieur Gaidoz. But the Mabinogi, as we have it, was written down in the -fourteenth century; the last transcriber abridged it, and at times did not -apparently understand what he was transcribing. By his time the full-blown -Bran legend of the triad was in existence, and it may be contended that -the epithet was due to him and did not figure in his model. On the other -hand, Stephens (Lit. of the Cymry, p. 425) quotes a triad of Kynddelw, a -poet of the twelfth century, referring to the three blessed families of -the Isle of Britain, one of which is declared by a later tradition to be -that of Bran.[139] Again, the triads of Arthur and his Warriors, printed -by Mr. Skene, Four Ancient Books, Vol. II., p. 457, from MS. Hengwrt, 566, -of the beginning of the fourteenth century, and probably at least fifty -years older, mentions the "blessed head of Bran."[140] On the whole, in -spite of the silence of older sources, I look upon the epithet and the -legend which it presupposes as old, and I see in a confusion between Bran, -Lord of the Cauldron, and Bran the Blessed, the first step of the -transformation of the Peredur _sage_ into the Quest of the Holy Grail. In -the first capacity Bran corresponds to the Lord of the Castle of -Talismans. From the way in which the fish is dwelt upon in his legend, it -may, indeed, be conjectured that he stood to Peredur in some such relation -as Finn-eges to Fionn. As hero of a conversion legend he came into contact -with Joseph. We do not know how or at what date the legend of the -conversion of Britain by Joseph originated. It is found enjoying wide -popularity in the latter half of the twelfth century, the very time in -which the romances were assuming their present shape. Wuelcker (Das -Evangelium Nicodemi in der abendlaendischen Literatur, Paderborn, 1872) -shows that the legend is not met with before William of Malmesbury; and -Zarncke, as already stated (_supra_, p. 107), has argued that the passage -in William is a late interpolation due to the popularity of the -romances.[141] But to accept Zarncke's contention merely shifts back the -difficulty. If William did not first note and give currency to the -tradition, the unknown predecessor of Robert de Borron and of the authors -of the Queste and Grand St. Graal did so; and the question still remains -how did he come by the tradition, and what led him to associate it with -Glastonbury. Birch-Hirschfeld, it is true, makes short work of this -difficulty. The fact that there is no earlier legend in which Joseph -figures as the Apostle of Britain is to him proof that Borron evolved the -conception of the Grail out of the canonical and apocryphal writings in -which Joseph appears, and then devised the passage to Britain in order to -incorporate the Arthurian romances with the legend he had invented. It is -needless to repeat that this theory, unacceptable on _a priori_ grounds, -is still more so when tested by facts. - -But Joseph under other aspects than that of Apostle of Britain is worthy -of notice. The main source whence the legend writers drew their knowledge -of him was the Evangelium Nicodemi, the history of which has been -investigated by Wuelcker. The earliest allusion in western literature to -this apocryphal gospel is that of Gregory of Tours (Wuelcker, p. 23), but -no other trace of its influence is to be met with in France until we come -to the Grail romances, and to mystery-plays which relate Christ's -Harrowing of Hell. In Provence, Italy, and Germany the thirteenth and -twelfth centuries are the earliest to which this gospel can be traced. In -England, on the contrary, it was known as far back as the latter quarter -of the eighth century; Cynewulf based upon it a poem on the Harrowing of -Hell, and alludes to it in the Crist; the ninth century poem, "Christ and -Satan," likewise shows knowledge of it, and there is a West-Saxon -translation dating from the early eleventh century. - -Whence this knowledge and popularity of the gospel in England several -centuries before it entered prominently into the literature of any other -European people? Wuelcker can only point by way of answer to the early -spread of Christianity in these Islands, and to the possibility of this -gospel having reached England before it did France or Germany. He also -insists upon the early development of Anglo-Saxon literature. - -Whether the fact that the apocryphal writings which told of Joseph were -known here when they were unknown on the Continent be held to warrant or -no the existence of a specifically British Joseph legend, they at all -events prove that he was a familiar and favourite legendary figure on -British soil. It would be rash to go any farther, and to argue from the -inadequacy of the reasons by which Wuelcker seeks to account for the early -knowledge of the Evangelium Nicodemi in England, that Joseph enjoyed -particular favour among the British Christians, and that it was from them -the tidings of him spread among their Saxon conquerors. - -The legendary popularity of Joseph in these islands, though not in any -special capacity of Apostle of Britain, is thus attested. Let us admit for -argument's sake that the conversion legend did first take shape in the -twelfth century, is it not more likely to have done so here, where the -apocryphal writings about him were widely spread, than in France, where -they were practically unknown? And why if Borron, or any other French -poet, wanted to connect the Holy Vessel legend which he had imagined with -Arthur, should he go out of his way to invent the personages of Brons and -Alain? The story as found in the Queste would surely have been a far more -natural one for him. And why the insistence upon Avalon? We have plain -proof that Borron did not understand the word, as he explains it by a -ridiculous pun (_supra_, p. 78).[142] - -These difficulties are met in a large measure if we look upon Bran -(Brons) as the starting point of the Christian transformation of the -legend. In any case we may say that a conversion legend, whether -associated with Joseph or anyone else, would almost inevitably have -gravitated towards Glastonbury, but there are special reasons why this -should be the case with a Bran legend. Avalon is certainly the Welsh -equivalent of the Irish Tir na n-Og, the land of youth, the land beyond -the waves, the Celtic paradise. When or how this Cymric myth was localised -at Glastonbury we know not.[143] We only know that Glastonbury was one of -the first places in the island to be devoted to Christian worship. Is it -too rash a conjecture that the Christian church may have taken the place -of some Celtic temple or holy spot specially dedicated to the cult of the -dead, and of that Lord of the Shades from which the Celts feigned their -descent? The position of Glastonbury, not far from that western sea beyond -which lie the happy isles of the dead, would favour such an hypothesis. -Although direct proof is wanting, I believe that the localisation is old -and genuine: Bran, ruler of the otherworld, of Avalon, would thus come -into natural contact with Glastonbury; and if, as I assume, Joseph took -his place in the conversion legend the association would extend to him. -The after development of the legend would then be almost a matter of -course. Bran, the ruler in Avalon, would pass on his magic gear (cauldron, -spear, and sword, as in the case of the Tuatha de Dannan) to Bran the -Blessed, who would in his turn transfer them to Joseph. And once the -latter had entered into the legend, he would not fail to recall that last -scene of the Lord's life with which he was so closely associated, not by -any pseudo-gospel but by the canonical writings themselves, and thus the -gear of the old Celtic gods became transformed into such objects as were -most prominent in the story of the Passion and of the scene that -immediately preceded it. The spear became that one wherewith Christ's side -was pierced. As for the vessel, the sacramental nature is the last stage -of its Christian development; its original object was merely to explain -the sustenance of Joseph in prison, and to provide a miraculous -refreshment for the Grail host, as is shown by the Early History portion -of the Conte du Graal and by the Queste. In a dim and confused way the -circumstances of the Resurrection helped to effect the change of the pagan -resuscitation-cauldron into a symbol of the risen Lord. And some now lost -feature of the original legend--some insistence upon the _contents_ of the -vessel, some assimilation of them to blood--may have suggested the use to -which the vessel was first put. - -This hypothesis assumes many things. It assumes a Bran conversion legend, -of which the only evidence of anything like the same date as the romances -is a single epithet; it assumes that the hero of this legend was -originally an old Celtic divinity; it assumes a Joseph conversion legend, -for which there is really no other evidence than that of the romances; it -assumes the amalgamation of the two legends, and that Joseph took over in -a large measure the _role_ and characteristics of Brons. And when it is -recollected that the primary assumption, the identification of the two -Brans, rests in a large measure upon the appearance of the fish in the -Brons legend, that this fish is nowhere in Celtic tradition associated -with Bran, that it is associated on the other hand with a being, Fionn, -whom we have compared with Peredur, but that it is absent from the -Peredur-saga, the hypothesis must be admitted to be of a tentative nature. -I fully appreciate the force of the objections that can be urged against -it; at the same time it has the merit of accounting for many puzzling -features in the legend. When in the same story two personages can be -distinguished whose _role_ is more or less of the same nature, when the -one personage is subordinated in one version and has disappeared -altogether from the other, it is quite legitimate to conclude that two -originally independent accounts have become blended, and that one has -absorbed the other. The hypothesis is on safe ground so far. It thus -explains the presence of Brons in the legend, as well as his absence from -some versions of it; it has something to say in explanation of the -connection with Glastonbury; it explains in what way the Celtic traditions -were started on their path of transformation; and it provides for that -transformation taking the very course it did. There is nothing to be urged -against it on _a priori_ grounds; once admit the premisses, and the rest -follows easily and naturally. Its conjectural character (the main -objection to it) is shared in an even higher degree by the other -hypotheses, which have essayed to account for the growth and origin of the -legend, and _they_ have the disadvantage of being inherently impossible. - -In the light of the foregoing investigations and hypotheses we may now -amplify the sketch history of the whole cycle given in Chapter III. The -Peredur-saga probably came into existence in much its later form at an -early date in the Middle Ages. A number of older mythical tales centered -in a, perhaps, historical personage. The circumstances of his life and -adventures may have given them not only cohesion, but may also have -coloured and distorted them; nevertheless they remained, in the main, -mythical tales of the same kind as those found all over the world. One of -these tales was undoubtedly a Cymric variant of the Celtic form of the -Expulsion and Return formula; another dealt with the hero's journey to the -Land of Shades; traces of many others are to be found in the Mabinogi. -Another Celtic worthy, Gwalchmai, was early associated with Peredur, and -the two stood in some such relation to each other as the twin brethren of -a widely spread folk-tale group. Curiously enough, whilst comparatively -few incidents in the Peredur-saga were worked up into the version which -served as immediate model to the North French romances, that version -contained many adventures of Gwalchmai's which have not been preserved in -Welsh. We can trace three main crystallizations of the original saga-mass; -one represented by the Proto-Mabinogi contained the feud quest, and, -probably, some only of the other adventures found in the present Mabinogi; -the second, based more on the lines of the Expulsion and Return formula, -is represented by the Thornton MS. romance; in the third the feud quest -was mixed up with the hero's visit to the Bespelled Castle, and those -portions of the Gwalchmai-saga which told of his visit to Castle Perillous -as well as to the Bespelled Castle. Whilst the Proto-Mabinogi was probably -in prose, the Proto-Conte du Graal was probably in verse, a collection of -short _lais_ like those of Marie de France. Meanwhile, one of the chief -personages of the older mythic world which appear in the Peredur-saga, -Bran, the Lord of the Land of Shades, of the Bespelled Castle, of the -cauldron of healing, increase and wisdom, and of the knowledge-giving -salmon, had become the Apostle of Britain, his pagan attributes thus -suffering a Christian change, which was perfected when Joseph took the -place of Brons, bringing with him his gospel associations and the -apocryphal legends that had clustered round his name. Thus a portion of -the saga was Christianised, whilst the other portion lost its old, fixed -popular character, owing to the fusion of originally distinct elements, -and the consequent unsettling both of the outlines and of the details of -the story. Incidents and features which in the earlier folk-tale stage -were sharply defined and intelligible became vague and mysterious. In this -state, and bearing upon it the peculiarly weird and fantastic impress of -Celtic mythic tradition, the story, or story-mass rather, lay ready to the -hand of courtly poet or of clerical mystic. At first Christian symbolism -was introduced in a slight and meagre way--the Brons-Joseph legend -supplied the Christian meaning of the talismans, and that was all. But the -Joseph legend was soon vigorously developed by the author of the work -which underlies the Queste and the Grand St. Graal. He may either not have -known or have deliberately discarded Brons, the old Celtic hero of the -conversion, as he certainly deliberately thrust down from his place of -pre-eminence Perceval, the Celtic hero of the Quest, substituting for him -a new hero, Galahad, and for the adventures of the Conte du Graal, based -as they were upon no guiding conceptions, fresh adventures intended to -glorify physical chastity. With all his mystic fervour he failed to see -the full capacities of the theme, his presentment of the Grail itself -being in especial either over-material or over-spiritual. But his work -exercised a profound influence, as is seen in the case of Chrestien's -continuators. Robert de Borron, on the other hand, if to him the merit -must be assigned, if he was not simply transcribing an older, forgotten -version, was a more original thinker, if a less gifted writer. Although he -was not able to entirely harmonise the conflicting accounts of which he -made use, he yet succeeded in keeping close to the old lines of the legend -whilst giving a consistent symbolical meaning to all its details. His work -came too late, however, to exercise the influence it should have done upon -the development of the legend; the writers who knew it were mere heapers -together of adventures, and the very man who composed a sequel to it -abandoned Robert's main conception. - -The history of the Legend of the Holy Grail is, thus, the history of the -gradual transformation of old Celtic folk-tales into a poem charged with -Christian symbolism and mysticism. This transformation, at first the -inevitable outcome of its pre-Christian development, was hastened later by -the perception that it was a fitting vehicle for certain moral and -spiritual ideas. These have been touched upon incidentally in the course -of these studies, but they and their manifestation in modern as well as in -mediaeval literature deserve fuller notice. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - - Popularity of the Arthurian Romance--Reasons for that - Popularity--Affinities of the Mediaeval Romances with early Celtic - Literature; Importance of the Individual Hero; Knighthood; the _role_ - of Woman; the Celtic Fairy and the Mediaeval Lady; the Supernatural--M. - Renan's views--The Quest in English Literature, Malory--The earliest - form of the Legend, Chrestien, his continuators--The Queste and its - Ideal--The Sex-Relations in the Middle Ages--Criticism of Mr. - Furnivall's estimate of the moral import of the Queste--The Merits of - the Queste--The Chastity Ideal in the later versions--Modern English - Treatments: Tennyson, Hawker--Possible Source of the Chastity Ideal in - Popular Tradition--The Perceval Quest in Wolfram; his Moral - Conception; the Question; Parzival and Conduiramur--The Parzival Quest - and Faust--Wagner's Parsifal--The Christian element in the - Legend--Ethical Ideas in the folk-tale originals of the Grail - Romances: the Great Fool, the Sleeping Beauty--Conclusion. - - -Few legends have attained such wide celebrity, or been accepted as so -thoroughly symbolical of one master conception, as that of the Holy Grail. -Poets and thinkers from mediaeval times to our own days have used it as a -type of the loftiest goal of man's effort. There must be something in the -romances which first embodied this conception to account for the enduring -favour it has enjoyed. Nor is it that we read into the old legend meanings -and teachings undreamt of before our day. At a comparatively early stage -in the legend's existence its capacities were perceived, and the works -which were the outcome of that perception became the breviary and the -exemplar of their age. There are reasons, both general and special, why -the Celtic mythic tales grew as they did, and had such overwhelming vogue -in their new shapes. In no portion of the vast Arthurian cycle is it more -needful or more instructive to see what these reasons were than in that -which recounts the fortunes of the Grail. - -The tales of Peredur and Gwalchmai, bound up with the Arthurian romance, -shared its success, than which nothing in all literary history is more -marvellous. It was in the year 1145 that Geoffrey of Monmouth first made -the legendary history of Britain accessible to the lettered class of -England and Continent. He thereby opened up to the world at large a new -continent of romantic story, and exercised upon the development of -literature an influence comparable in its kind to that of Columbus' -achievement upon the course of geographical discovery and political -effort. Twenty years had not passed before the British heroes were -household names throughout Europe, and by the close of the century nearly -every existing literature had assimilated and reproduced the story of -Arthur and his Knights. Charlemagne and Alexander, the sagas of Teutonic -tribes, the tale of Imperial Rome itself, though still affording subject -matter to the wandering jongleur or monkish annalist, paled before the -fame of the British King. The instinct which led the twelfth and -thirteenth centuries thus to place the Arthurian story above all others -was a true one. It was charged with the spirit of romance, and they were -pre-eminently the ages of the romantic temper. The West had turned back -towards the East, and, although the intent was hostile, the minds of the -western men had been fecundated, their imagination fired by contact with -the mother of all religions and all cultures. The achievements of the -Crusaders became the standard of attainment to the loftiest and boldest -minds of Western Christendom. For these men Alexander himself lacked -courage and Roland daring. The fathers had stormed Jerusalem, and the -sons' youth had been nourished on tales of Araby the Blest and Ophir the -Golden of strife with the Paynim, of the sorceries and devilries of the -East. Nothing seemed impossible to a generation which knew of toils and -quests greater than any minstrel had sung, which had beheld in the East -sights as wondrous and fearful as any the jongleur could tell of. -Moreover, the age was that of Knight Errantry, and of that phase of love -in which every Knight must qualify himself for the reception of his lady's -favours by the performance of some feat of skill and daring. Such an age -and such men demanded a special literature, and they found it in -adaptations of Celtic tales. - -The mythic heroic literature of all races is in many respects alike. The -sagas not only of Greek or Persian, of Celt or Hindu, of Slav or Teuton, -but also of Algonquin or Japanese, are largely made up of the same -incidents set in the same framework. But each race shapes this common -material in its own way, sets upon it its own stamp. And no race has done -this more unmistakably than the Celtic. Stories which go back to the first -century, stories taken down from the lips of living peasants, have a -kinship of tone and style, a common ring which no one who has studied this -literature can fail to recognise. What stamps the whole of it is the -prevailing and abiding spirit of romance. To rightly urge the Celtic -character of the Arthurian romances would require the minute analysis of -many hundred passages, and it would only be proving a case admitted by -everyone who knows all the facts. It will be more to the point to dwell -briefly upon those outward features which early (_i.e._, pre-eleventh -century) Celtic heroic literature has in common with the North French -romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, especially as we thus -gain a clue to much that is problematic in the formal and moral growth of -the Arthurian cycle in general and of the Grail cycle in particular. - -In Celtic tradition, as little as in mediaeval romance, do we find a record -of race-struggles such as meets us in the Nibelungenlied, in the Dietrich -saga, or the Carolingian cycle.[144] In its place we have a glorification -of the individual hero. The reason is not far to seek. The Celtic tribes, -whether of Ireland or Britain, were surrounded by men of their own speech, -of like institutions and manners. The shock of opposing nations, of rival -civilisations, could not enter into their race-tradition. The -story-teller had as his chief theme the prowess and skill of the -individual "brave," the part he took in the conflicts which clan -incessantly waged with clan, or his encounters with those powers of an -older mythic world which lived on in the folk-fancy. To borrow Mr. -Fitzgerald's convenient terminology, the "constants" of this tradition may -be the same as in that of other Aryan races, the "resultants" are not. To -give one instance: the conception of a chief surrounded by a picked band -of warriors is common to all heroic tradition, but nowhere is it of such -marked importance, nowhere does it so mould and shape the story as in the -cycles of Conchobor and the Knights of the Red Branch, of Fionn and the -Fianna, and of Arthur and his Knights. The careers of any of the early -Irish heroes, the single-handed raids of Cet mac Magach or Conall -Cearnach, above all the fortunes of Cuchullain, his hero's training in the -Amazon-isle, his strife with Curoi mac Daire, his expeditions to -fairy-land, his final holding of the ford against all the warriors of -Erinn, breathe the same spirit of adventure for its own sake, manifest the -same subordination of all else in the story to the one hero, that are such -marked characteristics of the Arthurian romance. - -Again, in the bands of picked braves who surround Conchobor or Fionn, in -the rules by which they are governed, the trials which precede and -determine admission into them, the duties and privileges which attach to -them, we have, it seems to me, a far closer analogue to the knighthood of -mediaeval romance than may be found either in the Peers of Carolingian saga -or in the chosen warriors who throng the halls of Walhalla. - -In the present connection the part played by woman in Celtic tradition is -perhaps of most import to us. In no respect is the difference more marked -than in this between the twelfth century romances, whether French or -German, and the earlier heroic literature of either nation. The absence of -feminine interest in the earlier _chansons de geste_ has often been noted. -The case is different with Teutonic heroic literature, in which woman's -_role_ is always great, sometimes pre-eminently so. But a comparison of -the two strains of traditions, Celtic and Teutonic, one with the other, -and again with the romances, may help to account for much that is -otherwise inexplicable to us in the mediaeval presentment of the -sex-feelings and sex-relations. - -The love of man, and immortal, or, if mortal, semi-divine maid is a -"constant" of heroic tradition. Teuton and Celt have handled this theme, -however, in a very different spirit. In the legends of the former the man -plays the chief part; he woos, sometimes he forces the fairy maiden to -become the mistress of his hearth. As a rule, overmastered by the prowess -and beauty of the hero, she is nothing loth. But sometimes, as does -Brunhild, she feels the change a degradation and resents it. It is -otherwise with the fairy mistresses of the Celtic hero; they abide in -their own place, and they allure or compel the mortal lover to resort to -them. Connla and Bran and Oisin must all leave this earth and sail across -ocean or lake before they can rejoin their lady love; even Cuchullain, -mightiest of all the heroes, is constrained, struggle as he may, to go and -dwell with the fairy queen Fand, who has woed him. Throughout, the -immortal mistress retains her superiority; when the mortal tires and -returns to earth she remains, ever wise and fair, ready to welcome and -enchant a new generation of heroes. She chooses whom she will, and is no -man's slave; herself she offers freely, but she abandons neither her -liberty nor her divine nature. This type of womanhood, capricious, -independent, severed from ordinary domestic life, is assuredly the -original of the Vivians, the Orgueilleuses, the Ladies of the Fountain of -the romances; it is also one which must have commended itself to the -knightly devotees of mediaeval romantic love. Their "_dame d'amour_" was, -as a rule, another man's wife; she raised in their minds no thought of -home or child. In the tone of their feelings towards her, in the character -of their intercourse with her, they were closer akin to Oisin and Neave, -to Cuchullain and Fand, than to Siegfried and Brunhild, or to Roland and -Aude. Even where the love-story passes wholly among mortals, the woman's -_role_ is more accentuated than in the Teutonic sagas. She is no mere -lay-figure upon a fire-bound rock like Brunhild or Menglad, ready, when -the destined hero appears, to fall straightway into his arms. Emer, the -one maiden of Erinn whom Cuchullain condescends to woo, is eager to show -herself in all things worthy of him; she tests his wit as well as his -courage, she makes him accept her conditions.[145] In the great tragic -tale of ancient Ireland, the Fate of the Sons of Usnech, Deirdre--born -like Helen or Gudrun, to be a cause of strife among men, of sorrow and -ruin to whomsoever she loves--Deirdre takes her fate into her own hands, -and woos Noisi with outspoken passionate frankness. The whole story is -conceived and told in a far more "romantic" strain than is the case with -parallel stories from Norse tradition, the loves of Helgi and Sigrun, or -those of Sigurd and Brunhild-Gudrun. And if the lament of Deirdre over her -slain love lacks the grandeur and the intensity with which the Norse -heroines bewail their dead lords, it has, on the other hand, an intimate, -a personal touch we should hardly have looked for in an eleventh century -Irish epic.[146] - -Another link between the Celtic sagas and the romances is their treatment -of the supernatural. Heroic-traditional literature is made up of mythical -elements, of scenes, incidents, and formulas which have done service in -that account of man's dealings with and conceptions of the visible world -which we call mythology. All such literature derives ultimately from an -early, wholly animistic stage of culture. Small marvel, then, if in the -hero-tales of every race there figure wonder-working talismans and -bespelled weapons, if almost every great saga has, as part of its -_dramatis personae_, objects belonging to what we should now call the -inanimate world. Upon these a species of life is conferred, most often by -power of magic, but at times, it would seem, in virtue of the older -conception which held all things to be endowed with like life. All heroic -literatures do not, however, accentuate equally and similarly this magic -side of their common stock. Celtic tradition is not only rich and varied -beyond all others in this respect, it often thus secures its chief -artistic effects. The talismans of Celtic romance, the fairy branch of -Cormac, the Ga-bulg of Cuchullain, the sounding-hammer of Fionn, the -treasures of the Boar Trwyth after which Prince Kilhwch sought, the -glaives of light of the living folk-tale, have one and all a weird, -fantastic, half-human existence, which haunts and thrills the imagination. -No Celtic story-teller could have "mulled" the Nibelung-hoard as the poet -of the Nibelungenlied has done. How different in this respect the twelfth -century romances are from the earlier German or French sagas, how close to -the Irish tales is apparent to whomsoever reads them with attention.[147] - -I do not for one moment imply that the romantic literature of the Middle -Ages was what it was, wholly or even mainly in virtue of its Celtic -affinities. That literature was the outcome of the age, and something akin -to it would have sprung up had Celtic tradition remained unknown to the -Continent. The conception of feudal knighthood as a favoured class, in -which men of different nations met on a common footing; the conception of -knightly love as something altogether disassociated from domestic life, -must in any case have led to the constitution of such a society as we find -portrayed in the romances. What is claimed is that the spirit of the age, -akin to the Celtic, recognised in Celtic tales the food it was hungering -for. It transformed them to suit its own needs and ideas, but it carried -out the transformation on the whole in essential agreement with tradition. -In some cases a radical change is made; such a one is presented to us in -the Grail cycle. - -The legend thus started with the advantages of belonging to the popular -literature of the time, and of association through Brons with Christian -tradition. Its incidents were varied, and owing to the blending of diverse -strains of story vague enough to be plastic. The formal development of the -cycle has been traced in the earlier chapters of these studies; that of -its ideal conceptions will be found to follow similar lines. Various -ethical intentions can be distinguished, and there is not more difference -between the versions in the conduct of the story than in the ideals they -set forth. - -To some readers it may have seemed well nigh sacrilegious to trace that - - ... vanished Vase of Heaven - That held like Christ's own Heart an Hin of Blood, - -to the magic vessels of pagan deities. In England the Grail-legend is -hardly known save in that form which it has assumed in the Queste. This -French romance was one of those which Malory embodied in his _rifacimento_ -of the Arthurian cycle, and, thanks to Malory, it has become a portion of -English speech and thought.[148] In our own days our greatest poet has -expressed the quintessence of what is best and purest in the old romance -in lines of imperishable beauty. As we follow Sir Galahad by secret shrine -and lonely mountain mere until - - Ah, blessed vision! Blood of God, - The spirit beats her mortal bars, - As down dark tides the glory slides, - And star-like mingles with the stars. - -we are under a spell that may not be resisted. And yet of the two main -paths which the legend has trodden that of Galahad is the least fruitful -and the least beautiful. Compared with the Perceval Quest in its highest -literary embodiment the Galahad Quest is false and antiquated on the -ethical side, lifeless on the aesthetic side. - -As it first meets us in literature the legend has barely emerged from its -pure and simple narrative stage. There is a temptation to exaggerate -Chrestien's skill of conception when speculating how he would have -finished his work, but we know enough, probably, to correctly gauge his -intentions. It has been said he meant to portray the ideal knight in -Perceval. As was formerly the wont of authors he presents his hero in a -good light, and he may be credited with a perception of the opportunity -afforded him by his subject for placing that hero in positions wherein a -knight could best distinguish himself. In so far his work may be accepted -as his picture of a worthy knight. But I can discover in it no scheme of a -quest after the highest good to be set forth by means of the incidents at -his command. Perceval is brave as a matter of course, punctual in obeying -the counsels of his mother and of his teachers, Gonemans and the -hermit-uncle, unaffectedly repentant when he is convicted of having -neglected his religious duties. But it cannot be said that the hermit's -exhortations or the hero's repentance, confession, and absolution mark, or -are intended to mark, a definite stage in a progress towards spiritual -perfection. The explanation of the hero's silence as a consequence of his -sin in leaving his mother, shows how little real thought has been bestowed -upon the subject. This explanation, whether wholly Chrestien's, as I am -tempted to think, or complacently reproduced from his model, gives the -measure of his skill in constructing an allegory. Beyond insistence upon -such points (the hero's docility) as were indicated to him by his model, -or, as in the case of his religious opinions, were a matter of course in a -work of the time, Chrestien gives Perceval no higher morality, no loftier -aims than those of the day. The ideal of chastity, soon to become of such -importance in the development of the legend, is nowhere set forth. -Perceval, like Gawain, takes full advantage of what _bonnes fortunes_ come -in his way. And if the Quest connotes no spiritual ideal, still less does -it one of temporal sovereignty. Had Chrestien finished his story he would -have made Perceval heal the Maimed King and win his kingdom, but that -kingdom would not have been a type of the highest earthly magnificence. We -have seen reason to hold that Chrestien made one great change in the story -as he found it in his model; he assigns the Fisher-King's illness to a -wound received in battle. This he did, I think, simply with a view to -shortening the story by leaving out the whole of the Partinal episode. No -mystical conception was floating in his mind. Yet, as we shall see, the -shape which he gave to this incident strongly influenced some of the later -versions, and gave the hint for the most philosophical _motif_ to be found -in the whole cycle. - -The immediate continuators of Chrestien lift the legend to no higher -level. I incline to think that Gautier, with less skill of narrative and -far greater prolixity, yet trod closely in Chrestien's footsteps. In the -love episodes he is as full of charm as the more celebrated poet. The -second meeting of Perceval and Blanchefleur is told with that graceful -laughing _naivete_ of which French literature of the period has the -secret. But of a plan, an animating conception even such slight traces as -Chrestien had introduced into the story are lacking. Here, as in -Chrestien, the mysterious talismans themselves in no way help forward the -story. Chrestien certainly had the Christian signification of them in his -mind, but makes no use of it. The Vessel of the Last Supper, the Spear -that pierced Christ's side might be any magic spear or vessel as far as he -is concerned. The original Pagan essence is retained; the name alone is -changed. - -Thus far had the legend grown when it came into the hands of the author of -the Queste. The subject matter had been partly shaped and trimmed by a -master of narrative, the connection with Christian tradition had been -somewhat accentuated. It was open to the author of the Queste to take the -story as it stood, and to read into its incidents a deep symbolical -meaning based upon the Christian character of the holy talismans. He -preferred to act otherwise. He broke entirely with the traditional -framework, dispossessed the original hero, and left not an incident of his -model untouched. But his method of proceeding may be likened to a shuffle -rather than to a transformation. The incidents reappear in other -connection, but do not reveal the author's plan any more than is the case -in the Conte du Graal. The Christian character of the talismans is dwelt -upon with almost wearisome iteration, the sacramental act supplies the -matter of many and of the finest scenes, and yet the essence of the -talismans is unchanged. The Holy Grail, the Cup of the Last Supper, the -Sacramental Chalice is still when it appears the magic food-producing -vessel of the old Pagan sagas. What is the author's idea? Undoubtedly to -show that the attainment of the highest spiritual good is not a thing of -this world; only by renouncing every human desire, only by passing into a -land intermediary between this earth and heaven, is the Quest achieved. In -the story of the prosecution of that Quest some attempt may be traced at -portraying the cardinal virtues and deadly sins by means of the adventures -of the questers, and of the innumerable exhortations addressed to them. -But no skill is shown in the conduct of this plan, which is carried out -chiefly by the introduction of numerous allegorical scenes which are made -a peg for lengthy dogmatic and moral expositions. In this respect the -author compares unfavourably with Robert de Borron, who shapes his story -in full accord with his conception of the Grail itself, a conception -deriving directly from the symbolic Christian nature he attributed to it, -and who makes even such unpromising incidents as that of the Magic Fisher -subserve his guiding idea.[149] - -If the author's way of carrying out his conception cannot be praised, how -does it stand with the conception itself? The fact that the Quest is -wholly disassociated from this earth at once indicates the standpoint of -the romance. The first effect of the Quest's proclamation is to break up -the Table Round, that type of the noblest human society of the day, and -its final achievement brings cheer or strengthening to no living man. The -successful questers alone in their unhuman realm have any joy of the -Grail. The spirit in which they prosecute their quest is best exemplified -by Sir Bors. When he comes to the magic tower and is tempted of the -maidens, who threaten to cast themselves down and be dashed to pieces -unless he yield them his love, he is sorry for them, but unmoved, thinking -it better "they lose their souls than he his." So little had the Christian -writer apprehended the signification of Christ's most profound saying. The -character of the principal hero is in consonancy with this aim, wholly -remote from the life of man on earth. A shadowy perfection at the outset, -he remains a shadowy perfection throughout, a bloodless and unreal -creature, as fit when he first appears upon the scene as when he quits it, -to accomplish a quest, purposeless, inasmuch as it only removes him from a -world in which he has neither part nor share. Such human interest as there -is in the story is supplied by Lancelot, who takes over many of the -adventures of Perceval or Gawain in the Conte du Graal. In him we note -contrition for past sin, strivings after a higher life with which we can -sympathise. In fine, such moral teaching as the Queste affords is given us -rather by sinful Lancelot than by sinless Galahad. - -But the aversion to this world takes a stronger form in the Queste, and -one which is the vital conception of the work, in the insistence upon the -need for physical chastity. To rightly understand the author's position we -must glance at the state of manners revealed by the romances, and in -especial at the sex-relations as they were conceived of by the most -refined and civilised men and women of the day. The French romances are, -as a rule, too entirely narrative to enable a clear realisation of what -these were. Wolfram, with his keener and more sympathetic eye for -individual character--Wolfram, who loves to analyse the sentiments and to -depict the outward manifestations of feeling of his personages--is our -best guide here. The manners and customs of the day can be found in the -French romances; the feelings which underlie them must be sought for in -the German poet. - -The marked feature of the sex-relations in the days of chivalry was the -institution of _minnedienst_ (love-service). The knight bound himself to -serve a particular lady, matron or maid. To approve himself brave, hardy, -daring, patient, and discreet was his part of the bargain, and when -fulfilled the lady must fulfil hers and pay her servant. The relation must -not for one moment be looked upon as platonic; the last favours were in -every case exacted, or rather were freely granted, as the lady, whether -maid or wedded wife, thought it no wrong thus to reward her knight. It -would have been "bad form" to deny payment when the service had been -rendered, and the offender guilty of such conduct would have been scouted -by her fellow-women as well as by all men. Nothing is more instructive in -this connection than the delightfully told episode of Gawain and -Orgueilleuse. The latter is unwedded, a great and noble lady, but she has -already had several favoured lovers, as indeed she frankly tells Gawain. -He proffers his service, which she hardly accepts, but heaps upon him all -manner of indignity and insult, which he bears with the patient and -resourceful courtesy, his characteristic in mediaeval romance. Whilst the -time of probation lasts, no harsh word, no impatient gesture, escapes him. -But when he has accomplished the feat of the Ford Perillous he feels that -he has done enough, and taking his lady-love to task he lectures her, as a -grave middle-aged man might some headstrong girl, upon the duties of a -well-bred woman and upon the wrong she has done knighthood in his person. -To point the moral he winds up, at mid-day in the open forest, with a -proposition which the repentant scornful one can only parry by the naive -remark, "Seldom she had found it warm in the embrace of a mail-clad arm." -Not only was it the lady's duty to yield after a proper delay, but at -times she might even make the first advances and be none the worse thought -of. Blanchefleur comes to Perceval's bed with scarce an apology.[150] -Orgueilleuse, overcome with admiration at the Red Knight's prowess, offers -him her love. True, she has doubts as to the propriety of her conduct, but -when she submits them to Gawain, the favoured lover for the time being, he -unhesitatingly approves her--Perceval's fame was such that had he accepted -her proffered love she could have suffered naught in honour. - -Customs such as these, and a state of feelings such as they imply, are so -remote from us, that it is difficult to realise them, particularly in view -of the many false statements respecting the nature of chivalrous love -which have obtained currency. But we must bear in mind that the age was -pre-eminently one of individual prowess. The warlike virtues were all in -all. That a man should be brave, hardy, and skilful in the use of his -weapons was the essential in a time when the single hero was almost of as -much account as in the days of Achilles, Siegfried, or Cuchullain. That -_minnedienst_ tended to this end, as did other institutions of the day -which we find equally blamable, is its historical excuse. Even then many -felt its evils and perceived its anti-social character. Some, too, there -were who saw how deeply it degraded the ideal of love. - -A protest against this morality was indeed desirable. Such a one the -Queste does supply. But it is not enough to protest in a matter so -profoundly affecting mankind as the moral ideas which govern the -sex-relations. Not only must the protest be made in a right spirit, and on -the right lines, but a truer and loftier ideal must be set up in place of -the one attacked. In how far the Queste fulfils these conditions we shall -see. Meanwhile, as a sample of the feelings with which many Englishmen -have regarded it, and as an attempt to explain its historical and ethical -_raison d'etre_, I cannot do better than quote Mr. Furnivall's -enthusiastic words: "What is the lesson of it all? Is the example of -Galahad and his unwavering pursuit of the highest spiritual object set -before him, nothing to us? Is that of Perceval, pure and tempted, on the -point of yielding, yet saved by the sight of the symbol of his Faith, to -be of no avail to us? Is the tale of Bohors, who has once sinned, but by a -faithful life ... at last tasting spiritual food, and returning to devote -his days to God and Good--is this no lesson to us?... On another point, -too, this whole Arthur story may teach us. Monkish, to some extent, the -exaltation of bodily chastity above almost every other earthly virtue is; -but the feeling is a true one; it is founded on a deep reverence for -woman, which is the most refining and one of the noblest sentiments of -man's nature, one which no man can break through without suffering harm to -his spiritual life." - -It would be hard to find a more striking instance of how the "editorial -idol" may override perception and judgment. He who draws such lofty and -noble teachings from the Queste del Saint Graal, must first bring them -himself. He must read modern religion, modern morality into the mediaeval -allegory, and on one point he must entirely falsify the mediaeval -conception. Whether this is desirable is a question we can have no -hesitation in deciding negatively. It is better to find out what the -author really meant than to interpret his symbolism in our own fashion. - -The author of the Queste places the object and conditions of his mystic -quest wholly outside the sphere of human action or interest; in a similar -spirit he insists, as an indispensable requirement in the successful -quester, upon a qualification necessarily denied to the vast majority of -mankind. His work is a glorification of physical chastity. "Blessed are -the pure--in body--for they shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven," is the -text upon which he preaches. In such a case everything depends upon the -spirit of the preacher, and good intent is not enough to win praise. His -conception, says Mr. Furnivall, is founded upon a deep reverence for -woman. This is, indeed, such a precious thing that had the mediaeval -ascetic really felt it we could have forgiven the stupidity which ignores -all that constitutes the special dignity and pathos of womanhood. But he -felt nothing of the kind. Woman is for him the means whereby sin came into -the world, the arch stumbling-block, the tool the devil finds readiest to -his hands when he would overcome man. Only in favour of the Virgin Mother, -and of those who like her are vowed to mystical maidenhood, does the -author pardon woman at all. One single instance will suffice to -characterize the mediaeval standpoint. When the Quest of the Holy Grail was -first proclaimed in Arthur's Court there was great commotion, and the -ladies would fain have joined therein, "car cascune dame ou damoiselle -(qui) fust espousee ou amie, dist a son chiualer qu'ele yroit od lui en la -queste." But a hermit comes forward to forbid this; "No dame or damsel is -to accompany her knight lest he fall into deadly sin." Wife or leman, it -was all one for the author of the Queste; woman could not but be an -occasion for deadly sin, and the sin, though in the one case less in -degree (and even this is uncertain), was the same in kind. Fully one-half -of the romance is one long exemplification of the essential vileness of -the sex-relation, worked out with the minute and ingenious nastiness of a -Jesuit moral theologian. The author was of his time; it was natural he -should think and write as he did, and it would be uncritical to blame him -for his degrading view of womanhood or for his narrow and sickly view of -life. But when we are bidden to seek example of him, it is well to state -the facts as they are.[151] - -If his transformation of the story has been rudely effected without regard -to its inherent possibilities, if the spirit of his ideal proves to be -miserably ascetic and narrow, what then remains to the Queste, and how may -we account for its popularity in its own day, and for the abiding -influence which its version of the legend has exercised over posterity. -Its literary qualities are at times great; certain scenes, especially such -as set forth the sacramental nature of the Grail, are touched with a -mystical fervour which haunts the imagination. It has given some of the -most picturesque features to this most picturesque of legends. But I see -in the idea of the mystic quest proclaimed to and shared in by the whole -Table Round the real secret of the writer's success. This has struck the -imagination of so many generations and given the Queste an undeserved -fame. In truth the conception of Arthur's court, laying aside ordinary -cares and joys, given wholly up to one overmastering spiritual aim, is a -noble one. It is, I think, only in a slight degree the outcome of definite -thought and intent but was dictated to the writer by the form into which -he had recast the story. Galahad had supplanted Perceval, but the latter -could not be suppressed entirely. The achievement of the quest involved -the passing away out of this world of the chief heroes, hence a third less -perfect one is joined to them to bring back tidings to earth of the -marvels he had witnessed. Lancelot, to whom are assigned so many of -Perceval's adventures, cannot be denied a share in the quest; it is the -same with Gawain, whose character in the older romance fits him, moreover, -excellently for the _role_ of "dreadful example." By this time the -Arthurian legend was fully grown, and the mention of these Knights called -up the names of others with whom they were invariably connected by the -romance writers. Well nigh every hero of importance was thus drawn into -the magic circle, and the mystic Quest assumed, almost inevitably, the -shape it did. - -This conception, to which, if I am right, the author of the Queste was led -half unconsciously, seems to us the most admirable thing in his work. It -was, however, his ideal of virginity which struck the idea of his -contemporaries, and which left its mark upon after versions. An age with -such a gross ideal of love may have needed an equally gross ideal of -purity. Physical chastity plays henceforth the leading part in the moral -development of the cycle. With Robert de Borron it is the sin of the flesh -which brings down upon the Grail host the wrath of Heaven, and -necessitates the display of the Grail's wondrous power. Here may be noted -the struggle of the new conception with the older form of the story. -Alain, the virgin knight, would rather be flayed than marry, and yet he -does marry in obedience to the original model. Robert is consistent in all -that relates to the symbolism of the Grail, but in other respects, as we -have already seen, he is easily thrown off his guard. In the -Didot-Perceval, written as a sequel to Robert's poem, the same struggle -between old and new continues, and the reconciling spirit goes to work in -naive and unskilful style. The incidents of the Conte du Graal are kept, -although they accord but ill with the hero's ascetic spirit. In the -portion of the Conte du Graal itself which goes under Manessier's name, -along with adventures taken direct from Chrestien's model, and far less -Christianised than in the earlier poet's work, many occur which are -simply transferred from the Queste. No attempt is made at reconciling -these jarring elements, and the effect of the contrast is at times almost -comic. In two of the later romances of the cycle the fusion has been more -complete, and the result is, in consequence, more interesting. The prose -Perceval le Gallois keeps the original hero of the Quest as far as name -and kinship are concerned, but it gives him the aggressive virginity and -the proselytising zeal of Galahad. Gerbert's finish to the Conte du Graal -is, perhaps, the strangest outcome of the double set of influences to -which the later writers were exposed. Without doubt his model differed -from the version used by Gautier and Manessier. It is more Celtic in tone, -and is curiously akin to the hypothetical lost source of Wolfram von -Eschenbach. The hero's absence from his lady-love is insisted upon, and -the need of returning to her before he can find peace. The genuineness of -this feature admits of little doubt. Many folk-tales tell of the severance -of lover and beloved, and of their toilful wanderings until they meet -again; such a tale easily lends itself to the idea that separation is -caused by guilt, and that, whilst severed, one or other lover must suffer -misfortune. Often, as in the case of Diarmaid and the Daughter of King -Under the Waves (_supra_, p. 194), definite mention is made of the guilt, -as a rule an infringed taboo. Such an incident could scarcely fail to -assume the ethical shape Gerbert has given it. Thus he had only to listen -to his model, to take his incidents as he found them, and he had the -matter for a moral conception wholly in harmony with them. The chastity -ideal has been too strong for him. His lovers do come together, but only -to exemplify the virtue of continence in the repulsive story of their -bridal night. After Gerbert the cycle lengthens, but does not develop. The -Queste retains its supremacy, and through Malory its dominant conception -entered deeply into the consciousness of the English race. - -How far the author of the Queste must be credited with the new ideal he -brought into the legend is worth enquiry. Like so much else therein, it -may have its roots in the folk and hero tales which underlie the romances. -The Castle of Talismans visited by Perceval is the Land of Shades. In -popular tradition the incident takes the form of entry into the hollow -hill-side where the fairy king holds his court and hoards untold riches. -Poverty and simplicity are the frequent qualifications of the successful -quester; oftener still some mystic birthright, the being a Sunday's child -for instance, or a seventh son; or again freedom from sin is required, -and, perhaps, most frequently maidenhood.[152] The stress which so many -peoples lay upon virginity in the holy prophetic maidens, who can -transport themselves into the otherworld and bring thence the commands of -the god, may be noted in the same connection. No Celtic tale I have -examined with a view to throwing light upon the Grail romances insists -upon this idea, but some version, now lost, may possibly have done so. -Celtic tradition gave the romance writers of the Middle Ages material and -form for the picture of human love; it may also have given them a hint of -the opposing ideal of chastity.[153] - -All this time it should be noted that no real progress is made in the -symbolical machinery of the legend. The Holy Grail becomes superlatively -sacrosanct, but it retains its pristine pagan essence, even in the only -version, the Grand St. Graal, which knew of Borron and of his mystical -conception. - -Such, then, had been the growth of the legend in one direction. The -original incidents were either transformed, mutilated, or, where they kept -their first shape, underwent no ethical deepening or widening. The -talismans themselves had been transferred from Celtic to Christian -mythology, but their fate was still bound up with the otherworld. He who -would seek them must turn his back upon this earth from which the Palace -Spiritual and the City of Sarras were even more remote than Avalon or -Tir-na n-Og. Was no other course open? Could not framework and incidents -of the Celtic tales be retained, and yet, raised to a loftier, wider -level, become a fit vehicle for philosophic thought and moral exhortation? -One side of popular tradition figured the hero as wresting the talismans -from the otherworld powers for the benefit of his fellow men. Could not -this form of the myth be made to yield a human, practical conception of -the Quest and Winning of the Holy Grail? - -We are luckily not reduced to conjecture in this matter. A work largely -fulfilling these hypothetical requirements exists in the Parzival of -Wolfram von Eschenbach. On the whole it is the most interesting individual -work of modern European literature prior to the Divina Commedia, and its -author has a better claim than any other mediaeval poet to be called a man -of genius. He must, of course, be measured by the standard of his time. It -would be useless to expect from him that homogeneity of narrative, that -artistic proportion of style first met with 150 years later in Italy, and -which from Italy passed into all European literatures. Compared with the -unknown poets who gave their present shape to the Nibelungenlied or to the -Chanson de Roland he is an individual writer, but he is far from deserving -this epithet even in the sense that Chaucer deserves it. His subject -dominates him. Even when his philosophic mind is conceiving it under a new -aspect he anxiously holds to the traditional form. Hence great -inconsistencies in his treatment of the theme, hence, too, the frequent -difficulty in interpreting his meaning, the frequent doubt as to how far -the interpretation is correct. Here, as in the discussion respecting the -_origines_ of the Grail legend, resort must often be had to conjecture, -and any solution of the fascinating problems involved is necessarily and -largely subjective. - -Wolfram's relation to his predecessors must be taken into account in -estimating the value of the Parzival. The earlier portion of his work -differs entirely, as we have seen, from any existing French romance; so -does the finish in so far as it agrees with the opening. The greater part -of the story is closely parallel to Chrestien; there are points of -contact, peculiar to these two writers, with Gerbert. Little invention, -properly so called, of incident can be traced in the Parzival. The part -common to it and Chrestien is incomparably fuller and more interesting in -the German poet, but the main outlines are the same. Wolfram has, however, -been at some pains to let us know what was his conception of the legend. -That much is allowed to remain at variance therewith is a clear proof of -his timidity of invention. - -Doubt, he says, is the most potent corrupter of the soul. Whoso gives -himself over to unfaith and unsteadfastness treadeth in truth the downward -path. God Himself is very faithfulness. Strife against Him, doubt of Him, -is the highest sin. But humility and repentance may expiate it, and he who -thus repents may be chosen by God for the Grail Kingship, the summit of -earthly holiness. Peace of soul and all earthly power are the chosen -one's; alone, unlawful desire and the company of sinners are denied him by -the Grail. - -How is this leading conception worked out? The framework and the march of -incidents are the same as in the Conte du Graal. One capital change at -once, however, lifts the story to a higher level. The Fisher King suffers -from a wound received in the cause of unlawful love, in disobedience to -those heavenly commands which govern the Grail community. The healing -question can be put only by one worthy to take up the high office Amfortas -has dishonoured, in virtue of having passed through the strife of doubt, -and become reconciled to God by repentance and humble trust. If Parzival -neglected to put the question on his first arrival at the Grail Castle, it -was that in the conceit of youth he fancied all wisdom was his. Childish -insistence upon his mother's counsels had brought down reproof upon him; -he had learnt the world's wisdom from Gurnemanz, he had shown himself in -defence of Conduiramur a valiant knight, worthy of power and woman's love. -When brought into contact with the torturing sorrow of Amfortas, he is too -full of himself, of his teacher's wisdom, to rightly use the opportunity. - -The profound significance of the question which at once releases the -sinner, and announces the one way in which the sin may be cancelled, -namely, by the coming of a worthier successor, is due, if we may credit -Birch-Hirschfeld, to an accident. Wolfram only knew Chrestien. The latter -never explains the real nature of the Grail, and the German poet's -knowledge of French was too slight to put him on the right track. The -question, "Whom serve they with the Grail?" which he found in Chrestien, -was necessarily meaningless to him, and he replaced it by his, "Uncle, -what is it tortures thee?" The change _may_ be the result of accident as -is so much else in this marvellous legend, but it required a man of genius -to turn the accident to such account. It is the insistence upon charity as -the herald and token of spiritual perfection that makes the grandeur of -Wolfram's poem, and raises it so immeasureably above the Queste. - -The same human spirit is visible in the delineation of the Grail Kingship -as the type of the highest good. Wolfram's theology is distinctively -antinomian--no man may win the Grail in his own strength; it choseth whom -it will--and has been claimed on the one hand[154] as a reflex of orthodox -Catholic belief, on the other as a herald of the Lutheran doctrine of -grace.[155] Theological experts may be left to fight out this question -among themselves. Apart from this, Wolfram has a practical sense of the -value of human effort. With him the Quest is not to be achieved by utter -isolation from this earth and its struggles. The chief function of the -Grail Kingdom is to supply an abiding type of a divinely ordered Society; -it also trains up leaders for those communities which lack them. It is a -civilising power as well as a Palace Spiritual. - -In the relation of man to Heaven, Wolfram, whilst fully accepting the -doctrines of his age, appeals to the modern spirit with far greater power -and directness than the Queste. In the other great question of the legend, -the relation of man to woman, he is likewise nearer to us, although it -must be confessed that he builds better than he knows. To the love ideal -of his day, based wholly upon passion and vanity and severed from all -family feeling, he opposes the wedded love of Parzival and Conduiramur. -The hero's recollection of the mother of his children is the one saving -influence throughout the years of doubt and discouragement which follow -Kundrie's reproaches. Whilst still staggering under this blow, so cruelly -undeserved as it seems to him, he can wish his friend and comrade, Gawain, -a woman chaste and good, whom he may love and who shall be his guardian -angel. The thought of Conduiramur holds him aloof from the offered love of -Orgeluse. In his last and bitterest fight, with his unknown brother, when -it had nigh gone with him to his death, he recalls her and renews the -combat with fresh strength. She it is for whom he wins the highest earthly -crown, of which her pure, womanly heart makes her worthy. Reunion with her -and with his children is Parzival's first taste of the joy that is -henceforth to be his. - -Passages may easily be multiplied that tally ill with the ideas of the -poem as here briefly set forth. But the existence of these ideas is patent -to the unprejudiced reader. Despite its many shortcomings, the poem which -contains them is the noblest and most human outcome of that mingled strain -of Celtic fancy and Christian symbolism whose history we have traced.[156] - -In Wolfram, equally with the majority of the French romance writers, there -is little consistency in the formal use of the mystic talismans. Be the -reason what it may, Wolfram certainly never thought of associating the -Grail with the Last Supper. But its religious character is, at times, as -marked with him as with Robert de Borron or the author of the Queste. It -is the actual vehicle of the Deity's commands; it restrains from sin; it -suffers no unchaste servant; it may be seen of no heathen; the simple -beholding of it preserves men from death. This last characteristic would -be thought in modern times a sufficient tribute to the original nature of -the old pagan cauldron of increase and rejuvenescence. But Wolfram was of -his time, and followed his models faithfully. Along with the lofty -spiritual attributes of his Grail, he pictures in drastic fashion its -food-dispensing powers. The mystic stone, fallen from Heaven itself, -renewed each Good Friday by direct action of the Spirit, becomes all at -once a mere victual producing machine. We can see how little Wolfram liked -this feature of his model, and how he felt the contrast between it and his -own more spiritual conception. But here, as elsewhere in the poem, he -allowed much to stand against which his better judgment protested. His own -share in the development of the legend must be gauged by what is -distinctively his, not by what he has in common with others. Judged thus, -he must be said to have developed the Christian symbolic side of the -legend as much as the human philosophic side. If in Robert de Borron the -Grail touches its highest symbolic level through its identification with -the body of the dead and risen Lord, we can trace in Wolfram the germ of -that approximation of the Grail-Quester to the earthly career of the -Saviour which Wagner was to develop more than 600 years later.[157] - -What influence Wolfram's poem, with its practical, human enthusiasm, its -true and noble sexual morality, might have had on English literature is an -interesting speculation. It would have appealed, one would think, to our -race with its utilitarian ethical instinct, with its lofty ideal of wedded -love. The true man, Parzival, should, in the fitness of things, be the -English hero of the Quest, rather than the visionary ascetic Galahad. -Mediaeval England was dominated by France and knew nothing of Germany, and -when in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries we can trace German -influence on English thought and writ, taste had changed, and the Parzival -was well-nigh forgotten in its own land. It remained so almost until our -own days. The Quest after Perfection still haunted the German mind, but it -was conceived of on altogether different lines from those of the twelfth -century poet. The nation of scholars pictured the quester as a student, -not as a knight. When it took shape in the dreary period of Protestant -scholasticism the quest is wholly cursed. Faust's pursuit of knowledge is -unlawful, a rebellion against God, which dooms him irrevocably. Not until -Goethe's day is the full significance of the legend perceived, is the -theme widened to embrace the totality of human striving. Thus the last -glimpse we have of Faust is of one devoted to the service of man; the last -words of the poem are a recognition of the divine element in the love of -man and woman.[158] - -In Germany, as in England, the old legend has appealed afresh to poets and -thinkers, and then, as was natural, they turned to Germany's greatest -mediaeval poet. Wagner's Parsifal would, in any case, be interesting as an -expression of one of the strongest dramatic geniuses of the century. -Considered purely as a work of literature, apart from the music, it has -rare beauty and profound significance. The essentially dramatic bent of -Wagner's mind, the stage destination of the poem, must be borne in mind -when considering it. Wolfram's conception--youthful folly and inexperience -chastised by reproof, followed by doubt and strife, cancelled by the -faithful steadfastness of the full-grown man--is obviously unsuited for -dramatic purposes. At no one point of Wolfram's poem do we find that clash -of motives and of characters which the stage requires. In building up -_his_ conception Wagner has utilised every hint of his predecessor with -wonderful ingenuity. Klinschor, the magician, becomes with him the active -opponent of the Grail King, Amfortas, from whom he has wrested the holy -spear by the aid of Kundry's unholy beauty. Kundry is Wagner's great -contribution to the legend. She is the Herodias whom Christ for her -laughter doomed to wander till He come again. Subject to the powers of -evil, she must tempt and lure to their destruction the Grail warriors. And -yet she would find release and salvation could a man resist her love -spell.[159] She knows this. The scene between the unwilling temptress, -whose success would but doom her afresh, and the virgin Parsifal thus -becomes tragic in the extreme. How does this affect Amfortas and the -Grail? In this way. Parsifal is the "pure fool," knowing nought of sin or -suffering. It had been foretold of him he should become "wise by -fellow-suffering," and so it proves. The overmastering rush of desire -unseals his eyes, clears his mind. Heart-wounded by the shaft of passion, -he feels Amfortas' torture thrill through him. The pain of the physical -wound is his, but far more, the agony of the sinner who has been unworthy -his high trust, and who, soiled by carnal sin, must yet daily come in -contact with the Grail, symbol of the highest purity and holiness. The -strength which comes of the new-born knowledge enables him to resist -sensual longing, and thereby to release both Kundry and Amfortas. - -In the latest version of the Perceval Quest, as in the Galahad Quest, the -ideal of chastity is thus paramount. This result is due to Wagner's -dramatic treatment of the theme. The conception that knowledge of sin and -fellowship in suffering are requisite to enable man to resist temptation, -and that thus alone does he acquire the needful strength to assist his -fellows, however true and profound, can obviously only be worked out on -the stage through the medium of one form of sin and suffering. The long -psychological process of Wolfram's poem, the slow growth of the unthinking -youth into the steadfast, faithful man, is replaced by a mystic, -transcendental conversion. From out a world of human endeavour, human -motive, we have stepped into one wholly ascetic and symbolical. The love -of man for woman only appears in the guise of forbidden desire; the aims -and needs of this world are not even thought of. Every incident has been -remoulded in accord with Christian tradition. Wagner fully accepts the -sacramental nature of the Grail, and the Grail feast is with him a -faithful reproduction of the Last Supper. Holiness and purity are the -essence of the Grail, which is cleared from every taint of its pagan -origin. And whilst Wagner, following the French models, identifies the -Grail with the most sacred object of Christian worship, he also, -developing hints of Wolfram's, reshapes the career of his Grail-seeker in -accord with that of Christ. Parsifal, the releaser of sin-stricken Kundry, -of sin-stricken Amfortas--Parsifal, the restorer of peace and holiness to -the Grail Kingdom--becomes a symbol of the Saviour. - -In the reasoned, artistic growth of the legend, the plastic, living -element is that supplied by Christian tradition. From the moment that the -Celtic lord of the underworld is identified with the evangelist of Britain -we see the older complex of tales acquire consistency, life, and meaning. -Even where the direct influence of the intruding element is slightest, as -in the Conte du Graal, we can still perceive that it is responsible for -the germs of after development. Sometimes violently and unintelligently, -sometimes with a keen feeling for the possibilities of the original -romance, sometimes with the boldest introduction of new matter, sometimes -with slavish adherence to pre-Christian conceptions, the transformation of -the Celtic tales goes on. The cauldron of increase and renovation, the -glaive of light, the magic fish, the visit to the otherworld, all are -gradually metamorphosed until at last the talisman of the Irish gods -becomes the symbol of the risen Lord, its seeker a type of Christ in His -divinest attributes. - -The ethical teaching of the legend becomes also purely Christian as the -Middle Ages conceived Christianity. Renunciation of the world and of the -flesh is its key-note. Once only in Wolfram do we find an ideal human in -its essence, though dogmatic in form; the path thus opened is not trodden -further, and the legend remains as a whole, on the moral side, a monument -of Christian asceticism. - -We have seen reason to surmise that the folk-tales which underlie the -romances themselves gave the hint for the most characteristic -manifestation of this ascetic ideal. It is worth enquiry if these tales -have developed themselves independently from the Christianised legend, and -if such development shows any trace of ethical conceptions comparable with -those of the legend. Can we gather from the tales as fashioned by the folk -teaching similar to that of the preachers, philosophers, and artists by -whom the legend has been shaped? Few enquiries can be more interesting -than one which traces such a conception as the Quest after the highest -good as pictured by the rudest and most primitive members of the race. - -Many of the tales which formed a part of the (hypothetical) Welsh original -of the earliest Grail romances have been shown to come under the Aryan -Expulsion and Return Formula (_supra_, Ch. VI). Among most races this -formula has connected itself with the national heroes, and has given rise -to hero-tales in which the historical element outweighs the ethical. -Sometimes, as in the tale of Perseus, the incidents are so related as to -bring out an ethical _motif_; Perseus is certainly thought of as avenging -his mother's undeserved wrongs. I cannot trace anything of the kind among -the Celts. All the incidents of the formula in Celtic tradition which I -know of are purely historical in character. This element of the old -Saga-mass thus yields nothing for the present enquiry. Others are more -fruitful. Perceval is akin not only to Fionn, but also to the Great Fool. -The Lay of the Great Fool was found to tally closely with adventures in -the Mabinogi and in the Conte du Graal (_supra_, Ch. VI). It also sets -forth a moral conception that admits of profitable comparison with that of -the Grail romances. - -Ultimately, the Lay is, I have little doubt, one of the many forms in -which a mortal's visit to the otherworld was related. Wandering into the -Glen of Glamour, the hero and his love encounter a magician; the hero -drinks of the proffered cup, despite his love's remonstrances, and -forthwith loses his two legs. This is obviously a form of the -widely-spread myth which forbids the visitant to the otherworld to partake -of aught there under penalty of never returning to earth. But this -mythical _motif_ has taken an ethical shape in popular fancy. According to -Kennedy's version, it is the hero's excess in draining the cup to the -dregs which calls for punishment. This change is of the same nature as -that noted with regard to a similar incident in the Grail romances. There, -the old mythic taboo of sleeping or speaking in the otherworld called at -last for an explanation, and found one in Wolfram's philosophic -conception. The parallel does not end here. Perceval may retrieve his -fault, and so may the Great Fool; Wolfram makes his hero win salvation by -steadfast faith, the folk-tale makes its hero in the face of every form of -temptation a pattern of steadfast loyalty to the absent friend and to the -pledged word. It may, or may not, be considered to the advantage of the -folk-tale that, unlike the mediaeval romance, it deals neither in mysticism -nor in asceticism. The sin and atonement of the Great Fool are such as the -popular mind can grasp; he is an example of human weakness and human -strength. The woman he loves is no temptress, no representative of the -evil principle--on the contrary, she is ever by his side to counsel and to -cheer him. - -When it is remembered that the two off-shoots, romantic-legendary and -popular, from the one traditional stem have grown up in perfect -independence of each other, the kinship of moral idea is startling. The -folk-lorist has often cause to wonder at the spontaneous flower-like -character of the object of his study; folk-tradition seems to obey fixed -laws of growth and to be no product of man's free thought and speech. The -few partisans of the theory that folk-tradition is only a later and -weakened echo of the higher culture of the race are invited to study the -present case. A Celtic tale, after supplying an important element to the -Christianised Grail legend, has gone on its way entirely unaffected by the -new shape which that legend assumed, and yet it has worked out a moral -conception of fundamental likeness to one set forth in the legend. It -would be difficult to find a more perfect instance of the spontaneous, -evolutional character of tradition contended for by what, in default of a -better name, must be called the anthropological school of folk-lorists. - -We must quit Celtic ground to find another example of an element in the -originals of the Grail romances, embodying a popular ethical idea. This -instance is such an interesting one that I cannot pass it by in silence. -As was shown in Chapter VII, one of the many forms of the hero's visit to -the otherworld has for object the release of maidens held captive by an -evil power. A formal connection was established between this section of -the romance and the folk-tale of the Sleeping Beauty. As a whole, too, -this tale admits of comparison with the legend. Its origin is mythic -without a doubt. Whether it be regarded as a day or as a year myth, as the -rescue of the dawn from night, or of the incarnate spring from the bonds -of winter, it equally pictures a victory of the lord of light and heat and -life over the powers of darkness, cold, and death. With admirable fidelity -folk-tradition has preserved the myth, so that its true nature can be -recognised without fail. It would be wrong, though, to conclude that -retention of the mythic framework implied any recognition of its mythic -character on the part of those who told or listened to the story. Some -investigators, indeed, hold it idle to consider it otherwise than as a -tale told merely for amusement. But a story, to live, must appeal to moral -as well as to aesthetic emotions. In the folk-mind this story sets forth, -dimly though it may be, that search for the highest human felicity which -is likewise a theme of the Grail romances. What better picture of this -quest could be found than the old mythic symbol of the awakening of life -and increase beneath the kiss of the sun-god. The hero of the folk-tale -makes his way through the briars and tangle of the forest that he may -restore to the deserted castle life and plenty; so much has the tale -retained of the original mythic signification. As regards the quester -himself, the maiden he thus woos is his reward and the noblest prize earth -has to offer him. Where the romance writers made power, or riches, or -learning, or personal salvation the goal of man's effort, the folk-tale -bids him seek happiness in the common human affections. - -Such, all too briefly sketched, has been the fate and story of these -tales, first shaped in a period of culture wellnigh pre-historic, gifted -by reason of their Celtic setting with a charm that commended them to the -romantic spirit of the middle ages, and made them fit vehicles for the -embodiment of mediaeval ideas. Quickened by Christian symbolism they came -to express and typify the noblest and the most mystic longings of man. The -legend, as the poets and thinkers of the twelfth century fashioned it, has -still a lesson and a meaning for us. It may be likened to one of the -divine maidens of Irish tradition. She lives across the western sea. Ever -and again heroes, filled with mysterious yearning for the truth and beauty -of the infinite and undying, make sail to join her if they may. They pass -away and others succeed them, but she remains ever young and fair. So long -as the thirst of man for the ideal endures, her spell will not be -weakened, her charm will not be lessened. But each generation works out -this Quest in its own spirit. This much may be predicted with some -confidence: henceforth, whosoever would do full justice to the legend must -take pattern by Wolfram von Eschenbach rather than by any of his rivals; -he must deal with human needs and human longings; his ideal must be the -widening of human good and human joy. Above all, he must give reverent yet -full expression to all the aspirations, all the energies of man and of -woman. - - -FINIS. - - - - -APPENDIX A. - -THE RELATIONSHIP OF WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH AND CHRESTIEN. - - -The various arguments for and against the use of any other French source -than Chrestien by Wolfram have been clearly summed up by G. Boetticher, Die -Wolfram Literatur seit Lachmann, Berlin, 1880. The chief representative of -the negative opinion is Birch-Hirschfeld, who first gives, Chapter VIII. -of his work, a useful collection of passages relating to the Grail, the -Castle, and the Quest, from both authors. His chief argument is this:--The -Grail in all the romances except in Wolfram is a cup or vessel, but in -Wolfram a stone, a peculiarity only to be explained by Wolfram's ignorance -of any source than Chrestien, and by the fact that the latter, in -accordance with his usual practice of leaving objects and persons in as -mysterious an atmosphere as possible, nowhere gives a clear description of -the Grail. He undoubtedly would have done so if he had finished his work. -Such indications as he gave led Wolfram, who did not understand the word -_Graal_, to think it was a stone. It is inconceivable that Kyot, if such a -personage existed, should have so far departed from all other versions as -not to picture the Grail as a vessel, inconceivable, again, that his -account of it should have been just as vague as Chrestien's, that he -should have afforded Wolfram no hint of the real nature of the object. In -Chrestien Perceval's question refers to the Grail, but Wolfram, missing -the significance of the holy vessel owing to the meagreness of the -information respecting it given to him by Chrestien, was compelled to -transform the whole incident, and to refer it solely to the sufferings of -the wounded King. Again, Chrestien meant to utilise the sword, and to -bring Gawain to the Grail Castle; but his unfinished work did not carry -out his intention, and in Wolfram Gawain also fails to come to the Grail -Castle; the sword is passed over in silence in the latter part of the -poem.--Simrock, jealous for the credit of Wolfram, claimed for him the -invention of all that could not be traced to Chrestien, resting the claim -chiefly upon consideration of a sentimental patriotic nature.--In -opposition to these views, although the fact is not denied that Wolfram -followed Chrestien closely for the parts common to both, it is urged to be -incredible that he, a German poet, should invent a prologue to Chrestien's -unfinished work connecting with an Angevin princely genealogical legend. -It was also pointed out, with greatest fulness by Bartsch, Die Eigennamen -im Parcival und Titurel, Germanist. Studien, II., 114, _et seq._, that the -German poet gives a vast number of proper names which are not to be found -in Chrestien, and that these are nearly all of French, and especially -Southern French and Provencal origin.--Simrock endeavoured to meet this -argument in the fifth edition of his translation, but with little -success.--Boetticher, whilst admitting the weight of Birch-Hirschfeld's -arguments, points out the difficulties which his theory involves. If -Wolfram simply misunderstood Chrestien and did not differ from him -personally, why should he be at the trouble of inventing an elaborately -feigned source to justify a simple addition to the original story? If he -only knew of the Grail from Chrestien, what gave him the idea of endowing -it, as he did, with mystic properties? Martin points out in addition (Zs. -f. d. A., V. 87) that Wolfram has the same connection of the Grail and -Swan Knight story as Gerbert, whom, _ex hypothesi_, he could not have -known, and who certainly did not know him.--In his Zur Gralsage, Martin -returned to the question of proper names, and showed that a varying -redaction of a large part of the romance is vouched for by the different -names which Heinrich von dem Tuerlin applies to personages met with both in -Chrestien and in Wolfram. If, then, one French version, that followed by -Heinrich, who is obviously a translator, is lost, why not another? - -The first thorough comparison of Chrestien and Wolfram is to be found in -Otto Kuepp's Unmittelbaren Quellen des Parzival, (Zs. f. d. Ph. XVII., l). -He argues for Kyot's existence. Some of the points he mentions in which -the two poems differ, and in which Wolfram's account has a more archaic -character, may be cited: The mention of Gurnemanz's sons; the food -producing properties of the Grail on Parzival's first visit; the -reproaches of the varlet to Parzival on his leaving the Grail Castle, "You -are a goose, had you but moved your lips and asked the host! Now you have -lost great praise;"[160] the statement that the broken sword is to be made -whole by dipping in the Lake Lac, and the mention of a sword charm by -virtue of which Parzival can become lord of the Grail Castle; the mention -that no one seeing the Grail could die within eight days. In addition Kuepp -finds that many of the names in Wolfram are more archaic than those of -Chrestien. On the other hand, Kuepp has not noticed that Chrestien has -preserved a more archaic feature in the prohibition laid upon Gauvain not -to leave for seven days the castle after he had undergone the adventure of -the bed. - -Kuepp has not noticed that some of the special points he singles out in -Wolfram are likewise to be found in Chrestien's continuators, _e.g._, the -mention of the sons of Gurnemanz, by Gerbert. - -I believe I have the first pointed out the insistence by both Wolfram and -Gerbert upon the hero's love to and duty towards his wife. - -The name of Parzival's uncle in Wolfram, Gurnemanz, is nearer to the form -in Gerbert, Gornumant, than to that in Chrestien, Gonemant. - -The matter may be summed up thus: it is very improbable that Wolfram -should have invented those parts of the story found in him alone; the -parts common to him and Chrestien are frequently more archaic in his case; -there are numerous points of contact between him and Gerbert. All this -speaks for another French source than Chrestien. On the other hand, it is -almost inconceivable that such a source should have presented the Grail as -Wolfram presents it. - -I cannot affect to consider the question decidedly settled one way or the -other, and have, therefore, preferred to make no use of Wolfram. I would -only point out that if the contentions of the foregoing studies be -admitted, they strongly favour the genuineness of the non-Chrestien -section of Wolfram's poem,[161] though I admit they throw no light upon -his special presentment of the Grail itself. - - - - -APPENDIX B. - -THE PROLOGUE TO THE GRAND ST. GRAAL AND THE BRANDAN LEGEND. - - -I believe the only parallel to this prologue to be the one furnished by -that form of the Brandan legend of which Schroeder has printed a German -version (Sanct Brandan) at Erlangen, in 1871, from a MS. of the fourteenth -century, but the first composition of which he places (p. 15) in the last -quarter of the twelfth century. The text in question will be found pp. 51, -_et seq._: Brandan, a servant of God, seeks out marvels in rare books, he -finds that two paradises were on earth, that another world was situated -under this one, so that when it is here night it is day there, and of a -fish so big that forests grew on his back, also that the grace of God -allowed some respite every Saturday night to the torments of Judas. Angry -at all these things he burnt the book. But the voice of God spake to him, -"Dear friend Brandan thou hast done wrong, and through thy wrath I see My -wonders lost." The holy Christ bade him fare nine years on the ocean, -until he see whether these marvels were real or a lie. Thereafter Brandan -makes ready a ship to set forth on his travels. - -This version was very popular in Germany. Schroeder prints a Low German -adaptation, and a chap book one, frequently reprinted during the -fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. But besides this form -there was another, now lost, which can be partially recovered from the -allusions to it in the Wartburg Krieg, a German poem of the thirteenth and -early fourteenth century, and which is as follows:--An angel brings -Brandan a book from heaven: Brandan finds so many incredible things in it -that he taxes book and angel with lying, and burns the book. For his -unfaith he must wander till he find it. God's grace grants him this at -last; an angel gives him the sign of two fires burning, which are the eyes -of an ox, upon whose tongue he shall find the book. He hands it to -Uranias, who brings it to _Scotland_ (_i.e._, of course Ireland) Schroeder, -p. 9. - -The closeness of the parallel cannot be denied, and it raises many -interesting questions, which I can here only allude to. The Isle of -Brandan has always been recognized as a Christian variant of the Celtic -Tir-na n-Og, the Land of the Shades, Avalon. Schroeder has some instructive -remarks on this subject, p. 11. The voyage of Brandan may thus be -compared with that of Bran, the son of Febal (_supra_, p. 232), both being -versions of the wide-spread myth of a mortal's visit to the otherworld. It -is not a little remarkable that in the Latin legend, which differs from -the German form by the absence of the above-cited prologue, there is an -account (missing in the German), of a "conopeus" ("cover" or "canopy,") -_cf._ Ducange and Diez, _sub voce_; the old French version translates it -by "Pavillon of the colour of silver but harder than marble, and a column -therein of clearest crystal." And on the fourth day they find a window and -therein a "calix" of the same nature as the "conopeus" and a "patena" of -the colour of the column (Schroeder, p. 27, and Note 41). - -Thus there is a formal connection between the Brandan legend and the Grail -romances in the prologue common to two works of each cycle, and there is a -likeness of subject-matter between the Brandan legend and the older Celtic -traditions which I have assumed to be the basis of the romances. But -German literature likewise supplies evidence of a connection between -Brandan and Bran. Professor Karl Pearson has referred me to a passage in -the Pfaffe Amis, a thirteenth century South German poem, composed by Der -Stricker, the hero of which, a prototype of Eulenspiegel, goes through the -world gulling and tricking his contemporaries. In a certain town he -persuades the good people to entrust to him their money, by telling them -that he has in his possession a very precious relic, the head of St. -Brandan, which has commanded him to build a cathedral (Lambl's Edition, -Leipzig, 1872, p. 32). The preservation of the head of Bran is a special -feature in the Mabinogi. I have instanced parallels from Celtic tradition -(Branwen, p. 14), and Professor Rhys has since (Hibb. Lect., p. 94) -connected the whole with Celtic mythological beliefs. This chance -reference in a German poem is the only trace to my knowledge of an earlier -legend in which, it may be, Bran and Brandan, the visitor to and the lord -of the otherworld, were one and the same person. - -It is highly desirable that every form of or allusion to the Brandan -legend should be examined afresh, as, perhaps, able to throw fresh light -upon the origin and growth of the Grail legend. In Pseudo-Chrestien -Perceval's mother goes on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Brandan. - - - - -INDEX I. - -DRAMATIS PERSONAE. - - -[This Index is to the Summaries contained in Chapter II, and the -references are not to page and line, but to Version and Incident. The -Versions are distinguished by the following abbreviations:-- - -Conte du Graal =Co=, Pseudo-Chrestien =PC=, Chrestien =C=, Gautier =G=, -Manessier =Ma=, Gerbert =Ge=, Wolfram =W=, Heinrich von dem Tuerlin =H=, -Mabinogi of Peredur =M=, Thornton MS. Sir Perceval =T=, Didot-Perceval -=D=, Borron's poem =B=, Queste =Q= (=Q={1} and =Q={2} refer to the -different drafts of the romance distinguished p. 83) Grand St. Graal =GG=. -With the less important entries, or when the entries are confined to one -version, a simple number reference is given. But in the case of the more -important personages, notably Perceval, Gawain, and Galahad, an attempt -has been made to show the life history, by grouping together references to -the same incident from different versions; in this case each incident -group is separated from other groups by a long dash ----. Any speciality -in the incident presented by a version is bracketed _before_ the reference -initial, and, when deemed advisable, reference has been made to allied as -well as to similar incidents. This detail, to save space, is, as a rule, -given only once, as under Perceval, and not duplicated under other -headings, the number reference alone being given in the latter cases. The -fullest entry is Perceval, which practically comprises such entries as -Fisher King, Grail, Sword, Lance, etc.] - -=ABEL= =Q=37, =GG=24. - -=ABRIORIS= =G=9. - -=ACHEFLOUR= =T=1. - -=ADAM= =Q=37, =GG=24. - -=ADDANC OF LAKE= =M=16, 19. - -=AGARAN= =Q=23. - -=AGRESTES= =GG=40. - -=AGUIGRENONS= =Co=, _Kingrun_ =W=, anonymous =M=, =C=6, =W=, =M=8. - -=ALAINS=, Celidoine's son =GG=43. - -=ALAINS= or =ALEIN= (=li Gros= =D=, =Q=, =GG=) =B=12----=Dprol=, 1, 6, 12, -=Q=26, =GG=30, 43, 45, 51, 58, 59. - -=ALEINE=, Gawain's niece, =D=1. - -=ALFASEM= =GG=51, 58. - -=AMANGONS= =PC=1, 2, 4. - -=AMFORTAS=, see Fisher King. - -=AMINADAP= =GG=58. - -=ANGHARAD= Law Eurawc, =M=12, 14. - -=ANTIKONIE=, see Facile Damsel. - -=ARGASTES= =Q=27. - -=ARIDES= of Cavalon =Ma=14, 16 (a King of Cavalon mentioned =C=12 -corresponds to _Vergulat_ of Askalon in =W=). - -=ARTHUR= =PC=2, 3, 5, =C=1, =Dprol=----arrival of Perceval at his court -=C=3, =W=, =M=3, =T=4, =Dprol=----=C=6, 9, 10, =W=, =M=9, 10, 11----=M=13, -14----=C=11, =W=, =M=20----=T=7----=C=18, =W=----=G=1, =W=----=G=2, 3, 6, -9, 11, 13, 16, 19, 20, =Ma=10, 16, 23, =Ge=5, =H=, =D=1, 3, 5, 8, 14, 16, -=M=25, =Q=3, 5, 13, =GG=33, 45, 48. - -=AUGUSTUS CAESAR= =GG=11. - -=AVALON= or =AVARON= =B=12, 13, =D=9. - -=BAGOMMEDES= =G=19, 20. - -=BANDAMAGUS= =Q=5, 6, 43. - -=BANS= =Q=26, =GG=30, 59. - -=BEAU MAUVAIS=, le, =G=11, =D=8. - -=BEDUERS= =D=2. - -=BLAISE= =Dprol=, 14. - -=BLANCHEFLEUR= =Co=, Conduiramur =W=, anonymous =M=, _cf._ Lufamour -=T=----Perceval's cousin =Co=, =W=----first meeting with Perceval =C=6, -=W=, =M=8----second meeting with Perceval =G=10----third meeting -=Ma=13-16----third meeting and marriage with Perceval =Ge=8-10, _cf._ =W=. - -=BLIHIS= =PC=1 = Blaise? - -=BLIHOS BLIHERIS= =PC=2. - -=BLIOCADRANS= (of Wales, Perceval's father), =PC=6. - -=BORS, BOHORS, BOORT= =Q=1, 3, 13, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, =Ma=18----=Q=35, -48-52. - -=BRANDALIS= =G=1, 2. - -=BRIOS= =G=16. - -=BRONS, BRON=, or =HEBRON=. =B=7, 8, 12, 14, =Dprol=, 6, 16, =GG=41, 42, -_cf._ p. 19. - -=BRUILLANT= =GG=58 = Urlain =Q=35. - -=BRUN DE BRANLANT= =G=1. - -=CAIN= =Q=37, =GG=24. - -=CAIPHAS= =GG=2, 3. - -=CAIUS= =GG=3. - -=CALIDES= =Ma=9. - -=CALOGRENANT= =Q=33. =CALOGRINANT= =Ma=18----_Calocreant_ in =H=, one of -the three Grail-seekers. - -=CARAHIES= =G=5. - -=CARCHELOIS= =Q=39. - -=CARDUEL= =C=3----_Carduel_ of Nantes =G=1. - -=CASTRARS= =PC=4. - -=CATHELOYS= =GG=58. - -=CAVALON= =C=12----=Ma=14, 16. - -=CELIDOINE= =GG=22, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 39, 59, =Q=26. - -=CHANAAN= =GG=45, 47. - -=CHESSBOARD CASTLE= =G=7, =D=4, =M=24----=G=14----=G=18, =D=13. - -=CHRIST= =B=1-3, 5, 6, 8, 11, =Q=7, 10, 13, 15, 20, 26, 50, =Dprol=, 16, -=Ge=15, =GG=1-4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16, 21, 23, 30, 37, 41, 45. - -=CLAMADEX= =C=6, Clamide =W=, the earl =M=8 = the Sowdane =T=7. - -=CLARISSE= =Co= Mons MS. or _Clarissant_ Montpellier MS., ITONJE -=W=----=C=18, =G=1, =W=. - -=CLAUDIUS= =GG=3. - -=CLAUDIUS=, son of Claudas =Q={2}51. - -=CORBENIC= =Q=, =GG=, =CORBIERE= =Ma=23, =Q=13, 43, 48, =GG=51. - -=CORSAPIAS= =GG=22. - -=COWARD KNIGHT= =Ma=17, 19. - -=CRUDEL= =Q=6, 15, =Ge=15, =GG=36-38. - -=DAVID= =Q=37. - -=DODINEL= =Ma=14. - -=ELIEZER= =Q=27. - -=EMPTY SEAT=, see Seat Perillous. - -=ENYGEUS=, =ENYSGEUS=, or =ANYSGEUS= =B=7, 8, 11, 12. - -=EREC= =D=2. - -=ERNOUS= =Q=39. - -=ESCORANT= =Q={2}51. - -=ESCOS= =GG=47. - -=ESPINOGRE= =Ma=5. - -=ESTROIS DE GARILES= =Q={2}51. - -=ETLYM GLEDDYV COCH= =M=16-18. - -=EVALACH.= Evalach li mescouncus =GG=, Eualac =Q= (Anelac 26), Evelac -=Ma=, =Ge=. Overcoming Tholomes =GG=6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, =Q=6, 15, 26, -=Ma=3, =Ge=15, name changed to _Mordrains_, which see. - -=EVE= =Q=37, =GG=24. - -=FACILE DAMSEL=, Anonymous =Co=, =H=, =M=, _Antikonie_ =W=, =C=14, =W=, -=H=, =M=21. - -=FEIREFIZ= =W=. - -=FELIX= =GG=3, 11. - -=FISHER KING.= Anonymous =Co=, Amfortas =W=, Brons =B=, =D=, Alain =GG=. -Anonymous (?), =Q={1}, Pelles =Q={2}. In =M= the Fisher corresponds to -Gonemans. In all the French works of the cycle the adjective rich is -commonly applied to the Fisher. Splendour of court =PC=1----learned in -black art =PC=3----old and sick =Dprol=, First meeting with Perceval =C=7, -=W=, =D=11, _cf._ =PC=3, =M=6----=C=8, =W=, _cf._ =D=2, 12----=C=11, =W=, -_cf._ =D=15, =M=21----=G=7, 8, 9, 16, 18, 19, 20----Second meeting with -Perceval =G=22, =Ma=1-7 or =Ge=1-5, =D=16, _cf._ =M=25----=Ma=10----Third -meeting with Perceval =Ma=22, =Ge=22, =W=----Grandfather of Galahad -=Q={1}2, 26. See also Maimed King. - - Surname given to Brons =B=12, to Alain =GG=43. - - Vessel given to him =D=1----commanded to go to the West =D=6. - -=FLEGENTYNE= =GG=22, 29, 31, 37, 59. - -=GAHMURET= =W=. - -=GALAHAD= (GALAAD). _Father_: Lancelot =Q=, =GG=----_Mother_: daughter of -King Pelles =Q={1}, =GG=, or Fisher King =Q={2}----Seat Perillous -=Q=2----Sword =Q=3----Quest proclaimed =Q=5----Evelac's Shield =Q=6, -=GG=50----Devil-inhabited tomb =Q=7, _cf._ =Ge=17----Melians' -discomforture =Q=8----Castle of Maidens =Q=9----overcoming of Lancelot and -Perceval =Q=11----destined achiever of Quest =Q=13----rescue of Perceval -=Q=16----Genealogy =Q=26, =GG=21, 30, 58----likening to a spotless bull -=Q=29----overcoming of Gawain =Q=34----stay on ship =Q=35, 36----sword -=Q=36----Maimed King =Q={2} 36----capture of Castle Carchelois -=Q=39----stag and lions =Q=40, _cf._ =GG=45----castle of the evil custom -=Q=41----stay with father =Q=42----healing of Mordrains =Q=44, _cf._ -=GG=39----cooling of fountain =Q=45----making white the Cross -=GG=40----release of Symeu =Q=46, =GG=49----making whole sword -=GG=44----release of Moys =GG=46----five years' wanderings -=Q=47----arrival at King Peleur's =Q={1}, Maimed King's =Q={2}, witnessing -of Grail and healing of Maimed King =Q=48-50----Sarras, crowning, death -=Q=51, 52. - -=GALAHAD= (GALAAD) son of Joseph =GG=8, 31, 34----King of Hocelice and -ancestor of Urien =GG=49----founding of abbey for Symeu =GG=49. - -=GANSGUOTER= =H=. - -=GANORT= =GG=33, 35. - -=GARALAS= =G=13. - -=GAWAIN.= Gauvain =Co=, =Q=, =GG=, Gwalchmai =M=, Gawan =W=, Gawein =H=, -Gawayne or Wawayne =T=----of the seed of Joseph of Arimathea =GG=48, -Arthur's nephew =Co=, =Q=----conquers Blihos Bliheris =PC=2----allusion to -his finding the Grail =PC=3----one of the knights met by Perceval in wood -=M=1, =T=2----helps Perceval to disarm Red Knight =T=4----meeting with -Perceval after blood-drops incident =C=10, =W=, =M=11----vow to release -imprisoned maiden =C=11, =M=20----reproached by Guigambresil =C=12, -(Kingrimur) =W=, (anonymous) =M=20----tournament at Tiebaut's =C=13, -(Lippaot) =W=, (Leigamar) =H=, _cf._ =D=15, where Perceval is hero but -Gawain best knight after him----adventure with the facile damsel =C=14, -(Antikonie) =W=, =H=, =M=21----injunction to seek bleeding lance =C=14, -=W=, (Grail) =H=----adventure with Griogoras =C=16, (Urjan) =W=, (Lohenis) -=H=----meeting with scornful damsel, Orgeuilleuse, arrival at ferryman's -=C=16, =W=----Magic Castle =C=17, =W=, _cf._ =GG=51----may not leave -castle =C=17----second meeting with Orgueilleuse =C=18, =W=, -(Mancipicelle) =H=----Ford Perillous, Guiromelant =C=18, (Gramoflanz) =W=, -(Giremelanz) =H=----marriage with Orgueilleuse =W=, (?) =C=18----arrival -of Arthur to witness combat with Guiromelant =C=18 continued by =G=1, =W=, -=H=----fight with Perceval =W=, _cf._ =T=7----reconciliation with -Guiromelant =G=1, =W=, =H=----departure on Grail Quest and winning various -talismans =H=----[first arrival at Grail Castle according to Montpellier -MS. of =Co=]----Brun de Branlant, Brandalis =G=1 and 2----slaying of -unknown knight and Quest to avenge him =G=3----Chapel of Black Hand -=G=3----arrival at Grail Castle (first according to Mons MS. of =Co=), -half successful =G=3, wholly successful =H=, _cf._ =M=25 found by Peredur -at Castle of Talismans, and reference in =Q=51 Welsh version----greetings -of country folk =G=3, _cf._ =Ge=3----meeting with his son =G=4----Mount -Dolorous Quest =G=19----renewed Grail Quest, reproached for conduct at -Fisher King's, slaying of Margon =Ma=10----rescue of Lyonel -=Ma=18----rescue by Perceval =Ge=16. - - Joins in search for Grail with remainder of Table Round =D={2}, =Q=, - betraying knowledge of Maimed King =Q=5. - - Meeting with Ywain, Gheheris and confession to hermit =Q=10. - - Meeting with Hector de Mares =Q=29. - - Overcoming at Galahad's hand =Q=34. - -=GHEHERIES= =Q=10. - -=GIFLES= =C=11, =G=2. - -=GONEMANS= or =GONEMANT= =Co=, Gornumant =Ge=, Gurnemanz =W=, Fisher Uncle -=M=, =C=5, =W=, =M=5, uncle to Blanchefleur =C=6, =C=7, =W=, second -meeting with Perceval =Ge=8-9, _cf._ =T=6. - -=GOON DESERT= =Ma=4. - -=GRAIL=, Early History of. Last Supper cup given to Joseph =B=2, 3, 4, -=GG=2, =Q=50, =Ma=3----Solace of Joseph =B=5, 6, =GG=2, =D=16, =Ma=3 -(Montpellier MS.)----Grail and Fish =B=8, 9 _cf._ =GG=43----Directs Joseph -what to do with Alain =B=12, _cf._ =GG=42, confided to Brons =B=14,15, -=Dprol= 6, (Alain) =GG=51----=D=6, 10----feeds host =GG=5, =Q=13, also -=GG=32----Blinding of Nasciens =GG=16, 21, 23, 30, passage to England 31, -=D=6, =Q=6, 13, 15----Crudel =GG=38, =Q=15, =Ge=15----Blinding of -Mordrains =GG=38, 39, 42, only feeds the sinless 43, 44, refuses meat to -Chanaan and Symeu 47, resting-place, Castle Corbenic =GG=51. - - Book of, revealed to hermit =GG=2. - -=GRAIL=, Quest of _by Perceval_: first seen at Fisher King's =PC=3, =C=7, -=W=, =D=11----properties of =C=8, =W=, =D=12----=C=11, =W=----=C=15, -=W=----lights up forest =G=14----=G=21----seen for second time -=G=22-=Ma=1-7 or =Ge=1-3, =D=16----heals Hector and Perceval -=Ma=20----taken from earth =Ge=6, _cf._ =W=----opposed by witch, =Ge=8, -9----connection with Shield =Ge=13----seen for third time =Ma=23, 24, -=Ge=22; _by Gawain_: =H= and =G=3; _by Lancelot_: =Q=12, 22, 43; _by -Galahad_: =Q=2, feeds Arthur's court =Q=4, quest proclaimed =Q=5, feeds -host =Q=13, =GG=32, denied to Gawain and Hector =Q=29, 30, accomplished -=Q=50-52. - -=GRAIL-MESSENGER=, see Loathly Damsel. - -=GRAMOFLANZ= see Guiromelant. - -=GRIOGORAS= =C=16 = Lohenis =H=. - -=GUIROMELANT= =Co=, Gramoflanz =W=, Giremelanz =H=, =C=18-=G=1, =W=, =H=. - -=HECTOR= (de =MARES= =Q=) =Q=29, 34, 43, =Ma=20. - -=HELAIN= =Q=27. - -=HELICORAS= =GG=22. - -=HELYAB= =GG=2, 8, 34. - -=HELYAS= =Q=26 = Ysaies =GG=30, 38. - -=HERZELOYDE= =W=. - -=HUDEN= =PC=4. - -=HURGAINS= or =HURGANET= =D=2, 3. - -=JONAANS= =Q=26, =JONANS= =GG=30, =JONAS= =GG=59. - -=JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA.= D'Arymathye =B=, de Arimathie =GG=, d'Abarimathie -or d'Arimathie =Q=, de Barimacie =G=, and =Ma= (Montpellier MS.), Josep -(without mention of town =Ma=, Mons MS.), de Barismachie =Ge=----care of -Christ's body, captivity, solace, release =B=2-7, =GG=2, 3, =D=16, _cf._ -=Q=6, =Ma=2----stay in Sarras =GG=4-11, =Q=6, 26, =Ge=15, -=Ma=3----=B=7----Passage to England =GG=31, =Q=6----feeding by Grail -=GG=32, =Q=13, _cf._ =B=8, 9----Moys =B=11, 12, =Dprol=, _cf._ -=GG=41----=B=12-15----=GG=34, 36, =Q=15, =Ge=15----=GG=38, 44, 45, 48, -50--=D=1, 6, 12. - -=JOSEPHES=, =JOSEPHE=, =JOSEPHUS=, or =JOSAPHES=, son of Joseph of -Arimathea, =GG=2, 5, 9, 10, 11 =Q=6, 13, 14, 16, 17, 31 =Q=6, 13 and 32, -36 =Q=6, 38 =Q=6 and 15, 40, 41 =Q=13 _cf._ =D=6, 42, 43, 45, 46, 49, 50 -=Q=6, =Q=50, 51. - -=JOSUE= =GG=51, 58. - -=KALAFIER= =GG=20, 22. - -=KARDEIZ= =W=. - -=KAY.= Kex =Co=----=T=2----=C=3, =W=, =M=3----=C=4, =W=, =M=4----=C=6, -=C=9----=C=10, =W=, =M=11----=M=14----=T=7----=G=3, 19, =Ma=10, =Ge=21, -=D=8----one of the three Grail-questers =H=. - -=KLINSCHOR= =W.= - -=LABAN= =Q=35 (query variant of Lambar?). - -=LABEL= =GG=26. - -=LABEL'S DAUGHTER= =GG=28, 29, 37, 39. - -=LAMBAR= or =LABRAN= =Q=35, =LAMBOR= =GG=58. - -=LANCE= (Spear) =PC=3, 4, =C=7, 8, =M=6, =C=11, 14, 15, =G=3, 22, =Ma=1, -2, 24, =Ge=22, =H=, =D=11, 12, 16, =Q=50, 51, =GG=9, 15, 16. - -=LANCELOT=, Lancelot of Lake's grandfather =Q=26, =GG=30, 59. - -=LANCELOT.= Galahad's father =Q=, =GG=, =Q=1, 2, 4 (_cf._ =C=11), 5, 11, -12 (_cf._ =C=7 and =G=3), 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 (_cf._ =GG=58) 27, 28, 29, -42, 43, =GG=30, 33, 40, 45, 58, 59, =PC=4. - -=LEUCANS= =GG=10. - -=LIONEL Q=1, 3, attacks Bors =Q=33, =Ma=18. - -=LOATHLY DAMSEL.= Anonymous =Co=, Kundrie =W=, Perceval's cousin =M=, -reproaches Perceval =C=11, =W=, =M=20----announces end of Quest, =Ma=23, -=M=25. - -=LOGRES= =PC=1, =G=3, =Q=12, 35, 47. - -=LOHENIS= =H= = Griogoras =C=16. - -=LOHERANGRIN= =W=. - -=LONGIS= =PC=4, =Ma=2, =D=16. - -=LOT= =GG=48. - -=LUCES= =GG=48. - -=LUFAMOUR= =T=7, _cf._ Blanchefleur. - -=MAIDENS' CASTLE= =PC=5, =G=12=a=, =Ge=6----=Q=9. - -=MAIMED= or =LAME KING=. Same personage as Fisher King. Designated in this -way _only_ =M=, almost entirely so =Q={2} (5, 13, also =Q={1} 36, 39, 47, -50), never so =B=, =D=. =GG=58 applies the designation to Pelleans. - -=MANAAL= =GG=58. - -=MANCIPICELLE=, see Orgueilleuse. - -=MARGON= =Ma=10. - -=MARIE LA VENISSIENNE= =GG=3 = Verrine, =B=6, =W=. - -=MARPUS= (=WARPUS= =Q=26) =GG=30, 59. - -=MEAUX= =GG=11. - -=MELIANS=, Galahad's companion =Q=8, 10. - -=MELIANS DE LIS= =C=13, =D=15. - -=MERLIN= (see p. 64D) =G=20, =Dprol=, 14, 15, =Q=13. - -=MORDRAINS= =GG=, Mordains =Q=, _once_ Noodrans =Ma=, _once_ Mordrach -=Ge=----Baptism =GG=14, 15, =Q=6, 26, =Ma=3 =Ge=15----=GG=16, 17, vision -of descendants 18, =Q=26----=GG=19, 20, stay on island 21, _cf._ -=Q=19----=GG=27, =Q=36----=GG=29 Crudel, and blinding by Grail 37, 38, -=Q=15, =Ge=15----retires to hermitage =GG=39, =Q=44----his shield =GG=50, -=Q=6. - -=MORDRED= =GG=45. - -=MORDRET= =Ge=6, 7. - -=MORGHE LA FEE= =G=18. - -=MORONEUS= =Q={2}26. - -=MORS DEL CALAN= =PC=4. - -=MOUNT DOLOROUS= =G=19, 20, =Ge=5. - -=MOYS=, =MOYSES= (=B=). Seat Perillous =B=10, 11, 12, =Dprol=, 1, =GG=41, -46. - -=NASCIENS= =GG=, =Q=, Natiien =Ma=----Baptism =GG=14, =Q=6, 26, -=Ma=3----Blinded by Grail =GG=16----=GG=18, 19, 20, 21, 22, turning isle -and Solomon's ship, 23-27, =Q=35-37----=GG=28, 29, 30, 32, 33, Crudel 37, -38, (called Seraphe) =Q=15----=GG=39----his tomb =GG=50----death -=GG=59----appears as hermit in Arthur's time =Q=4, 5, 6, 29. - -=NASCIENS=, son of Celidoine, =GG=39. - -=NASCIENS=, grandson of Celidoine =GG=30, 59. - -=NICODEMUS= =B=3, 4, 5. - -=NOIRONS=, _i.e._, Nero =GG=3. - -=ORCANZ= =GG=48. - -=ORGUEILLEUSE.= Orguellouse =C=, Orgeluse =W= = Mancipicelle =H=, -=C=16----=G=1, =W=, =H=. - -=OWAIN= =M=, =EWAYNE= =T=, =YONES= =C=4, =YWAIN= "li aoutres" =Q=6, 9, 10, -29, =GG=49----meets Perceval =M=1, =T=2----helps him =M=3, =C=4. - -=PARTINAL= =Ma=5, 8, 21, 22. - -=PECORINS= =PC=4. - -=PELEUR= =Q={1}5, 47, 48. - -=PELLEANS= =GG=58. - -=PELLEHEM= =Q={2}35. - -=PELLES= =Q={2}1-3, 14, 27, 36, 44, 48, 50, =GG=59. - -=PERCEVAL= =Co=, =D=, =Q=, =GG=; PARZIVAL =W=, =H=; PEREDUR =M=; -PERCYVELLE =T=.--_Father_: Bliocadrans =PC=; anonymous =Co=, =Q=; Alain -=D=; Gahmuret =W=; Evrawe =M=; Percyvelle =T=; Pellehem =Q={2}. _Mother_: -Anonymous =Co=, =D=, =Q=, =M=; Herzeloyde =W=; Acheflour (Arthur's sister) -=T=----brought up in wood =C=1, =W=, =M=, =T=1----meets knights (5) =C=1, -=W=, (3) =M=1, =T=2----leaves mother =C=1, =W=, =D=, =M=1, =T=2----first -meeting with lady of tent =C=2, (Ieschute) =W=, =M=2, =T=3----arrival at -Arthur's Court =C=3, =W=, =D=, =M=3, =T=4----laughing prophetic damsel -=C=3, =W=, dwarves =M=3----slays _red_ knight =C=4, (Ither of Gaheviez) -=W=, (colour not specified) =M=3, =T=4----overcomes 16 Knights -=M=4----burns witch =T=5----arrival at house of first uncle, Gonemans -=C=5, Gurnemanz =W=, Anonymous =M=5, and (different adventure partly -corresponding to =Ge=8) =T=6----first arrival at castle of lady love, -Blanchefleur =C=5, Conduiramur =W=, Anonymous =M=8, Lufamour =T=7----first -arrival at Fisher King's =C=7, =W=, =D=11, =M=6----is reproached by -wayside damsel, cousin: (Anonymous) =C=8, (Sigune) =W=, =D=12, foster -sister =M=7----second meeting with lady of tent =C=9, =W=, -=M=9----overcoming of Sorceresses of Gloucester =M=10----blood drops in -the snow =C=10, =W=, =M=11----Adventures with Angharad Law Eurawc; at the -castle of the huge grey man; serpent on the gold ring; Mound of Mourning; -Addanc of the Lake; Countess of Achievements =M=12-19----reproaches of the -loathly damsel =C=11, (Kundrie) =W=, =M=20----Good Friday incident and -confession to uncle =C=15, (Trevrezent) =W=, =D=14, =M=22----the Castle of -the Horn =G=6----the Castle of the Chessboard =G=7, =D=4, =M=24----meeting -with brother of Red Knight =G=8----Ford _amorous_ =G=9, _perillous_ -=D=9----second meeting with Blanchefleur =G=10----meeting with Rosette and -Le Beau Mauvais =G=11, =D=8----meeting with sister and visit to hermit -=G=12, =D=5 and 6----the Castle of Maidens =G=12=a=----meeting with the -hound-stealing damsel =G=13, =D=13, =M=24----meeting with the damsel of -the white mule =G=14----tournament at Castle Orguellous =G=16 = =D=15 -(Melianz de Lis) and =M=19 (?)----Deliverance of knight in tomb -=G=17----second visit to the Castle of the Chessboard =G=18, -=D=13----delivery of Bagommedes =G=19----arrival at Mount Dolorous -=G=20----the Black Hand in the Chapel =G=21----second arrival at Grail -Castle =G=22-=Ma=1-7 and =Ge=1, =D=16, (with final overcoming of -Sorceresses of Gloucester) =M=25. - - Puts on red armour for love of Aleine, accomplishes the feat of the - Seat Perillous, and sets forth on Quest =D=1 and 2. - - Slays the red knight, Orgoillous Delandes, =D=3. - - Overcomes Black Knight, slays giant and finds mother =T=9. - -Perceval and Saigremors =Ma=8----Second visit to Chapel of the Black Hand -=Ma=11----the demon horse =Ma=12, =Q=18----Stay on the island =Q=19, and -20, and temptation by damsel 21, =Ma=13----Delivery of Dodinel's lady love -=Ma=14----Tribuet =Ma=15----third meeting with Blanchefleur -=Ma=16----meeting with coward knight =Ma=17----combat with Hector -=Ma=20----slaying of Partinal =Ma=21----third arrival at Grail Castle -=Ma=22----learns death of his uncle the Fisher King from loathly damsel -=Ma=23, =W=----retires into wilderness =Q=52, =Ma=24----dies =Q=52, goes -to Palestine and dies (?) =T=. - - Encounter, unknown to either, with Galahad =Q=11. Meeting with recluse - aunt =Q=13. - - Assistance at the hands of the Red Knight =Q=16. - - Adventure of the ship =Q=33, essay to draw sword =Q=35. - - Receives Galahad's sword =Q=41, bears Galahad company for five years - =Q=47----adjusts the sword at the Court of Pelles =Q={2}48. - -Breaking of sword at the Gate of Paradise =Ge=2----Blessings of the -country folk for putting question =Ge=3----Mending of sword at forge of -the serpent =Ge=4----Accomplishment of the feat of the Perillous Seat -=Ge=5----adventures at sister's Castle, with Mordret, and at cousin's, -Castle of Maidens =Ge=6----encounter with Kex, Gauvain, and Tristan =Ge=7, -_cf._ =T=7----meeting with Gornumant =Ge=8 (_cf._ =T=6) and fight with the -resuscitating hag----third arrival at Blanchefleur's Castle, marriage -=Ge=9----deliverance of maiden, abolition of evil custom, knight on fire -=Ge=10-12----obtains the promised shield =G=13----combat with the Dragon -King =Ge=14----arrival at abbey and story of Mordrains =Ge=15, -=Q=15----the swan-drawn coffin =Ge=16----Devil in tomb =Ge=17, _cf._ -=Q=7----deliverance of maiden from fountain =Ge=18----punishment of -traitress damsel =Ge=19----combat with giant =Ge=20, _cf._ -=T=9----encounters Kex =Ge=21----third arrival at Grail Castle =Ge=22. - -=PERCEVAL'S AUNT= =Q=13, 14. - -=PERCEVAL'S SISTER=, daughter to Pellehem =Q={2}, =G=12, =D=5-7, =Q=35, -36, 38, 41, 42----_cf._ =M=7. - -=PERCEVAL'S UNCLE=, see Gonemans, Fisher King. - -=PETRONE= =GG=29. - -=PETRUS= =B=8, 12, 13, 14, =PETER= =GG=43, =PIERRON= =GG=45, 47, 48. - -=PHILOSOPHINE= =Ge=6, 15. - -=PILATE= =B=1, =GG=2, =B=3, 6. - -=PRIADAM THE BLACK= =Q=30. - -=QUIQUAGRANT= =Ma=5. - -=RED KNIGHT.= Slain by Perceval =C=3, 4, =T=1, 5, who takes his arms, and -is mistaken for him =C=6, =T=6, transferred to Galahad when latter takes -Perceval's place =Q=14, 16----=G=8, 9. - -=ROSETTE=, Loathly Maiden, =G=11, =D=8. - -=SAIGREMORS= =C=10, =Ma=8, 9, 18, =D=2. - -=SARRAQUITE= =GG=13, 16, 22, 28, 29, 59. - -=SARRAS= =GG=5, 11, 13, 15, 18, =Ma=3, =Q=26, 41, 50, =GG=30. - -=SEAT PERILLOUS= (empty) =B=10, =Dprol=, 1----=Q=2, =GG=41, =Ge=5, =Q=13. - -=SERAPHE= =GG=, =Q=, =Ge=, _once_ Salafres =Ma=----Battle with Tholomes -=GG=12, 14, =Q=6, 26, =Ma=3, =Ge=15, renamed _Nasciens_, which see. - -=SEVAIN OF MEAUX= =GG=11. - -=SOLOMON'S SHIP= =Q=35-38, =GG=24, 27, 30, 58. - -=SOLOMON'S SWORD= =Q=35, 38, =GG=27, _cf._ =Q=48. - -=SORCERESSES OF GLOUCESTER= =M=10, 25. - -=STAG HUNT= =G=7, 8, 16, 18, =D=4, 13, =M=24. - -=SWORD= =PC=3, =C=7, 8, =M=6, =G=3, 12, 22, =Ma=5, 22, =Ge=1, 2, 4, 15, -22, =H=, =Q=2, 3, 48, =GG=33, 44, 58. See also Solomon's sword. - -=SYMEU= =Q=46, =GG=31, 47, 49. - -=THOLOMES= =Q=6, =Ge=15, =GG=11, 12, 14. - -=THOLOME CERASTRE= =GG=11. - -=TIBERIUS CAESAR= =GG=3, 11, =Ma=3. - -=TITUS= =GG=3. - -=TREBUCET= or =TRIBUET= =C=8, =W=, =Ma=15. - -=URBAN OF THE BLACK THORN= =D=9, =Co=. - -=URLAIN= or =URBAN= =Q=35 = Bruillant =GG=58. - -=UTHER PENDRAGON= =GG=9, _cf._ p. 64D. - -=VERRINE= =B=6 = Marie la Venissienne =GG=3. - -=VESPASIAN= =B=6, =GG=3, 4, =Ma=3, =Q=7. - -=WASTE CITY=, King of the, =Ge=8. - -=WASTE LAND= =PC=1, (forest) 6, =Q=13, 35, =GG=58. - -=YSAIES= =GG=30, 59 = Helyas, =Q=26. - -=YWAIN=, see Owain. - - - - -INDEX II. - - -[This Index comprises the whole of the work with exception of the -Summaries, for which see Index I. The references are to the pages. The -entries apply solely to the page number or page group-number which they -immediately precede, and not to all the pages between themselves and the -next entry. In the majority of cases a simple number reference is given, -and the fuller entries are to those points which the author wishes -specially to emphasise.] - - Abundia and Herodias, 100. - - Adonis, 101. - - Alain (son of Brons), 66, 77, 79, 82, 83, 84, 89, 109, 112, 123, - as Fisher King, 208, 210, 218, 222, 245. - - Amfortas, Fisher King in Wolfram, 249, - in Wagner's Parsifal, 253-55, 263. - - Aminadap, 84. - - Arbois de Jubainville, 184-85, 188, 192-93. - - Arthur, Arthur saga, Arthurian romance or legend, 108, 114, 116, 117, - Martin's interpretation of, 122-24, 130, 134, 136, 144, 147, 148, 153, - 155, 156, 188, - A's waiting, 197-98, - A and Potter Thompson, 198, 205, 218, 219, 221, 222, - popularity of, 228-29, - Celtic character of, 230, 231, 236, 243, 244, 245. - - Avalon (Avaron), 77, - punning explanation of, 78, - parallel to the Grail, 122-23 and 188, - with the Magic Castle, 191, 198, 218, 222, - connection with Glastonbury, 223, 248, - parallel with Brandan's isle, 264. - - - Baldur, 100. - - Ban, 83, 84. - - Baring-Gould, 98. - - Bartsch, 261. - - Battle of Magh Rath, 185, 186. - - Bergmann's San Greal, 104. - - Bespelled Castle in Celtic tradition, 190-206. - - Birch-Hirschfeld, 4, 5, 6, 38, 52, 64_d_, 84, - full analysis of his work, 108-121, - Martin's criticism, 121-23, 124, - objections to his hypothesis, 125-126, 128, 132, 133, 134, 137, 138, - 145, 151, 168, 171, 174, 207, 217, 220, 250, - Wolfram and Chrestien, 261-62. - - Blaise, 113. - - Blanchefleur, 92, 114, 115, 133, - comparison of Chrestien and Mabinogi, 135, 140, 147, 204, 238, - example of sex-relations of the time, 241. - - Blood-drops in the snow, 137-38. - - Books of Rights and Geasa, 213. - - Borron, Robert de, author of the Joseph d'Arimathie, bibliographical - details, 2, - MS. statements respecting, 4-6, 19, - passage of Grail to England, 79-80, 94, 95, 96, - Hucher's views, 105-6, - relation to other versions according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 111-115, - 116, 118-20, - Martin's views, 121-124, 125, 131, 171, - secret words, 186, 188, - Fisher King in, 207-9, 220, 221, 222, - his conception, 239, - chastity ideal in, 245, 247, 251, 252. - - Bors, 66, - exemplification of spirit of Queste, 239. - - Boetticher, Wolfram and Chrestien, 261. - - Bran (the Blessed), 108, - and Cernunnos, 211, - connection with conversion of Britain, 218-20, 226, - connection with Brandan legend, 265. - - Bran the Son of Febal, 192, 194, 232, 265. - - Brandan legend, 264-65. - - Branwen (Mabinogi of), 76, 97, 108, 167, 168, - cauldron, 186, 211, 219, 260. - - Britain, evangelisation of, 80, 91, 95, 105-106, 107, 124, 218, - connection with the Brons and Joseph legends, 219-24. - - Brons, 66, 70, 72, 75, 77, - special form of Early History, 78-79, 80, 81, - two accounts respecting, 82-83, 84, 85, 86, 88, - in the Didot-Perceval, 89, 91, 93, 94, 95, 106, 109, 112, 113, 123, - 124, 125, 182, - as Fisher King, 208-11, - as Apostle of Britain, 218-26, 235. - - Bruillans, 84. - - Brunhild, 232. - - Bundling, 135. - - - Caesarius of Heisterbach, 122. - - Campbell, J. F., 102-03, 152, 159-60, - cup of healing, 187, 210. - - Campbell, - No. 1 Young King of Easaidh Ruadh, 187; - No. 10 The Three Soldiers, 195-96; - No. 41 The Widow and her Daughters, 187; - No. 47 Mac Iain Direach, 187, 212; - No. 51 The Fair Gruagach, 213; - No. 52 The Knight of the Red Shield, 156-57, - the resuscitating carlin, 166-67; - No. 58 The Rider of Grianaig, 157, 209; - No. 76 Conall Gulban, 167, 187; - No. 82 How the Een was set up, 158, 189; - No. 84 Manus, 189-90; - No. 86 The Daughter of King Under the Waves, 194-95, 246. - - Campbell, J. G., Muilearteach, 167. - - Catheloys, 84. - - Celidoine, 83, 84. - - Celtic tradition, origin of or elements in Grail legend, 7, - how affected by placing of versions, 68-69, - opinions of previous investigators, 97-107, - Birch-Hirschfeld, 111-113-14-15-17-20, - Martin, 121-24, - Hertz, 125, - Grail apparently foreign to, 151, 164-65, - Carlin in, 167-69, 170-71, 181, 183-84, - Vessel in, 184-88, - Sword in, 188-90, 191, 195, 197, 199, 208, - origin of legend, 215-18, 223-27, - relation to mediaeval romance, 230, - individualism in, 231, - woman in, 231-33, - the supernatural in, 234, 235, - chastity ideal, 247, 248, 251, - transformation of, 255, 265. - - Ceridwen, 186, 210-11. - - Cernunnos, 211. - - Cet mac Magach, 231. - - Chanson de Roland, 248. - - Charlemagne, Carolingian Saga, 197, 229, 230, 231. - - Chastity ideal in the Queste, 243-44, - in later versions, 245-46, - in popular and Celtic tradition, 246-47. - - Chessboard Castle, 127-30, 139-41. - - Chrestien, bibliographical description, 1, 2, - statements of MSS. respecting, 4, 5, 8, 66, 69, 70, 74, 76, 80, 81, - 85, 86, 91, 92, 93, 95, - views of previous investigators, 98-108, - Birch-Hirschfeld, 108-121, 122, 124, 125, 126, - relation to Didot-Perceval, 127-131, - to Mabinogi, 132-145, - nature of model, 145-46, - relation to Sir Perceval, 147-51, - relation to Great Fool, 155-56-58-59, 164, 168, - visit to Grail Castle in, 171-74, 175, - represents mainly feud quest, 180-82, 199, 207, 208, 211, 218, - his ideal, 237-38, 245, 249, 250, - relation to Wolfram, 261-63. - - Christian origin of or elements in Grail legend, Christian tradition, - legend, etc.; - as affected by placing of versions, 68, 80, 123, 143, 146, 165, - 170-73, 179, 181, 186, 209, - as affected by my hypothesis, 215-18, 220, 224, 226-27, - relation to the talismans, 238-39, 251-52, - influence on the legend as a whole, 255. - - Chronological arrangement of versions, 6, - Author's, 95-96, - Zarncke's, 107, - Birch-Hirschfelds', 120-21. - - Conall Cearnach, 231. - - Conan's delusions, 200. - - Conchobor, 192, 231, 233. - - Conduiramur, 204, - and Parzival, 249-51. - - Connla, 188, 194, 196, 232. - - Constituent elements in the romances, 215-16. - - Corbenic, 83, 84. - - Cormac's visit to the otherworld, 193-94, 234. - - Counsels, the, in the romances, 150. - - Crestiens, p. 83 = Nasciens, p. 84. - - Cuchulainn, 153, 185, 188, 189, - conception of, 192, - _gess_ of, 214, - parallel of legend to mediaeval romances, 231-34. - - Cumhall, father of Fionn, 158-59. - - Curoi mac Daire, 231. - - Cynewulf, 221. - - - Dagda, the, and the cauldron, 184-85, 192. - - Deirdre, 137, - and the Sons of Usnech, 233. - - Diarmaid, 202, - _gess_ of, 214. - - Didot-Perceval, prose sequel to Borron's poem, numbered as C 2, 65, 66, - 68, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 78, 79, 82, - the Quest in, 89-91, 92, 93, 94, 96, - Zarncke's opinion of, 107, - Authorship of according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 112-15, 117, 120, 121, - 125, 126, - relationship to Conte du Graal, 127-30, - origin of, 131, 138, 139, - stag hunt in, 141-42, 145-46, 172-73, 179, 182, 191, 198-99, 208, 245. - - Dietrich Saga, 230. - - Domanig, Parzival-Studien, 250. - - Duvau, 192. - - Dwarves incident in Chrestien and Mabinogi, 134. - - - Elton, 219. - - Emer, wooing of, 232-33. - - Encyclopaedia Britannica, 126. - - England, arrival of Grail in 76-80, - Birch-Hirschfeld 116, - Joseph legend in 221-22. - - Enygeus (Brons' wife), 81, 82. - - Evangelium Nicodemi, 221-22. - - Espinogre, 142. - - Expulsion and Return Formula (Aryan), 144, 153-54, 156, 159, 163-64, - 190, 210, 225, 256. - - - Fand, 232. - - Faust, 253. - - Fenian saga or cycle, sword in, 188-90, 230. - - Feud-Quest in the romances and in Celtic tradition, 181-90. - - Finn-eges, 209-11, 220. - - Fionn (Finn), Fionn-saga, 153-54, 157, - connection with Great Fool and boyhood of Peredur, 158-59, 163-64, - Fionn's enchantment, 186-87, - and sword, 189-90, 195, - in the otherworld, 200-03, - and salmon, 209-11, 214, 220, 224, 231, 234, 256. - - Fish, according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 112, - Martin, 123-24, 224. - See also Salmon. - - Fisher King, Fisher or Rich Fisher, 77, 78, - as Grail-Keeper, 80-86, - relation the Promised Knight, 87-89, 107, 110, 113, 115, - accounted for by Birch-Hirschfeld, 117, 123, 124, 134, 138, 139, 140, - 142, 143, 144, 180, 206, - Author's explanation of, 207-11, 237, - in Wolfram, 249. - - Fisher King's daughter, 140-42. - - Fisher King's father, 74, 81, 110, 191. - - Fitzgerald, 198, 231. - - Fomori, 188, 230. - - Foerster on Peredur, 132. - - Frederick II, 122, - in the Kyffhaeuser, 196-97. - - Frederick I (Barbarossa), 196-97. - - Furnivall, 2, 3, 102-03, - estimate of Queste criticised, 242-43. - - - Gaelic talismans = Grail and lance, 103. - - Gaidoz, 219. - - Galahad, Galahad Quest, 66, 67, 83-86, - as Promised Knight, 90-94, 102, 104, 106, 108, 109, 113, 131, 149, 226, - comparison with Perceval Quest, 236, - morality of, 240, 245-46, 252, 254. - - Gaston Paris on relation between Chrestien and Mabinogi, 132. - - Gautier (de Doulens), Pseudo-Gautier, numbered A II., 1-2, - statements respecting in MS., 4, - Berne MS. of, 19, 69-70, 72, 74-75, 76-77, 81, 87, 92-95, 101, 106, - 110, 113, 114, 120-21, - relation to Didot-Perceval, 128-30, - to Mabinogi ,133 and 140-44, 145, 146, - visit to Grail Castle in, 171-72, - Gawain Quest in, 174 and 178-79, 182, 189, 199, 237, 246. - - Gautier (Walter) de Montbeliart and Borron, 5, 103, 105, 120, 121. - - Gawain (Gauvain), 2, 67, 69, - visit to Grail King, 87, 92, 101, - Martin's view of, 122 and 124, 125, 164, 172, - special form of Quest, 176-78, 180, 189, 191, - visit to Magic Castle, 199-200, - in Heinrich, 203-05, 237, - and Orgueilleuse, 240-41, 245, 251, 261-62. - - Geasa, 212-14. - - Geoffrey of Monmouth, 91, 119, 219, 229. - - Gerald (Giraldus Cambrensis), testimony respecting Map's authorship, - 117-18, 122. - - Gerbert, numbered A IV., 1, 5, 69, - love _motif_ in, 92, 95, 110, 121, 126, - the witch who brings the dead to life in, 165-69, 172, 174-75, 179, - 180, 199, - chastity ideal in, 246, 249, - relation to Wolfram, 262-63. - - Gervasius of Tilbury, 122, 197. - - Glastonbury, Skeat's view, 105, - Zarncke, 107, 220, - and Avalon, 223-25. - - Goethe, 253. - - Gonemans, 130-34, - and Fisher King, 138, 140, - and the witch, 165-68, - advice to Perceval, 211-12. - See also Gurnemanz. - - Goon Desert, 81, 142. - - Grail, 66, - hypothetical Christian origin of, 68, - first possessor of, 69-70, - solace of Joseph, 70-72, - connection with Sacrament, 71 and 73, - and Trinity, 72, - properties and effect of, 74-76, - name, 76, - arrival in England, 76-79, 83-84, 89-90, 94, 96, 99, 100-112, - phraseology used by romances in mentioning it, 113, 114-16, - symbol of Christ's body, 117, 120, - symbol of Avalon, 123, 124-26, 136, 140-142, - absence of from Mabinogi and Thornton Sir P., 164, - apparently foreign to Celtic legend, 165, 169, - various forms of visit to castle of, 170-79, - double nature of, 182-83, - parallel to magic vessel of Celtic tradition, 185-96, - and Fionn, 202, 218, 221, - mode of transformation, 224, 245, 247, - in Wolfram, 250-52, - in Wagner, 254-55, 261-63. - - Grail (Early History of), two forms, 65-66, - Joseph form, 67, - relation to Christian origin hypothesis, 68, 69, - Brons form, 80, 86, - two forms in French romances, 93-94, - later than Queste, 93, 95-96, 103, - according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 108-21, 151, 208, - origin of, 218 and 224. - - Grail (Quest of), two forms, 65-67, - Perceval form, 67, - relation to Celtic origin hypothesis, 68, 69, 80, 83, 86, - object of according to different versions, 88-90, - original form of, 91, 92, - Perceval form older, 93-94, 95-96, 105-06, 109-26, 131, 138, - Mabinogi form of, 139-44, 151, - inconsistency of accounts respecting, 180-81, - two formulas fused in, 181, - constituent elements in, 215-16, - mode of transformation, 220, 237-39, 243, 245, 248, 251, 252. - - Grail legend, romance or cycle, origin of according to Birch-Hirschfeld, - 120, 159, - Christian element in, 217, - genesis and growth of, 225-27, - popularity of, 228, 230, - development of ethical ideas in, 235 _et seq._, 248, - future of, 259, 265. - - Grail-Keeper and Promised Knight, 80-81. - - Grail-Messenger and Rosette, 114. - See also Loathly Damsel. - - Graine, 214. - - Gramoflanz, 193. - - Grand St. Graal, numbered E 3, authorship ascribed to Borron, 5, - Helinandus' testimony, 52, 65-67, 70, 72-73, 75-76, 79, - conflicting accounts respecting Promised Knight in, 84-86, 90, 91, 93, - 94-96, 99, 102-112, 117, - authorship of, 119-20, 121, 126, 146, 207-08, 219, 220, 247, - prologue of and Brandan legend, 264-65. - - Great Fool, lay or tale of the, 101-02, 144, - prose opening, 152-53, - comparison with romances, 154-56, - originality of, 158, - relation to Fionn legend, 159, - Lay, 159-162, 163, 164, - ethical import of, 256-57. - - Gregory of Tours and Evangelium Nicodemi, 221. - - Greloguevaus, 81. - - Grimm, No. 122, Der Krautesel, 195, 197, 198, 204-05, 247. - - Gudrun, 233. - - Guinevere, 83. - - Gurnemanz, 113, 115, 249, 262-63. - See also Gonemans. - - Guyot = Kiot, 104. - - Gwalchmai, 225-26, 228. - See Gawain. - - Gwion and Fionn, 210. - - - Hahn, J. G. von, 153-54. - - Halliwell, 98, 147. - - Haunted Castle, 204-05. - - Hawker, 244. - - Hebron, 108 = Brons, which see. - - Hector, 187. - - Heinrich von dem Tuerlin, numbered K, 4, - citation of Chrestien, 6, 69, 91, - Martin's view of, 122, 125, - visit to Grail Castle in, 172-73 and 178, - double origin, 182, 191, - special form of Quest, 198-99 and 203, - parallel with Sleeping Beauty, 203. - - Helie de Borron, 105-06, - testimony of, 118-19, 121. - - Helinandus, 52, 95, 103, 121. - - Helyas, 83 = Ysaics, 84. - - Hennessy, 159. - - Henry II, 118-19. - - Herodias, 100, 254. - - Hertz' views, 124-25. - - How the Great Tuairsgeul etc., 212. - - Hucher, 2, - attempt to harmonise conflicting accounts in Borron, 82, - statement of views, 105-06, - criticised by Birch-Hirschfeld, 111 and 118, 130, - and cauldron, 184. - - - Iduna, apples of, 182. - - - John the Baptist, 100. - - Jonaans, 83, 84. - - Joseph of Arimathea, Joseph legend, 65-67, 69, 70, - and Grail, 70-73, 74, 77, - and England, 78-80, 81, 82, 84, 88, 89, 90, 93, 94, 99, 100, 104-109, - 112-117, 124, 146, - and the Fisher, 208, 218, - Apocryphal legend of, 220-24, 226. - - Joseph, Metrical, poem by Robert de Borron, numbered B 2, author of, 5, - 65-66, 68, 70-73, 74-76, 77-80, - two accounts in, 81-82, 88, 91, 93-94, 102-103, - relation to Didot-Perceval according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 112-14, 125. - - Josephes (son of Joseph), and Veronica, 79, 84-86, 109. - - Josue, 66, 84, 85. - - - Kay, 130. - - Keating and the treasures of the Tuatha de Danann, 184. - - Kennedy's Fellow with the Goat-skin, 134, - Castle Knock, 159, - Great Fool, 159-61, - Son of Bad Counsel, 199-200, - Fionn's visit to Cuana, 201, - haunted castle tale, 204, 257. - - Kiot, 6, - San Marte's view, 99-100, 107-08, 121, - and Wolfram, 261-63. - - Klinschor, 253, 263. - - Knight Errantry, 229. - - Knighthood, prototype of in Celtic tradition, 231. - - Knights of the Red Branch, 231. - - Knowles' Said and Saiyid, 196. - - Koch, Kyffhaeuser Sage, 197. - - Koehler, 195. - - Kundry in Wagner, 254-55, 263. - See Loathly Damsel. - - Kuepp on Pseudo-Chrestien, 8, 126, - and the branch, 193, 262. - - Kynddelw, 219. - - - Lambar, 83-84, 86, 183. - - Lame King, see Maimed King. - - Lance, 109, - and Grail legend according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 111, 113, 121. - - Lancelot, 83, 84, 108, 110, 112, 118, 119, 123, 172-173, 180, 240, 245. - - Latin original of French romances probable, 122. - - Liebrecht, 197-98. - - Llyr Llediath, 219-20. - - Loathly Damsel, 87, - and Rosette, 114, - in Mabinogi and Chrestien, 136, - hero's cousin, 139-41, - double origin of in romances, 205-06, - and Wagner, 254. - - Longis, 70. - - Luces de Gast, 118-19. - - Luces (Lucius), 91, 219. - - Lufamour, 147. - - Lug Lamhfhada, 184, 189, 192. - - Mabinogi of Peredur (generally Mabinogi sometimes Peredur) numbered H 3, - 5, 66, 68, 69, - Villemarque on, 97-98, 89, - Simrock on, 100, 101, - Nash, 102, 104, - Hucher, 106, - lateness of according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 114-115, 125-26, - relation to Conte du Graal, 131-37, - dwarves incident in, 134, - greater delicacy in Blanchefleur incident, 135, - blood drops incident, 137-38, - differences with Chrestien, 138-39, - machinery of Quest in, 139-42, - relation to Manessier, 142-44, - origin and development of, 143-145, - special indebtedness to Chrestien, 145, 146, - relation to Sir Perceval, 148-49, - counsels in, 150, - apparent absence of Grail from, 151, - comparison with Great Fool tale, 154-57, - with Great Fool Lay, 161-62, 164, - with Gerbert's witch incident, 168-69, 171, - visit to Talismans Castle in, 172-73 and 176, 180, 181, 183, 184, 190, - 216, - fusion of numerous Celtic tales in, 225-26, - Sex-relations in, 241, 256. - - Maidens' Castle, parallels to in Celtic tradition, 191-94. - - Maimed or Lame or Sick King, 66, 83-88, 90, 91, 109, - parallel with Arthur, 122, - probable absence from Proto Mabinogi, 145, - belongs to Feud Quest, 198, - parallel to Fionn, 202, 237. - - Malory, 236. - - Manaal, 84. - - Manannan mac Lir, 192-94, 208, - and Bran, 219. - - Manessier, numbered A III, 1-2, - date etc., 4-5, 69-71, 73-74, 77, 81, 88, 92, 95, 110, 121, 138, - relation to the Mabinogi, 142-46, 168-69, 171, 175, - disregard of question, 180-82, 199, 245-46. - - Manus, 189-90. - - Mapes or Map, 5, 104, 105, - not author of Queste or Grand St. Graal according to Birch-Hirschfeld, - 117-19. - - Martin's views, 121-26, - Kyffhaeuser hypothesis criticised, 197, 198, - Wolfram and Gerbert, 262. - - Meaux, 120. - - Menglad, 232. - - Merlin, 92, 114, 124. - - Merlin, Borron's poem, 2, 64D, 105, 106, 112-13, 117. - - Meyer, Kuno, 209, 233. - - Minnedienst, 240-41. - - Modred, 122. - - Montsalvatch, 66. - - Mordrains, 90, 109-10, 120, 173. - - Morgan la Fay, 122. - - Morvan lez Breiz, 148, 158, 162. - - Moys or Moses, 88-90, 106, 109, 112, 116. - - Mythic conceptions in the romances, 205. - - - Nasciens, 76, 83, 85, 120. - - Nash, 102. - - Nibelungenlied, 230, 234, 248. - - Nicodemus, 71. - - Noisi, 137, 233. - - - O'Daly, 159-61, 163. - - Odin, 100-01. - - O'Donovan, 185, 209, 213. - - Oengus of the Brug, 191-92, - and swanmaid, 196. - - O'Flanagan, 233. - - Ogma, 188. - - Oisin, 195, 200, - and Gwion, 210, 232. - - O'Kearney, 201. - - Orgueilleuse, Celtic character of, 124 and 232, - illustrates mediaeval morality, 240-41, 263. - - Osiris, 101. - - - Pagan essence of Grail etc. in the Christianised romances, 238. - - Partinal, 81, 88, 142-43. - - Parzival, 101, 252-53. - See Perceval and Wolfram. - - Paulin-Paris, 5, - explanation of word Grail, 103, 111, 116-17, 119. - - Pearson on the Veronica legend, 222, - and St. Brandan, 265. - - Peleur, 83. - - Pelleans or Pellehem, 83-86, 90. - - Pelles, 83-86, 90. - - Perceval, Perceval-Quest, type hero of Quest, 66-67, 72, 78, - relation to the Grail-keeper, 80-86, 88-89, 91-92, - oldest hero of Quest, 93, 94, 98, 101, 102-04, - according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 110-119, 125, - in Didot-Perceval and Conte du Graal, 127-31, - in Mabinogi and Conte du Graal, 131-45, - relation to (bespelled) cousin, 139-42, - relation of existing versions to earliest form, 146, - in the Thornton MS. romance, 147-51, - hero of Expulsion and Return Formula, 153-56, - parallel with Highland folk-tales, 157-58, - relation to Twin Brethren folk-tale and dualism in, 162-64, 169, - versions of Quest, 171-76, - visit to the Maidens' Castle, 178-79, 180, 181, - significance of Didot-Perceval form, 182, 187, - and sword, 189, - Castle of Maidens, 191, 195, 199, - parallel with Diarmaid, 202, - possible hero of Haunted Castle form, 204-05, - relation to Fisher, 207, - his silence, 211-14, 226, - superiority to Galahad Quest, 236, 237-38, 240-41, 245, 247, 254, 256, - 261-62. - See also Parzival and Peredur. - - Perceval's aunt, 79. - - Perceval's sister, 83-84, 163. - - Perceval's uncle, 78. - - Perceval le Gallois, numbered G 3, authorship, 6, 65-66, 69, 104, 121, - 126, 246. - - Peredur (hero of Mabinogi = Perceval), Peredur-saga, 106, - mother of, 115, 132-36, - parallel to Tom of the Goat-skin, 134, - the sword test, 138, - hero of the stag hunt, 139-42, 143, - original form of saga, 144-45, 153-54, 157, 162, 163, 164, 168-69, - and Fionn, 187 and 203, 220, - fish absent from, 224, - genesis and growth of, 225-227, 228, - Blanchefleur incident in, 241. - See Perceval. - - Peronnik l'idiot, 125, 158. - - Perseus, 256. - - Petrus, 77, 82, 88-90, 106, 109, 112, - connection with Geoffrey conversion legend, 219. - - Pfaffe Amis, 265. - - Pilate, 65, 70. - - Potter Thompson and Arthur, 198, 262. - - Potvin, 1, 2, 6, - his views, 104, 174, 177. - - Prester John, 100. - - Procopius, 191. - - Promised or Good Knight, and Grail Keeper, 80-86, - Galahad as, 85-86 - work of, 86-91, - qualifications of, 92-93, 107, 109. - - Prophecy incident in Grail romances, 156. - - Pseudo-Chrestien, 8, 209. - - Pseudo-Gautier, numbered AII_a_, 2, 15-16, 70, 72, 74, 77, 79, 81, 95. - - Pseudo-Manessier, numbered AIII_a_, 2, 19, 72-73. - - - Queste del St. Graal, numbered D 2-3, varying redactions distinguished - typographically, 38, 65-67, 72, 75-76, 79, - three drafts of, 83-86, 90-91, - glorification of virginity in, 93, 95, 103, 107, - relation to Grand St. Graal, 108-09, - to Conte du Graal, 110-11, 112, 113, - authorship of, 117-20, 121, 126, 131, 146, - visit to Grail Castle in, 172-73, 180, 183, 186, 207, 218, 220, 222, - 224, 226, 236, - ideal of, 238-40 and 243-44, - ideal criticised, 243-44, - merits of, 244-45, 246, - inferiority to Wolfram, 250, 251. - - Question, Birch-Hirschfeld's opinion, 171, 180, - belongs to Unspelling Quest, 181-82, 191, 196, 203, - Wolfram's presentment, 249-50. - - - Red Knight, 147-49, 155-56, 162, 189. - - Renan on Celtic poetry, 234-35. - - Rhys, 198, 209, 211, - Bran legend, 219-20, 265. - - Rich Fisher or King. See Fisher King. - - Riseut, 141. - - Robert de Borron. See Borron. - - Rochat, 19, - his views, 101-02. - - Roland, 229, 232. - - Romenie, 118. - - Rosette, 130, 141. - See Loathly Damsel. - - - Salmon of Wisdom, 209-10. - - San Marte, views, 99-100, 101-02, - and Wolfram, 250-5. - - Sarras, 72, 77, 79. - - Schroeder, Brandan legend, 264-65. - - Seat, empty or Perillous, 81-82, 88-90. - - Secret words, 73, 89, 179. - - Seraphe, 108. - - Sex-relations in Middle Ages, 240-42. - - Siegfried, 157, 162, 203, 210, 232-33. - - Simei, 90. - - Simrock, views, 100-101, 103, 132, 134, 164, 251, 261-62. - - Skeat, 104. - - Skene, 219-20. - - Sleep and the Magic Castle myth, 202-03. - - Sleeping Beauty, parallel with Heinrich's version, 203, - ethical import of, 258. - - Solomon's sword, 84. - See Sword. - - Sons of Usnech, 137, 233. - - Sorceresses of Gloucester, 101, 139, 156. - - Spontaneity of folk tradition, 254, 257-58. - - Stag Hunt in Conte du Graal and Mabinogi, 139-40, - in Didot-Perceval, 141, - parallel with Lay of Great Fool, 162. - - Steinbach on Sir Perceval, 147-50. - - Stephens, 219-20. - - Stokes, 188, 200, 233. - - Suetonius, 116. - - Sword, 113, 142, - belongs more to Feud Quest, 180-82, - found also in Unspelling Quest, 183, - of Lug, 184, - in Celtic myth, 187-90, 198-99. - - Taboo and Geasa, 214. - - Taliesin, 97, 186, - and Oisin, 210-11. - - Templars, 100. - - Tennyson, 236, 244. - - Tethra, 188. - - Thor, Irish parallels to, 200-01. - - Thornton MS. Sir Perceval (often simply Sir Perceval), numbered I 4, 66, - 68-69, 101-02, 125, 126, - Steinbach's theory of, 147-50, - criticised, 149, - absence of Grail from, 151, - connection with Great Fool tale, 154-58, 162, 164-65, - witch incident, 169, 190, 225. - - Tir-na n-Og, 191, 195, 223, 248, 264. - - Titurel, 66. - - Titus, 107. - - Trinity, symbolizing of, 88. - - Tuatha de Danann, treasures of, 184-85, 189-92, 223, 230. - - Two Brothers tale, 157, 162-63. - - - Ultonian cycle, 185. - - Unspelling Quest, 181, - Celtic parallels to, 190-206, 208. - - Urban (Urlain), 83, 84, 183. - - - Van Santen, 252. - - Vanishing of Bespelled Castle, 202-03. - - Veronica (Verrine), 79, 116, - Ward's theory, 222. - - Vespasian, 107, 116. - - Vessel in Celtic myth, 184, - in Ultonian cycle, 185, - in Welsh myth, 186, - in Celtic folk-tales, 187. - See Grail. - - Villemarque, views 97-98, 101, 131, 148. - - Virginity, 247. - - - Wagner, 252-54. - - Ward, 220, 222. - - Wartburg Krieg and Brandan legend, 264. - - William of Malmesbury, 105, - Zarncke's opinion of, 107, 115, - Ward's opinion of, 220. - - Windisch, 188, 219. - - Witch who brings the dead to life, 165-69. - - Wolfram von Eschenbach, numbered F 3, sources, 6, 25-26, 65-67, 69, - and Gerbert, 92, 99-102, 104, 107, 121-25, 150, 157, - brother incident in, 164, 172-73, - branch in, 193, - magician lord, 199, - account of mediaeval morality, 240-41, 246, - ideal of, 248-52, 254, 255, 256, - pattern for future growth of legend, 261, - relation to Chrestien, 261-63. - - Woman in Celtic tradition, 231-33. - - Wuelcker, Evangelium Nicodemi, 220-21. - - - Zarncke, views, 106-07, 115, 132, 220. - - - HARRISON AND SONS, - PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY, - ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON. - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Fully described by Potvin, VI, lxix, etc. - -[2] Potvin, VI, lxxv, etc. - -[3] Birch-Hirschfeld: Die Sage vom Gral, 8vo., Leipzig, 1877, p. 81. - -[4] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 89. - -[5] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 110. - -[6] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 232, quoting the colophon of a Paris MS., after -Paulin Paris, Cat. des MSS. francais, vol. ii, pp. 361, etc. - -[7] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 143. - -[8] This prologue is certainly not Chrestien's work; but there is no -reason to doubt that it embodies a genuine tradition, and affords valuable -hints for a reconstruction of the original form of the story. _Cf._ Otto -Kuepp in Zeitschrift fuer deutsche Philologie, vol. xvii., No. 1. - -[9] Potvin's text, from the Mons MS., is taken as basis. - -[10] Several MSS. here intercalate the history of Joseph of Arimathea: -Joseph of Barimacie had the dish made; with it he caught the blood running -from the Saviour's body as it hung on the Cross, he afterwards begged the -body of Pilate; for the devotion showed the Grail he was denounced to the -Jews, thrown into prison, delivered thence by the Lord, exiled together -with the sister of Nicodemus, who had an image of the Lord. Joseph and his -companions came to the promised land, the White Isle, a part of England. -There they warred against them of the land. When Joseph was short of food -he prayed to the Creator to send him the Grail wherein he had gathered the -holy blood, after which to them that sat at table the Grail brought bread -and wine and meat in plenty. At his death, Joseph begged the Grail might -remain with his seed, and thus it was that no one, of however high -condition, might see it save he was of Joseph's blood. The Rich Fisher was -of that kin, and so was Greloguevaus, from whom came Perceval. - -It is hardly necessary to point out that this must be an interpolation, as -if Gauvain had really learnt all there was to be told concerning the -Grail, there would have been no point in the reproaches addressed him by -the countryfolk. The gist of the episode is that he falls asleep before -the tale is all told. - -[11] The existence of this fragment shows the necessity of collating all -the MSS. of the Conte du Graal and the impossibility of arriving at -definite conclusions respecting the growth of the work before this is -done. The writer of this version evidently knew nothing of Queste or Grand -St. Graal, whilst he had knowledge of Borron's poem, a fact the more -remarkable since none of the other poets engaged upon the Conte du Graal -knew of Borron, so far, at least, as can be gathered from printed sources. -It is hopeless in the present state of knowledge to do more than map out -approximately the leading sections of the work. - -[12] It is by no means clear to me that Gerbert's portion of the Conte du -Graal is an interpolation. I am rather inclined to look upon it as an -independent finish. As will be shown later on, it has several features in -common with both Mabinogi and Wolfram, features pointing to a common -prototype. - -[13] In the solitary MS. which gives this version, it follows, as has -already been stated, prose versions of Robert de Borron's undoubted poems, -"Joseph of Arimathea" and "Merlin." - -[14] Birch-Hirschfeld, in his Summary (p. 37, l. 22) or his MS. authority, -B.M., xix, E. iii., has transposed the relationships. - -[15] And buried it, adds B. H. in his Summary, whether on MS. authority or -not I cannot say, but the Welsh translation has--"there was a period of -240 years" (an obvious mistake on the part of the translator) "after the -passion of J. C. when Jos. of A. came; he who buried J. C. and drew him -down from the cross." - -[16] Thus was Evelach called as a Christian, adds B. H. Here W. agrees -with Furnivall. - -[17] Here Birch-Hirschfeld's Summary agrees with W. - -[18] B. H. agrees with W. - -[19] According to B. H., the recluse tells him he has fought with his -friends, whereupon, ashamed, he hurries off. - -[20] B. H. here agrees with W. - -[21] B. H. has _five_ candles. - -[22] B. H.: "When will the Holy Vessel come to still the pain I feel? -Never suffered man as I." - -[23] B. H. agrees with W. - -[24] B. H. agrees with Furnivall. - -[25] B. H., the _ninth_. - -[26] B. H., the vision is that of a crowned old man, who with two knights -worships the cross. - -[27] B. H., Nasciens. - -[28] B. H. has all this passage, save that the references to the vision at -the cross-ways seem omitted. - -[29] B. H., the latter. - -[30] B. H., in Chaldee. - -[31] B. H., Labran slays Urban. - -[32] The 1488 text has Urban. - -[33] B. H., Thus was the King wounded, and he was Galahad's grandfather. - -[34] It does not appear from B. H.'s Summary whether his text agrees with -F. or W. - -[35] B. H., seven knights. - -[36] B. H., that was the Castle of Corbenic where the Holy Grail was kept. - -[37] B. H., the Castle of the Maimed King. - -[38] B. H., ten. Obviously a mistake on the part of his text, as the nine -with the three Grail questers make up twelve, the number of Christ's -disciples. - -[39] B. H., three. - -[40] B. H. agrees with F. - -[41] One cannot see from B. H. whether his text agrees with F. or W. - -[42] B. H. agrees with F. - -[43] It will be advisable to give here the well-known passage from the -chronicle of Helinandus, which has been held by most investigators to be -of first-rate importance in determining the date of the Grand St. Graal. -The chronicle ends in the year 1204, and must therefore have been finished -in that or the following year, and as the passage in question occurs in -the earlier portion of the work it may be dated about two years earlier -(Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 33). "Hoc tempore (717-719) in Britannia cuidam -heremitae demonstrata fuit mirabilis quaedam visio per angelum de Joseph -decurione nobili, qui corpus domini deposuit de cruce et de catino illo -vel paropside, in quo dominus caenavit cum discipulis suis, de quo ab -eodem heremita descripta est historia quae dicitur gradale. Gradalis autem -vel gradale gallice dicitur scutella lata et aliquantulum profunda, in qua -preciosae dapes divitibus solent apponi gradatim, unus morsellus post -alium in diversis ordinibus. Dicitur et vulgari nomine greal, quia grata -et acceptabilis est in ea comedenti, tum propter continens, quia forte -argentea est vel de alia preciosa materia, tum propter contentum .i. -ordinem multiplicem dapium preciosarum. Hanc historiam latine scriptam -invenire non potui sed tantum gallice scripta habetur a quibusdem -proceribus, nec facile, ut aiunt, tota inveniri potest." - -The Grand St. Graal is the only work of the cycle now existing to which -Helinandus' words could refer; but it is a question whether he may not -have had in view a work from which the Grand St. Graal took over its -introduction. Helinandus mentions the punning origin of the word "greal" -(_infra_, p. 76), which is only hinted at in the Grand St. Graal, but -fully developed elsewhere, _e.g._, in the Didot-Perceval and in Borron's -poem. - -Another point of great interest raised by this introduction will be found -dealt with in Appendix B. - -[44] The MS. followed by Furnivall has an illustration, in which Joseph is -represented as sitting under the Cross and collecting the blood from the -sides and feet in the basin. - -[45] MS. reading. - -[46] I have not thought it necessary to give a summary of the prose -romance Perceval le Gallois. One will be found in Birch-Hirschfeld, pp. -123-134. The version, though offering many interesting features, is too -late and unoriginal to be of use in the present investigation. - -[47] _Cf._ p. 78 as to this passage. - -[48] It is forty-two years, according to D. Queste (p. 119), after the -Passion that Joseph comes to Sarras. - -[49] It is plain that B I is abridged in the passage dealt with, from the -following fact: Joseph (v. 2,448, etc.) praying to Christ for help, -reminds Him of His command, that when he (Joseph) wanted help he should -come "devant ce veissel precieus Ou est votre sans glorieus." Now Christ's -words to Joseph in the prison say nothing whatever about any such -recommendation; but E, Grand St. Graal, does contain a scene between our -Lord and Joseph, in which the latter is bidden, "Et quant tu vauras a moi -parler si ouuerras l'arche en quel lieu que tu soies" (I, 38-39) from -which the conclusion may be drawn that B I represents an abridged and -garbled form of the prototype of E. - -[50] In the Mabinogi of Branwen, the daughter of Llyr, the warriors cast -into the cauldron of renovation come forth on the morrow fighting men as -good as they were before, except that they are not able to speak (Mab., p. -381). - -[51] The version summarised by Birch-Hirschfeld. - -[52] Curiously enough this very text here prints Urban as the name of the -Maimed King; Urban is the antagonist of Lambar, the father of the Maimed -King in the original draft of the Queste, and his mention in this place in -the 1488 text seems due to a misprint. In the episode there is a direct -conflict of testimony between the first and second drafts, Lambar slaving -Urlain in the former, Urlain Lambar in the latter. - -[53] This account agrees with that of the second draft of the Queste, in -which Urlain slays Lambar. - -[54] Only _one_ beholder of the Quest is alluded to, although in the -Queste, from which the Grand St. Graal drew its account, _three_ behold -the wonders of the Grail. - -[55] This, of course, belongs to the second of the two accounts we have -found in the poem respecting the Promised Knight, the one which makes him -the grandson and not the son merely of Brons. - -[56] The object of the Quest according to Heinrich von dem Tuerlin will be -found dealt with in Chapter VII. - -[57] This is one of a remarkable series of points of contact between -Gerbert and Wolfram von Eschenbach. - -[58] It almost looks as if the author of C were following here a version -in which the hero only has to go once to the Grail Castle; nothing is said -about Perceval's first unsuccessful visit, and Merlin addresses Perceval -as if he were telling him for the first time about matters concerning -which he must be already fully instructed. - -[59] It is remarkable, considering the scanty material at his disposal, -how accurate Schulz' analysis is, and how correct much of his -argumentation. - -[60] Wagner has admirably utilised this hint of Simrock's in his Parsifal, -when his Kundry (the loathly damsel of Chrestien and the Mabinogi) is -Herodias. _Cf._ _infra_, Ch. X. - -[61] Excepting, of course, the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century -Paris imprints, which represented as a rule, however, the latest and most -interpolated forms, and Mons. Fr. Michel's edition of Borron's poem. - -[62] Hucher's argument from v. 2817 (_supra_ p. 106) that the poem knew of -the Grand St. Graal is, however, not met. - -[63] _Vide_ p. 200, for Birch-Hirschfeld's summary comparison of the two -works, and _cf._ _infra_ p. 127. - -[64] _Cf._ _infra_ p. 128, for a criticism of this statement. - -[65] Opera V. 410: Unde et vir ille eloquio clarus W. Mapus, Oxoniensis -archidiaconus (cujus animae propitietur Deus) solita verborum facetia et -urbanitate praecipua dicere pluris et nos in hunc modum convenire solebat: -"Multa, Magister Geralde, scripsistis et multum adhue scribitis, et nos -multa diximus. Vos scripta dedistis et nos verba." - -[66] Printed in full, Hucher, I. 156, etc. - -[67] Printed by Hucher, I. p. 35, etc. - -[68] The remainder of Birch-Hirschfeld's work is devoted to proving that -Chrestien was the only source of Wolfram von Eschenbach, the latter's Kiot -being imagined by him to justify his departure from Chrestien's version; -departures occasioned by his dissatisfaction with the French poet's -treatment of the subject on its moral and spiritual side. This element in -the Grail problem will be found briefly dealt with, Appendix A. - -[69] I have not thought it necessary, or even advisable, to notice what -the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" (Part XLI, pp. 34, 35) and some other -English "authorities" say about the Grail legends. - -[70] They are brought together by Hucher, vol. i, p. 383, etc. - -[71] In the preface to the second volume of his edition of Chrestien's -works (Halle, 1887), W. Foerster distinguishes Peredur from the Lady of the -Fountain and from Geraint, which he looks upon as simple copies of -Chrestien's poems dealing with the same subjects. Peredur has, he thinks, -some Welsh features. - -[72] It is perhaps only a coincidence that in Gautier the "pucelle de -malaire" is named Riseut la Bloie, and that Rosette la Blonde is the name -of the loathly damsel whom Perceval meets in company of the Beau Mauvais, -and whom Birch-Hirschfeld supposes to have suggested to Chrestien _his_ -loathly damsel, the Grail messenger. But from the three versions one gets -the following:--Riseut (Gautier), loathly damsel (Didot-Perceval), Grail -messenger (Chrestien), = Peredur's cousin, who in the Mabinogi is the -loathly Grail messenger, and the protagonist in the stag-hunt. - -[73] I have not thought it necessary to discuss seriously the hypothesis -that Chrestien may have used the Mabinogi as we now have it. The foregoing -statement of the facts is sufficient to negative it. - -[74] THE COUNSELS. _Chrestien_ (v. 1,725, etc.): aid dames and damsels, -for he who honoureth them not, his honour is dead; serve them likewise; -displease them not in aught; one has much from kissing a maid if she will -to lie with you, but if she forbid, leave it alone; if she have ring, or -wristband, and for love or at your prayer give it, 'tis well you take it. -Never have comradeship with one for long without seeking his name; speak -ever to worthy men and go with them; ever pray in churches and monasteries -(then follows a dissertation on churches and places of worship generally). -_Mabinogi_ (p. 83): wherever a church, repeat there thy Paternoster; if -thou see meat and drink, and none offer, take; if thou hear an outcry, -especially of a woman, go towards it; if thou see a jewel, take and give -to another to obtain praise thereby; pay thy court to a fair woman, -_whether she will or no_, thus shalt thou render thyself a better man than -before. (In the italicised passage the Mabinogi gives the direct opposite -of Chrestien, whom he has evidently misunderstood.) _Sir Perceval_ (p. -16): "Luke thou be of mesure Bothe in haulle and boure, And fonde to be -fre." "There thou meteste with a knyghte, Do thi hode off, I highte, and -haylse hym in hy" (He interprets the counsel to be of measure by only -taking half the food and drink he finds at the board of the lady of the -tent. The kissing of the lady of the tent which follows is in no way -connected with his mother's counsel.) _Wolfram_: "Follow not untrodden -paths; bear thyself ever becomingly; deny no man thy greeting; accept the -teaching of a greybeard; if ring and greeting of a fair woman are to be -won strive thereafter, kiss her and embrace her dear body, for that gives -luck and courage, if so she be chaste and worthy." Beside the mother's -counsels Perceval is admonished by Gonemans or the personage corresponding -to him. In _Chrestien_ (2,838, _et seq._) he is to deny mercy to no knight -pleading for it; to take heed he be not over-talkful; to aid and counsel -dames and damsels and all others needing his counsel; to go often to -church; not to quote his mother's advice, rather to refer to him -(Gonemans). In the _Mabinogi_ he is to leave the habits and discourse of -his mother; if he see aught to cause him wonder not to ask its meaning. In -_Wolfram_ he is not to have his mother always on his lips; to keep a -modest bearing; to help all in need, but to give wisely, not heedlessly; -and in especial not to ask too much; to deny no man asking mercy; when he -has laid by his arms to let no traces thereof be seen, but to wash hands -and face from stain of rust, thereby shall ladies be pleased; to hold -women in love and honour; never to seek to deceive them (as he might do -many), for false love is fleeting and men and women are one as are sun and -daylight.--There seems to me an evident progression in the ethical -character of these counsels. Originally they were doubtless purely -practical and somewhat primitive of their nature. As it is, Chrestien's -words sound very strange to modern ears. - -[75] In the notes to my two articles in the "Folk-Lore Record" will be -found a number of references establishing this fact. - -[76] The hero renews his strength after his various combats by rubbing -himself with the contents of a vessel of balsam. He has moreover to enter -a house the door of which closes to of itself (like the Grail Castle -Portcullis in Wolfram), and which kills him. He is brought to life by the -friendly raven. The mysterious carlin also appears, "there was a turn of -her nails about her elbows, and a twist of her hoary hair about her toes, -and she was not joyous to look upon." She turns the hero's companions into -stone, and to unspell them he must seek a bottle of living water and rub -it upon them, when they will come out alive. This is like the final -incident in many stories of the Two Brothers class. _Cf._ note, p. 162. - -[77] O'Daly's version consists of 158 quatrains; Campbell's of 63. The -correspondence between them, generally very close (frequently verbal), is -shown by the following table:-- - - O'D., 1, 2. C., 1, 2. - -- C., 3. - O'D., 3. C., 4. - O'D., 4-15. -- - O'D., 16. C., 4. - O'D., 17-24. C., 5-12. - O'D., 25. -- - -- C., 13-15. - O'D., 26-47. C., 16-36. - O'D., 48-56. -- - O'D., 57-61. C., 37-40. - O'D., 62. -- - O'D., 63-65. C., 41-43. - O'D., 66. C., 45. - O'D., 67. C., 44. - O'D., 68, 69. C., 46, 47. - O'D., 70. C., 49. - O'D., 71. C., 48. - -- C., 50. - O'D., 72. C., 52. - O'D., 73. -- - O'D., 74. C., 53. - O'D., 75. C., 54. - O'D., 76-80. C., 55-59. - O'D., 81-134. -- - O'D., 135, 136. C., 60, 61. - -- C., 62. - O'D., 137. -- - O'D., 138. C., 63. - O'D., 139-158. -- - -[78] Of this widely spread group, Grimm's No. 60, Die zwei Brueder, may be -taken as a type. The brethren eat heart and liver of the gold bird and -thereby get infinite riches, are schemed against by a goldsmith, who would -have kept the gold bird for himself, seek their fortunes throughout the -world accompanied by helping beasts, part at crossways, leaving a life -token to tell each one how the other fares; the one delivers a princess -from a dragon, is cheated of the fruit of the exploit by the Red Knight, -whom after a year he confounds, wins the princess, and, after a while, -hunting a magic hind, falls victim to a witch. His brother, learning his -fate through the life token, comes to the same town, is taken for the -young king even by the princess, but keeps faith to his brother by laying -a bare sword twixt them twain at night. He then delivers from the witch's -spells his brother, who, learning the error caused by the likeness, and -thinking advantage had been taken of it, in a fit of passion slays him, -but afterwards, hearing the truth, brings him back to life again. Grimm -has pointed out in his notes the likeness between this story and that of -Siegfried (adventures with Mimir, Fafnir, Brunhilde, and Gunnar). In India -the tale figures in Somadeva's Katha Sarit Sagara (Brockhaus' translation, -ii., 142, _et seq._). The one brother is transformed into a demon through -accidental sprinkling from a body burning on a bier. He is in the end -released from this condition by his brother's performing certain exploits, -but there is no similarity of detail. Other variants are _Zingerle_ (p. -131) where the incident occurs of the hero's winning the king's favour by -making his bear dance before him; this I am inclined to look upon as a -weakened recollection of the incident of a hero's making a princess -_laugh_, either by playing antics himself or making an animal of his play -them (_see_ _supra_, p. 134, Kennedy's Irish Tale). Grimm also quotes -_Meier_ 29 and 58, but these are only variants of the dragon-killing -incident. In the variant of 29, given p. 306, the hero makes the king -laugh, and in both stories occurs the familiar incident of the hero coming -unknown into a tournament and overcoming all enemies, as in Peredur (Inc. -9). _Wolf._, p. 369, is closer, and here the hero is counselled by a grey -mannikin whom he will unspell if he succeeds. _Stier_, No. I. (not p. 67, -as Grimm erroneously indicates) follows almost precisely the same course -as Grimm's 60, save that there are three brothers. _Graal_, p. 195, has -the magic gold bird opening, but none of the subsequent adventures tally. -_Schott_, No. 11, is also cited by Grimm, but mistakenly; it belongs to -the faithful-servant group. Very close variants come from Sweden -(Cavallius-Oberleitner, V_a_, V_b_) and Italy (Pentamerone, I. 7 and I. -9). The Swedish tales have the miraculous conception opening, which is a -prominent feature in tales belonging to the Expulsion and Return group -(_e.g._, Perseus, Cu-Chulaind, and Taliesin), but present otherwise very -nearly the same incidents as Grimm. The second of the Italian versions has -the miraculous conception opening so characteristic of this group of -folk-tales, and of the allied formula group, the attainment of riches -consequent upon eating the heart of a sea dragon, the tournament incident -(though without the disguise of the hero), the stag hunt, wherein the -stag, an inimical wizard haunting the wood, is a cannibal and keeps the -captured hero for eating. In the story of the delivery by the second -brother, the separating sword incident occurs. The first version opens -with what is apparently a distorted and weakened form of the hero's -clearing a haunted house of its diabolical inmates (_see_ _infra_ Ch. -VII., Gawain) and then follows very closely Grimm's Two Brothers, save -that the alluring witch is young and fair, the whole tale being made to -point the moral, "more luck than wit." Straparola, _a_ 3, is a variant of -the dragon fight incident alone. It is impossible not to be struck by the -fact that in this widely spread group of tales are to be found some of the -most characteristic incidents of the Perceval and allied Great Fool group. -The only version, however, which brings the two groups into formal contact -is O'Daly's form of the Great Fool. - -[79] The brother feature appears likewise in Wolfram von Eschenbach, where -Parzival's final and hardest struggle is against the unknown brother, as -the Great Fool's is against the Gruagach. This may be added to other -indications that Wolfram _did_ have some other version before him besides -Chrestien's. - -[80] I cannot but think that these words have connection with the incident -in the English Sir Perceval of the hero's throwing into the flames and -thus destroying his witch enemy. - -[81] I must refer to my Mabinogion Studies, I. Branwen for a discussion of -the relation of this tale with Branwen and with the Teutonic Heldensage. - -[82] Another parallel is afforded by the tale of Conall Gulban (Campbell, -III., 274). Conall, stretched wounded on the field, sees "when night grew -dark a great Turkish carlin, and she had a white glaive of light with -which she could see seven miles behind her and seven miles before her; and -she had a flask of balsam carrying it." The dead men are brought to life -by having three drops of balsam put into their mouths. The hero wins both -flask and glaive. - -[83] _Cf._ my Branwen for remarks on the mythological aspect of the -ballad. It should be noted that most of the ballads traditionally current -in the Highlands are of semi-literary origin, _i.e._, would seem to go -back to the compositions of mediaeval Irish bards, who often sprinkled over -the native tradition a profusion of classical and historical names. I do -not think the foreign influence went farther than the "names" of some -personages, and such as it is is more at work in the ballads than in the -tales. - -[84] This may seem to conflict with the statement made above (p. 145), -that the Mabinogi probably took over the maimed uncle from Chrestien. But -there were in all probability several forms of the story; that hinted at -in Chrestien and found in Manessier had its probable counterpart in Celtic -tradition as well as that found in Gerbert. It is hardly possible to -determine what was the form found in the proto-Mabinogi, the possibility -of its having been exactly the same as that of Gerbert is in no way -affected by the fact that the Mabinogi, as we now have it, has in this -respect been influenced by Chrestien. Meanwhile Birch-Hirschfeld's -hypothesis that Gerbert's section of the Conte du Graal is an -interpolation between Gautier and Manessier is laid open to grave doubt. -It is far more likely that Gerbert's work was an independent and original -attempt to provide an ending for Chrestien's unfinished poem, and that he -had before him a different version of the original from that used by -Gautier and Manessier. - -[85] It occurs also in Peredur (Inc. 16), where the hero comes to the -Castle of the Youths, who, fighting every day against the Addanc of the -Cave, are each day slain, and each day brought to life by being anointed -in a vessel of warm water and with precious balsam. - -[86] For the second time, if Gerbert's continuation be really intended for -our present text of Gautier, and if Potvin's summary of Gerbert is to be -relied upon; Birch-Hirschfeld seemingly differs from him here, and makes -the King at once mention the flaw. - -[87] It may be worth notice that v. 35,473 is the same as Chrestien, v. -4,533. - -[88] It is evident that, although in the MS. in which this version is -found it is followed by Manessier's section, the poem was intended by -Gerbert to end here. - -[89] Told at other times, and notably by Gautier himself (Inc. 21), of -Perceval, where the feature of a dead knight lying on the altar is added. - -[90] According to the Montpellier MS., which here agrees substantially -with Potvin's text (the Mons MS.), this is Gauvain's second visit to the -Grail Castle. At his first visit he had been subjected to the sword test -and had slept. The mystic procession is made up as follows:--Squire with -lance; maidens with plate; two squires with candlesticks; fair maiden -weeping, in her hands a "graal;" four squires with the bier, on which lies -the knight and the broken sword. Gauvain would fain learn about these -things, but is bidden first to make the sword whole. On his failure he is -told - - Vous n'avez par encore tant fet - D'armes, que vous doiez savoir, etc., - -and then goes to sleep. His awakening finds him in a marsh. - -[91] It may be conjectured that the magic vessel which preserves to this -enchanted folk the semblance of life passes into the hero's possession -when he asks about it, and that deprived of it their existence comes to an -end, as would that of the Anses without the Apples of Iduna. I put this -into a note, as I have no evidence in support of the theory. But read in -the light of this conjecture some hitherto unnoticed legend may supply the -necessary link of testimony. - -[92] Nearly all the objections to the view suggested in the text may be -put aside as due to insufficient recognition of the extent to which the -two formulas have been mingled, but there is one which seems to me of real -moment. The wasting of the land which I have looked upon as belonging to -the unspelling formula, is traced by the Queste to the blow struck by King -Lambar against King Urlain, a story which, as we have seen, is very -similar to that which forms the groundwork of one at least of the models -followed by the Conte du Graal in its version of the feud quest. It does -not seem likely that the Queste story is a mere echo of that found in the -Conte du Graal, nor that the fusion existed so far back as in a model -common to both. But the second alternative is possible. - -[93] I do not follow M. Hucher upon the (as it seems to me) very insecure -ground of Gaulish numismatic art. The object which he finds figured in -pre-Christian coins may be a cauldron--and it may not--and even if it is a -cauldron it may have no such significance as he ascribes to it. - -[94] _Cf._ as to Lug D'Arbois de Jubainville, Cycle Mythologique -Irlandais; Paris, 1884, p. 178. He was revered by all Celtic races, and -has left his trace in the name of several towns, chief among them -Lug-dunum = Lyons. In so far as the Celts had departmental gods, he was -the god of handicraft and trade; but _cf._ as to this Rhys, Hibb. Lect., -p. 427-28. - -[95] _Cf._ D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._, p. 269-290. The Dagda--the -good god--seems to have been head of the Irish Olympus. A legend anterior -to the eleventh century, and belonging probably to the oldest stratum of -Celtic myth, ascribes to him power over the earth: without his aid the -sons of Miledh could get neither corn nor milk. It is, therefore, no -wonder to find him possessor of the magic cauldron, which may be looked -upon as a symbol of fertility, and, as such, akin to similar symbols in -the mythology of nearly every people. - -[96] _Cf._ as to the mythic character of the Tuatha de Danann, D'Arbois de -Jubainville, _op. cit._, and my review of his work, Folk-Lore Journal, -June, 1884. - -[97] I at one time thought that the prohibition to reveal the "secret -words," which is such an important element in Robert de Borron's version, -might be referred to the same myth-root as the instances in the text. -There is little or no evidence to sustain such a hazardous hypothesis. -Nevertheless it is worth while drawing attention in this place to that -prohibition, for which I can offer no adequate explanation. - -[98] Powers of darkness and death. Tethra their king reigns in an island -home. It is from thence that the maiden comes to lure away Connla of the -Golden Hair, as is told in the Leabhar na-h-Uidhre, even as the Grail -messenger comes to seek Perceval--"'tis a land in which is neither death -nor old age--a plain of never ending pleasure," the counterpart, in fact, -of that Avalon to which Arthur is carried off across the lake by the fay -maiden, that Avalon which, as we see in Robert de Borron, was the earliest -home of the Grail-host. - -[99] _Cf._ D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._ p. 188. - -[100] When Cuchulainn was opposing the warriors of Ireland in their -invasion of Ulster one of his feats is to make smooth chariot-poles out of -rough branches of trees by passing them through his clenched hand, so that -however bent and knotted they were they came from his hands even, -straight, and smooth. _Tain bo Cualgne_, quoted by Windisch, Rev. Celt., -Vol. V. - -[101] This epithet recalls Lug, of whom it is the stock designation. Now -Lug was _par excellence_ the craftsman's god; he, too, at the battle of -Mag Tured acted as a sort of armourer-general to the Tuatha de Danann. A -dim reminiscence of this may be traced in the words which the folk-tale -applies to Ullamh l.f., "he was the one special man for taking their -arms." - -[102] _Cf._ my Aryan Expulsion and Return formula, pp. 8, 13, for variants -of these incidents in other stories belonging to this cycle and in the -allied folk-tales. - -[103] This incident is only found in the living Fionn-_sage_, being absent -from all the older versions, and yet, as the comparison with the allied -Perceval sage shows, it is an original and essential feature. How do the -advocates of the theory that the Ossianic cycle is a recent mass of -legend, growing out of the lives and circumstances of historical men, -account for this development along the lines of a formula with which, _ex -hypothesi_, the legend has nothing to do? The Fionn-_sage_, it is said, -has been doctored in imitation of the Cuchulainn-_sage_, but the assertion -(which though boldly made has next to no real foundation) cannot be made -in the case of the Conte du Graal. Mediaeval Irish bards and unlettered -Highland peasants did not conspire together to make Fionn's adventures -agree with those of Perceval. - -[104] In the Gawain form of the feud quest found in Gautier, the knight -whose death he sets forth to avenge is slain by the cast of a dart. Can -this be brought into connection with the fact that Perceval slays with a -cast of his dart the Red Knight, who, according to the Thornton romance, -is his father's slayer. - -[105] This prose tale precedes an oral version of one of the commonest -Fenian poems, which in its present shape obviously goes back to the days -when the Irish were fighting against Norse invaders. The poem, which still -lives in Ireland as well as in the Highlands, belongs to that later stage -of development of the Fenian cycle, in which Fionn and his men are -depicted as warring against the Norsemen. It is totally dissimilar from -the prose story summarised above, and I am inclined to look upon the prose -as belonging to a far earlier stage in the growth of the cycle, a stage in -which the heroes were purely mythical and their exploits those of mythical -heroes generally. - -[106] The prohibition seems to be an echo of the widely-spread one which -forbids the visitor to the otherworld tasting the food of the dead, which, -if he break, he is forfeit to the shades. The most famous instance of this -myth is that of Persephone. - -[107] _Cf._ Procopius quoted by Elton, Origins of English History, p. 84. - -[108] Prof. Rhys, Hibbert Lectures for 1886, looks upon him as a Celtic -Zeus. He dispossessed his father of the Brug by fraud, as Zeus -dispossessed Kronos by force. - -[109] D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._, p. 275. Rhys, _op. cit._, p. -149. - -[110] M. Duvau, Revue Celtique, Vol. IX., No. 1, has translated the -varying versions of the story. - -[111] Like many of the older Irish tales the present form is confused and -obscure, but it is easy to arrive at the original. - -[112] The part in brackets is found in one version only of the story. Of -the two versions each has retained certain archaic features not to be -found in the other. - -[113] Summarised by D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._, p. 323. - -[114] D'Arbois de Jubainville, p. 326. - -[115] Otto Kuepp, Z.f.D. Phil. xvii, i, 68, examining Wolfram's version -sees in the branch guarded by Gramoflanz and broken by Parzival a trace of -the original myth underlying the story. Gramoflanz is connected with the -Magic Castle (one of the inmates of which is his sister), or with the -otherworld. Kuepp's conjecture derives much force from the importance given -to the branch in the Irish tales as part of the gear of the otherworld. - -[116] This recalls the fact that Oengus of the Brug fell in love with a -swanmaid. See text and translation Revue Celtique, Vol. III., pp. 341, -_et. seq._ The story is alluded to in the catalogue of epic tales (dating -from the tenth century) found in the Book of Leinster. - -[117] In a variant from Kashmir (Knowles' Folk-tales of Kashmir, London, -1888, p. 75, _et. seq._), Saiyid and Said, this tale is found embedded in -a twin-brethren one. - -[118] Frederick (I.) Barbarossa is a mistake, as old as the seventeenth -century (_cf._ Koch, Sage vom Kaiser Friedrich in Kyffhaeuser, Leipzig, -1886), for Frederick II., the first German Emperor of whom the legend was -told. The mistake was caused by the fact that Frederick took the place of -a German red-bearded god, probably Thor, hence the later identification -with the _red-bearded_ Frederick, instead of with that great opponent of -the Papacy whose death away in Italy the German party refused for many -years to credit. - -[119] Unless the passage relating to Carl the Great quoted by Grimm (D.M., -III., 286) from Mon. Germ. Hist., Vol. VIII., 215, "inde fabulosum illud -confictum de Carolo Magno, quasi de mortuis in id ipsum resuscitato, et -alio nescio quo nihilominus redivivo," be older. - -[120] Liebrecht's edition of the Otia Imperialia, Hanover, 1856, p. 12, -and note p. 55. - -[121] Martin Zur Gralsage, p. 31, arguing from the historical connection -of Frederick II. with Sicily, thinks that the localisation of this -Arthurian legend in that isle was the reason of its being associated with -the Hohenstauffen; in other words, the famous German legend would be an -indirect offshot of the Arthurian cycle. I cannot follow Martin here. I -see no reason for doubting the genuineness of the traditions collected by -Kuhn and Schwartz, or for disbelieving that Teutons had this myth as well -as Celts. It is no part of my thesis to exalt Celtic tradition at the -expense of German; almost all the parallels I have adduced between the -romances and Celtic mythology and folk-lore could be matched from those of -Germany. But the romances are historically associated with Celtic -tradition, and the parallels found in the latter are closer and more -numerous than those which could be recovered from German tradition. It is, -therefore, the most simple course to refer the romances to the former -instead of to the latter. - -[122] See Grimm, D.M., Ch. XXXII.; Fitzgerald, Rev. Celt., IV., 198; and -the references in Liebrecht, _op. cit._ - -[123] Personally communicated by the Rev. Mr. Sorby, of Sheffield. - -[124] In Chrestien the part of the Magician Lord is little insisted upon. -But in Wolfram he is a very important personage. It may here be noted that -the effects which are to follow in Chrestien the doing away with the -enchantments of this Castle, answer far more accurately to the description -given by the loathly Grail-Maiden of the benefits which would have accrued -had Perceval put the question at the Court of the Fisher King than to -anything actually described as the effect of that question being put, -either by Gautier, Manessier, or Gerbert. This castle seems, too, to be -the one in which lodge the Knights, each having his lady love with him, -which the loathly maiden announces to be her home. - -[125] Kennedy follows in the main Oss. Soc., Vol. II, pp. 118, _et. seq._, -an eighteenth century version translated by Mr. O'Kearney. This particular -episode is found, pp. 147, _et. seq._ I follow the Oss. Soc. version in -preference to Kennedy's where they differ. - -[126] The story as found in Heinrich may be compared with the folk-tale of -the Sleeping Beauty. She is a maiden sunk in a death-in-life sleep -together with all her belongings until she be awakened by the kiss of the -destined prince. May we not conjecture that in an older form of the story -than any we now possess, the court of the princess vanished when the -releasing kiss restored her to real life and left her alone with the -prince? The comparison has this further interest, that the folk-tale is a -variant of an old myth which figures prominently in the hero-tales of the -Teutonic race (Lay of Skirni, Lay of Swipday and Menglad, Saga of Sigurd -and Brunhild), and that in its most famous form Siegfried, answering in -Teutonic myth to Fionn, is its hero. But Peredur is a Cymric Fionn, so -that the parallel between the two heroes, Celtic and Teutonic, is closer -than at first appears when Siegfried is compared only to his Gaelic -counterpart. - -[127] I have not examined Gawain's visit to the Magic Castle in detail, in -the first place because it only bears indirectly upon the Grail-Quest, and -then because I hope before very long to study the personality of Gawain in -the romances, and to throw light upon it from Celtic mythic tradition in -the same way that I have tried in the foregoing pages to do in the case of -Perceval. - -[128] Kennedy, Legendary Fictions, p. 154, _et. seq._ - -[129] Grimm, Vol. III., p. 9 (note to Maerchen von einem der auszog das -Fuerchten zu lernen), gives a number of variants. It should be noted that -in this story there is the same mixture of incidents of the Magic Castle -and Haunted Castle forms as in the romances. Moreover, one of the trials -to which the hero's courage is subjected is the bringing into the room of -a coffin in which lies a dead man, just as in Gawain's visit to the Grail -Castle. Again, as Grimm notes, but mistakenly refers to Perceval instead -of to Gawain, the hero has to undergo the adventures of the magic bed, -which, when he lays himself down in it, dashes violently about through the -castle and finally turns topsy turvy. In connection with this story, and -with the whole series of mythical conceptions noted in the Grail romances, -Chapter XXXII. of the Deutsche Mythologie deserves careful study. Grimm -compares Conduiramur's (Blanchefleur's) nightly visit to Percival's -chamber to the appearance at the bedside of the delivering hero of that -white maiden, who is so frequently figured as the inmate of the Haunted -Castle. As niece of the Lord of the Grail Castle, Blanchefleur is also a -denizen of the otherworld, but I hardly think that the episode of -Perceval's delivering her from her enemies can be looked upon as a version -of the removal of the spells of the Haunted Castle. In a recent number of -the Revue des Traditions Populaires (III., p. 103), there is a good Breton -version of the Bespelled Castle sunk under the waves. A fair princess is -therein held captive; once a year the waves part and permit access, and he -who is bold enough to seize the right moment wins princess and castle, -which are restored to earth. - -[130] Whether it be the Castle of the Fisher King, _i.e._, the Castle of -the Perceval Quest; or the Magic Castle, _i.e._, the Castle of the Gawain -Quest. - -[131] For fuller information about this mysterious fish, see Rhys, Hibbert -Lectures, pp. 553-54. - -[132] In an already quoted tale of Campbell's (LVIII., the Rider of -Grianaig) allusion is made to the "black fisherman working at his tricks." -Campbell remarks that a similar character appears in other tales. Can this -wizard fisher be brought into contact with the Rich Fisher of -Pseudo-Chrestien (_supra_, p. 8), who knew much of black art, and could -change his semblance a hundred times? - -[133] Complete text, edited by Kuno Meyer, Revue Celt., Vol. V. Major -portion of text with English translation by Dr. J. O'Donovan, Oss. Soc., -Vol. IV. The tract as a whole is only known to us from a fifteenth century -MS.; but the earlier portion of it appears in the L.n.H., in a strongly -euhemerised form, only such incidents being admitted as could be presented -historically, and these being divested of all supernatural character. See -my paper, "Folk-Lore Record," Vol. IV., for a discussion of the genuine -and early character of the tract. - -[134] A reason for this concealment may be found in the idea, so -frequently met with in a certain stage of human development, that the name -is an essential portion of the personality, and must not be mentioned, -especially to possible enemies or to beings possessed of magical powers, -lest they should make hurtful use of it. - -[135] _Cf._ the whole of the Book of Rights for an exemplification of the -way in which the pre-Christian Irishman was hedged and bound and fettered -by this amazingly complicated system of what he might and what he might -not do. - -[136] They offer him dog's-flesh cooked on rowan spits, and, it has been -conjectured that the _gess_ has a totemistic basis, Culann's Hound -(Cuchulainn) being forbidden to partake of the flesh of his totem. - -[137] It is only within the last 100 years that our knowledge of savage -and semi-savage races has furnished us with a parallel to the "geasa" in -the "taboo" of the Polynesian. I am not advancing too much in the -statement that this institution, although traces of it exist among all -Aryan races, had not the same importance among any as among the Irish -Gael. It is another proof of the primitive character of Irish social life, -a character which may, perhaps, be ascribed to the assimilation by the -invading Celts of the beliefs and practices of much ruder races. - -[138] Mr. Elton (Origins, pp. 291, 292) looks upon Bran and Caradoc as -original war gods. Caradoc, he thinks, was confounded with Caractacus, -Bran with Brennus, and hence the two personages were sent to Rome in -imitation of the presumed historical prototypes. - -[139] Kynddelw's triad does not really refer to the "blessed" families at -all, but to the "faithful" or "loyal" families. Stephen's mistake arose -from the fact of the name Madawc occurring in two sets of triads, one -relating to the "lordly" families of Britain in which the family of Llyr -Llediath also figures, and one to the faithful families. In both triads -the name is probably a mistake for Mabon. (Note communicated by Professor -Rhys.) - -I let the statement in the text stand, to exhort myself and others to that -fear of trusting authorities which in scholarship is the beginning of -wisdom. - -[140] Professor Rhys tells me this passage can only mean "Blessed Bran's -head." - -[141] Mr. Ward endorses Zarncke's contention. According to him there is no -trace of any connection between Joseph and the evangelisation of Britain -which can be said to be older than the romances. The statements of the "De -ant. eccl. Glast." are, he thinks, no guide to the knowledge or opinions -of William of Malmesbury. - -[142] I may here notice a theory to which my attention has only just been -called. It is found cited in a work of great research, _Die Fronica_, by -Professor Karl Pearson, Strassburg, 1887. The author quotes an opinion of -Mr. Jenner, of the British Museum, that the head in the platter of the -Mabinogi may be derived from a Veronica portrait. Professor Pearson -expresses doubt, because such a procession of the Veronica portrait and -the Passion Instruments as the scene in the Mabinogi would, _ex -hypothesi_, imply is not known to him before the fourteenth century, -whereas the Mabinogi must be attributed, at latest, to the middle of the -thirteenth century. Mr. H. L. D. Ward informs me that the suggestion was -his. Noting the connection of the Veronica and Grail legends, testified to -by Borron, it occurred to him that the whole scene at the Wounded King's -might be derived from the former legends. The Wounded King, healed by the -Grail, would thus be a counterpart of the leprous Vespasian healed by the -Veronica portrait, which some wandering "jongleur" turned boldly into an -actual head. But it must be noted that in Borron, our authority for the -connection of the two legends, there is no Wounded King at all; in the -Conte du Graal the Maimed King is not healed by any special talisman, but -by the death of his enemy, the visible sign of which is that enemy's head, -whilst in the "procession" (which Mr. Ward thinks to have been intended as -a vision), the Grail is certainly a vessel, and has no connection whatever -with any head or portrait. The theory thus requires that the version which -gives the oldest form of the hypothetical remodelled Veronica legend -omitted the very feature which was its sole _raison d'etre_. - -[143] Mr. Ward thinks the localisation a late one, and that practically -there is no authority for it of an older date than the romances. He points -out in especial that Geoffrey's Vita Merlini, which has so much to say -about the "insula pomorum" in no way connects it with Glastonbury. There -is considerable doubt as the etymology of Glastonbury, but there is -substantial unanimity of opinion among Celtic scholars of the present day -in referring it to a Celtic rather than to a Saxon source. Be this as it -may, the fact remains that at sometime in the course of the twelfth -century the old Christian site of Glastonbury took, as it were, the place -of the Celtic paradise, and it seems far more likely that the -transformation was effected in virtue of some local tradition than wholly -through the medium of foreign romances. - -[144] The pre-Christian Irish annals, which are for the most part -euhemerised mythology, contain also a certain amount of race history; thus -the struggle between the powers of light and darkness typified by the -antagonism between Tuatha de Danann and Fomori, is doubled by that between -the fair invading Celts and the short dark aborigines. But the latter has -only left the barest trace of its existence in the national sagas. Not -until we come to that secondary stage of the Fenian saga, which must have -been shaped in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and which represents -the Fenians as warring against the harrying Northmen, does the foreign -element reappear in Irish tradition. - -[145] The Tochmarc Emer, or the Wooing of Emer by Cuchullain, has been -translated by Professor Kuno Meyer in the Archaeological Review, Nos. 1-4 -(London, 1888). The original text is found partly in the Leabhar na -h-Uidhre, partly in later MSS. - -[146] The fate of the Sons of Usnech is known to us in two main -redactions, one found in the Book of Leinster (compiled in the middle of -the twelfth century from older MS.) printed by Windisch, Irische Texte -(first series) pp. 67-82, and translated by M. Poinsignon, Revue des -Traditions Populaires, III, pp. 201-207. A text printed and translated by -J. O'Flanagan (Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, 1808, pp. -146-177), agrees substantially with this. The second redaction has only -been found in later MSS. Mr. Whitley Stokes has given text and translation -from a fifteenth century MS. (Irische Texte, II. 2, pp. 109-178), and -O'Flanagan has edited a very similar version (_loc. cit._ pp. 16-135). -This second version is fuller and more romantic; in it alone is to be -found Deirdre's lament on leaving Scotland, one of the earliest instances -in post-classic literature of personal sympathy with Nature. - -But the earlier version, though it bear like so much else in the oldest -Irish MS. obvious traces of abridgment and euhemerism, is also full of the -most delicate romantic touches. Part of Deirdre's lament over the slain -Noisi may be paraphrased thus:--"Fair one, loved one, flower of beauty; -beloved, upright and strong; beloved, noble and modest warrior. When we -wandered through the woods of Ireland, sweet with thee was the night's -sleep! Fair one, blue-eyed, beloved of thy wife, lovely to me at the -trysting place came thy clear voice through the woods. I cannot sleep; -half the night my spirit wanders far among throngs of men. I cannot eat or -smile. Break not to-day my heart; soon enough shall I lie within my grave. -Strong are the waves of the sea, but stronger is sorrow, Conchobor." - -[147] M. Renan's article "De la Poesie des Races Celtiques" (Revue des -Deux Mondes, 1854, pp. 473-506) only came into my hands after the bulk of -this chapter was printed, or I should hardly have dared to state in my own -words those conclusions in which we agree. It may be useful to indicate -those points in which I think this suggestive essay no longer represents -the present state of knowledge. When M. Renan wrote, the nature of popular -tradition had been little investigated in France--hence a tendency to -attribute solely to the Celtic genius what is common to all popular -tradition. Little or nothing was then known in France of early Irish -history or literature--hence the wild, primitive character of Celtic -civilization is ignored. The "bardic" literature of Wales was still -assigned wholesale to the age of its alleged authors--hence a false -estimate of the relations between the profane and ecclesiastical writings -of the Welsh. Finally the three Mabinogion (The Lady of the Fountain, -Geraint, Peredur), which correspond to poems of Chrestien's, are -unhesitatingly accepted as their originals. The influence of Welsh fiction -in determining the courtly and refined nature of mediaeval romance is, in -consequence, greatly exaggerated. It is much to be wished that M. Renan -would give us another review of Celtic literature based on the work of the -last thirty years. His lucid and sympathetic criticism would be most -welcome in a department of study which has been rather too exclusively -left to the specialist. - -[148] Malory is a wonderful example of the power of style. He is a most -unintelligent compiler. He frequently chooses out of the many versions of -the legend, the longest, most wearisome, and least beautiful; his own -contributions to the story are beneath contempt as a rule. But his -language is exactly what it ought to be, and his has remained in -consequence the classic English version of the Arthur story. - -[149] See p. 112 for a brief summary of Borron's conception; Sin the cause -of want among the people; the separation of the pure from the impure by -means of the fish (symbol of Christ); punishment of the self-willed false -disciple; reward of Brons by charge of the Grail; symbolising of the -Trinity by the three tables and three Grail Keepers. - -[150] The greater delicacy of the Welsh tale has already been noted. "To -make him such a offer before I am wooed by him, that, truly, can I not -do," says the counterpart of Blanchefleur in the Mabinogi. "Go my sister -and sleep," answers Peredur, "nor will I depart from thee until I do that -which thou requirest." I cannot help looking upon the prominence which the -Welsh story-teller has given to this scene as his protest against the -strange and to him repulsive ways of knightly love. The older, mythic -nature of Peredur's beloved, who might woo without forfeiting womanly -modesty, in virtue of her goddesshood, had died away in the narrator's -mind, the new ideal of courtly passion had not won acceptance from him. - -[151] The perplexities which beset the modern reader of the Queste are -reflected in the Laureate's retelling of the legend. Nowhere else in the -Idylls has he departed so widely from his model. Much of the incident is -due to him, and replaces with advantage the nauseous disquisitions upon -chastity which occupy so large a space in the Queste. The artist's -instinct, rather than the scholar's respect for the oldest form of the -story, led him to practically restore Perceval to his rightful place as -hero of the quest. _His_ fortunes we can follow with an interest that -passing shadow, Galahad, wholly fails to evoke. Nor, as may easily be -seen, is the fundamental conception of the twelfth century romance to the -Laureate's taste. Arthur is his ideal of manhood, and Arthur's energies -are practical and human in aim and in execution. What the "blameless king" -speaks when he first learns of the quest represents, we may guess, the -author's real attitude towards the whole fantastic business. - -It is much to be regretted by all lovers of English poetry that Hawker's -Quest of the Sangraal was never completed. The first and only chant is a -magnificent fragment; with the exception of the Laureate's Sir Galahad, -the finest piece of pure literature in the cycle. Hawker, alone, perhaps -of moderns, could have kept the mediaeval tone and spirit, and yet brought -the Quest into contact with the needs and ideas of to-day. - -[152] _Cf._ Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, II, 811, and his references. - -[153] The ideas held by many peoples in a primitive stage of culture -respecting virginity are worthy careful study. Some physiological basis -may be found for them in the phenomena of hysteria, which must necessarily -have appeared to such peoples evidences of divine or demoniac possession, -and at that stage are hardly likely to have been met with save among -unmarried women. In the French witch trials these phenomena are often -presented by nuns, in whose case they were probably the outcome of a life -at once celibate and inactive. On the other hand the persons accused of -witchcraft were as a rule of the most abandoned character, and it is a, -morally speaking, degraded class which has furnished Professor Charcot and -his pupils with the subjects in whom they have identified all the -phenomena that confront the student of witch trials. - -[154] Domanig, Parzival-Studien, I, II, 1878-80. - -[155] San-Marte, Parzival-Studien, I-III, 1861-63. - -[156] Some readers may be anxious to read Wolfram's work to whom -twelfth-century German would offer great difficulties. A few words on the -translation into modern German may, therefore, not be out of place. -San-Marte's original translation (1839-41) is full of gross blunders and -mistranslations, and, what is worse, of passages foisted into the text to -support the translator's own interpretation of the poem as a whole. -Simrock's, which followed, is extremely close, but difficult and -unpleasing. San Marte's second edition, corrected from Simrock, is a great -advance upon the first; but even here the translator has too often allowed -his own gloss to replace Wolfram's statement. A thoroughly faithful yet -pleasing rendering is a desideratum. - -[157] J. Van Santen, Zur Beurtheilung Wolfram von Eschenbach, Wesel, 1882, -has attacked Wolfram for his acceptance of the morality of the day, and -has, on that ground, denied him any ethical or philosophic merit. The -pamphlet is useful for its references, but otherwise worthless. The fact -that Wolfram does accept _Minnedienst_ only gives greater value to his -picture of a nobler and purer ideal of love, whilst to refuse recognition -of his other qualities on this account is much as who should deny Dante's -claim to be regarded as a teacher and thinker because of his acceptance of -the hideous mediaeval hell. - -[158] In the Geheimnisse Goethe shows some slight trace of the Parzival -legend, and the words in which the teaching of the poem are summed up: -"Von der Gewalt, die alle Wesen bindet, Befreit _der_ Mensch sich der sich -ueberwindet," may be looked upon as an eighteenth century rendering of -Wolfram's conception. - -[159] We may here note an admirable example of the inevitable, spontaneous -character of the growth of certain conceptions, especially of such as have -been partly shaped by the folk-mind. There is nothing in Wolfram or in the -French romances to show that the fortunes of the loathly damsel (Wagner's -Kundry) are in any way bound up with the success of the Quest. But we have -seen that the Celtic folk-tales represent the loathly damsel as the real -protagonist of the story. She cannot be freed unless the hero do his task. -Precisely the same situation as in Wagner, who was thus led back to the -primitive _donnee_, although he can only have known intermediary stages in -which its signification had been quite lost. - -[160] _Cf._ the reproaches addressed to Potter Thompson (_supra_, p. 198). -That the visitor to the Bespelled Castle should be reproached, at once, -for his failure to do as he ought, seems to be a feature of the earliest -forms of the story. _Cf._ Campbell's Three Soldiers (_supra_, p. 196). If -Wolfram had another source than Chrestien it was one which partook more of -the unspelling than of the feud quest formula. Hence the presence of the -feature here. - -[161] In Wolfram's work there is a much closer connection between the -Gawain quest and the remainder of the poem than in Chrestien. -Orgueilleuse, to win whose love Gawain accomplishes his feats, is a former -love of Amfortas, the Grail King, who won for her a rich treasure and was -wounded in her service. Klinschor, too, the lord of the Magic Castle, is -brought into contact with Orgueilleuse, whom he helps against Gramoflanz. -It is difficult to say whether this testifies to an earlier or later stage -of growth of the legend. The winning of Orgueilleuse as the consequence of -accomplishing the feat of the Ford Perillous and plucking the branch is -strongly insisted upon by Wolfram and not mentioned by Chrestien, though -it is possible he might have intended to wed the two had he finished his -poem. In this respect, however, and taking these two works as they stand, -Wolfram's account seems decidedly the earlier. In another point, too, he -seems to have preserved the older form. Besides his Kundrie la Sorciere -(the loathly damsel) he has a Kundrie la Belle, whom I take to be the -loathly damsel released from the transforming spell. - - - - -Transcriber's Notes: - -Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. - -Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=. - -Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}. - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, by -Alfred Nutt - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDIES ON LEGEND OF HOLY GRAIL *** - -***** This file should be named 42205.txt or 42205.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/2/0/42205/ - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you -do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the -rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose -such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and -research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do -practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is -subject to the trademark license, especially commercial -redistribution. - - - -*** START: FULL LICENSE *** - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at - www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy -all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. -If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" -or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the -collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from -copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative -works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg -are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project -Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by -freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of -this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with -the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by -keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project -Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate -access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently -whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, -copied or distributed: - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived -from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is -posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied -and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees -or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work -with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the -work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 -through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional -terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked -to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the -permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), -you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a -copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon -request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other -form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided -that - -- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is - owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he - has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments - must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you - prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax - returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and - sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to - the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." - -- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or - destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium - and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of - Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any - money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days - of receipt of the work. - -- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set -forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from -both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm -collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain -"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or -corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual -property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a -computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by -your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. -To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 -and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent -permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. -Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 -North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email -contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the -Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To -SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any -particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. -To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/42205.zip b/42205.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index e071071..0000000 --- a/42205.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/42205-8.txt b/old/42205-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 018605e..0000000 --- a/old/42205-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,13330 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, by Alfred Nutt - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail - With Especial Reference to the Hypothesis of Its Celtic Origin - -Author: Alfred Nutt - -Release Date: February 26, 2013 [EBook #42205] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDIES ON LEGEND OF HOLY GRAIL *** - - - - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - - - - - - - - - The Folk-Lore Society, - FOR COLLECTING AND PRINTING - RELICS OF POPULAR ANTIQUITIES, &c. - ESTABLISHED IN - THE YEAR MDCCCLXXVIII. - - [Illustration: Alter et Idem.] - - PUBLICATIONS - OF - THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY. - 1888. - XXIII. - - - - -List of Officers of the Society. - -1887-1888. - - -PRESIDENT. - - THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF STRAFFORD. - - -VICE-PRESIDENTS. - - ANDREW LANG, M.A. - W. R. S. RALSTON, M.A. - EDWARD B. TYLOR, LL.D., F.R.S. - - -DIRECTOR. - - G. L. GOMME, F.S.A., 1, Beverley Villas, Barnes Common, S.W. - - -COUNCIL. - - THE HON. J. ABERCROMBY. - A. MACHADO Y ALVAREZ. - THE EARL BEAUCHAMP, F.S.A. - EDWARD BRABROOK, F.S.A. - DR. G. B. BRINTON. - JAMES BRITTEN, F.L.S. - LOYS BRUEYRE. - MISS C. S. BURNE. - EDWARD CLODD. - PROFESSOR D. COMPARETTI. - G. LAURENCE GOMME, F.S.A. - A. GRANGER HUTT, F.S.A. - SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, BT., F.R.S. - REV. DR. RICHARD MORRIS. - ALFRED NUTT. - EDWARD PEACOCK, F.S.A. - Z. D. PEDROSO. - PROFESSOR A. H. SAYCE, M.A. - CAPTAIN R. C. TEMPLE. - HENRY B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A. - - -AUDITORS. - - G. L. APPERSON. - JOHN TOLHURST, F.S.A. - - -LOCAL SECRETARIES. - - IRELAND: G. H. KINAHAN, R.I.A. - SOUTH SCOTLAND: WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK, ESQ. - NORTH SCOTLAND: Rev. WALTER GREGOR. - INDIA: CAPTAIN R. C. TEMPLE. - CHINA: J. STEWART LOCKHART. - - -HONORARY SECRETARIES. - - A. GRANGER HUTT, F.S.A., 8, Oxford Road, Kilburn, N.W. - J. J. FOSTER, 36, Alma Square, St. John's Wood, N.W. - - - - -STUDIES ON THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL. - - - - -_Works by the same Author._ - - -=The Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula among the Celts.=--_Folk-Lore -Record_, Vol. IV. 10_s._ 6_d._ - - "Interessante étude de mythographie comparée."--_Revue Celtique._ - -=Mabinogion Studies, I. The Mabinogi of Branwen, daughter of -Llyr.=--_Folk-Lore Record_, Vol. V. 10_s._ 6_d._ - - "Eingehendes und sehr beachtenswerthes Studium."--Prof. ERNST - WINDISCH, in _Ersch und Gruber_. - - "These careful and searching studies deserve to be honourably - mentioned."--Mons. HENRI GAIDOZ, in the _Academy_. - - - - - STUDIES ON THE - LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL - - _WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE HYPOTHESIS_ - OF ITS CELTIC ORIGIN. - - - BY ALFRED NUTT. - - - "Welchem Volke das Märchen (von Parzival's Jugendgeschichte) - angehörte, welches die schriftliche oder mündliche - Ueberlieferung mit der Gralsage in Verbindung brachte, ist - schwer zu bestimmen, doch würde dasjenige Volk den meisten - Anspruch darauf haben, bei welchem sich dies Märchen ausserhalb - jenes Zusammenhangs nachweisen liesse."--K. SIMROCK. - - "The Celtic hero who in the twelfth century became Perceval le - Chercheur du basin ... in the end became possessed of that - sacred basin le Saint Graal, and the holy lance which, though - Christian in the story, are the same as the talismans which - appear so often in Gaelic tales ... the glittering weapon which - destroys, and the sacred medicinal cup which cures."--J. F. - CAMPBELL. - - "In all the Fenian stories mention is made of Fionn's healing - cup ... it is the same as the Holy Grail of course."--J. F. - CAMPBELL. - - - London: - DAVID NUTT, 270-71, STRAND. - 1888. - - - - - HARRISON AND SONS, - PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY, - ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON. - - - - -DEDICATION. - - - To the Memory - OF - J. F. CAMPBELL, - FROM WHOM - I FIRST LEARNT TO LOVE CELTIC TRADITION. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - CHAPTER I. - - Description of the leading forms of the Romance: Conte del - Graal--Joseph d'Arimathie--Didot-Perceval--Queste del Saint - Graal--Grand Saint Graal--Parzival--Perceval le Gallois-- - Mabinogi of Peredur--Sir Perceval--Diu Crône--Information - respecting date and authorship of these works in the MSS. page 1 - - - CHAPTER II. - - Summaries--Conte du Graal: Pseudo-Chrestien, Chrestien, - Gautier de Doulens, Manessier, Gerbert--Wolfram--Heinrich von - dem Türlin--Didot-Perceval--Mabinogi of Peredur--Thornton MS. - Sir Perceval--Queste del Saint Graal--Grand Saint Graal-- - Robert de Borron's poem, Joseph of Arimathea page 8 - - - CHAPTER III. - - The legend formed of two portions: Early History of Grail, - Quest--Two forms of each portion distinguished--Grouping of - the various versions--Alternative hypotheses of development-- - Their bearing upon the alleged Celtic origin of the Grail-- - Closer examination of the various accounts of the Grail: The - first use made of it and its first possessor; its solace of - Joseph; its properties and the effect produced by it; its - name; its arrival in England; the Grail-keeper and his - relationship to the Promised Knight--Three different stages - in the development of the Queste--The work and the - qualification of the Promised Knight--Conclusions: Priority - over Early History of Quest--Chronological arrangement of the - versions page 65 - - - CHAPTER IV. - - SKETCH OF THE LITERATURE CONNECTED WITH THE GRAIL CYCLE. - - Villemarqué--Halliwell--San Marte (A. Schulz)--Simrock-- - Rochat--Furnivall's reprint of the Grand St. Graal and of - Borron--J. F. Campbell--Furnivall's Queste--Paulin Paris-- - Potvin's Conte du Graal--Bergmann--Skeat's Joseph of - Arimathea--Hucher: Grail Celtic, date of Borron--Zarncke, Zur - Geschichte der Gralsage; Grail belongs to Christian - legend--Birch-Hirschfeld develops Zarncke's views: Grand St. - Graal younger than Queste, both presuppose Chrestien and an - earlier Queste, the Didot-Perceval, which forms integral part - of Borron's trilogy; Mabinogi later than Chrestien; various - members of the cycle dated--Martin combats Birch-Hirschfeld: - Borron later than Chrestien, whose poem represents oldest - stage of the romance, which has its roots in Celtic - tradition--Hertz--Criticism of Birch-Hirschfeld page 97 - - - CHAPTER V. - - Relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du Graal--The - former not the source of the latter--Relationship of the - Conte du Graal and the Mabinogi--Instances in which the - Mabinogi has copied Chrestien--Examples of its independence-- - The incident of the blood drops in the snow--Differences - between the two works--The machinery of the Mabinogi and the - traces of it in the Conte du Graal--The stag hunt--The - Mabinogi and Manessier--The sources of the Conte du Graal and - the relation of the various parts to a common original--Sir - Perceval--Steinbach's theory--Objections to it--The counsels - in the Conte du Graal--Wolfram and the Mabinogi--Absence of - the Grail from the apparently oldest Celtic form page 127 - - - CHAPTER VI. - - The Lay of the Great Fool--Summary of the Prose Opening--The - Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula--Comparison with the - Mabinogi, Sir Perceval, and the Conte du Graal--Comparison - with various Gaelic märchen, the Knight of the Red Shield, - the Rider of Grianaig--Originality of the Highland tale-- - Comparison with the Fionn legend--Summary of the Lay of the - Great Fool--Comparison with the stag hunt incident in the - Conte du Graal and the Mabinogi--The folk-tale of the twin - brethren--The fight against the witch who brings the dead to - life in Gerbert and the similar incident in the folk-tale of - the Knight of the Red Shield--Comparison with the original - form of the Mabinogi--Originality of Gerbert page 152 - - - CHAPTER VII. - - The various forms of the visit to the Grail Castle in the - romances--Conte du Graal: Chrestien; Gautier-Manessier; - Gautier-Gerbert--Didot-Perceval--Mabinogi--Conte du Graal; - Gawain's visit to the Grail Castle--Heinrich von dem - Türlin--Conte du Graal: Perceval's visit to the Castle of - Maidens--Inconsistency of these varying accounts; their - testimony to stories of different nature and origin being - embodied in the romances--Two main types: feud quest and - unspelling quest--Reasons for the confusion of the two - types--Evidence of the confusion in older Celtic literature-- - The Grail in Celtic literature: the gear of the Tuatha de - Danann; the cauldron in the Ultonian cycle; the Mabinogi of - Branwen; vessel of balsam and glaive of light in the - contemporary folk-tale--The sword in Celtic literature: - Tethra; Fionn; Manus--Parallels to the Bespelled Castle; the - Brug of Oengus, the Brug of Lug, the Brug of Manannan Mac - Lir, Bran's visit to the Island of Women, Cormac Mac Art, and - the Fairy Branch; Diarmaid and the Daughter of King Under the - Waves--Unspelling stories: The Three Soldiers; the waiting of - Arthur; Arthur in Etna; the Kyffhäuser Legend, objections to - Martin's views concerning it--Gawain's visit to the Magic - Castle and Celtic parallels; The Son of Bad Counsel; Fionn in - Giant Land; Fionn in the House of Cuana; Fionn and the Yellow - Face--The Vanishing of the Bespelled Castle--Comparison with - the Sleeping Beauty cycle--The "Haunted Castle" form and its - influence on Heinrich's version--The Loathly Grail Messenger page 170 - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - The Fisher King in the Conte du Graal, in the Queste, and in - Borron and the Grand St. Graal--The accounts of latter - complete each other--The Fish is the Salmon of Wisdom-- - Parallel with the Fionn Saga--The nature of the Unspelling - Quest--The Mabinogi of Taliesin and its mythological - affinities--Brons, Bran, Cernunnos--Perceval's silence: Conte - du Graal explanation late; explanation from the Fionn Saga-- - Comparison of incident with _geasa_; nature of latter; - references to it in Celtic folk-tales and in old Irish - literature, Book of Rights, Diarmaid, Cuchulainn--_Geasa_ and - _taboo_ page 207 - - - CHAPTER IX. - - Summing up of the elements of the older portion of the - cycle--Parallelism with Celtic tradition--The Christian - element in the cycle: the two forms of the Early History; - Brons form older--Brons and Bran--The Bran conversion - legend--The Joseph conversion legend, Joseph in apocryphal - literature, the Evangelium Nicodemi--The Bran legend the - starting point of the Christian transformation of the - legend--Substitution of Joseph for Bran--Objection to this - hypothesis--Hypothetical sketch of the growth of the legend page 215 - - - CHAPTER X. - - The Moral and Spiritual import of the Grail-Legend - universally recognised--Popularity of the Arthurian Romance-- - Reasons for that Popularity--Affinities of the Mediæval - Romances with early Celtic Literature; Importance of the - Individual Hero; Knighthood; the _rôle_ of Woman; the Celtic - Fairy and the Mediæval Lady; the Supernatural--M. Renan's - views--The Quest in English Literature, Malory--The earliest - form of the Legend, Chrestien, his continuators--The Queste - and its Ideal--The Sex-Relations in the Middle Ages-- - Criticism of Mr. Furnivall's estimate of the moral import of - the Queste--The Merits of the Queste--The Chastity Ideal in - the later versions--Modern English Treatments: Tennyson, - Hawker--Possible Source of the Chastity Ideal in Popular - Tradition--The Perceval Quest in Wolfram; his Moral - Conception; the Question; Parzival and Conduiramur--The - Parzival Quest and Faust--Wagner's Parsifal--The Christian - element in the Legend--Ethical Ideas in the folk-tale - originals of the Grail Romances: the Great Fool; the Sleeping - Beauty--Conclusion page 228 - - - APPENDIX A.: The Relationship of Wolfram to Chrestien page 261 - - - APPENDIX B.: The Grand St. Graal Prologue and the Brandan - Legend page 264 - - - INDEX I. The Dramatis Personæ of the Legend page 266 - - - INDEX II. page 275 - - - - -INTRODUCTION. - - -The present work is, as its title states, a collection of "Studies." It -does not profess to give an exhaustive or orderly account of the Grail -romance cycle; it deals with particular aspects of the legend, and makes -no pretence of exhausting even these. - -It may be urged that as this is the case the basis of the work is too -broad for the superstructure, and that there was no need to give full -summaries of the leading forms of the legend, or to discuss at such length -their relation one to another, when it was only intended to follow up one -of the many problems which this romance cycle presents. Had there existed -any work in English which did in any measure what the writer has here -attempted to do, he would only too gladly have given more space and more -time to the elaboration of the special subject of these studies. But the -only work of the kind is in German, _Birch-Hirschfeld's Die Gralsage_. -Many interested in the Arthurian romances do not know German; and some who -profess an interest in them, and who do know German, are not, to judge by -their writings, acquainted with Birch-Hirschfeld's work. It seemed worth -while, therefore, to present the facts about the cycle with greater -fulness than would have been necessary had those facts been generally -accessible. The writer felt, too, that whatever judgment might be passed -upon his own speculations, his statements of fact might give his book some -value in the eyes of students. He also wished to give all who felt an -interest in the line of investigation he opened up the opportunity of -pursuing it further, or the means of checking his assertions and -conjectures. - -The writer has taken his texts as he found them. He has studied the -subject matter of the romances, not the words in which they have been -handed down. Those who seek for philological disquisitions are, therefore, -warned that they will find nothing to interest them; and those scholars -who are well acquainted with the printed texts, but who are on the search -for fresh MS. evidence, must not look here for such. On the other hand, as -the printed texts are for the most of such rarity and price as to be -practically inaccessible to anyone not within reach of a large library, -the writer trusts that his abstract of them will be welcome to many. He -has striven to take note of all works of real value bearing upon the -subject. He endeavoured, though unsuccessfully, to obtain a copy of M. -Gaston Paris' account of the Arthurian romances which, though it has been -for some months in print, is not yet published. - -The writer has done his best to separate the certain from the conjectural. -Like M. Renan, in a similar case, he begs the reader to supply the -"perhaps" and the "possibly's" that may sometimes have dropt out. The -whole subject is fraught with difficulty, and there are special reasons -why all results must for some time to come be looked upon as conjectural. -These are glanced at here and there in the course of these studies, but it -may be well to put them together in this place. Firstly, whatever opinions -be held as to which are the older forms of the legend, it is certain that -in no one case do we possess a primary form. All the versions that have -come down to us presuppose, even where they do not actually testify to, a -model. Two of the forms which there is substantial agreement in reckoning -among the oldest, the poems of Chrestien de Troyes and Robert de Borron, -were never finished by the authors; sequels exist to both, of a later date -and obviously affected by other forms of the legend. A reconstruction of -the original story is under these circumstances a task of great -uncertainty. So much for the difficulty inherent in the nature of the -evidence, a difficulty which it is to be feared will always beset the -student of this literature, as no new texts are likely to be found. -Secondly, this evidence, such as it is, is not accessible in a form of -which the most can be made. The most important member of the group, the -Conte du Graal, only exists in one text, and that from a late and poor -MS. It is certain that a critical edition, based upon a survey of the -entire MS. evidence, will throw great light upon all the questions here -treated of. The Mabinogi of Peredur has not yet been critically edited, -nor have the MSS. of the other romances yielded up all that can be learnt -from them. Thirdly, whatever opinion be held respecting the connection of -the North French romances and Celtic tradition, connection of some kind -must be admitted. Now the study of Celtic tradition is only beginning to -be placed upon a firm basis, and the stores of Celtic myth and legend are -only beginning to be thrown open to the non-Celtic scholar. Were there in -existence a Celtic parallel to Grimm's great work on German Mythology, the -views for which the writer contends would have been, in all likelihood, -admitted ere now, and there would have been no necessity for this work at -all. - -Whilst some of the reasons which render the study of the Grail legends so -fascinating, because so problematic, will probably always remain in force, -others will vanish before the increase of knowledge. When the diplomatic -evidence is accessible in a trustworthy form; when the romances have -received all the light that can be shed upon them from Celtic history, -philology, and mythology, the future student will have a comparatively -easy task. One of the writer's chief objects has been to excite an -interest in these romances among those who are able to examine the Celtic -elements in them far more efficiently than he could do. Welsh philologists -can do much to explain the _Onomasticon Arthurianum_; Cymric history -generally may elucidate the subject matter. But as a whole Welsh -literature is late, meagre, and has kept little that is archaic. The study -of Irish promises far better results. Of all the races of modern Europe -the Irish have the most considerable and the most archaic mass of -pre-Christian traditions. By the side of their heroic traditional -literature that of Cymry or Teuton (High and Low), or Slav is recent, -scanty, and unoriginal. - -A few words must be said in defence of the free use made of conjecture in -the course of these studies. This is well nigh unavoidable from the way in -which the texts we have to deal with have come down to us. What M. Renan -has said about the Hebrew historical scriptures is excellently exemplified -in the Grail romances. There was no fixed text, no definite or rounded -sequence of incidents, of which scribes respected the integrity. On the -contrary, each successive transcriber was only anxious to add some fresh -adventure to the interminable tale, and those MSS. were most thought of -which contained the greatest number of lines. The earlier MSS. have, -therefore, almost entirely disappeared, and we are dealing with works -which we know to have been composed in the twelfth century, but of which -we have only thirteenth or fourteenth century transcripts. Inconsistencies -in the conduct of the story are the inevitable consequence in most cases, -but sometimes the latest arranger had an eye for unity of effect, and -attained this by the simple process of altering the old account so as to -make it fit with the new. In dealing with the text of an _individual_ -author, whether ancient or modern, it would be in the last degree -uncritical to explain difficulties by such hypotheses as the loss of an -earlier draft, or the foisting into the work of later and incongruous -incidents and conceptions. Not so in the case of the romances; this method -of explanation is natural and legitimate, but none the less is it largely -conjectural. - -The writer may be blamed for not having presented his subject in a more -engaging and more lucid form. He would plead in excuse the circumstances -under which his work has been carried on. When the only hours of study are -those which remain after the claims, neither few nor light, of business -and other duties have been met, it is hard to give an appearance of unity -to a number of minute detail studies, and to weld them together into one -harmonious whole. The fact that the work has been written, and printed, at -considerable intervals of time may, it is hoped, be accepted as some -excuse for inconsistency in the terminology. - -The writer has many acknowledgments to make. First and chief to Dr. -Birch-Hirschfeld, but for whose labours, covering well nigh the whole -field of the Grail cycle, he would not have been able to take in hand his -work at all; then to Dr. Furnivall, to whose enthusiasm and spirit the -publication of some of the most important texts are due. In these two -cases the writer acknowledges his gratitude with the more readiness that -he has felt compelled to come to an opposite conclusion from that arrived -at by Dr. Birch-Hirschfeld respecting the genesis and growth of the -legend, and because he has had to differ from Dr. Furnivall's estimate of -the moral value of the Galahad romances. To M. Hucher, to Mons. Ch. -Potvin, the editor, single-handed, of the Conte du Graal, to M. d'Arbois -de Jubainville, to Professor Ernst Martin, to the veteran San-Marte, to -Herr Otto Küpp, and to Herr Paul Steinbach, these studies owe much. -Professor Rhys' Hibbert Lectures came into the writer's hands as he was -preparing the latter portion of the book for the press; they were of great -service to him, and he was especially gratified to find opinions at which -he had arrived confirmed on altogether independent grounds by Professor -Rhys' high authority. The writer is also indebted to him, to Mr. H. L. D. -Ward, of the British Museum, and to his friend Mr. Egerton Phillimore for -help given while the sheets were passing through the press. Lastly, the -writer desires to pay an especial tribute of gratitude and respect to that -admirable scholar, J. F. Campbell. Of all the masters in folk-lore, Jacob -Grimm not excepted, none had a keener eye or surer, more instinctively -right judgment. - -Although the writer admits, nay, insists upon the conjectural character of -his results, he believes he is on the right track, and that if the Grail -romances be worked out from any other point of view than the one here -taken, the same goal will be reached. It should be said that some of the -conclusions, which he can claim as his own by right of first mention, were -stated by him in a paper he read before the Folk-Lore Society in 1880 -(afterwards reprinted, Celtic Magazine, 1887, August-October); and in a -paper he read before the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, in 1884. - -These studies have been a delight and a solace to the writer; had it been -otherwise, he would still feel himself amply repaid for his work by the -thought that he had made a contribution, however slight, to the criticism -of the Legend of the Holy Grail. - - - - -ERRATA. - - -[The reader is kindly begged to mark in these corrections before using the -book.] - - Page 22, line 12, _for_ Corbièrc _read_ Corbière. - " 25, line 37, _insert_ Passion _before_ Week. - " 30, 7 lines from bottom, _for_ Avallon _read_ Avalon. - " 85, line 24, _for_ Percival _read_ Perceval. - " 86, line 12, _for_ Percival _read_ Perceval. - " 90, 5 lines from bottom, _for_ Pelleur _read_ Pelleans. - " 102, line 22, _for_ seems _read_ seem. - " 120, line 3, _for_ 1180 _read_ 1189. - " 124, line 29, _for_ Bron _read_ Brons. - " 156, line 11, _insert_ comma _after_ specially. - " 159, line 11, _for_ Henessey _read_ Hennessy. - " 163, note, _i.e._, _for_ Graal _read_ Gaal. - " 183, line 23, _insert_ comma _after_ more. - " 188, line 5, _for_ euphemerised _read_ euhemerised. - " 188, line 5, _for_ invasion _read_ invasions. - " 188, line 17, _for_ mystic _read_ mythic. - " 189, line 1, _for_ LXXVII _read_ LXXXII. - " 197, note, _for_ Carl the Great _read_ Karl the Great. - " 200, line 12, _insert_ comma _after_ plight; _dele_ comma _after_ - love. - " 201, 1 line from bottom, _insert_ late _before_ mediæval. - " 204, note, _for_ Percival _read_ Perceval. - " 217, line 23, _for_ mystic _read_ mythic. - - - - -STUDIES ON THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - - Description of the leading forms of the Romance: Conte del - Graal--Joseph d'Arimathie--Didot-Perceval--Queste del Saint - Graal--Grand Saint Graal--Parzival--Perceval le Gallois--Mabinogi of - Peredur--Sir Perceval--Diu Crône--Information respecting date and - authorship of these works in the MSS. - - -The following are the forms in which the Legend of the Holy Grail has come -down to us:-- - -A.--=Le Conte del Graal=, a poem of over 60,000 verses, the major part of -which (45,379 verses) was printed for the first time by Potvin: Le Conte -del Graal, six volumes, 8vo. (vols. ii.-vi. containing our poem), Mons, -1866-71, from a MS. preserved in the Mons Library.[1] The portion of the -poem which is not printed in full is summarised by Potvin in the sixth -volume of his edition. The poem, so far as at present known, is the work -of four men: - - A I. Chrestien de Troyes, who carried the work down to verse 10,601. - - A II. Gautier de Doulens, who continued it to verse 34,934. - - A III. Manessier, who finished it in 45,379 verses. - - A IV. Gerbert, to whom are due over 15,000 verses, mostly found - interpolated between Gautier de Doulens and Manessier. - -A MS. preserved in the Library of Montpellier[2] differs in important -respects from the Mons one as far as Gautier de Doulens and Manessier are -concerned. It intercalates 228 verses between verses 20,294 and 20,296 of -the Mons MS., and gives a different redaction of verses 34,996-35,128 in -agreement with the aforesaid intercalation. It likewise mentions two -visits of Gawain to the Grail Castle. The intercalation in Gautier may be -called A II_a_, and the variant in Manessier A III_a_. - -B.--=Joseph d'Arimathie, Merlin=, exists in two forms: (1) a fragmentary -metrical version entitled in the sole existing MS. (Bibliothèque -Nationale, No. 20,047. Fonds St. Germain, No. 1,987) Li R(o)manz de l'est -(o)ire dou Graal, and consisting of 4,018 verses, 3,514 for the Joseph, -the remainder, for about one-fifth of the Merlin. First printed by -Francisque Michel: Le Roman du St. Graal. Bordeaux, 1841. Secondly by -Furnivall: Seynt Graal or the Sank Ryal. Printed for the Roxburghe Club, -two volumes, 4to., London, 1861-63, where it is found in an appendix at -the end of vol i. (2) A prose version of which several MSS. exist, all of -which are fully described by E. Hucher: Le Saint-Graal, ou le Joseph -d'Arimathie, three volumes, 12mo., Le Mans, 1875-78, vol. i., pp. 1-28. -The chief are: the Cangé MS. (_circa_ 1250) of which Hucher prints the -Joseph, vol. i., pp. 209-276, and the Didot MS., written in 1301, of which -Hucher prints the Joseph, vol. i., pp. 277-333. Hucher likewise gives, -vol. i., pp. 335-365, variants from the Huth MS. (_circa_ 1280). - -These different versions may be numbered as follows:-- - - B I. The metrical version, which I shall always quote as Metr. Jos., - from Furnivall's edition. - - B II. The prose versions: B II_a_, Cangé Jos.; B II_b_, Didot Jos.; B - II_c_, Huth Jos., all quoted from Hucher, vol. i. - -C.--=Perceval=, prose romance found in the already-mentioned Didot MS. at -the end of the Merlin, printed by Hucher, vol. i., pp. 415-505, from which -it will be quoted as Didot-Perceval. - -D.--=Queste del Saint Graal=, prose romance commonly found in the MSS. in -combination with Lancelot and the Mort Artur. Edited by Furnivall: La -Queste del St. Graal. Printed for the Roxburghe Club, 4to., London, 1864. -The introduction contains a full account of the existing MSS. A different -redaction from that of any of the known French MSS. is preserved in a -Welsh translation, printed, with a modern English version by the editor, -from a fifteenth century Hengwrt MS., by the Rev. Robert Williams: Y Seint -Graal, London, 8vo., 1876. I shall quote-- - - D I. Queste, from Furnivall's edition. - - D II. Welsh Quest, from Williams' edition. - -E.--The so-called =Grand Saint Graal=, prose romance found in the MSS., -both preceding the Merlin and the Queste, and preceding the Queste and the -Mort Artur. Printed by Furnivall from Cambridge and Brit. Mus. MSS., -together with a metrical English adaptation by Henry Lonelich, of about -the time of Henry the VIth, in the already-mentioned Seynt Graal; and by -Hucher, vols. ii. and iii., from a Le Mans MS.; will be quoted as Grand -St. Graal, from Furnivall's edition. - -F.--=Parzival=, by Wolfram von Eschenbach, German metrical romance, -critically edited from the MSS. by Karl Lachmann, Wolfram von Eschenbach, -Vierte Ausgabe, 8vo., Berlin, 1879, from which it will be quoted as -Wolfram. - -G.--=Perceval le Gallois=, prose romance, first printed by Potvin, vol. i. -of his Conte del Graal, from a Mons MS., with variants from a fragmentary -Berne MS. (as to both of which see pp. 353, etc.). A Welsh translation, -with modern English version by the editor, made from a MS. closely allied -to the Berne fragments, and representing a superior text to that printed -by Potvin, in Williams' already-mentioned Y Seint Graal. - -Besides these works there exist two versions of the Perceval legend in -which the Holy Grail, as such, does not appear. These are:-- - -H.--=The Mabinogi of Peredur, the son of Evrawc=, Welsh prose romance -found in the Red Book of Hergest, a MS. of the end of the fourteenth -century, and in MSS. a hundred years older. I shall quote it as Peredur, -from Lady Guest's English translation of the Mabinogion, 8vo., London, -1877. - -I.--=Sir Perceval of Galles=, English metrical romance, printed for the -first time from the Thornton MS., of _circa_ 1440, by Halliwell: The -Thornton Romances, printed for the Camden Society, small 4to., London, -1884; from which I shall quote it as Sir Perceval. - -Finally there exists an independent German version of certain adventures, -the hero of which in the Conte du Graal, in Wolfram, and in the Mabinogi, -is Gawain. This is-- - -K.--=Heinrich von dem Türlin.= Diu Crône. Edited by G. H. F. Scholl. -Bibliothek des Litterarischen Vereins, vol. xxvii., Stuttgart, 1852. - -The positive information which the different MSS. of the above mentioned -works afford respecting their authors, date of composition, sources, etc., -is as follows:--In the prologue to his poem, Chrestien (Potvin i., pp. -307-308) dedicates his work to "Li quens Felippes de Flandres," who as he -states (verse 67), "li bailla le livre," which served him as model, and -whom he praises at great length as surpassing Alexander. We know that -Count Philip of Flanders took the cross in 1188, set out for the Holy Land -in 1190, and died on the 1st of June, 1191, before Akkon.[3] As Chrestien -says not a word about the crusading intentions of Philip, it may be -inferred that he wrote his prologue before 1188, and began the poem in -1189 at the latest. Gautier de Doulens (probably of that ilk, in Picardy, -some miles from Amiens)[4] has only left his name, verse 33,755, Gautiers -de Dons qui l'estore, etc. Manessier the next continuator has been more -explicit; he describes himself as completing the work at the command -of ... - - Jehanne la Comtesse - Qu'est de Flandre dame et mestresse. - (Potvin, vi., p. 157.) - -This Joan, daughter of Baldwin the VIth, ruled Flanders _alone_ during the -imprisonment of her husband after the battle of Bouvines (1214-1227), and -Manessier's words can only apply to her during this period, so that his -continuation must have been written between 1214-1227.[5] The third -continuator, Gerbers, only mentions his name (Potvin, vi., p. 212). - -The author of version B, names himself, B I, verse 3,461, Messires Roberz -de Beron; verses 3,488-94 state that no mortal man had told the story, -until he had it from - - Mon seigneur Gautier en peis - Qui de Mont Belyal estoit. - -Verse 3,155 gives the name somewhat differently, Meistres Robers dist de -Bouron. The prose versions follow the poem with additions, thus Cangé Jos. -(p. 275); Messires Roberz de Borron lou restrait à mon seigneur Gautier, -lou preu conte de Mobéliart. - -Walter of Montbeliard, brother to Count Richard of Montbeliard, went to -the Holy Land in 1199, became Constable of Jerusalem, Regent of Cyprus, -and died in 1212. The date of his birth is uncertain, but as his elder -brother died in 1237, Walter could hardly have been born before 1150. His -father, Amadeus, died in 1183, in which year he received the countship of -Montfaucon. It may only have been after he thus became independent that -Robert entered his service. In any case Robert could not have spoken of -him as "mon seigneur," before 1170. That year may, therefore, be taken as -a _terminus a quo_, and the year 1212 as a _terminus ad quem_ for dating -these versions. - -The Grand St. Graal is likewise ascribed in the MSS. to Robert de Borron, -and it is further stated that he translated from Latin into French--Et -ensi le temoigne me sires robiers de borron qui a translatee de latin en -franchois cheste estoire (ii. p. 78). - -The Queste ascribed in the MSS. to Walter Mapes, is said to have been -compiled by him for the love of his lord, King Henry--maistre Gautiers Map -les extrait pour l'amor del roy Henri son seignor, qui fist l'estore -translater du latin en francois[6]--Walter Mapes, born before 1143 (he -presided at the assizes of Gloucester in 1173), died in 1210. If we may -believe the MSS., the Queste would probably fall within the last -twenty-five years of the twelfth century. - -The author of Perceval le Gallois describes himself (Potvin, i., 348) as -writing the book for the "Seignor de Neele," whose Christian name, -"Johan," is given four lines lower down, at the command of the "Seingnor -de Cambresis," _i.e._, the Bishop of Cambray. This John of Nesle is -probably the one who in the year 1225 sold the lordship of Bruges to -Countess Joan of Flanders.[7] - -Wolfram von Eschenbach, of that ilk, in North Bavaria, born in the last -thirty years of the twelfth century, died about 1220. He knew Chrestien's -poem well, and repeatedly refers to it, but with great contempt, as being -the wrong version of the story, whereas he holds the true version from -Kyot, the singer, a "Provenzal," who found the tale of Parzival written in -heathen tongue at Dôlet (Toledo), by Flegetanis, a heathen who first -taught concerning the Grail, put it into French, and after searching the -chronicles of Britain, France, and Ireland in vain, at length found -information in the chronicles of Anjou (pp. 202 and 219). - -Nothing is stated in the works themselves respecting the authors of the -Mabinogi and the Thornton Sir Perceval. - -Heinrich von dem Türlin frequently quotes Chrestien as his authority, -_e.g._, verses 16,941, 23,046, 23,982. - -If these various statements are to be accepted, it follows that in the -course of fifty years (1170-1220) a great body of romance came into -existence, partly in France, Chrestien, his continuators, and Robert de -Borron; partly in England, Walter Mapes; and partly in Germany, Wolfram -von Eschenbach, and Heinrich von dem Türlin. Of this body of romance only -a portion has come down to us, the work of Kyot and the Latin originals of -the Queste and the Grand St. Graal having disappeared. Furthermore, it is -only possible to date with any accuracy three or four of the works, viz., -Chrestien, Manessier, Wolfram (whose poem falls certainly within the first -ten years of the thirteenth century), though it may also be taken as -certain that R. de Borron wrote after 1170, and the anonymous author of -Perceval le Gallois before 1225. Of the dated works Chrestien's is the -oldest, 1188-90, and it postulates the existence of previous versions. - -The object of the present investigation being to determine, as far as -possible, the age and relationship to one another of the different -versions which have come down to us, to exhibit the oldest form of the -story as we have it, and to connect it with Celtic traditional belief and -literature, it will be well, before proceeding to further discuss the -various points left doubtful by the evidence gathered from the MSS., to -give clear and detailed summaries of the most important versions. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - - Summaries--Conte du Graal: Pseudo-Chrestien, Chrestien, Gautier de - Doulens, Manessier, Gerbert--Wolfram--Heinrich von dem - Türlin--Didot-Perceval--Mabinogi of Peredur--Thornton MS. Sir - Perceval--Queste del Saint Graal--Grand Saint Graal--Robert de - Borron's poem, Joseph of Arimathea. - - -=The Conte du Graal.=--PSEUDO-CHRESTIEN.[8]--The story tells of the -"Graal," whose mysteries, if Master Blihis lie not, none may reveal; it -falls into seven parts, and shows how the rich land of Logres was -destroyed. (1) In the wells and springs of that land harboured damsels who -fed the wayfarer with meat and pasties and bread. But King Amangons did -wrong to one and carried off her golden cup, so that never more came -damsels out of the springs to comfort the wanderer. And the men of King -Amangons followed his evil example. Thereafter the springs dried up, and -the grass withered, and the land became waste, and no more might be found -the court of the Rich Fisher, which had filled the land with plenty and -splendour. (2) The Knights of the Table Round, learning the ill done to -the damsels, set forth to protect them; they found them not, but fair -damsels wandering in the woods, each with her knight; with the latter they -strove, and when they overcame them sent them to Arthur. Thus came Blihos -Bliheris to Arthur's court conquered by Gauvain; he knew goodly tales and -he told how the wandering damsels were sprung from those ravished by King -Amangons. So long would they wander till God gave them to find the court, -whence joy and splendour would come to the land. (3) Arthur's knights -resolved to seek the court of the Rich Fisher--much knew he of black art, -more than an hundred times changed he his semblance, that no man seeing -him again recognised him. Gauvain found it, and had great joy therefrom; -but before him a young knight, small of age, but none bolder of -courage--Percevaus li Galois was he--he asked whereto the Grail served, -but nought of the lance why it dripped blood, nor of the sword one half of -which was away whilst the other lay in the bier. But he asked surely -concerning the rich cross of silver. Now in the room three times there -arose such great sorrow that no man who heard it, so bold he might be but -feared. Afterwards the room filled and the king came in, full richly -dressed, so that he might hardly be known of them that had seen him the -day before, fishing. And when all were sat down the Grail came in, and -without serjeant nor seneschal served all present, and 'twas wonder what -food it gave them. And then came the great marvel which has not its like. -But Perceval will tell of this, so I must say no more; it is a great shame -to tell beforehand what is in a good tale. When the good knight shall come -who found the court three times you shall hear me tell of Grail and lance, -and of him who lay in the bier, of the sword, of the grief and swooning of -all beholders. (4) Now the court was found seven times, and each time -shall have a fresh tale:-- - - The seventh (the most pleasing) tells of the lance wherewith Longis - pierced the side of the King of holy Majesty; - - The sixth of warlike feats; - - The fifth of the anger and loss of Huden; The fourth of heaven, for he - was no coward, the knight Mors del Calan, who first came to Glamorgan; - - The third of the hawk whereof Castrars had such fear--Pecorins, the - son of Amangons, bore all his days the wound on his forehead; - - The second has not yet been told; it tells of the great sorrows - Lancelot of the Lake had there where he lost his virtue; - - And the last is the adventure of the shield, never a better one was - there. - -(5) After this adventure the land was repeopled; court and grail were -found; the streams ran again; the meadows were green, the forests thick -and leafy; so that all folk marvelled. But there came back a folk, the -same that came out of the springs (save they were not cooks), a caitiff -set, and built for their damsels the rich Maidens' Castel, and the Bridge -Perillous, and Castel Orguellous, and warred against the Table Round. In -the castle were 376, each sire of 20 knights. And not till after four -years did Arthur overcome them and was there peace. - -_(Here beginneth the Story of the Grail.)_ - -(6) There were in the land of Wales twelve knights, of whom Bliocadrans -alone survived, so eager were they in seeking tournament and combats. -After living for two years with his wife, childless, Bliocadrans set forth -to a tournament given by the King of Wales and Cornwall against them of -the Waste Fountain. At first successful, he is at length slain. A few days -after his departure his wife has borne a son. When at length she learns -her husband's death, she takes counsel with her chamberlain, and -pretending a pilgrimage to St. Brandan, in Scotland, withdraws to the -Waste Forest far removed from all men. Here she brings up her son, and -though she allows him to hunt in the forest, warns him against men covered -with iron--they are devils. He promises to follow her counsel, and -thenceforth he goes into the forest alone. - -=The Conte du Graal.=--(_a_) CHRESTIEN.--(1) When as trees and meadows -deck themselves with green, and birds sing, the son of the widow lady goes -out into the wood. He meets five knights, and, as their weapons shine in -the sun, takes them for angels, after having first thought them to be the -devils his mother had warned him against. He prays to them as his mother -has taught him. One of the knights asks if he has seen five knights and -three maidens who had passed that way, but he can but reply with questions -concerning the arms and trappings of the knights. He learns of Arthur the -King who makes knights, and when he returns to his mother tells her he has -beheld a more beautiful thing than God and His angels, knights namely, and -he too will become one. In vain his mother tells him of his father's and -his two elder brothers' fates, slain in battle. Nothing will serve, so the -mother makes him a dress of coarse linen and leather, and before he leaves -counsels him as follows: If dame or damsel seek his aid he is to give it, -he is to do naught displeasing to them, but to kiss the maiden who is -willing, and to take ring and girdle of her if he can; to go for long with -no fellow-traveller whose name he knows not, to speak with and consort -with worthy men, to pray to our Lord when he comes to church or convent. -She then tells him of Jesus Christ, the Holy Prophet. He departs clad and -armed in Welsh fashion, and his mother swoons as though dead. (2) Perceval -comes to a tent in the wood, and, taking it for a convent, goes in and -finds sleeping on a bed a damsel, whom the neighing of his horse wakes. In -pursuance of his mother's counsel he kisses her more than twenty times, -takes her ring from her, and eats and drinks of her provisions. Thereafter -he rides forth, and her lover returning and hearing what has taken place, -swears to avenge himself upon the intruder, and until such time the -damsel, whose tale he disbelieves, is to follow him barefoot and not to -change her raiment. (3) Perceval learns the way to Carduel from a -charcoal-burner; arrived there, he sees a knight coming forth from the -castle and bearing a golden cup in his hand, clad in red armour, who -complains of Arthur as having robbed him of his land. Perceval rides into -the castle hall and finds the court at meat. Arthur, lost in thought, pays -no attention to the first two salutations of Perceval, who then turns his -horse to depart, and in so doing knocks off the King's hat. Arthur then -tells him how the Red Knight has carried off his cup, spilling its -contents over the Queen. Perceval cares not a rap for all this, but asks -to be made knight, whereat all laugh. Perceval insists, and claims the Red -Knight's armour. Kex bids him fetch them, whereat the King is displeased. -Perceval greets a damsel, who laughs and foretells he shall be the best -knight in the world. For this saying Kex strikes her, and kicks into the -fire a fool who had been wont to repeat that the damsel would not laugh -till she beheld the best of knights. (4) Perceval tarries no longer, but -follows the Red Knight, and bids him give up his arms and armour. They -fight, and Perceval slays his adversary with a cast of his dart. Yonès, -who has followed him, finds him put to it to remove the knight's -armour--he will burn him out of it if need be--and shows him how to -disarm the dead man and to arm himself. Perceval then mounts the knight's -steed and rides off, leaving the cup to Yonés to be given to the King, -with this message: he, Perceval, would come back to avenge the damsel of -the blow Kex struck her. (5) Perceval comes to a castle, in front of which -he finds an old knight, to whom he relates what has befallen him, and of -whom he asks counsel as his mother bade him. The knight, Gonemans of -Gelbort, takes him into his castle, teaches him the use of arms, and all -knightly practices. In especial he is to avoid over-readiness in speaking -and in asking questions, and to give over his habit of always quoting his -mother's counsels. He then dubs him knight, and sends him forth to return -to his mother. (6) After a day's journey Perceval comes to a town defended -by a castle, and, being allowed entrance therein, finds all waste and -deserted, even the very convents. The lady of the castle, a damsel of -surpassing beauty, welcomes him and bids him to table. Mindful of -Gonemans' counsels he remains silent, and she must speak to him first. She -turns out to be Gonemans' niece. At night the young stranger is shown to -his chamber, but the damsel cannot sleep for thought. Weeping she comes to -Perceval's bedside, and in reply to his wondering questions tells him how -the forces of King Clamadex encompass the castle, and how that on the -morrow she must yield, but rather than be Clamadex's she will slay -herself. He promises to help her, and bids her to him in the bed, which -she does, and they pass the night in each other's arms, mouth to mouth. On -the morrow he begs for her love in return for his promised aid, which she -half refuses, the more to urge him on. He fights with and overcomes -Aguigrenons, Clamadex's marshal, and sends him to Arthur's court. Clamadex -hearing of this tries afresh to starve out the castle, but a storm luckily -throws a passing ship ashore, and thereby reprovisions the besieged ones. -Clamadex then challenges Perceval, is overcome, and sent to Arthur's -court, where he arrives shortly after his marshal. They relate wonders -concerning the Red Knight, and the King is more than ever displeased with -Kex for having offended such a valiant warrior. After remaining for a -while with Blanchefleur, Perceval takes leave of her, as he longs to see -his mother again. (7) He comes to a river, upon which is a boat, and -therein two men fishing. One of them, in reply to his questions, directs -him for a night's shelter to his own castle hard by. Perceval starts for -it, and at first unable to find it reproaches the fisher. Suddenly he -perceives the castle before him, enters therein, is disarmed, clad in a -scarlet mantle, and led into a great hall. Therein is a couch upon which -lies an old man; near him is a fire, around which some four hundred men -are sitting. Perceval tells his host he had come from Biau-Repaire. A -squire enters, bearing a sword, and on it is written that it will never -break save in one peril, and that known only to the maker of it. 'Tis a -present from the host's niece to be bestowed where it will be well -employed. The host gives it to Perceval, "to whom it was adjudged and -destined." Hereupon enters another squire, bearing in his hand a lance, -from the head of which a drop of blood runs down on the squire's hand. -Perceval would have asked concerning this wonder, but he minds him of -Gonemans' counsel not to speak or inquire too much. Two more squires -enter, holding each a ten-branched candlestick, and with them a damsel, a -"graal" in her hands. The graal shines so that it puts out the light of -the candles as the sun does that of the stars. Thereafter follows a damsel -holding a (silver) plate. All defile past between the fire and the couch, -but Perceval does not venture to ask wherefore the graal is used. Supper -follows, and the graal is again brought, and Perceval, knowing not its -use, had fain asked, but always refrains when he thinks of Gonemans, and -finally puts off his questions till the morrow. After supper the guest is -led to his chamber, and on the morrow, awakening, finds the castle -deserted. No one answers his calls. Issuing forth he finds his horse -saddled and the drawbridge down. Thinking to find the castle dwellers in -the forest he rides forth, but the drawbridge closes so suddenly behind -him that had not the horse leapt quickly forward it had gone hard with -steed and rider. In vain Perceval calls: none answer. (8) He pricks on and -comes to an oak, beneath which sits a maid holding a dead knight in her -arms and lamenting over him. She asks him where he has passed the night, -and on learning it tells him the fisher who had directed him to the castle -and his host were one and the same; wounded by a spear thrust through both -thighs his only solace is in fishing, whence he is called the Fisher King. -She asks, had Perceval seen the bleeding lance, the graal, and the silver -dish? had he asked their meaning? No; then what is his name? He does not -know it, but she guesses it: Perceval le Gallois; but it should be -Perceval the Caitiff, for had he asked concerning what he saw, the good -king would have been made whole again, and great good have sprung -therefrom. He has also a heavy sin on his conscience in that his mother -died of grief when he left her. She herself is his cousin. Perceval asks -concerning the dead knight, and learning it is her lover offers to revenge -her upon his slayer. In return she tells him about the sword, how it will -fly in pieces if he have not care of it, and how it may be made whole -again by dipping it in a lake, near which dwells its maker, the smith -Trebucet. (9) Perceval leaves his cousin and meets, riding on a wretched -horse, a scantily and shabbily clad woman of miserable appearance, -lamenting her hard fate and unjust treatment. She is the lady of the tent -whose ring Perceval had carried off. She bids him fly her husband, the -Orgellous de la Lande. The latter appears, challenges Perceval, but is -overcome by him, convinced of his wife's innocence, compelled to take her -into favour again, and both must go to Arthur's court, relate the whole -story, and renew Perceval's promise to the damsel whom Kex had struck, to -avenge her. Arthur, when he hears of the deeds of the young hero, sets -forth with his whole court to seek him. (10) Snow has fallen, and a flock -of wild geese, blinded by the snow, has had one of its number wounded by a -falcon. Three blood drops have fallen on the snow, and Perceval beholding -them falls into deep thought on the red and white in his love's face. -Arthur and his knights come up with him. Saigremors sees him first, bids -him come, and, when he answers no word, tilts against him, but is -overthrown. Kex then trys his luck, but is unhorsed so rudely that arm and -leg are broken. Gauvain declares that love must be mastering the strange -knight's thoughts, approaches him courteously, tells his own name and -learns Perceval's, and brings the latter to Arthur, by whom he is received -with all honour. Perceval then learns it is Kex he has overthrown, thus -fulfilling his promise to the damsel whom Kex had smitten, and whose -knight he offers himself to be. (11) Perceval returns on the morrow with -the court to Carlion, and the next day at noon there comes riding on a -yellow mule a damsel more hideous than could be pictured outside hell. She -curses Perceval for having omitted to ask concerning the lance and graal; -had he done so the King would have been healed of his wound and ruled his -land in peace; now maidens will be put to shame, orphans and widows made, -and many knights slain. Turning to the King she tells of the adventures to -be achieved at the Castel Orgellous, where dwell five hundred and seventy -knights, each with his lady love. He, though, who would win the highest -renown must to Montesclaire to free the damsel held captive there. She -then departs. Gauvain will forth to the imprisoned damsel, Giflès to the -Castel Orgellous, and Perceval swears to rest no two nights in the same -place till he have learnt concerning graal and lance. (12) A knight, -Guigambresil, enters and accuses Gauvain of having slain his lord. The -latter sets forth at once to the King of Cavalon to clear himself of this -accusation. (13) On his way he meets the host of Melians, who is preparing -to take part in a tournament to approve himself worthy the love of the -daughter of Tiebaut of Tingaguel, who had hitherto refused his suit. -Gauvain rides on to Tingaguel to help its lord. On arriving at the castle -the eldest daughter jeers at him, whilst the youngest takes his part, -declaring him a better knight than Melians, whereat her sister is very -indignant. On the first day of the tournament Melians shows himself the -best knight, but the younger sister still declares her faith in Gauvain, -and has her ears boxed in consequence. She appeals to Gauvain to be her -knight and avenge the injury done her. He consents, overcomes Melians, -whose horse he sends to his little lady, and all other knights; then, -after telling his name, rides forth. (14) He meets two knights, the -younger of whom offers him hospitality, and sends him to his sister, -bidding her welcome him. She receives him kindly, and when, struck with -her beauty, he asks her favours, grants them at once. They are interrupted -by a steward, who reproaches her with giving her love to her father's -murderer, and calls upon the castle folk to attack Gauvain. The latter -defends himself until the return of Guigambresil, who reproaches the lord -of the castle for letting Gauvain be attacked, as he had expressed his -readiness to do single combat. Gauvain is then allowed to go, and is -excused the combat if within a year he can bring back the bleeding lance. -He sets off in search of it. (15) The tale returns to Perceval, who has -wandered about for five years without thinking of God, yet performing many -feats. He meets three knights accompanied by ladies, all clad in -penitents' dress. 'Twas a Good Friday, and the eldest knight rebukes -Perceval for riding fully armed on such a day. He must confess him to a -holy hermit who lives hard by. Perceval goes thither, accuses himself of -having forgotten God through his great grief at not learning the use of -the graal. The hermit reveals himself as his uncle, tells Perceval that he -is in sin as having caused his mother's death, and for that reason he -could not ask concerning lance and graal; but for her prayers he had not -lived till now. Perceval remains two days with his uncle, receives -absolution, and rides forth. (16) The story turns to Gauvain, who, after -Escalavon, finds beneath an oak a damsel lamenting over a wounded knight; -the latter advises Gauvain to push on, which he does, and comes upon a -damsel who receives him discourteously, and when at her bidding he has -fetched her horse from a garden hard by, mocks at him and rides off. He -follows, and culls on the way herbs with which he heals the wounded -knight. A squire rides up very hideous of aspect, mounted on a wretched -hack. Gauvain chastises him for discourteous answers; meanwhile the -wounded knight makes off with Gauvain's steed, making himself known as -Griogoras, whom Gauvain had once punished for ill-doing, Gauvain has to -follow the damsel upon the squire's hack, comes to a river, on the other -side of which is a castle, overcomes a knight who attacks him, during -which the damsel vanishes, is ferried across the stream, giving the -vanquished knight to the ferryman as toll; (17) comes on the morrow to the -Magic Castle, wherein damsels are held fast, awaiting a knight full of all -knightly virtues to restore their lands to the ladies, marry the damsels, -and put an end to the enchantments of the palace. Upon entering, Gauvain -sees a magnificent bed, seats himself therein, is assailed by magic art, -overcomes a lion, and is then acclaimed lord of the castle. He would then -leave the castle, but the ferryman says he may not, whereat Gauvain is -moved to anger. On the morrow, looking forth, Gauvain beholds the (18) -damsel who led him to the ford, accompanied by a knight. He hastens forth, -overcomes the knight, seeks again the damsel's love, but is sent by her to -the Ford Perillous. Here he meets Guiromelant, who loves Gauvain's sister, -Clarissant, a dweller in the Magic Castle. A combat is arranged to take -place after seven days. Upon his return to the damsel, named Orgellouse de -Logres, he is now well received by her. She hates Guiromelant for having -slain her lover, and has long sought a good knight to avenge her. -Guiromelant on his side hates Gauvain for having, as he says, -treacherously killed his father. Gauvain and Orgellouse return to the -Magic Castle. One of the queens who dwells there is mother to Arthur; the -second one, his daughter, mother to Gauvain. The latter gives his sister -Clarissant a ring Guiromelant had begged him, unknowing who he was, to -bring to her. He then sends a knight to Arthur to bid him and his whole -train come witness the fight 'twixt him and Guiromelant. The messenger -finds Arthur plunged in grief at Gauvain's absence.... - - * * * * * - -Here Chrestien's share breaks off abruptly in the middle of a sentence, -and the poem is taken up by - -(_b_) GAUTIER DE DOULENS.[9]--(1) Arthur and his court accept Gauvain's -invitation and make for the Castle of Wonders, the Queen whereof has -meantime made herself known to Gauvain as Ygène, Arthur's mother. The duel -between Gauvain and Guiromelant is hindered, and the latter weds Gauvain's -sister. (Montp. MS. here inserts a first visit of Gawain to Grail Castle, -which is substantially the same as the one it repeats afterwards in the -same place as the Mons MS.) Adventures of Arthur and Gauvain against Brun -de Branlant follow, of Gauvain with a maiden in a tent and her brother -Brandalis, of Carduel of Nantes, whose wife is beloved of the magician -Garahiet, and of their son Carados, and the magic horn (verses -11,000-15,800). (2) (A fresh series of adventures begins) Arthur sets -forth to seek Giflet, son of Dos; Gauvain meets again with Brandalis, -whose sister has meanwhile borne him a son; Castel Orgellous, where Giflet -is imprisoned, is captured; Gauvain's son by Brandalis' sister is lost. -(3) An unknown knight comes to Arthur's court; Keie, who demands his name, -is unhorsed; Gauvain brings the unknown to the court, but the latter is -slain by a javelin cast by invisible hands. Gauvain equips himself in the -unknown's armour and starts forth to learn the latter's name. After -praying in a chapel, in which he beholds a light on the altar quenched by -a black hand, he rides through Brittany and Normandy, and comes to a -castle where, owing to his armour, he is at first hailed as lord. In one -of the rooms stands a bier, whereon lies a knight, cross and broken sword -upon his body, his left hand bleeding. A crowned knight enters and goes to -battle with Gauvain; canons and clerks come and perform the Vigil of the -Dead; whilst at table Gauvain sees the rich Grail serving out bread and -wine to the knights. Gauvain remains alone after the meal; he sees a lance -which bleeds into a silver cup. The crowned knight again enters, bearing -in his hand a broken sword which had belonged to the unknown knight, over -whom he mourns. He hands the sword to Gauvain and asks him to put the -pieces together. Gauvain cannot, whereupon the knight declares him unfit -to fulfil the quest (_li besoin_) on which he came. Later he may try -again. Gauvain asks concerning lance, sword, and bier. The lance, he is -told, is the one wherewith the Son of God was pierced in the side, 'twill -bleed till Doomsday. The tale of the broken sword which brought so much -woe upon the kingdom of Logres will also be told, but here Gauvain falls -fast asleep.[10] On the morrow he wakes, and finds himself on the sea -strand. He rides off, and behold the country has burst into green leaf, -and the reason thereof is his having asked concerning the lance. The -countryfolk both bless and curse him for having so far delivered them and -for not having completed the deliverance by asking concerning the Grail. -(4) He meets a young knight who turns out to be his son. (5) (Adventures -in which Carahiès, Gauvain's brother, is chief actor.) (6) The story -returns to Perceval, who, after leaving the hermit, rides for three days -and comes to a castle, over the door of which hangs a horn. Perceval blows -therein, overcomes the knight who answers the challenge, and sends him to -Arthur's court. (7) On his way to the Castle of Mont Orgellous, to the -pillar of which only an accomplished knight might tie his horse, he comes -to the stream on whose banks he had previously met the Fisher King. -Seeking for a bridge he meets a damsel on a mule, who, under pretence of -showing a way across the river, tries to drown him. He then comes to a -castle, which entering he finds untenanted. In the hall stands a -chessboard. Perceval plays, is beaten, seizes the board and makes as if to -throw it in the moat. Hereupon a damsel rises from the water to stay his -hand, and coming into the room reproaches him. Overcome by her beauty he -asks her favours. She will grant them if he bring the head of the stag -which roams in the castle park. Thereto she lends him her hound, bidding -him be sure he return it. The hunt follows; Perceval overtakes the stag, -slays it, and cutting off its head prepares to bring it back, when a maid -of ill-chance (_pucelle de malaire_) takes and carries it off. Perceval -claiming it is reproached by her for having slain her stag, but told he -may win again the hound if he go to a mound whereon a knight is painted -and say, "Vassal, what doest thou here?" The combat with the Knight of the -Tomb follows, during which hound and stag's head are carried off by -another knight, whom Perceval can only follow when he has overcome the -Knight of the Tomb and driven him back therein. Now this knight, hight the -Black Knight, had dwelt there summer and winter five years, striving with -all-comers for the sake of his love. Perceval, following up the Robber -Knight, meets the damsel who had carried off the hound, but she only mocks -him for answer to his questions. (8) After an adventure with a -discourteous knight, Perceval meets at length a brother of the Red Knight -whom he had formerly slain, who tells him he had seen the daughter of the -Fisher King, and she had told him of a knight who had carried off a hound -and stag's head belonging to a good knight who had been at her court, and -had omitted to ask concerning the grail, for which reason she had taken -his hound and refused him help to follow the Robber Knight. (9) Perceval -is directed by the Red Knight's brother to the Fisher King's castle, but -misses his way, and after an adventure at a castle, where he slays a lion, -overcomes Abrioris and sends him to Arthur; finds a damsel mourning over a -knight slain by a giant, whom he kills, achieves the feat of the Ford -Amorous, meets and fights with Gauvain's son until they learn who each -other is, and at length comes to Belrepaire. (10) At first unrecognised by -Blanchefleur he makes himself known, stays with her three days, and then -rides off, in spite of her entreaties. (11) He meets Rosette (the loathly -damsel) and Le Biaus Mauvais, laughs at the former, is challenged by the -latter, whom he overcomes and sends to Arthur. (12) He comes to his -mother's house, enters without making himself known, learns from his -sister that his mother died at his departure ten years before, tells her -who he is, and both set forth to their uncle, the hermit. On the way -Perceval slays a knight who offers violence to his sister. They come to -their uncle, sleep there, and on the morrow Perceval reveals himself, -confesses, is reproved for having slain the knight the day before. -Perceval, after mentioning his desire to learn more concerning lance, -Grail, and sword, and receiving good advice from the hermit, leaves with -his sister, with whom he stays three days and then quits her, despite her -piteous entreaties. (12_a_) Perceval comes to the Castle of Maidens, where -he falls untimely asleep, and on the morrow finds himself in the forest, -far from any castle. (13) Perceval finds the damsel who had carried off -the hound, fights with her knight, Garalas, overcomes him, learns that the -Knight of the Tomb is his brother, who had lived for ten years with a fay -in a magic invisible castle, and had met no one to overcome him until -Perceval came. Perceval sends both knight and damsel to Arthur. (14) -Perceval meets with a white mule led by a damsel; he joins her, although -she entreats him not to do so. Suddenly struck by a great light in the -forest, he turns to ask his companion what it might mean, but finds her -gone. A violent storm comes on. The morrow he meets the damsel with the -mule, who had felt no storm. She tells him about the great light: it came -from the "Gréaus," which was given by the King of kings as He hung on the -Cross; the devil may not lead astray any man on the same day he sees it, -therefore the king has it carried about. Perceval asks further, but is -told only a holy man may speak of these mysteries. Perceval relates his -adventure with the lady of the chessboard, and the damsel gives him the -white mule, which will lead to her castle, together with a ring giving the -possessor power over the mule. He is to give both back when he meets her. -(16) The mule brings Perceval across a river, over a glass bridge, on the -other side of which he meets with Brios, who persuades him to join in a -tournament held by Arthur at the Castel Orguellous, as he must win the -prize of knighthood before coming to the castle of the Fisher King. -Perceval leaves stag's head and hound at Brios' castle, carries off the -prize at the tournament, remaining unknown. (17) Proceeding thence he -frees a knight imprisoned beneath a tombstone, who, in return, shuts him -up in the tomb, but, being unable to make the mule go forward, is obliged -to release him, and returns to his prison, telling Perceval he knows him -for the best knight in the world. (18) Perceval meets the damsel of the -mule, to whom he returns ring and mule, and who asks him if he has been at -the Fisher King's court; on his saying, No, she hurries off. Perceval -prays God to direct him to the Castle of the Chessboard. A voice tells him -to follow the hound; he does so, reaches the castle, is greeted by the -maiden, to whom he gives stag's head and hound, and who in return tells -him concerning the chessboard which _Morghe la fée_ had had made at -London, on the Thames, and grants him her favours as she had promised. On -the morrow Perceval rides forth, accompanied awhile by the damsel, who -will show him his onward way. (19) They come to a river, on which is a -boat tied to an oak tree. Perceval is to enter it, cross the river, and on -the other side he will find a road leading to the Fisher King. On his way -Perceval releases a knight whom he finds hanging by his feet from a tree; -'tis Bagommedes whom Keie had treated thus, and who returns to Arthur's -court, challenges Keie, and is only hindered by Arthur from slaying him. -All Arthur's knights then start forth for the Mont Dolorous and in search -of Perceval. The adventures of Gauvain alone are related in detail until -the tale returns to Perceval. (20) After freeing Bagommedes, Perceval, -wandering in the woods, comes to a tree, in whose branches sits a child, -who can tell nothing of the Fisher King, but tells Perceval he will come -on the morrow to the Mont Dolorous. This he does, and binds his horse to -the pillar. A damsel on a white mule tells him of Arthur's birth, and how -Merlin had made castle and pillar to prove who should be the best of -knights. She was Merlin's daughter. (21) Perceval rides on, and towards -evening sees afar off a tree upon which burn many lights; as he draws near -he finds only a chapel, upon the altar of which lies a dead knight. A -great and sudden light is followed by the appearance of a black hand, -which puts out the candle on the altar. On the morrow he meets first a -huntsman, who tells him he is near the castle, then a damsel, who explains -the child in the tree, the chapel, and the black hand as having connection -with the Holy Grail and the lance. (22) Perceval comes at last to the -castle of the Fisher King, whom he finds on a couch as heretofore. He -tells him his adventures, and asks concerning the child on the tree, the -tree full of lights, and the chapel with the dead knight. Meanwhile a -damsel enters a hall bearing the Grail, another follows with the bleeding -lance, then comes a squire with a sword broken in two. Again Perceval puts -his questions, and will not eat until they are answered. First, he is told -of the child which would not speak to him on account of his many sins, and -which climbed ever upwards to show man's thoughts should be raised to the -Creator. Before learning aught further Perceval is to try and weld the -broken sword together; none but a true knight lover of God, and of God's -spouse, Holy Church, may accomplish it. Perceval succeeds, save that a -little crack still remains. The Fisher King embraces him and hails him as -lord of his house. - -Here the section which goes under the name of Gautier ends. - -[A portion of Gautier's section of the Conte du Graal is found in the -Berne MS., partly edited, partly summarised, by Rochat in his work, _Ein -unbekannter Percheval li Gallois_ (_vide_ _infra_ p. 101). This version -offers some remarkable peculiarities. It has a short introduction of -thirteen lines; then follows line 21,930 of Gautier in Potvin's text (Mons -MS.). An incident follows, omitted in the Mons MS., but found in -Montpellier and in Paris, 794: Perceval meets a huntsman who upbraids him -for having been at the Fisher King's court, and failed to ask about Grail -and bleeding lance. Then follow Incidents 6, 7 (8 is absent so far as one -can judge from Rochat's summary), 9 to 13 (in which Perceval does not -apparently send Garalas and his love to Arthur), and 14 to end, the -following finish being then tacked on: The Fisher King is father to Alain -le Gros, husband to Enigeus, sister to that Joseph who, when Christ's body -was taken down from the Cross, had it from Pilate as a reward for his -services. Joseph had the vessel prepared to catch in it the blood from the -body; it was the same Jesus had made the Sacrament in on the Thursday -before. The Fisher King dies on the third day and Perceval reigns in his -stead.][11] - -The Conte du Graal is continued by-- - -(_c_) MANESSIER.--(1) Perceval, full of joy, sits down to table; after the -meal, lance, Grail, and a goodly silver dish pass before the royal table -away into the next room. Perceval, sighing, asks concerning these objects -and the maidens bearing them. (2) The King tells as follows: the lance is -that wherewith Longis pierced God's side that day he hung on the Cross -(Montpellier MS.: When Longis withdrew the spear the blood ran down to -feet, so that Joseph of Barimacie turned black from sorrow, and he -collected the blood in the holy vessel). On Perceval's asking further, the -Grail is the vessel wherein the holy precious blood of our Lord was -received. Then Perceval asks how it came thither; (3) Joseph brought it -when he departed from the prison whence he was freed by Vespasian. He -baptized forty of his friends, and wandered forth with them till they came -to Sarras, where, as the tale tells, they found the King in the Temple of -the Sun. Joseph helped the King against his enemies by means of a red -cross which he fixed on the King's shield. Evelac, such was the King's -name, won the battle thereby, was baptized, and renamed Noodrans. It went -so likewise with his brother-in-law, Salafrès, renamed Natiien. Joseph -departed thence, ever bearing the Grail with him, till at length he came -hither, converted the land, and I, of his seed, am keeping manor and -Grail, the which shall never dwell elsewhere, God willing. (Montpellier -MS. merely says, how Joseph was put into a dark prison, and kept there -forty years, but the Lord sent him the sweetness of the Grail twice or -thrice a day. Tiberius and Vespasian deliver him and bring him to Rome, -whence he carries away the lance.) (4) To Perceval's questions concerning -the damsels: the Grail-bearer is of royal blood, and pure maid, or God -might not let her hold it, she is my child; the dish-bearer is also of -high lineage, daughter to King Goon Desert. (5) The King would then go to -sleep, but Perceval would know about the broken sword: In Quiquagrant -dwelt Goon Desert, the King's brother. Besieged by Espinogre he made a -sally and slew him. Espinogre's nephew swore revenge; donning the armour -of a knight of Goon Desert, he slew him, but the sword broke when the -traitrous blow was struck. Goon Desert's body was brought to his brother's -castle, whither came, too, his daughter with the broken sword, foretelling -that a knight should come, rejoin the pieces, and avenge the foul blow. -The Fisher King taking up the fragments incautiously was pierced through -the thigh, and the wound might not be healed until his brother's death was -avenged. The murderer's name is Partiniaus, Lord of the Red Tower. -Perceval vows to avenge this wrong, but first, despite the King's strong -hints that it is bed-time, must learn (6) about the candles on the trees, -how they are fay trees, and the lights deceiving ones, but they might not -deceive Perceval, he being destined to achieve the wonders of the earth, -and he has put an end to this illusion; (7) how the black hand haunted a -chapel wherein Pinogres had slain his mother, and over four thousand -knights had been slain by it. (8) Perceval starting on the morrow in -search of Partinal meets with Saigremors, and with him delivers a damsel -from ten robber knights. Perceval, wounded, stays a month at the damsel's -castle, and (9) the story tells for some fifteen hundred verses -(36,100-37,400) of Saigremors; how he pursues the robber knights, comes to -the Castle of Maidens, delivers the dame thereof from a knight, Calides, -who wars upon her, and afterwards delivers another maiden, to whom two -knights were offering violence; (10) then, for over two thousand verses of -Gauvain; how he prepares to set forth again in search of the Fisher King; -how a maiden comes to him whose brother had been slain in his service, -reproaches Gauvain for his conduct at the Fisher King's castle, and -carries him off; how he saves a maid going to be burnt; how after other -adventures he slays King Margon, returns to Arthur's court, fights with -Kex to avenge the brother of the damsel, etc. (11) Meanwhile Perceval, -leaving the damsel who has tended him right well, rides forth into a wood, -where he is overtaken by a great storm of thunder and hail, after which he -comes to the chapel where lies the body of the knight slain by the black -hand. Perceval strives with the devil to whom this belongs, overcomes, and -with the help of a hermit who tells him the tale of all the knights who -had fallen there, buries the body. He then confesses to the hermit, who -warns him not to think of acquiring fame, but rather to save his soul. -(12) Perceval, riding forth on the morrow, is met by the devil, who throws -him from his horse; he finds another, mounts it, but coming to a stream -luckily crosses himself, when it disappears; it was the devil. (13) A -damsel passes by with a bark, wherein Perceval mounts; she minds him of -Blanchefleur, and desire masters him, but again he crosses himself in -time, and ship and damsel vanish. (14) A hermit comes who instructs him -concerning all these things, brings him where he finds a fresh steed, and -to a fair castle. Perceval overcomes a knight who would bar his passing, -delivers the lady love of Dodinel from a felon knight; is appealed to for -help by a damsel of Blanchefleur's, oppressed by Arides of Cavalon. (15) -Setting off to the succour of his lady love, his horse falls lame, he -comes to a smith who tells him his name is Tribuet, the forger of the -broken sword. Tribuet makes the sword whole, and bids Perceval guard it -well, never had king or conqueror a better one. (16) Perceval reaches Bel -Repaire, overcomes Arides, whom he sends to Arthur's court, bidding him -announce his own arrival for Whitsuntide. He then quits Blanchefleur, and -(17) meets with the Coward Knight, who will not fight even when he sees -two damsels carried off by ten knights. Perceval attacks the ravishers, -the Coward Knight is drawn into the struggle, and quits himself valiantly. -The rescued damsels bring the knights to their castle, where Perceval, -sore wounded, remains for two months. (18) Meanwhile Saigremors has -announced Perceval's arrival at Camelot. Whitsuntide passing, all the -knights set forth in search of him, and, amongst others, Boort; he meets -his brother Lyonel led, bound and naked, by six knights, who scourge him, -and at the same moment he hears the plaint of a maid to whom a knight is -doing violence. Her he succours, then hurries after his brother, whom, -meanwhile, Gauvain has rescued. Lyonel bitterly reproaches his brother for -abandoning him, and falls upon him, sword in hand; Boort offers no -defence, and would be slain but for a passing knight, Calogrinant, who -pays for his interference with his life. Finally, heavenly intervention -appeases Lyonel. Calogrinant is buried by a hermit. (19) Perceval, healed, -leaves the castle together with the Coward Knight, is present with him at -a tournament, at which he distinguishes himself above all others, leaves -his companion, to whom he gives the name Le Hardis, and (20) meets Hector, -who challenges him. The two fight, and well-nigh kill each other. To them, -lying on the field of combat, appears an angel with the Grail, and makes -them whole. (21) Perceval rides on to Partinal's castle, before which -stands a fir tree whereon hangs a shield. Perceval throws this down, -whereupon Partinal appears and a desperate combat ensues, ended by the -overthrow of Partinal, and, as he will submit to no conditions, his death. -Perceval cuts off his head and makes for the Grail Castle, but only after -a summer's seeking, lights upon it chancewise. (22) As he nears the -castle, the warders come to the King, telling him a knight is coming with -a head hanging at his saddle-bow; hereupon the King leaps to his feet and -is straightway made whole. Partinal's head is stuck on a pike on the -highest tower of the castle. After supper, at which the same mystic -procession of talismans takes place as heretofore, the King learns -Perceval's name, and thereby finds that he is his own sister's son. He -would hand him his crown, but Perceval has vowed not to take it, his uncle -living. (23) He returns to Arthur's court, overcoming on the way seven -knights, and tells his adventures, which Arthur has written down and kept -in a box at Salisbury. The Grail damsel appears and tells Perceval his -uncle is dead. Perceval goes to Corbière accompanied by all the court, who -assist at his crowning and remain with him a month, during which time the -Grail feeds all with the costliest foods. He marries his cousins, the two -Grail-bearers, to two valiant kings, and reigns in peace for seven years. -(24) After which time he follows a hermit into the wilderness, accompanied -by Grail, lance, and holy dish. He serves the Lord for ten years, and, -when he dies, Grail, lance, and dish were doubtless carried up to heaven, -for since that day no man saw them. - -(_d_) GERBERT.--(According to Birch Hirschfeld interpolated between -Gautier and Manessier, and joining on therefore to the last incident in -Gautier.)[12] - -(1) Perceval's sin in having indirectly caused the death of his mother -disables him from making whole the broken sword, and he must set forth -again in search of the Grail. In the night he dreams a danger threatens -his sister, and on the morrow he wakes up in open field, the Grail Castle -having vanished. (2) He comes to a fair castle in the midst of a meadow, -and, finding the door shut, knocks at it with his sword till the latter -breaks. An old man appears, and tells him the broken sword will cost him -seven years more wanderings until he come again to the Grail Castle. All -he can do for Perceval is to give him a letter which heals the wounded and -makes the wearer invincible. (3) Perceval riding thence through country -that the day before was waste and folkless, finds it now well cultivated -and peopled; all press round him and bless him for the change wrought by -his asking concerning the Grail. (4) He comes to a castle wherein is a -forge guarded by two serpents, and on it was a sword forged for a year, -and it might not be broken, save in a certain danger, or mended save at -the same forge. Perceval, after resisting the devil in the shape of a fair -maid, attacks and overcomes the two serpents, and has his sword mended by -the blacksmith, who tells him how he broke it at the gate of Paradise. -(5) After making whole by his letter two knights of the Round Table who -had lost their wits in Castle Dolorous, Perceval comes to Carlion, to -Arthur's court, and accomplishes the adventure of the Perillous Seat which -a fairy had sent to Arthur. Only the destined Grail-finder might sit in -it. Six knights who had previously essayed the feat had been swallowed up -by the earth; they reappear when Perceval is successful. (6) Perceval is -called away from the court by a forsaken damsel, whose false lover he -compels to marry her; then, after overcoming fresh temptation in -damsel-shape, he comes to his sister's castle, overcomes her adversary, -who turns out to be Mordret, and reaches the Castle of Maidens, where he -is healed of his wounds by the lady of the castle, his cousin. She tells -him of his mother, Philosofine, and how the Grail was taken from the ken -of man owing to the sinfulness of the world. Perceval leaves his sister in -this castle where dames are chaste and damsels maids. (7) Returning to -court, whither Mordret had preceded him in sorry plight, Perceval is -mocked at by Kex, whom he overcomes, and afterwards meets Gauvain and -Tristan. (8) Leaving the court, he meets with four knights carrying their -father, mortally wounded, accompanies them to their castle, recognises in -the wounded knight, Gornumant, who had knighted him, swears to avenge him, -tells all that has befallen himself, and learns that the cause of his -successive failures is his forsaking his betrothed, Blanchefleur, whom he -knows to be Gornumant's niece. He is told that if he listen heedfully to -mass and marry the damsel all will be well, and he will learn the secrets -of lance and Grail. But first Perceval overcomes a hideous hag, who by -night brings to life Gornumant's enemies slain during the day. She has a -potion, whereof Christ made use in the sepulchre, and with it she quickens -the dead. She recognizes Perceval and acknowledges him as her conqueror, -yet while she lives he shall know nought of the Grail; she works by order -of the King of the Waste City, who hates all Christian folk. Perceval -tries the virtue of the potion on the most valiant of his enemies, with -whom he engages in a fresh and desperate struggle, heals Gornumant with -it, and sets off to marry Blanchefleur, as he is wishful to live cleanly -and fly deadly sin. (9) She is overjoyed at his arrival; preparations are -made for the marriage; the night before, she comes to his bedside in smock -and mantle, and they pass the night side by side, but with the sheet -between them. The wedding follows, and then, fearful of losing the -heavenly joy for sake of carnal longing, they resolve to resist the devil -and live virgin-wise, for virginity surpasseth aught else, even as the -topaz does crystal. Perceval, in a dream, is assured that of his seed -shall be the Swan Knight and the deliverer of the Holy Sepulchre. -Meanwhile he is still to search after lance and Grail. (10) On the morrow -he quits Blanchefleur, "maid she laid her to bed, maid she arose;" frees a -maiden pursued by a brutal knight; (11) comes to a castle where the -wayfarer must first fight against four knights and then against the lord -of the castle; does away with this custom; (12) comes to cross roads, -whereof one is safe and easy, the other adventurous and full of danger; -meets a knight all on fire; sees two hermits, one kneeling at a cross, -the other scourging it; then a wonderful beast, a doe followed by fawns, -which assail and devour her; (13) is presented at a hermit's with a shield -none but the Grail-winner may wear, after which the table heretofore -meanly spread is covered with rich fare, and learns the meaning of the -mystic scenes he has witnessed. (14) He is summoned by a damsel, who tells -him of the Dragon King, lord of a heathen folk dwelling in mid-sea, -possessor of a shield whereon is painted a dragon that belches forth -flame. Perceval sets forth to attack him, resists the devil who dwells in -the dragon head, thanks to his miraculous shield whereon the cross is -painted, and forces him to flee; continues the fight against the Dragon -Knight without his shield, and slays him, but not till he has repented him -of his sins. (15) Meanwhile a thief has made off with the shield, in -pursuing whom Perceval comes to an abbey, where he learns the story of -Joseph of Arimathea. Some forty years after the Crucifixion lived a -heathen king, Evelac, in Sarras, wherefrom the Saracens have their name, -sore pressed by Tholomes, King of Syria. But Joseph of Barimaschie, who -had been five years in Pilate's service, comes to him, and with him his -brother-in-law, Seraphe; he promised the King victory if he would let -himself be baptized. The King consented, and received the name of -Mordrach. Joseph then came to this land, and with him sixty folk and two -fair ladies, whereof the one, Philosophine, bore a plate, the other an -ever-bleeding lance, whilst Joseph had a vessel, never saw man a fairer -one. But King Crudel flung Joseph and his companions into prison, where -they dwelt forty days, but it harmed them not, as through the Holy Grail -they were filled with great plenty and had every wish fulfilled. Now, -Mordrains, learning this, brought together a great host, invaded King -Crudel's lands, attacked and slew him. Mordrains, disarming, was found to -be covered with wounds, none of which he had felt. On the morrow Joseph -put up a table, altar-wise, and thereon laid the Grail, which Mordrains -seeing, pressed near to. But an angel with a fiery sword kept him back, -and a voice assured him he had laid such a burden on his shoulders as he -might not pass away, nor would his wounds be healed until should come the -true knight, loved of Christ, sinless, and in his arms he, Mordrains, -should die. And till then the Host should be his only food. Since then -three hundred years have passed, and the monks have heard that the knight -is in the land who shall ask concerning lance and Grail, and thereby heal -the king. (16) Perceval leaves on the morrow and comes to a castle wherein -is a coffin, brought thereto in a boat drawn by a swan; none save the best -knight in the world may open it. All have tried, even Gauvain, and failed. -Perceval succeeds, and finds in the coffin the body of a knight, former -lord of the castle, and a letter setting forth that he who should open the -coffin was his murderer. Perceval, attacked in consequence by the dead -man's sons, defends himself by making a buttress of the youngest son's -body. Afterwards he overcomes the folk of the castle, and delivers -Gauvain, held prisoner therein. (17) Perceval, after confessing his sins -to a hermit, has an adventure with the devil, who comes out of a tomb, -but whom he forces back therein. (18) He then succours a maiden whom her -jealous lover has thrown into a fountain; (19) punishes a damsel who -tempts him in traitrous-wise; (20) meets with and is sore pressed by a -giant, whom he overcomes; (21) has a fresh and victorious encounter with -Kex, and, finally, (22) arrives at crossways, is directed by the cross to -the Fisher King's court, reaches it, asks straightway for the Grail, is -questioned by the King and relates his allegorical adventures. At table -the Grail appears, followed by lance and sword. Perceval pieces together -the sword, and the King, full of joy, embraces him. - -=Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival.=--Gahmuret, Parzival's father, goes to -the East, takes service with Baruc, wins the love of the heathen queen -Belakane, but after remaining with her a short time forsakes her, -promising to return if she become Christian. She bears a son, and names -him Feirefiz. Gahmuret by his prowess at a tournament wins the love of -Herzeloyde, whom he marries on condition he may go a tourneying every -month. Hearing his old lord Baruc is in danger, he hastens to his aid, and -is slain. Herzeloyde on receipt of the news resolves to withdraw to the -wilderness, and bring up her son in ignorance of knighthood. - -[From this point up to and including the adventure with Orgeuilleuse, -where Chrestien's share of the Conte du Graal breaks off, Wolfram agrees -very closely with Chrestien. It has been much debated in Germany whether -he really had any other model but Chrestien, and whether his alleged model -Kyot be not a feigned source to justify his departure from the story as -found in the Conte du Graal. A brief outline of the arguments for and -against this view will be found in Appendix A. The chief points of -difference in the portion common to the two poets are: the more important -position in the narrative assigned to Perceval's cousin, whom Wolfram -names Sigune, who is fed from the Grail by the Grail messenger, the -loathly damsel, and about whose loves with Schianatulander Wolfram has -left fragments of another poem, Titurel. Parzival meets her immediately -after his adventure with the lady of the tent. Parzival's love is named -Condwiramur. On the first night of their marriage he leaves her maid (as -in Gerbert's version). But the most important peculiarity of Wolfram's -poem is his account of the Grail itself, a stone which yields all manner -of food and drink, the power of which is sustained by a dove, which every -week lays a Host upon it, given, after the fall of the rebel angels, in -charge to Titurel and his dynasty, by them preserved in the Grail castle, -Montsalvatch, guarded by a sacred order of knighthood whom it chooses -itself. The knights are vowed to virginity, the king alone being allowed -marriage. The cause of the maimed king's (Amfortas) hurt is his having -taken up arms in the cause of worldly and unlawful love. When Parzival -leaves the Grail castle after the first visit, he is mocked at by the -inmates for having omitted the question. More stress is laid on the broken -sword, connected with which is a magic spell Parzival must master before -he can become lord of the Grail castle. The "loathly damsel," Kundrie, is -also a much more important person with Wolfram than with Chrestien, and -she is brought into contact with Parzival's cousin, Sigune. Parzival's -love for his wife is dwelt upon at length, and he is urged by the hermit -rather to rejoin her than to seek the Grail.] - -After the adventure with Orgueilleuse, Wolfram continues as follows:--The -lord of the magic castle, wherein are kept prisoners Arthur's mother and -the other queens, is Clinschor, nephew of Virgilius of Naples, who took to -magic after his unmanning at the hands of King Ibert, whose wife, Iblis, -he loved. Gawain overcomes the magician, and, both unknowing, fights with -Parzival. The latter, after many lesser adventures, meets his half-brother -Feirefiz, and sustains with him the hardest of all his fights. At length -recognition is brought about, the two embrace, and repair to Arthur's -court. Cundrie nears once more, tells Parzival he has been chosen Grail -king, that his wife and twin sons, Loherangrin and Kardeiz, have been -summoned to the Grail castle, and that the question will now free Amfortas -and his land. With Cundrie and Feirefiz, Parzival rides to the Grail -castle, meets his wife, together they all behold the talismans, save -Feirefiz, to whom as a heathen the sight of the Grail is denied. But he is -baptised, weds Repanse de Schoie, the Grail damsel, the two return to -India, and from them is born Prester John. Parzival rules over his Grail -kingdom. Of his son Loherangrin it is told how he is led to the aid of the -Duchess of Brabant by a swan, how he marries her on condition she inquire -not as to his origin, and how, on her breaking the command, the swan -carries him away from her. - -=Heinrich von dem Türlin.=--_The Gawain Episodes of Diu Crône._--The -parallelism of Heinrich's poem with those of Wolfram and Chrestien begins -about verse 17,500 with an adventure of Gawain's corresponding to Inc. 13 -in Chrestien (Tournament for the hand of Tiebaut of Tingaguel's daughter, -episode of the two sisters, combat with Melians de Lis). In Heinrich the -father is named Leigamar, the eldest daughter Fursensephin, (Fleur sans -epine ?), the youngest Quebelepluz, where Heinrich has taken a French -phrase setting forth the greater fairness of the damsel for a proper name. -Inc. 14 in Chrestien then follows with these differences: the name of the -castle is Karamphi; Gawain and the facile damsel are surprised by the -latter's brother, and it is her father who, to avenge the wrong done his -house, makes Gawain swear that within a year he will either seek out the -Grail or return as prisoner to Karamphi. Chrestien's Inc. 15 is of course -missing, the story going straight on to Inc. 16, meeting with the wounded -knight (here Lohenis) and his lady love Emblie, who by treachery deprive -Gawain of his steed; then the arrival at the Castle of Wonders, and the -night passed in the enchanted bed, where the hero is overwhelmed with -crossbolts shot at him by invisible foes. The plucking of the flower from -the enchanted garden at the bidding of a damsel (Orgueilleuse in Chrestien -and Wolfram, here Mancipicelle), and the meeting with and challenge by -Giremelanz follow. Arthur's court comes to the Castle of Wonders to -witness the combat. Gawain and Giremelanz are reconciled, the latter -marries Gawain's sister, and Gawain himself sets off to search for the -Grail. [Adventures then follow which correspond to nothing in Chrestien or -Wolfram, in which Gawain wins talismans destined to aid him in his -search.] Gawain sets forth on his quest accompanied by Kay, Lancelot, and -Calocreant. They part at crossways. Gawain comes to the sister of the -magician (anonymous in Chrestien, Klinschor in Wolfram, here Gansguoter) -of the Castle of Wonders. She bids him take heed, if he wish to see the -Grail, he be not overcome by sleep, and for this that he drink not -overmuch; as soon as he saw it and its accompanying damsels, he was to ask -about it. If he neglected this, all his past and any future toil would be -useless. On his way to the Grail castle, the hero meets with all sorts of -dangers, and obstacles, and wonders; amongst others, passing the night in -a castle where he is tended by invisible hands. After month-long -wanderings he meets with Lancelot and Calocreant, and learns that Kay, in -a vain attempt to penetrate to the Grail, has been flung into prison. The -three comrades then come to the Grail castle. They are led into a hall -which passes in splendour aught earthly eye ever saw. The floor is strewn -with roses, on a bed lies an old man in gold-embroidered garments, and -watches two youths playing at chess. Towards night the hall fills with -knights and dames, a youth enters bearing a sword which he lays before the -old man. Gawain is pressed to drink; but refuses, not so his two -companions, who straightway fall asleep. Then enter two damsels bearing -lights, followed by two knights with a spear, and two more damsels with a -"toblier" (? tailleor, plate) of gold and jewels. After them comes the -fairest woman ever God created, and with her a maiden weeping. The spear -is laid on the table, by it the "toblier" wherein are three drops of -blood. In the box borne by the fair lady is a piece of bread, one third -part of which she breaks off and gives to the old man. Gawain recognising -in her Gansguoter's sister, stays no longer, but asks what these wonders -mean. Straightway knights and dames all with mighty shout leap from table, -and great joy arises. The old man says what he has seen is the Grail; none -saw it before save Parzival, and he asked not. By his question Gawain has -delivered from long waiting and suffering both those which are dead and -those which live. The old man himself and his companions are really dead, -though they seem it not, but the lady and her damsels are living; for -their unstained womanhood God has granted them to have the Grail, and -therewith yearly to feed the old man. All Gawain's adventures latterly -have come from the Grail. Now he has ended all, he is to take as prize of -his knighthood the sword which will help him in every danger. After him no -man shall see the Grail; further concerning it he must not ask, nor may -know more. At daybreak the old man's tale ends, and he with his whole -court vanish, leaving only the lady with her five damsels. [After -releasing Kay, and undergoing other adventures, Gawain returns to Arthur's -court.] - -=The Petit Saint Graal or Didot-Perceval.=[13]--_Prologue._--After the -choosing of Arthur to be King, Merlin comes to the court, and tells how -Arthur is Uther-Pendragon's son, brought up by Antor as his son. All -rejoice at this, especially Gauvain, son of Lot. After dinner the barons -bring Merlin to Arthur, and tell him how he was the prophet of -Uther-Pendragon, and had made the Round Table. Arthur promises to honour -Merlin. The latter calls him apart with Gauvain and Key, and tells him -how, in the time of Uther-Pendragon, the Round Table was made after the -pattern of one Joseph constructed when he separated the good from the -evil. Two Kings of Britain before had been Kings of France, and conquered -Rome; Queen Sibyl and Solomon had prophesied Arthur should be third, and -he, Merlin, was the third to assure him of it. But this could only be if -Arthur established the Round Table as Merlin directed. Now the Grail had -been given Joseph by our Lord himself, and at His command Joseph led a -great folk into the desert. And when evil befell them Joseph, at our -Lord's command, made a table; whereat one place was left empty in -remembrance of Judas. But Moyses, a false disciple, sat therein, but sank -into the abyss, whereout he shall not come until the time of Antichrist. -Our Lord made the first table; Joseph, the second; he, Merlin, the third. -The Grail was given into the keeping of the rich Fisher King; but he was -old, full of sickness, and should not win health till a knight came, -having sat at the Round Table, true man of God and of Holy Church, and the -best knight in the world for feats of arms. He must ask the rich fisher of -what use is the Grail; then the King would be cured of his infirmity, the -enchantments of Britain would cease, and the prophecy be fulfilled. Should -Arthur do this, great good would come of it; he, Merlin, must go, as he -could not often show himself to the people. Whereupon he departs to -Ortoberland, to Blaise, his master, who writes down these things, and by -his writings we know them. The son of Alein le Gros is a child named -Percevaux, and as Alein is dying he hears the voice of the Holy Ghost -saying, Know thou art near thy end, and wilt soon come into the fellowship -of Jesus Christ. Brons, thy father, dwells in these isles of Ireland, and -with him is the Grail. And he may not die until thy son finds him, to whom -he shall commend the grace of the vessel, and teach the secret words -Joseph taught him, then shall he be cured of his infirmities. And I -command thy son that he go to the court of Arthur, where he shall be -taught how he may find the house of his grandfather. Alein dies, and -Percevaux mounts his horse and comes to Arthur's court, and asks arms from -him, and stays there and is much loved. - -(1) Arthur proposes holding a tournament at Easter, the greatest the world -had seen, to honour the Round Table. Perceval at first takes no part in -the tournament; but afterwards, for love of Aleine, niece of Gauvain, who -incites him thereto, and sends him a suit of red armour, he enters the -lists unknown, and overbears all opponents, so that all say he should fill -the empty place at the Round Table. Perceval claims the empty place from -the King, and when refused threatens to return to his land and never visit -the court again. Arthur yields, and Perceval seats himself. Then the rocks -and the earth groan dolorously, and a voice reproaches Arthur with having -disobeyed Merlin's command. Were it not the goodness of Alein le Gros -Perceval had died the death of Moys. Now should Arthur know the vessel our -Lord gave Joseph was in the keeping of the rich fisher, and he was ill and -infirm, and until the best knight in the world should come might not die. -And when that knight should come to the rich fisher and ask concerning the -vessel, then should he be cured, but die within three days after giving -the vessel to that knight, and teaching him the secret words handed down -by Joseph. Thus the enchantments of Britain should cease. (2) Perceval -swears not to lie one night where he had lain the night before till he -find the rich fisher. Gauvain, Sagremors, Beduers, Hurgains, and Erec -swear the same. The knights set forth amid general lamentation. They part -at a chapel, and the story follows Perceval. (3) He comes, after two days, -upon a damsel weeping over a knight, Hurganet, one of the Round Table, who -had gone forth on the Grail Quest. He had delivered her from a giant, and -ridden with her into a tent where they found knights and ladies, who -warned them not to await the owner, the "Orgoillos Delandes," who would -kill him. And whilst speaking a dwarf entered, scourge in hand, who threw -down the tent. The Lord of the Tent then appeared, clad in red armour, and -slew Hurganet. Perceval determines to avenge his death; rides to the tent -with the damsel; is warned of its inmates; is surprised by the dwarf, who -smites the damsel with his scourge, whereupon Perceval fells him to the -ground. The Knight of the Tent appears; after a desperate struggle -Perceval overcomes him and sends him with the damsel to Arthur's court. -She had fain stayed with him, but he thought of other things. (4) Perceval -comes to the finest castle in the world, enters, and finds no inhabitant. -Only a chessboard he finds. He begins to move the pieces, and they play -against him, and he is checkmated three times running. Full of anger he -prepares to throw the chessmen into the castle moat--suddenly a damsel -shows herself and reproaches him. He will abstain if she comes to him. She -consents, and after her squires and maidens have disarmed Perceval he -joins her. Overcome by her beauty he requests her love. She will grant it -him if he capture the white stag of the wood. She lends him her hound, and -recommends him to take the utmost care of it. Perceval chases the stag, -captures it, and, having cut off its head, starts back. But meanwhile an -old woman has carried off the hound. She will only give it up if Perceval -will go to a grave whereunder is a knight painted, and say: "Felon, he -that put you there." Perceval complies; whereupon appears a knight on a -black horse armed in black. They strive, and Perceval overcomes him. But -meantime a second knight has carried off both the stag's head and the -hound from the old woman. Perceval's adversary flees to the tomb, which -closes upon him, and Perceval follows the second knight after a vain -attempt to get help from the old woman. (5) Him he found not; but after -feats longer than I can tell, comes to his father's house, where he was -born. He only finds his sister and a niece. The former tells him -concerning her brother, who went to Arthur's court; whereupon their mother -died of grief. Perceval reveals himself, and is amazed at what she relates -concerning the Grail and its guardian, and asks if he may come to behold -it. She answers, Yes; whereupon he vows not to rest till he have found it. -She attempts to dissuade him, but he remains firm. She then urges him to -go to their uncle, who is a hermit, to whom he may confess the sin of his -mother's death, and who will advise him concerning the Quest. (6) Both -proceed thither. He rejoices to see them, and asks if Perceval has been to -the house of his father, guardian of the vessel named Grail, and, on -hearing that he has not, tells him how at the table which Joseph and -himself had made, the voice of the Holy Ghost had come to them, telling -them to go westward, and ordering the rich fisher, his father, to come to -that land where the sun goes down (_avaloit_), telling him he should not -die till the son of Alein had become the best knight in the world. -Perceval had been chosen to do his Lord's service; he is to slay no knight -nor to lie with any woman, that being luxurious sin. His sins have -prevented his reaching Brons. He is to be careful to keep himself from sin -and felony, being of a race our Lord so loved that He committed His blood -to their keeping. Much else he says, and on the morrow Perceval and his -sister ride forth. (7) They meet a knight who challenges them. Perceval, -thinking of the damsel who had given him the hound, at first pays no -attention, but then overcomes and slays him. Perceval is much grieved at -having so soon broken his uncle's injunction. On the morrow he leaves his -sister, promising to return so soon as he may. (8) He meets a knight, -accompanied by a damsel the most wonderfully ugly nature ever made, -whereat he signs himself and laughs. The knight, indignant, challenges -him, but is overcome and sent with the damsel to Arthur's court. Kay makes -mock of them; but Arthur reproves him and receives them courteously. They -remain at the court, and know that she was the most beautiful woman in the -world! (9) Perceval comes to a ford and is challenged by its guardian, -whom he overcomes. His name is Urban of the Black Thorn; his lady had set -him to guard the ford. Her castle vanishes with a great noise, and she -comes to her lover's aid with her maidens in shape of birds. Perceval -slays one who becomes a woman, and is carried off by the others to -Avallon. (10) Perceval comes to a tree at the crossing of four roads, -among its branches he sees two naked children of seven years old. They -speak to him concerning the Grail, and direct him to take the road to the -right. They vanish, and a voice tells him to heed their counsel. (11) -Perceval comes to a river whereon are three men in a boat, and the master -of the boat bids him go down the stream till he should come to his house. -Perceval rides a whole day without finding it, and curses the fisher. At -last he comes to a castle with lowered drawbridge, enters, and is robed in -scarlet by two squires. Meanwhile four attendants have carried the Fisher -King, father of Alein, and grandfather of Perceval, into the hall. The -King wished to do Perceval what honour he might. They eat, and whilst at -table a squire comes out of a chamber, and brings in both hands a lance, -whence flows a drop of blood. Him follows a damsel bearing two silver -plates and clothes; then a squire with a vessel in which was our Lord's -blood. All bow as he passes, and Perceval had fain asked, but he fears to -displease the King, minding him of the worthy man to whom he had -confessed, and who forbade his speaking too much and enquiring -overmuch--for a man of idle words is displeasing to our Lord. All night -Perceval thinks of the lance and of the Grail, and in the morning, on -waking, finds neither man nor woman. He sets forth to seek some one, but -in vain, and is greatly distressed. (12) He finds a damsel weeping -bitterly, who, seeing him, cries out: "Percevaux le Gallois, be accursed, -unhappier art thou than ever, having been in the house of the rich Fisher -King, and not having asked concerning the Grail. Thy Lord hates thee; and -'tis wonder the earth do not open beneath thee." Had he not seen Grail and -lance pass? Had he asked what one did with them, the King, cured of his -infirmity, would have returned to his youth; our Lord's prophecy to Joseph -been fulfilled, and the enchantments of Britain undone. But Perceval is -neither wise, valiant, nor true man enough to have charge of the blood. -But he shall come again and ask concerning the Grail, and his grandfather -shall be cured. (13) The damsel departs, and Perceval, unable to find his -grandfather's house, rides on and comes to a tree under which a damsel is -sitting, and in whose branches the stag's head, which had been carried off -from him, is hanging. Perceval takes it, and when his hound following a -stag comes up, takes possession of it likewise. But the knight who had -taken them appears. Perceval fights with and overcomes him; learns that he -is the brother of the Knight of the Tomb, who lives therein with his love, -sister of the damsel for whose sake Perceval had hunted the stag. To her -Perceval now returns, gives her hound and stag's head, and then departs -refusing the offer of her love, even to stop one night with her. (14) -Perceval wanders for seven years achieving many feats, and sending more -than one hundred knights prisoners to Arthur; but, not being able to find -his grandfather's house, he falls into such melancholy as to lose his -memory, so that he minds him no more of God, and never enters Church. One -Good Friday, fully armed, he meets a knight and ladies in penitents' -dress, who reproach him for going armed on a day that our Lord was -crucified. Perceval repents; returns to his uncle, the hermit; learns that -his sister is dead, and does penitence. The songmen, in their pleasing -rhymes, say nothing of this; but we tell you of it as we find it in the -tale Merlin made Blaise write down. (15) Perceval rides forth and meets -seven squires of Melianz de Liz, who is going to a tournament at the White -Castle, the damsel of which is to be the victor's prize. All the knights -of the Round Table will be there, having returned that Whitsuntide from -the Quest of the Grail without achieving aught. Perceval leaves the -squires and come to a castle where he puts up. His host urges him to take -part in the tournament. The morrow they ride forth and look on; Melianz -wears the scarf of the lady of the castle; he and Gauvain prove themselves -the best knights, the onlooking ladies know not to whom to award the -prize. The next day, Perceval, having resolved upon taking part, accepts -the scarf of his host's daughter, overcomes all adversaries, and sends -steeds to the lady in return for her scarf. Being asked by his host if he -will not woo the damsel of the White Castle, Perceval answers he may not -take wife. Then appears an old man who reproaches Perceval for going to a -tournament, and with forgetting his vow to sleep no two nights in the same -house till the Quest be accomplished. He is Merlin, come from Hortoblande, -to say that owing to the prayers of Perceval's uncle, our Lord wills that -the latter may have his blood to keep. He is to go to his grandfather. -Perceval asks when he shall get there. "Before a year," is the answer. -"'Tis a long time." "Not so," says Merlin, who leaves him, and tells all -to Blaise, from whose writing we know of it. (16) That same night Perceval -comes to his grandfather's house, is received by the Fisher King, and as -they sit at table the Grail appears, and the relics with it, and when -Perceval sees it he asks to what use is the vessel put? Forthwith the King -is cured, and his being changed. Perceval must say first who he is before -learning such holy things. Upon learning it is his grandson before him, -the King leads him to the Grail, and tells him with this lance Longis -pierced the side of Jesus Christ, whom he knew in the flesh. In this -vessel is the blood, Joseph caught as it ran to the ground. It is called -Grail because it is agreeable to worthy men; none may sin in its presence. -Then Brons, kneeling, prays, and the voice of the Holy Ghost tells him the -prophecy will be fulfilled; and he is to teach Perceval the secret words -our Lord on the cross told Joseph, and Joseph told him. He does, but I -cannot and may not say what these words were. Then angels carry him off; -and Perceval remains, and the enchantments of Britain and of the whole -world cease. And that same day Arthur and his knights sitting at the Round -Table are aware of a great noise, and the seat is made whole again which -had broken under Perceval. Merlin appears to Blaise, tells him his work is -ended, and takes him to Perceval, who was right glad of his company. - -_Epilogue._--Merlin comes to Arthur's court and relates all that had taken -place. The knights, finding the Quest of the Grail is over, and mindful of -Merlin's former words, urge Arthur to invade the continent. He does so, -overcomes Frollo, King of France; refuses tribute to the Emperor of Rome, -overcomes him, but is recalled to England on learning Mordret's treachery. -The latter is slain; but Arthur, wounded mortally, is carried to Avallon -to be healed of Morguen, his sister. Lastly, Merlin tells Perceval how he -will withdraw from the world, and be no more seen of men. And the tale -says no more of Merlin and the Grail. - -=The Mabinogi of Peredur ab Evrawc.=--Evrawc, Earl of the North, has seven -sons, six of whom, like himself, fall in tournaments and combats. His wife -carries off her youngest son, Peredur, to the desert, and forbids horses -or arms being shown to him. He grows up strong and active, and can outrun -his mother's goats and hinds. (1) One day he sees three knights -passing--Gwalchmai, the son of Gwyar, and Geneir Gwystyl, and Owain, the -son of Urien. His mother declares them to be angels; whereupon he -determines to join them. He questions Owain concerning his accoutrements -and the use of his weapons. His mother swoons away at the thought of his -leaving her; but he picks out a horse and saddles it. Before leaving, his -mother counsels him to repeat his paternoster wherever he sees a church; -to take food and drink if none offer them; to aid when any outcry is, -especially a woman's; if he sees a fair jewel to take it and give it to -another; to pay his court to fair women whether they will or no. (2) After -two days and nights Peredur comes to a tent, where he finds a damsel. Half -of the food and drink she has he takes, half leaves to her; asks her for -her ring at leaving, which she gives him. Her lord returning, is jealous, -and sets forth to avenge his supposed wrong. (3) Peredur journeys on to -Arthur's court. A knight has been there before him, and grievously -insulted Gwenhwyvar by dashing a goblet of wine in her face, and carrying -the goblet out, and has dared any to avenge the insult; but all hang their -heads. Peredur enters the hall and demands knighthood. On Kai's protesting -he is too meanly equipped, a dwarf, who, with his female companion has -been a year at Arthur's court without speaking, salutes him as the flower -of knighthood. Kai strikes him for this, and kicks the female dwarf, who -repeats the salutation. Kai bids Peredur seek the knight and win back the -goblet, then shall he have knighthood. Peredur does so, and slays the -knight. Owain, who has followed, shows him how to undo the armour and to -clad himself in it, and bids him back to Arthur. But Peredur refuses, he -will not come back to the court till he have avenged the injury done by -Kai to the dwarf and dwarfess. (4) Peredur overcomes sixteen knights and -sends them to Arthur with the same message. (5) Peredur comes to a castle -by a lake, and sees a venerable man sitting by the lake and his attendant -fishing, and the old man is lame. And Peredur enters the castle, and is -practised in the use of weapons, and learns courtesy and noble bearing; -and the old man is his uncle--his mother's brother. He is to leave his -mother's habits and discourse, and if he sees aught to wonder at, not to -ask the meaning of it. (6) Peredur leaves his uncle and comes to a castle -where dwells a second uncle of his--brother likewise of his mother. His -strength is tested by his having to cut through an iron staple with a -sword. Twice he does it and the broken pieces re-unite, but the third time -neither would unite as before. He has arrived at two-thirds of his -strength, and when he attains his full power none will be able to contend -with him. Whilst talking, two youths enter the hall bearing a mighty spear -with three streams of blood flowing from the point to the ground. All -wail and lament; but as Peredur is not vouchsafed the meaning of what he -sees he forbears to ask concerning it. Then enter two maidens with a -salver in which a man's head swims in blood. The outcry redoubles. Peredur -retires to sleep. (7) On the morrow, with his uncle's permission, he rides -forth, finds a beautiful woman lamenting over the corpse of a knight. She -reveals herself as his foster-sister; calls him accursed for causing his -mother's death by leaving her; and tells him it is her husband she mourns -for, slain by the Knight of the Glade. Peredur meets the latter, overcomes -him, and makes him take his foster-sister in marriage. (8) Peredur comes -to a castle where are eighteen youths and five maidens, and he had never -seen one of so fair an aspect as the chief of the maidens. A flask of wine -and six loaves are brought by two nuns, and that must suffice for all. The -youths press the maiden to offer herself to Peredur as his wife or lady -love. She refuses; but consents when they threaten leaving her to her -enemies. She comes weeping to Peredur and relates how she is besieged by -an earl who seeks her hand. She implores his aid, and offers to place -herself in his hands. Peredur bids her go sleep, he will assist her, The -next day he overthrows the master of the household of the earl. To save -his life the latter must deliver up one-third of the besieged maiden's -lands. The second day it fares the same with the earl's steward; the third -with the earl himself. Peredur thus wins back all his hostess' lands, and -tarries with her three weeks; but for her love he would not have stayed so -long. (9) Peredur next meets the Lady of the Tent, ill-entreated of her -husband concerning him. Him he overcomes, compels to acknowledge her -innocence, and sends both to Arthur. (10) Peredur comes to the castle of a -tall and stately lady, who bids him escape from the sorceresses of -Gloucester, who will attack the castle that night; but he resolves to -remain, and defends one of the watch when overtaken by a sorceress. The -latter hails him by his name. She foreknows she is to suffer harm from -him. If he will go with her he shall learn chivalry and the use of arms. -Peredur consents on her promising to refrain from injuring the countess, -and stays with her three weeks. (11) Peredur comes to a hermit's cell. In -the morning it has snowed. A hawk has killed a fowl in front of the cell, -but is scared away by Peredur's horse; a raven has alighted on the bird. -Peredur likens the blackness of the raven and the whiteness of the snow -and the redness of the blood to the hair and the skin and the two red -spots on the cheeks of the lady he loves best. Whilst thus lost in -thought, Arthur and his household come up with him, but fail to recognise -him. A youth accosts him, but receives no answer; whereupon he thrusts at -Peredur but is struck to the ground. Twenty-four youths essay the same, -and are repulsed in like manner. Kai then comes and speaks angrily, but -Peredur breaks his arms for him. Gwalchmai then approaches him -courteously, learns his name, and brings him to Arthur, who does him -honour. Thus all return to Caerlleon. (12) Peredur solicits the love of -Angharad Law Eurawc, and when she denies him, vows to speak to no -Christian till she loves him. (13) Peredur comes to the castle of a huge -grey man, a heathen, after slaying a lion, his porter. The grey man's -daughter warns him of her father, and at his request brings his horse and -arms to his lodging. Peredur overcomes the vassals, and slays the sons of -the grey man, and sends the whole household to Arthur to be baptized. (14) -Peredur slays a serpent lying upon a gold ring, and wins the ring. For a -long time he speaks to no Christian, and loses colour and aspect through -longing for Arthur and his lady love. He returns to Arthur's court, but -none know him, and he suffers Kai to thrust him through the thigh without -his saying a word. He overcomes many knights, and at length Angharad Law -Eurawc confesses her love for him. He remains at Arthur's court. (15) -Peredur comes to the castle of a huge, black, one-eyed man. The latter's -daughter warns him against her father. But Peredur stays, overcomes the -latter, and learns how he lost his eye. On the Mound of Mourning is a -cairn, in the cairn a serpent with a stone in its tail, the virtue whereof -is to give as much gold to the possessor as he may desire. In fighting the -serpent he had lost his eye. He directs Peredur to the serpent, and is -slain by him. Peredur refuses the love of the maidens of the castle, and -rides forth. (16) He comes to the palace of the son of the King of the -Tortures. Every day the Addanc of the Lake slays them. Whilst at discourse -a charger enters the hall with a corpse in the saddle. They anoint the -corpse with warm water and balsam, and it comes to life. The same happens -with two other youths. The morrow they ride forth anew against the Addanc, -refusing Peredur, who would go with them; but he follows and finds seated -on a mound the fairest lady, who, if he will pledge her his love, will -give him a stone by which he may see the Addanc and be unseen of it. He -promises, and she gives him the stone, telling him to seek her in India. -Peredur passes through a valley wherein is a flock of white sheep, and one -of black, and when they cross the river flowing through the valley they -change colour. He learns of their shepherd the way to the Addanc's cave, -slays it, meets his three companions of the night before, who tell him it -was predicted that he should slay the monster, offers them its head, -refuses their sister whom they proffer him in marriage; accepts the -services of a youth, Etlym Gleddyv Coch, who wishes to become his -attendant, and rides forth. (17) He comes to the court of the Countess of -Achievements, overthrows her three hundred knights; but learning she loves -Etlym resigns her to him. (18) Peredur, accompanied by Etlym, comes to the -Mound of Mourning, slays two out of the three hundred knights he finds -guarding the serpent, slays the latter, repays the remaining hundred -knights all they have spent, gives Etlym the stone and sends him back to -his love. (19) Peredur comes to a valley wherein are many coloured tents, -lodges with a miller, from whom he borrows food and lodging, and learns -that a tournament is forward. He overcomes all the knights present, and -sends their horses and arms to the miller as repayment. The Empress of the -Tournament sends for him, he repels her messengers thrice, the fourth time -he yields. She reveals herself as the lady who had helped him against the -Addanc, and she entertains him for fourteen years. (20) Arthur is at -Caerlleon-upon-Usk, with him his knights, and among them Peredur. There -enters, riding upon a yellow mule, a maiden of hideous aspect. She greets -all save Peredur, to whom she reproaches his silence at the court of the -Lame King; had he asked the meaning of the streaming spear and of the -other wonders the King would have regained health and the dominions -peace--all his misfortunes are due to Peredur. She then tells of a castle -where are five hundred and seventy knights, each with the lady he loves -best--there may fame be acquired; and of a castle on a lofty mountain -where a maiden is detained prisoner, whoso should deliver her should -attain the summit of the fame of the world. Gwalchmai sets forth to -release the imprisoned maiden, Peredur to enquire the meaning of the -bleeding lance. Before they leave a knight enters and defies Gwalchmai to -single combat, for that he had slain his lord by treachery. (21) Gwalchmai -meets a knight who directs him to his own castle, where he is welcomed by -his sister. The steward of the castle accuses him to the knight of being -the slayer of his, the knight's, father. Gwalchmai demands a year to -acknowledge or deny the accusation. (22) Peredur, who, seeking tidings of -the black maiden, but finding none, has wandered over the whole island, -meets a priest who chides him for being in armour on Good Friday. Peredur -dismounts, asks the priest's blessing, and learns of a castle where he may -gain tidings of the Castle of Wonders. (23) Peredur proceeds thither, and -meets the King of the castle, who commends him to his daughter, by whom he -is well received. A little yellow page accuses him to the King of winning -his daughter's love, and advises that he should be thrown into prison. But -the damsel befriends him, and assists him to take part in a tournament, -where, for three days, he overthrows all opponents. The King at last -recognises him, and offers him his daughter; but he refuses and sets forth -for the Castle of Wonders. (24) On arriving there he finds the door open, -and in the hall a chessboard and chessmen playing by themselves. He -favours one side which loses, whereupon he casts the chessboard in the -lake. The black maiden comes in and reproaches him--he may find the -chessboard again at the Castle of Ysbidinongyl, where a black man lays -waste the dominions of the Empress. Him Peredur overcomes, but spares his -life; this the black maiden chides him for, and he slays him; but the -black maiden still refuses him access to the Empress unless he can slay a -stag, swift as the swiftest bird, with one sharp horn in his forehead. She -gives him a little dog belonging to the Empress which will rouse the stag. -With its aid he slays the latter, but a lady, riding by, carries off the -dog, and chides him for slaying the stag. He can only win her friendship -by going to a cromlech which is in a grove, and challenging to fight three -times a man who dwells there. Peredur complies, and fights with a black -man clad in rusty armour; but when he dismounts his adversary disappears. -(25) Peredur, riding on, comes to a castle where sits a lame grey-headed -man, and Gwalchmai by him. A youth enters the hall and beseeches Peredur's -friendship--he had been the black maiden who came to Arthur's court, and -who had chid Peredur concerning the chessboard; he was the youth who came -with the bloody head in the salver, and the head was that of Peredur's -cousin slain by the sorceresses of Gloucester, who also lamed Peredur's -uncle, and he, the speaker, was Peredur's cousin. Peredur seeks aid of -Arthur, and they start against the sorceresses. One of the latter slays -three of Arthur's men; whereupon Peredur smites her, and she flees, -exclaiming this was Peredur, who had learnt chivalry of them, their -destined slayer. She and all her companions are slain. Thus is it related -concerning the Castle of Wonders. - -=The Thornton MS. Sir Perceval.=--(1) PERCYVELLE is son of Percyvelle and -Acheflour, Arthur's sister. His father is slain in a tournament by the Red -Knight whom he had previously overcome in a former tournament. His mother -takes to the woods, brings up her son without instruction till he is -fifteen years, when she teaches him to pray to God. (2) He then meets with -three knights of Arthur's court--Ewayne, Gawayne, and Kay. He takes them -for gods. Learning that they are knights, he determines to go to Arthur's -court and become a knight himself, catches a wild horse, and, returning to -his mother, announces his attention. She counsels him to be always of -measure, to salute knights when he meets them, and at his departure gives -him a ring for token. (3) He sets forth, and finding on his way a house -makes himself free of it, eats, drinks, and finding a lady sleeping on a -bed takes from her her ring, leaving his mother's in its place. (4) Coming -to Arthur's hall he rides into it and up to the King so that his mare -kisses Arthur's forehead. He demands knighthood at Arthur's hands, -threatening to slay him if refused. Arthur sees the likeness to his -father, laments over the latter's untimely fate, and recalls that books -say the son should avenge the father's bane. Percyvelle bids him let be -his jangling and dub him knight. Whilst sitting down to table the Red -Knight comes in, carries off Arthur's cup (five years long had he done so) -none daring to hinder him. At the King's lament Percyvelle engages to slay -the Red Knight, and bring the cup back if knighthood be granted him. The -King promises, Percyvelle follows the ravisher, who scorns him, but is -slain by a dart flung at him. He captures the knight's steed, and not -being able otherwise to remove his armour, and recalling his mother's -injunction "out of the iron burn the tree" kindles a fire to burn the -body. Gawayne, who has followed him, shows him how to unlace the armour; -when that is removed Percyvelle casts the body into the fire to roast. He -refuses to return to Arthur, looking upon himself as great a lord as the -King, but sends the cup back through Gawayne and rides on. (5) He meets an -old witch, mother to the Red Knight, who addresses him as her son; her he -spears and casts into the fire. (6) He meets ten knights, who flee, taking -him for the Red Knight, but on his raising his vizor the oldest knight, -reassured, relates how the Red Knight bore him and his sons enmity, and -how, fifteen years before, he had slain his brother. Learning that -Percyvelle had burnt his enemy, he invites him to his castle. (7) Whilst -at meat a messenger comes in from the Maiden-land begging help from the -Lady Lufamour against a "Sowdane," who would have her to wife. Percyvelle -starts forth with three of the old knight's sons, whom, however, he sends -back each after a mile. Meanwhile, the King at Carebedd, mourning for -Percyvelle, receives Lufamour's messages, gains from him tidings of -Percyvelle, and sets forth with his court to follow him. Percyvelle, -coming to the Sowdane's camp, is set upon by the guard, but slays them -all, and then lays him down to rest under the castle wall. In the morning -Lufamour's men make her aware of the slaughter wrought upon her enemies. -She perceives Percyvelle and sends her chamberlain, Hatlayne, to bid him -to her chamber. Whilst at table together tidings are brought that the -enemy have nearly taken the town. Percyvelle sallies forth alone and soon -leaves not one alive. He is then ware of four knights--Arthur, Ewayne, -Gawayne, Kay. He pricks against them and Gawayne receives his onslaught. -They recognise each other, and all proceed to Lufamour's castle. The next -day the Sowdane challenges all comers; Percyvelle, dubbed knight by -Arthur, slays him, and thereafter weds Lufamour. (8) After a year he -thinks on his mother's loneliness, and sets forth to seek her. Hearing a -damsel lamenting in the wood, he finds her bound to a tree, for that a -year before, while sleeping, a stranger had robbed her of a ring leaving -his own in its stead. Now her ring was of a stone of such virtue that -neither death nor hurt could come to the wearer. He releases her, -overcomes the Black Knight who had bound her, reconciles them and claims -his own ring for the ring he had taken. But the Black Knight has given it -to the lord of the land--a giant. (9) Percyvelle slays the giant, and -claims the ring of the porter. The latter tells him how his master, loving -a fair lady, had offered her that same ring, but she, exclaiming that he -had killed her son, rushed into the forest and was since then bereft of -her senses. Percyvelle puts on a goat's skin, and after nine days search -finds her. A magic drink of the giant's throws her into a three days' -sleep, after which, restored to her right mind, she goes home with her -son. He afterwards goes to the Holy Land, and is there slain. - -=The Queste del Saint Graal.=--[_Furnivall's text (F.) has been taken as -the basis of the present summary. Words and passages not found in the -Welsh translation (W) are italicised; words or passages found in the Welsh -translation instead of those in Furnivall are in parentheses. The variants -from Birch-Hirschfeld's Summary (B. H.) are given in the notes._] - -(1) On Whitsun Eve the companions of the Round Table being assembled at -Camelot, a _damsel_ (youth) comes in great haste, asks for Lancelot and -bids him _from King Pelles_ (for the sake of whatever he loved most) -accompany her to the forest. Notwithstanding Guinevere's opposition he -does so, and comes to a nunnery where he finds his two cousins, Boort and -Lionel. Three nuns then bring Galahad, a child the like of whom might -scarce be found in the world; one asks Lancelot to knight him, he -consents, and on the morrow Lancelot and his companions return to -Camelot; his cousins think the child must be Lancelot's son, but Lancelot -answers no word. (2) At the Round Table the seat of each knight is marked, -but on the Seat Perillous it is written that _four hundred and fifty-four_ -(four hundred and fifty) years have passed since the Lord's Passion, and -that on this Whitsun Day the seat shall find its master. Lancelot covers -these words, and, whilst at Kay's reminding, the court awaits an adventure -before sitting down to meat, a youth tells them of a stone floating on the -water. It is a block of red marble, in which sticks a sword, and upon it -written that none may draw the sword save the best knight in the world. -Lancelot declares that the wonders of the Holy Grail are about to begin, -and refuses to essay the adventure; Gawain, Perceval, and others try, but -fail; they then sit down to table served by twelve kings; an old man -enters, leading a knight in vermeil armour, whom he proclaims the desired -knight, of the seed of David and kin of Joseph of Arimathea, who shall -achieve the adventures of the Holy Grail. He draws near the Seat -Perillous, on which is now written, "This is Galahad's seat," sits himself -therein, dismisses the old man, _and bids him greet_, "_My uncle, King -Pelles, and my grandfather, the rich fisher_."[14] (3) Great honour is -done to the new knight, whom Lancelot recognises as his son, and Bors and -Lionel as the youth begot by Lancelot upon the daughter _of the Fisher -King_ (King Pelles). The Queen is told that the knight is come, and her -ladies say he _shall end the wonders of Great Britain, and through him the -Maimed King shall be healed_. Galahad is then urged by Arthur to essay the -adventure of the sword, consents, easily draws out the sword, and asks for -a shield. (4) A damsel appears, weeps for Lancelot as having lost his -place as the best knight in the world, and tells the King from Nasciens, -the hermit, that on that day he would send the Holy Grail to feed the -companions of the Round Table. A tournament is ordered, in which Galahad -is held the best, as he overthrows all save Lancelot and Perceval. After -vespers the court sits down to table, a clap of thunder is heard, followed -by the brightest of sunbeams, so that all are as if lighted by the Holy -Ghost. None know whence the light comes, and none has power to say a word. -The Holy Grail enters, covered with white samite, but none may see who -carries it; the hall is filled with sweet odours, and as the Grail passes -along the tables each seat is filled with such meat as each one longs for. -Then it departs, none may say how, and those can now speak who before -could say no word. (5) All return thanks to God for the grace vouchsafed -them, and Gawain tells them that heretofore no man had been served with -whatever he might desire save _at the Maimed King's_ (at the court of King -Peleur). But they could not behold the Grail openly, and Gawain declares -he will go on quest of it for a year and a day. The knights of the Round -Table make a like vow. Arthur is much distressed, as he knows many will -die on the quest. The Queen and her ladies weep likewise, and propose to -join their knights, but an old priest tells them from Nasciens, the -hermit, that no knight entering on the quest of the Holy Grail is to have -with him his lady or damsel--the quest is no earthly one. On the morrow, -at King Bandamagus' suggestion, all the questers, Galahad first, swear to -maintain the quest for a year and a day and longer if need be. After the -Queen has taken leave of Lancelot, and Arthur has vainly tried to force a -shield on Galahad, the questers set off together and pass the first night -at Vagan's Castle. On the morrow they ride forth and separate. (6) After -five days Galahad comes to an abbey where he finds King Bandamagus and -Ywain "li aoutres." The abbey contains a shield which no knight save the -destined one may take and go unslain or unhurt. King Bandamagus would take -it, but is overthrown by a White Knight; Galahad then takes it, and his -right to do so is admitted by the White Knight, who tells him as follows -concerning it:--Forty-three years after our Lord's Passion, Joseph of -Arimathea, who took our Lord's body down from the Cross,[15] came to the -city Sarras, where dwelt King Evelac, then a Saracen, who was at war with -his neighbour, Tholomes. Josephes, Joseph's son, warned Evelac against -going forth to battle unprepared, and, in answer to the King's questions -what he should do, told him of the new law and Gospel truth and the -Saviour's death, and fixed on his shield a cross of sandal. He was to -uncover this on the fourth day's fighting, and to call on the Lord. When -he did so he beheld a bleeding, crucified figure. He won the battle, and -on his telling the story his brother-in-law, Nasciens, received baptism. -The shield then restored to a man his lost hand. Evelac was baptized, and -guarded the shield in lordly fashion. Josephes came with his father to -Great Britain, where King Crudel threw them with many other Christians -into prison. Mordrains[16] and Nasciens then invaded Great Britain, -released Josephes and remained with him in the land. When Josephes was on -his deathbed, and Evelac asked him for a remembrance, then he bade King -Mordrains bring his shield, and with the blood streaming from his nose -marked on it a cross; this would always remain red, and no knight should -with impunity unhang the shield till Galahad should come, last of -Nasciens' line. Where Nasciens lay buried, there the shield was to be -kept. (7) Galahad draws near a tomb in the abbey graveyard, whence issues -a voice telling him not to approach and drive it out. But he does so, and -a smoke in man's form comes out; on opening the tomb a dead knight's body -is found lying therein, this is cast out. These things are a symbol: the -hard tombstone signifies the _hard-heartedness of the world_ (the hardship -which Jesus Christ had in this world);[17] the dead body those dead in -sin, and as in Christ's time when they slew Him and were harried out of -their land by Vespasian as a punishment; the smoke was a devil who fled -from Galahad because he was a virgin. (8) On the morrow Galahad rides -forth accompanied by Melians, a youth who had begged to be allowed to -serve him, and whom he had knighted. They separate at a cross road, -Melians takes the left hand road in spite of warning, comes to a tent -where hangs a golden crown, seizes it, meets a strange knight who -overthrows and had slain him but for Galahad coming to the rescue and -overcoming first one, then a second assailant. Melians is taken to an -abbey to be tended, and learns that the two knights who almost overpowered -him were his pride in taking the left hand path, his covetousness in -carrying off the crown of gold. (9) Galahad enters a hermitage to pray -there, and hears a voice bidding him proceed to the Castle of Maidens and -rid it of its bad customs. He encounters on the way seven knights whom he -must overcome, such was the custom of the castle. He forces them to -flight, and an old priest brings him the keys of the castle. He finds -therein numberless maidens, and learns that the former lord of the castle -had been, with his son, slain by the seven knights, who had striven -beforehand to carry off his daughter. She foretold that as they had gained -the castle for a maiden's sake, they would lose it through a maiden, and -be overcome by a single knight, whereupon they determined to make prisoner -every maiden passing that way. Galahad delivers the captives, and puts a -daughter of the former duke in possession of the castle. He learns then -that the seven brothers have been slain by Gawain, Gheriot, and Ywain. -(10) The story now returns to Gawain. He passes by the abbey where Galahad -found the shield, then that where Melians lay ill, is reproached by a -friar with being too sinful to be with Galahad, meets Gheheries, his -brother, meets Ywain on the morrow, meets the seven brothers who attack -them and are slain; then Gawain comes alone to a hermitage, confesses for -the first time since fourteen years, is admonished by the hermit, learns -that the Castle of Maidens signifies hell, the captives the good souls -wrongfully therein confined before Christ's coming, the seven knights the -seven sins. Gawain is pressed, but vainly, to make penitence. (11) The -story returns to Galahad. After wandering for awhile without adventures he -meets Lancelot and Perceval. They do not recognise him, not knowing his -_arms_ (shield),[18] and attack him. He overcomes them, but learning from -the words of a recluse, who sees the combat, that she really knows him, -and, fearing recognition, he hurries off.[19] (12) Perceval stays with the -recluse, and Lancelot starts in pursuit of the Unknown Knight. He comes -in the night to a stone cross near which stands (an old)[20] chapel. He -dismounts and enters, but an iron rail hinders his progress; through it he -sees an altar whereon _burn seven candles_ (a silver candlestick, a wax -taper).[21] He leaves the chapel, unsaddles his horse, and lies down to -sleep by the cross. Then comes a sick knight on a bier drawn by two -horses, dolourously lamenting. He looks at Lancelot, but says no word, -thinking him asleep, nor does Lancelot say aught, but remains half asleep. -And the sick knight laments, "_When may I have solace from the holy vessel -for the pain I suffer for such a small fault_ (was ever so much pain as is -upon me who have done no evil at all)?"[22] But Lancelot says no word, nor -when the candlestick comes towards the cross and the Holy Grail approaches -the sick knight, who prays he may be made whole to join likewise the -quest. Then crawling to the table whereon the vessel stands, and _touching -his eyes with_ (kissing) it, feels relief and slumbers. The Grail -disappears and Lancelot still says never a word, for which aftertimes much -mischance was his. The sick knight arises well, a squire appears and -_arms_ him (with Lancelot's sword and helm),[23] and brings him Lancelot's -steed, and the knight swears never to rest till he knows why the Holy -Grail appears in so many places of the Kingdom of Logres, and by whom it -was brought to England. So he departs, and _his squire carries off -Lancelot's armour_. Lancelot awakes wondering whether what he has seen be -dream or truth. And he hears a voice saying--harder than stone, bitterer -than wood, more despised than the fig tree--he must away, not pollute the -spot where is the Holy Grail. He wanders forth weeping, comes to a hermit, -confesses his great sin, his love for Guinevere, is admonished to tear it -from his heart, when there may still be hope for him. Lancelot promises, -and has the adventure at the chapel explained to him, and stays with the -hermit for penance and instruction. (13) The story now returns to -Perceval. The recluse orders he be well taken care of, she loves him well, -he is her nephew. She dissuades him from fighting Galahad as he wishes, -does he wish to die and be killed as his brothers _for their outrages_ (in -their combats and tournaments)? He and Galahad and Bors will achieve the -Quest. She is his aunt, formerly Queen of the Waste Land. _He asks about -his mother whom he fears he has badly treated, and learns she died when he -went to Arthur's court._[24] He asks further concerning the knight with -the red arms, and is told as follows:--Since Christ's coming were three -chief tables; first, the table at which Christ often ate with his -Apostles; second, the table of the Holy Grail, established in semblance -and remembrance of the first, by which so many miracles were wrought in -this land in the time of Joseph of Arimathea, in the beginning when -Christianity was brought to this country. He came with four thousand poor -companions. One day, wandering in a forest, they had nothing to eat, but -an old woman brought _twelve_ (ten) loaves, these they bought and they -were wroth with one another when they came to divide them. Joseph angry, -took the twelve loaves, made the people sit, and by virtue of the Holy -Grail multiplied the loaves to their need. At that table was a seat where -Josephes, son of Joseph, might sit, but none other, for, as the history -tells, the place was blessed by our Lord himself. Now two brothers, -relatives of Josephes, envied him his leadership, saying they were of as -good seed as he, and one sat in Josephes' seat, and was straightway -swallowed up by the earth, whence the seat was called the Dreaded Seat. -Last came the Round Table, made by Merlin's counsel, to show the roundness -of the world and of the firmament. And Merlin foretold that by companions -of this table should the truth of the Grail be known, and that three -should achieve it, two virgins and one chaste, and the one should surpass -his father as man surpasses wolf, and he should be master, and for him -Merlin made a great and wonderful seat, wherein none might sit unharmed -save he, and it was known as the Seat Perillous. And as at Whitsuntide the -Holy Spirit came to the Apostles in guise of fire, so at Whitsuntide -Galahad came clad in red armour. And on the day he came the questing for -the Grail began, which might not cease till the truth concerning it _and -the lance_ was known. To find Galahad, Perceval must first try Castle -_Gher_ (Goth) where dwells a cousin of Galahad, _and then Castle Corbenic -where dwells the Maimed King_. (14) His aunt then tells how after that her -husband fell in war against King Laban she withdrew into that wild place. -And her son went to serve King Pelles, their relative, and since two years -she only knows of him that he is following tournaments throughout Great -Britain. (15) On the morrow Perceval comes to a monastery, and seeing mass -being performed would enter but cannot, and sees a sick bed with a man or -woman lying on it, whom, as he rises when the body of our Lord is raised, -he sees to be an old man crowned, with his body full of wounds and crying -out, "Father, forget me not." He seems as if he were over _four hundred_ -(one hundred and four) years old. Perceval asks concerning these wonders, -and is told as follows:--When Joseph of Arimathea came to this land, the -Saracen, King Crudel, hearing of the Grail by which he lived, threw him -and his son Josephes and some hundred others into prison for forty days, -and forbade food to be given them. But they had the holy vessel with them. -When Mordrains and his brother-in-law, Seraphe, heard these things, they -assembled their host, landed in Britain, overcame Crudel, and freed -Joseph. On the morrow Evelac, as he was called before he became Christian, -desired to see the Holy Grail plainly, and though warned to desist pressed -forward to do so, and was struck blind and helpless. He accepted his -punishment submissively, but only prayed to Christ that he might survive -till _the good knight should come, the best[25] of his seed_ (the knight -who is to achieve the adventures of the Holy Grail). A voice answered his -prayer should be granted, and then he should receive the light of his eyes -and his wounds should be made whole. This happened _four hundred_ (one -hundred and four) years before, and it was that King Evelac whom Perceval -had seen, and during that while he had fed on nought else save the Lord's -body. (16) Perceval riding forth on the morrow is attacked by twenty -knights, sore pressed, and only rescued by the Red Knight's help, who then -disappears. (17) Perceval, having lost his horse, asks one vainly from a -passing squire, from whom it is shortly afterwards carried off by another -knight, whom Perceval, mounted on the squire's cob, attacks but is -overthrown. (18) At night a woman appears and offers him a horse if he -will do her will--she is, in truth, the enemy. He agrees, she mounts him, -he comes to a river, and, before essaying to ford it, makes the sign of -the cross, whereupon the horse rushes howling into the water. (19) -Perceval, rescued from this peril, finds himself on a wild island -mountain, full of savage beasts; he helps a lion against a snake and wins -its service. He is ill at ease on his island, but he trusts God, and is -not like those men of Wales where sons pull their fathers out of bed and -kill them to save the disgrace of their dying in bed. (20) That night, -sleeping by the lion's side, Perceval dreams of two women visiting him, -one mounted on a lion, the second on a serpent; this one reproaches him -for killing the serpent. On the morrow an old man comes ship-borne, -comforts Perceval with good counsel, and interprets his dream: the dame on -the lion was Christ's new law, she on the serpent the old law. (21) A -damsel then appears, warns Perceval against the old man, prepares for him -a rich banquet with good wine, not British, as in Great Britain they only -drink cervoise and other home-made drinks, and excites his passion. He is -on the point of yielding, but seeing the cross-handled pommel of his sword -crosses himself, and the damsel disappears in flames. Perceval pierces his -thigh with his sword in his contrition. The old man reappears, exhorts, -explains the various features of his temptation, and finally takes him -away with him in his ship. (22) The story now returns to Lancelot. After -three exhortations from the hermit he sets forth, and first meets a -servant, who assails him bitterly as an unfaithful traitorous knight, in -that having openly seen the Holy Grail doing its wonders before him, he -yet moved not from his seat. (23) He comes to a hermit's hut and finds the -hermit lamenting over the dead body of his companion, who, at his nephew, -Agaran's, request, had left the hermitage to aid him against his enemies, -and had been treacherously slain by the latter. These things are told by a -devil, which had entered into the dead hermit's body. Lancelot is -admonished at great length, receives stripes, puts on the dead hermit's -hair shirt, and finally leaves with the advice that he should confess -every week. (24) He meets a damsel who encourages him, but tells him he -will find no lodging for the night. _He dismounts at the foot of a cross -at the cross-ways, and has a vision of a man surrounded with stars, -crowned and accompanied by seven Kings and two knights, who pray to be -taken to heaven; a man descending from heaven orders one of the knights -away, whilst to the other he gives the shape of a winged lion, so that he -flies up to heaven and is admitted._[26] (25) Lancelot meets the knight -who had carried off his arms, and who attacks, but is overthrown by him. -(26) _He comes to a hermitage, confesses, tells his vision, and learns -that it has a great meaning in respect of his lineage, which must be -expounded at much length: forty-two years after the Passion of Christ, -Joseph of Arimathea left Jerusalem, came to Sarras, helped Evelac, who -received baptism at the hands of Josephes, together with his -brother-in-law, Seraphe (who took the name Nasciens), and who became a -pillar of the holy faith, so that the great secrets of the Holy Grail were -opened to him, which none but Joseph had beheld before, and no knight -after save in dream. Now Evelac dreamed that out of his nephew, son of -Nasciens, came forth a great lake, whence issued nine streams, eight of -the same size, and the last greater than all the rest put together; our -Lord came and washed in the lake which King Mordrains thus saw flowing -from Celidoine's belly. This Celidoine was the man surrounded by stars in -Lancelot's vision, and this because he knew the course of the stars and -the manner of the planets, and he was first King of Scotland, and the nine -streams were his nine descendants, of whom seven Kings and two -knights:--first, Warpus; second, Chrestiens;[27] third, Alain li Gros; -fourth, Helyas; fifth, Jonaans, who went to Wales and there took to wife -King Moroneus' daughter; sixth, Lancelot, who had the King of Ireland's -daughter to wife; seventh, Bans. These were the seven Kings who appeared -to Lancelot. The eighth stream was Lancelot himself, the elder of the -knights of the vision. The ninth stream was Galahad, begot by Lancelot -upon the Fisher King's daughter, lion-like in power, deepest of all the -streams._[28] (27) Lancelot comes to a castle with a meadow before it, -whereon a throng of black armoured knights is tourneying against knights -in white armour. Lancelot goes to the help of the former,[29] but is -captured, and on being released rides off lamenting. At night, as he -sleeps, a man comes from heaven and reproaches him with his ill faith. A -hermitess expounds the allegorical meaning of the adventure. The white -knights are those of Eliezer, son of King Pelles, the black those of -Argastes, son of King Helain; this symbolised the Quest, which was a -tournament between the heavenly knights and the earthly ones, and in that -Quest none might enter who was black with sin; and Lancelot though sinful, -having entered thereon had joined the black knights, and his capture by -the others was his overthrow by Galahad, and his lamentation his return -to sin, and it was our Lord who reproached him in his vision; let him not -depart from truth. (28) Lancelot comes to Lake Marchoise, is attacked by a -knight in black armour, who kills his horse and rides off; he lays down on -the shore and awaits trustfully God's help. (29) The story returns to -Gawain. After journeying many days adventureless, he meets Hector de -Mares. Neither has heard aught of Lancelot, Galahad, or Bohors. Travelling -together they come to a deserted chapel, where, passing the night, Gawain -dreams he sees in a meadow one hundred and fifty bulls all spotted, save -three, one being dingy, the two others being pure white. Of the one -hundred and forty-seven who set off to find better pasture many die and -some return, of the three one returns, but two remain between whom strife -arises and they separate. Hector dreams that he and Lancelot, being -companions, are attacked by a man who knocks Lancelot off his horse and -sits him on an ass, after which Lancelot, coming to a fair fountain, would -drink of it, but it vanishes; he, Hector, keeping his horse comes to a -castle, the lord of which refuses him admission for that he is too high -mounted. Whilst telling one another their dreams, a hand with a taper -appears and vanishes, and a voice tells them that, poor of belief as they -are, they cannot attain the Holy Grail. On their way to find a hermit who -may explain these wonders, Gawain is attacked by and kills a knight, -Ywains the Adulterer, son of King Urien. They then come to the hermit, -Nasciens, who explains the bulls as the companions of the Round Table, the -spotted ones those stained by sin, the three unspotted ones are the -achievers, two white, virgins--Galahad and Perceval--one dingy, having -once sinned carnally, Bors. The last part of the dream may not be -explained, as evil might come of it. In Hector's dream the two horses are -Pride and Ostentation. Lancelot's being seated on an ass signifies the -putting off of pride, the fountain is the Holy Grail. Both knights are too -full of sin to continue in the quest of the Grail. They ride forth and -meet with no adventure worth notice. (30) The story returns to Bors. After -first coming to a hermit, who exhorts him to abandon the Quest if he do -not feel himself free from sin, to whom he confesses, from whom he -receives absolution, and to whom he vows to eat nought save bread and -water till the Quest be achieved, he comes to a castle whose mistress is -sore oppressed by her sister, against whose champion, Priadam the Black, -she has vainly sought a defender. Bors promises to come to help. He passes -the night at the castle and will not sleep in the rich bed she offers him, -though in the morning he tumbles it as if he had lain in it. He overcomes -Priadam, and reinstates the lady in her lordship. (31) On the morrow he -meets his brother, naked, bound on a hack, being beaten with thorns by two -knights. At the same moment passes a very fair maiden being carried off by -a knight, and she cries to him for help. He is in anguish, but goes to the -maiden's help, wounds her would-be ravisher, and restores her to her -friends. (32) He then hurries after his brother, but meets a seeming monk -who makes him believe his brother is dead, and gives him an explanation of -dreams he has had. He then comes to a tower and is welcomed by its -inmates. A damsel offers him her love, and when he refuses threatens with -twelve other damsels to throw herself from the tower. Bors is full of -pity, but thinks they had better lose their souls than he his. They fall -from the tower, Bors crosses himself, and the whole vanishes, being a -deceit of the devil. His brother's corpse that had been shown him is also -gone. (33) On the morrow he comes to an abbey, where he learns that his -brother lives, and where all his dreams and adventures are allegorically -explained. He then meets Lionel, his brother, who reproaches him bitterly -for his conduct, and falls upon him with intent to kill. First a hermit, -then a passing knight, Calogrenant, would stop him, but he slays both. -Bors is at length, in spite of prayers and entreaties, compelled to draw -in self defence, but a voice tells him to flee, and a fiery brand comes -from heaven between them. Bors follows the command of the voice directing -him towards the sea, where Perceval awaits him. He comes to a ship covered -with white samite, and finds therein Perceval, who at first does not know -him again, and who tells him all that he has passed through. (34) The -story returns to Galahad. After countless adventures he finds himself one -day opposed to Gawain and Hector de Mares in a tournament; he deals the -former such a blow as knocks him out of his saddle. (35) He is brought to -the ship wherein are Perceval and Bors by a damsel, who accompanies them -until, fourteen days' sail from Logres, they come to a desert isle off -which is another ship, on which is written[30] that those who would enter -should see they were full of faith. The damsel then tells Perceval she is -his sister, _daughter of King Pellehem_. They enter the ship and find a -rich bed with a crown at its head, and at its foot a sword six inches out -of the scabbard, its tip a stone of all the colours in the world, its -handle of the bones of two beasts, the serpent Papagast, the fish -Orteniaus; it is covered with a cloth whereon is written that only the -first of his line would grasp the sword. Perceval and Bors both essay -vainly. Galahad, on being asked, sees written on the blade that he only -should draw who could strike better than others. The damsel tells the -story of the sword as follows:--When the ship came to the Kingdom of -Logres there was war between King Lambar, father to the Maimed King, and -King Urlain, heretofore Saracen, but newly baptised. Once Urlain, -discomfited, fled to the ship, and, finding therein the sword, drew it and -slew King Laban[31] with it, and that was the first blow struck with the -sword in the Kingdom of Logres, and there came from it such pestilence and -destruction in the land of the two kingdoms that it was afterwards called -the Waste Land. When Urlain re-entered the ship he fell down dead. (36) -Galahad, further examining the sword, finds the scabbard of serpent's -skin, but the hangings of poor stuff. On the scabbard is written that the -wearer must surpass his fellows, and the hangings be changed only by a -King's daughter and she a maid; on turning the sword over, the other side -is found black as pitch, and bearing words that he who should praise it -most should blame it most in his greatest need. Perceval's sister explains -this as follows: Forty years after our Lord's Passion, Nasciens, -Mordrains' brother-in-law, came to the Turning Isle, and found this ship, -and therein bed and sword, this last he coveted, but had not the hardihood -to draw it, though he stayed eight days food and drinkless longing for it; -on the ninth day a tempest drove him to another island, where, assailed by -a giant, he drew the sword, and though it snapped in two and thus -fulfilled the inscription, yet he overcame the giant. He afterwards met -Mordrains and told him of these wonders; Mordrains reunited the fragments, -then, in obedience to a voice, they left the ship, but in going Nasciens -was wounded for having dared to draw a sword of which he was not worthy, -thus he who praised it most had most reason to blame it. As for the other -words, _King Pelles,[32] called the Maimed King_ (a lame King who was my, -_i.e._, the damsel's, uncle) once came to this ship on the shore of the -sea over against Ireland, and entering it found the sword, drew but was -wounded through the thighs by a lance, _and might not be healed till -Galahad come_.[33] (37) They then examine the bed and find it has three -spindles; that in front, snow white; that behind, blood red; that above, -emerald green, and lest this be thought a lie the story turns from its -straight path to explain about these spindles. After Eve, yielding to the -devil's advice, had caused Adam to sin, and both knew themselves carnal -and were ashamed, and were driven forth from Paradise, Eve kept the branch -of the Tree of Life which she had plucked, and planted it and it grew to a -tree with branches and leaves white in token that Eve was a virgin when -she planted it. Sitting one day beneath the tree, God commanded them to -know one another carnally, and when they were ashamed to set about such -foul work sent darkness over them. Abel was thus begotten, and the Tree of -Life turned green. Afterwards Cain slew Abel underneath that same tree and -it turned red. At the Deluge it remained unharmed and lasted till -Solomon's time. Whilst the wise King was pondering over the malice of his -wife and of all women, a voice told him a woman of his line should bring -men more joy than her sex had caused sorrow, and that a virgin knight -should be the last of his lineage. His wife, whom he consults as to how he -shall let this knight know he had foreknowledge of his coming, advised the -building of the ship, and the taking of David's sword to be fitted with a -new hilt of precious stones, and a new pommel and scabbard, and placed in -the ship together with Solomon's crown on a rich bed; she furthermore had -three spindles made from the Tree of Life and from trees grown from it. -And when all was ready Solomon saw in dreams angels coming from heaven and -putting the different inscriptions on the sword and ship. (38) The story -speaks now of other things. New hangings had not been put on the sword, -this was to be done by a damsel. Perceval's sister supplies hangings made -of her own hair, and names the sword "The Sword of Strange Hangings," and -the scabbard "Memory of Blood," and Galahad girds on the sword. (39) On -the morrow they set sail and come to Castle Carchelois, in the March of -Scotland, the inmates whereof attack them but are all slain. Galahad is -sorry for those he has killed, but a priest tells him they are heathens, -and he has done the best work in the world, as the three knights who held -the castle had ravished their own sister and wounded their father, Count -Ernous, to death. Before the latter dies he urges Galahad _to go to the -assistance of the Maimed King_ (to undertake other adventures).[34] (40) -On the morrow they meet a white stag led by four lions; these come to a -hermitage, hear mass, the stag becomes a man and sits on the altar, the -lions a man, an eagle, a lion, and an ox, all winged. (41) On the morrow -Perceval takes Galahad's sword, which he will wear from henceforth. They -come to a castle, the inmates of which demand that Perceval's sister -should pay the custom of the castle, which is to give a dishful of blood -from her right arm. The three companions protect Perceval's sister against -overwhelming odds till nightfall, when, learning that the blood is asked -to heal the Lady of the Castle suffering from leprosy, Perceval's sister -sacrifices herself. Before dying she gives directions that her body is to -be put in a ship and buried in the Palace Spiritual in Sarras. Bors then -leaves his two companions to succour a wounded knight pursued by a knight -and a dwarf;[35] and Perceval and Galahad, after seeing the castle they -had thus left destroyed by fire from heaven in vengeance of the blood of -the good maidens which had there been shed, likewise separate. (42) The -story returns to Lancelot. He is at the Water of Marcoise, surrounded by -the forest and high rocks, but he does not lose faith in God; in obedience -to a voice he goes on board a passing ship and finds therein Perceval's -sister, whose story he learns from the letter at her head. After a month's -journeying a knight joins them who proves to be Galahad, and they pass -together half a year achieving marvellous adventures. After Easter, at the -new time when the birds sing their sweet and varied songs, they come to -land, and a knight in white arms bids Galahad leave his father, which he -does. (43) After a month's further wandering on the sea, Lancelot comes to -a castle guarded by two lions,[36] against whom he would at first defend -himself, but is reproved for trusting his strength rather than his -Creator. Entering, he comes to a room wherein are the Holy Vessel, and a -priest celebrating mass; Lancelot is warned not to enter, but when he sees -that the priest about to raise the body of God has a man put into his -hands, he cannot refrain from pressing forward to his aid, but is struck -down by a fiery wind and remains fourteen days dumb, food- and drinkless. -He finds he is in Castle Corbenic, and a damsel tells him his quest is -ended. King Pelles rejoices to see him, at dinner the Holy Grail fills the -tables so that living man could not think of greater plenty; whilst at -dinner Hector de Mares comes to the castle door, but is ashamed to enter, -hearing that Lancelot is within, and rides off pursued by the reproaches -and taunts of those of the castle. Lancelot returns to Arthur's court, -passing on the way the tomb of Bandamagus, whom Gawain had slain. (44) The -story returns to Galahad. He comes to an abbey wherein is King Mordrains, -who knows his approach, and asks that he may die in his arms; Galahad -takes him on his breast, Mordrains dies and all his wounds are found -healed. (45) Galahad cools the boiling fountain by putting his hand in it. -(46) Galahad delivers from the tomb where he had been burning three -hundred and fifty-four years his relative, Symeu, who thus expiated his -sin against Joseph of Arimathea. (47) Galahad rides five years before he -comes to the _house of the Maimed King_ (the court of King Peleur), and -during all the five years Perceval bears him company, and within that time -they _achieve the great adventures of the Kingdom of Logres_ (cast out the -evil adventures of the Island of Britain). (48) One day they met Bors, who -in the five years had not been in bed four times. The three come to -_Castle Corbenic_[37] (the court of King Peleur) _where they are greeted -by King Pelles, and where Eliezer, King Pelles' son, brings the broken -sword with which Joseph had been pierced through the thighs; Bors cannot -rejoin the pieces, Perceval can only adjust them together, Galahad alone -can make the sword whole, and it is then given to Bors_. (50) At -vesper-time a hot wind strikes the palace, and a voice orders all unfit to -sit at Christ's table to depart, as the true knights were to be fed with -Heaven's food. All leave save _King Pelles, Eliezer, his son, and his -niece, the most religious maid on the earth_ (a young maiden); to them -enter nine knights[38] and salute Galahad: three are from _Gaul_ (Wales), -three from Ireland, three from Denmark. _Then four damsels bring in on a -wooden bed a man, crowned, in evil plight, who greets Galahad as his -long-expected deliverer._ A voice orders out of the room him who has not -been a companion of the Quest, and straightway _King Pelles and Eliezer -and_ the damsel depart. From heaven comes a man clad like a Bishop and -borne in a chair by four[39] angels, who place him before the table upon -which stands the Holy Grail. Upon his forehead is written that he was -_Joseph_ (son of Joseph of Arimathea) first Bishop of Christendom, whereat -they wonder, as they know that man lived three hundred years before. He -kneels before the altar and opens the door of the _ark_ (chamber), and -four angels[39] issue, _two bearing burning lights, the third a cloth of -red samite, the fourth a lance bleeding so hard that the drops run into a -box he holds in his other hand_ (two with torches, the third with the -lance, the fourth holding the box into which the blood drops); the candles -are placed on the table, the cloth is placed on the holy vessel so that -the blood fell into it. Joseph then celebrates the Sacrament, and on his -raising the wafer, as it were a child descends from heaven and strikes -itself into the wafer, so that it takes man's form. Joseph then kisses -Galahad and bids him be fed by the Saviour's own hand, and vanishes. But -there comes out of the holy vessel, a man with hands bleeding and feet and -body, and says He will reveal His secrets, and give the high food so long -desired and toiled for. He gives the Sacrament to Galahad and his -companions, and explains that the Grail is the dish of the Last Supper, -and Galahad shall see it more fully in the City of Sarras, whither it is -going, Britain being unworthy of it, and whither he is to follow it with -Perceval and Bors; _but as he must not leave the land without healing the -Maimed King he is to take some of the blood of the lance and therewith -anoint his legs_.[40] Galahad asks why all may not come with him; but -Christ says they are twelve who have eaten as the Apostles were twelve, -and they must separate as the Apostles separated. _Galahad then heals the -Maimed King, who goes into an abbey of white monks._ (51) The three -companions, after sending messages to Arthur's court _through Estrois de -Gariles and Claudius, son of King Claudas_,[41] coming to Solomon's ship, -herein they find the Holy Grail, set sail; on landing bury Perceval's -sister, heal a cripple to help them carry the Grail-table, are cast in -prison by King _Escorant_ for a year, are fed by the Holy Grail; at -_Escorant's_ death Galahad is made King, fashions a tree of gold and -precious stones over the Grail and prays before it every morning as do his -companions. (52) On the anniversary of Galahad's crowning the three see -before the holy vessel a man clad like a Bishop, who begins mass and calls -Galahad to see what he has so longed to see, and at the sight Galahad -trembles very greatly, and he thanks God for letting him see that which -tongue may not describe nor heart think, and he begs that he may pass away -from this earthly life to the heavenly one. The Bishop then gives him the -body of God, and reveals himself as Josephus, son of Joseph of Arimathea. -Galahad kisses Perceval and Bors, and sends greetings to Lancelot through -Bors, his soul then leaves his body and angels take it away. A hand from -heaven then comes to the vessel and takes it and the lance, and bears it -heavenwards, so that since there was no man bold enough to say he has seen -the Holy Grail (except Gwalchmai once). (52) _Galahad's body is buried. -Perceval goes into a hermitage, where Bors stays with him for a year and -two months; Perceval dies, and is buried by Bors in Galahad's tomb; Bors -left alone in a place as strange as Babylon, sets sail for Britain, and -comes to Camelot, when all are greatly joyed to see him; he tells the -adventures of the Holy Grail; they are written down and kept in the Abbey -of Salisbury, and from these Master Walter Map drew to make his book of -the Holy Grail for the love of King Henry his lord, who had the story -translated from Latin into French. The story now is silent and tells no -more concerning the adventures of the Holy Grail._[42] - -=Grand St. Graal.=--(1) The writer salutes all who have faith in the Holy -Trinity. He does not name himself for three reasons: lest his declaration -that he received the story from God Himself be a stumbling block; lest his -friends pay less honour to the book if they know the author; lest if he -have made any blunder all the blame fall upon him. - -(2) In the year 717 after the Passion of Christ, as the writer lies in his -hut in one of the wildest parts of White Britain, on Good Friday Eve and -doubts of the Trinity, Christ appears to him and gives him a little book -not larger than a man's palm, and this book will resolve all his doubts; -He Himself has written it, and only he who is purified by confession and -fasting may read it. On the morrow the writer opens it and finds therein -four sections, headed each as follows: This is the book of thy lineage; -here begins the book of the Holy Grail; here is the beginning of the -terrors; here begin the marvels. As he reads lightning and thunder come -and other wonders. On Good Friday, as he is celebrating the service, an -angel raises him in spirit to the third heaven, and his doubts concerning -the Trinity are set at rest. When his spirit returns to his body he locks -up the book; but on Easter Sunday, when he would read further, finds it -gone; a voice says he must suffer to have the book back again, must go to -the plains of Walescog, follow a wonderful beast to Norway, and there find -what he seeks. He obeys, the beast leads him first to a hermit's, then -past the pine of adventures to a knight's castle, on the third day to the -queen's lake and a nunnery. After exorcising a hermit possessed of the -devil, he finds the book, and on his return Christ commands him to make a -fair copy before Ascension Day. He sets to work at once, on the fifteenth -day after Easter.[43] The book begins as follows: Few believe on Christ -at His crucifixion, among whom is Joseph of Arimathea, as the Holy -Scripture of the Grail testifies. He is in all things a good man. He lives -in Jerusalem with his wife and a son, Josephes (not the same Josephes who -so often quotes the Scripture, but not less learned than he), he it was -who passed his father's kin across sea to White Britain, since called -England, without rudder or sail, but in the fold of this shirt. Joseph, -having much loved the Lord, longs after His death to possess somewhat -having belonged to Him; goes to the house of the Last Supper, and carries -off the dish wherein He had eaten. Having been a knight of Pilate's for -seven years, he craves a boon of him, which is Christ's body. Pilate -grants it; Joseph descends the body from the Cross, places it in a -sepulchre, and, fetching the dish from his house, collects in it the blood -flowing from the body,[44] and finishes laying the body in the tomb. The -Jews hear of this, are angered, seize Joseph, throw him into prison in the -most hideous and dirtiest dungeon ever seen, feed him at first on bread -and water, but when Christ is found to have arisen, Caiaphas, Joseph's -jailor, lets him starve. But Christ brings the holy dish that Joseph had -sent back to his house with all the blood in it. Joseph is overjoyed. -Christ comforts him, and assures him he shall live and carry His name to -foreign parts. Joseph thus remains in prison. Meanwhile his wife, though -often pressed to marry, refuses until she shall have had sure tidings of -her husband; as for his son he will only marry Holy Church. (3) Forty -years go by; after Christ's death Tiberius Cæsar reigned ten years, then -Caius, one year; then Claudius, fourteen years; then Noirons, in whose -reign S.S. Peter and Paul were crucified, fourteen years; then Titus, and -Vespasian, his son, a leper. The freeing of Joseph befalls in the third -year of Titus' reign and in this wise: Titus has vainly sought a leech to -heal Vespasian. At last a strange knight from Capernaum promises his help -and tells how he in his youth had been healed of the leprosy by a prophet. -The Emperor on hearing this sent to Judea to seek out that prophet; his -messenger comes to Felix, and orders him to have proclamation made for -aught Christ has touched; hereupon an old woman, Marie la Venissienne, -brings the cloth upon which the Saviour's likeness had painted itself when -she wiped His face. The messenger returns to Rome with this cloth and the -mere sight of it heals Vespasian, who straightway resolves to avenge -Christ's death. He goes to Jerusalem, Joseph's wife appears before him, -accuses the Jews of having made away with her husband; none of the Jews -know where he is save Caiaphas, who reveals the secret on condition that -he is to be neither burnt or slain. Vespasian himself goes down into the -prison and finds it as light as though one hundred candles had burnt in -it. He tells Joseph who he is, whereat the latter wondered, not thinking -he had been longer than from Friday to Sunday, not once had it been dark. -A voice tells Joseph not to fear, and that he will find the Holy Vessel at -his home. Joseph returns to Jerusalem with Vespasian, and points out to -him the abettors of Christ's death, whom Vespasian has burnt. Caiaphas is -set adrift in a boat. (4) The night before Vespasian returns to Rome, -Christ appears to Joseph and commands him to go forth and fill foreign -lands with his seed; he must be baptised, and must go forth without money -or aught but the dish; all heart can want or wish he shall have, all who -accompany him must be baptised likewise. Joseph is baptised by St. Philip, -then Bishop of Jerusalem, as is also Vespasian, concerning whom the story -is now silent. (5) Joseph preaches to his friends and relatives and -converts seventy-five of them. They leave Jerusalem and come to Bethany, -where the Lord appears to Joseph, promises him aid as once to the Jews in -the wilderness, commands him to make a wooden ark for the dish, which he -is to open when he wants to speak to Him, but no one is to touch it save -Joseph and his son Josephes; Joseph does as commanded, his troop is -miraculously fed, and on the eleventh day they come to the town of Sarras, -between Babilone and Salavandre, whence the Saracens have their name, and -not from Sara. (6) Joseph and his seventy-five companions enter the city -and go to the Temple of the Sun, to the seat of judgment, where the -Saracens are assembled with their lord, Evalach the Unknown: he had been a -man of prowess in his youth, but was now old; seven days before, the -Egyptians had beaten his army, and the council is now devising how -vengeance may be taken therefor. Joseph is greatly joyed at these events, -and when the council advises peace assures the King of victory, but he -must destroy his images and believe on Him who died on the Cross. Evalach -asks how one who could not save himself could save another. Joseph, in -answer, tells of Christ's birth, life, death, descent into hell, -resurrection, ascension, and of the sending of the Holy Ghost. Evalach -cannot understand either the Incarnation or the Trinity, and although -Joseph explains that the Virgin conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy -Ghost through her ear, and that her virginity was no more hurt than is -water when a sunbeam enters it, remains stubborn and calls his learned men -to his aid, but Joseph confounds these, and Evalach lodges the Christians -for the night and gives them good beds. (7) Evalach dreams of a tree-stock -whence spring three equal trunks and though three yet are truly one, also -of a room with a secret door of marble, through which a child passes -without opening it; a voice tells him this is a type of the miraculous -conception of Christ. (8) Meanwhile, Joseph, unable to sleep, prays for -comfort and adjures the Lord by all His mercies to help Evalach; he is -told by a voice he shall be sent for to explain the King's dream. Joseph -then goes to sleep with his wife, Helyab, but not as lustful folk do, for -there was nothing between them till the Lord commanded the begetting of -Galahad, and then, so full of love to the Saviour were they that they had -no desire. From Galahad came the high race which honoured the land of -White Britain, now called England. (9) The morrow morning Joseph and his -company worship before the ark (now the place wherein they were had been -called the Spiritual Palace by Daniel) when a soft sweet wind comes and -the Holy Ghost descends and Christ speaks and urges all to love Him; He -tells Josephes to draw near and take charge of His flesh and blood; -Josephes opens the door of the ark and sees a man all in red, and with him -five angels, each six winged, all in red, each with a bloody sword in his -left, and in their rights severally, a cross, nails, lance, sponge, and -scourge; Josephes sees Christ nailed to the Cross, and the blood running -down from His side and feet into the dish; he would enter the ark but -angels restrain him. Joseph, wondering at his son's state, kneels before -the ark and sees therein an altar covered with white cloths, under which -is a red samite one, covering three nails, a lance head all bloody, and -the dish he had brought, and in the middle of the altar an exceeding rich -vessel of gold and precious stones; seven angels issue from the ark with -water and watering pot (2), gold basins and towels (2), and gold censers -(3), an eighth carrying the holy dish, a ninth a head so rich and -beautiful as never mortal eye saw, a tenth a sword, three more with -tapers, lastly Jesus. The company of angels go over the house sprinkling -it with holy water, because it had heretofore been dwelt in by devils. -Christ tells Josephes he is to receive the sacrament of His flesh and -blood, and be made sovran shepherd over His new sheep; bishop's vestments -are brought out of the ark. Josephes is seated in a chair, which -afterwards made a Saracen King's eyes fly out of his head, is consecrated, -an angel keeps the holy oil wherewith all Kings of Britain were anointed -till the time of Uther Pendragon, of whom none of the many that have told -his history have rightly known why he was so called; the meaning of the -episcopal vestments is explained to Josephes, and his duties set forth. -(10) Josephes then goes into the ark and celebrates the sacrament using -Christ's words only, whereat bread and wine become flesh and blood, and in -place of the bread a child, which, though as bidden, he divides into three -parts yet is eaten as one whole; an angel puts patina and chalice into the -dish; Joseph and his company receive the sacrament in the form of a child; -Christ bids Josephes celebrate the sacrament daily; tells him that he and -Joseph are to go with Evalach's messengers now nigh at hand. Leucans, -Josephes' cousin, is appointed guardian of the ark. (11) Joseph and his -son go before the King and overcome all the heathen clerk's objections; -Josephes tells Evalach he will be given over to his enemies for three -days, and shall only escape by believing on Christ; the heathen idols are -smashed by a devil at the compelling of Josephes' two angels. A messenger -brings the news that King Tholomes has entered and is capturing the land, -and he will not rest till he be crowned at Sarras. Josephes tells the King -this ill-hap is to mind him of his lowly origin, he is son of a shoemaker -in an old city of France, Meaux, and was one of a tribute of one hundred -youths and one hundred maidens claimed by Augustus Cæsar from France, as -here dwelt a prouder folk than elsewhere, and the two daughters of the -Count of the Town, Sevain, were among the tribute, and Evalach was among -their servants. When Felix was named Governor of Syria by Tiberius he had -taken Evalach with him, and held him in high honour until one day, angry -with Felix's son, Evalach slew him and had to fly, after which he entered -the service of Tholome Cerastre, King of Babylon, who had given him the -land he now ruled. Josephes further explains the King's dreams, and when -the latter declares himself willing to believe, asks for his shield, upon -which he fixes a red cross and tells him to look on it in his need and -pray to God and he shall be saved. (12) Evalach marches with his army -against Tholomes, is joined by his brother-in-law, Seraphe (whom he -thought hated him most of any man in the world) at the Queen's entreaty; -numerous combats ensue between the two armies; Seraphe performs prodigies -of valour; Evalach is taken prisoner, and in his need looks on the shield, -sees thereon Christ crucified, prays to God for help, a White Knight -appears, overcomes Tholomes, who is taken prisoner, and Evalach's army is -victorous. (13) Meanwhile Josephes, remaining in Sarras, has been -counselling Queen Sarraquite, secretly a Christian, since her mother was -cured of a bloody flux, and since Christ appeared to her when she was -afraid of the hermit her mother had led her to for baptism because he had -such a long beard; she dares not avow her faith for fear of her husband. -Josephes tells her of the battle which has taken place and of the White -Knight. (14) Evalach and Seraphe return; the King asks at once after the -Christians, and learns that he owes his victory to the Lord to whom also -Seraphe owed his strength in battle; the shield is uncovered, a man with a -wounded arm is healed by it, and then the cross vanishes; Seraphe turns -Christian, is baptised and receives the name Nasciens, he is straightway -healed of his wounds, exhorts Evalach to believe, and tells of Tholomes' -death. Evalach is baptised, and re-christened Mordrains, or -Slow-of-Belief. After baptising the town and destroying all images, -Josephes leaves three of his companions in charge of the Grail Ark, and -goes with the rest to Orcanz, turns out of an image a devil who had slain -Tholomes, and converts more of the heathen folk. (15) Meanwhile Mordrains -has ordered his people to be baptised or to leave his land; many take the -latter course and are met outside the town by a devil who wounds them -grievously, whereupon Josephes hurries to their aid, but is met by an -angel with a lance and smitten through the thigh for having left his -baptising work to trouble himself about contemners of God's law, and the -mark of the wound should stay with him all his life, and the iron spear -head remain in the wound so that ever after he limped, and he had later to -smart for it, as the tale will show in due season. Many more people are -converted, Bishops are left in the land and holy relics at Sarras. (16) -Josephes brings Mordrains, Sarraquite, and Nasciens to the holy shrine, -and shows them the vessel wherein is Christ's blood. Nasciens thinks he -has never seen aught to match it, and he gives it a name that since it has -never lost. For, says he, nothing he had seen before but somewhat -displeased him (li degraast), but this pleases him (li grée) entirely; he -further tells how once when a young man, hunting, as he stood deep in -thought a voice made itself heard, saying "Thou shall't never accomplish -what thou thinkest on until the wonders of the Grail are disclosed," and -he knows now this must be the Grail as every wish of his heart is -accomplished. And he draws nearer and lifts the vessel's lid and looks -therein, but straightway falls to trembling, feeling he can no longer see. -And he knew that the blindness was to punish his curiosity, and turning to -Josephes tells him that the iron shall not be drawn out of that wound -inflicted by the angel at Orcanz, nor he himself recover his sight until -Josephes, wounded, himself comes to draw out the iron. - -So they stand lost in thought, till a voice is heard, "After my vengeance -my healing" and an angel appears, touches Josephes' thigh with the lance -shaft, whereupon the head comes out, and from it drop great drops of blood -which the angel collects in a vessel, and wherewith he anoints Josephes' -wound, making it whole, and Nasciens' eyes, restoring to him his sight. -And the angel tells them that the meaning of the lance is that of the -beginning of the wonderful adventures which shall befall in lands whither -God purposes leading them; when the true knights should be separated from -the false ones, and the earthly knighthood become a heavenly one. And at -the beginning of those adventures the lance would drop blood as then, but -beforehand none; and then wonders would happen all over the world where -the lance was, great and terrible wonders, in recognition of the Holy -Grail and of the lance; and the marvels of the Grail should never be seen -save by one man alone; and by the lance wherewith Josephes was struck -should but one other man be struck, and he a King of Josephes' kin, and -the last of the good men; he should be struck through the two thighs, and -only healed when the Grail wonders were disclosed to the Good Knight, and -that one should be last of Nasciens' kin. Thus, as Nasciens was the first -to behold the wonders of the Grail, that one should be the last; so saith -the true crucified one, adding, "Upon the first and last of My new -ministers will I spend the vengeance of the adventurous lance in token of -Myself having received the lance stroke whilst on the Cross." And so many -days as Josephes had born the lance head in his wound so many days should -the marvellous adventures last. Now these days (_years_)[45] were -twenty-two. (17) Josephes explains Mordrains' vision, and makes him -destroy the image of a woman he had kept in a secret chamber, known, so he -thought, only to himself. (18) Josephes and his company go forth from -Sarras, but the tale tells nothing of them in this place, but keeps -straight on. On the following night Mordrains dreams that, sitting in -Sarras at table, of a sudden a thunderbolt strikes crown from his head and -the first mouthful from his lips; a great wind carries him up into a far -land where he is fed by a lion and lioness, and after a while an eagle -carries off Nasciens' son to a land whereof the inhabitants bow down -before him, and out of this nephew's belly comes a great lake giving rise -to nine streams, eight of equal breadth and depth, the ninth as wide and -deep as the remainder put together, and rushing and turbulent, and at -first foul and muddy, but afterwards clear and pure as a precious stone; -then comes down from heaven a man in likeness of one crucified, who bathes -hands and feet in the lake and eight streams, but in the ninth his whole -body. (19) Mordrains tells his vision to Nasciens and confesses to former -treacherous and jealous feelings he had against him; they seek counsel of -the priests, but none can expound the vision, and as they sit together a -great tumult is heard and the sound of a horn announcing "the beginning of -dread," and they fall senseless to the ground; but Mordrains is caught up -by the Holy Ghost and borne off. (20) Meanwhile Nasciens is accused by -Kalafier, a Christian-hater, of having made away with Mordrains, and is -cast into prison with Kalafier for gaoler. (21) Meanwhile Mordrains has -been carried off by the Holy Ghost to an island lying between Babylon, -Scotland, and Ireland, a high land from which the western sea can be -looked over as far as Spain; it was once a pirates' lair, but Pompey drove -them thence. To Mordrains comes a noble man who gives his name as -Tout-entour, comforts him, and exhorts him to steadfastness in the faith; -when he leaves a fair woman appears and tempts the King, who luckily does -not pay heed to her, and well for him, as he learns from the noble man -that she is Lucifer in disguise. He is assailed by many temptations; -storm, thunder, and lightning affright him; the wonderful bird Phoenix -attacks him and snatches the bread from his lips; Lucifer again visits him -and shows him Nasciens' dead body, but it is only an invention; finally, -all these trials withstood, the noble man comes again and expounds the -dream of the nine streams: the lake is a son of Nasciens, from whom -descend nine Kings, all good men and true, but the ninth surpassing all in -every virtue; he is the knight to whom the wonders of the Grail shall be -shown, and Christ shall bathe Himself wholly in him. (22) Meanwhile -Nasciens has been kept in prison together with his son, Celidoine -(Heaven-given) by Kalafier. But a miraculous hand appearing from out a -cloud strikes off Nasciens' fetters, and carries him out of the dungeon; -Kalafier pursues but is struck down by the hand; on his death bed he -orders that Celidoine be cast from the battlements, but nine hands bear -him up in mid air, whilst Kalafier, slain by fire from heaven, goes to -eternal death. Sarraquite, overjoyed to hear of her brother's escape, -sends out messengers to meet them. Meanwhile Nasciens' wife, Flegentyne, -has set out in search of her husband accompanied by the old knight, -Corsapias, and his son, Helicoras. (23) Now Nasciens has been carried -fourteen days journey off to the Turning Isle (concerning which many -wonders are told); all of these things are true, as Christ Himself has -written the book of the Holy Grail, and He never wrote aught else save the -Lord's Prayer for the disciples and the judgment upon the woman taken in -adultery. And no man is bold enough to say that since the Resurrection -Christ wrote aught else save this "haute escripture del S. Graal." (24) A -ship comes to Nasciens' isle which he would enter but for words warning -him against it unless he be full of faith. However, crossing himself he -enters [and finds therein the same wonders as those described in Queste, -Inc. 35, 36, 37, viz.:--the sword and the three spindles, precisely the -same story about which is told as in the Queste]. (25) Nasciens deeming -there must be magic in this, the ship splits in twain, and had well nigh -drowned him, but he regains the isle swimming, and on the morrow an old -man comes in a ship and gives him an allegorical explanation of what has -befallen him. (26) Meanwhile Celidoine, carried off by the hands to the -land of the heathen King Label, wins his favour by expounding a dream, -converts him, but at his death is cast adrift by the heathen barons in a -boat with a lion, and after three days comes to Nasciens' island. (27) The -two rejoice on their meeting, and leave the island together in Solomon's -ship, come after four days to another island, where Nasciens, attacked by -a giant, seizes Solomon's sword but it breaks in his hand, nevertheless, -with another sword he overcomes the giant. He chides Solomon's sword, but -Celidoine says it is some sin of his made it break. Thereafter they see a -ship approaching wherein is Mordrains. There is rejoicing between the -three, and much telling of past adventures. Nasciens shows the broken -sword to Mordrains, who, taking it in his hands, joins it together, -whereupon a voice bids them leave the ship; Nasciens, not obeying fast -enough, is wounded in the shoulder by a fiery sword in punishment of his -having drawn Solomon's sword. (28) The messengers sent out by Sarraquite -in search of Nasciens have, meantime, had many adventures, have come -across the daughter of King Label, suffered shipwreck, and been thrown -upon a desert isle formerly the home of the great physician, Ypocras (of -whom a long story is told how he was tricked by a Roman lady), been -tempted in divers fashions, but at last they are led to Mordrains, -Nasciens, and Celidoine. (29) On the third night a priest clad in white -comes walking on the sea, heals Nasciens' wound, and sends off Celidoine -in another ship. The remainder come to land, Mordrains and Sarraquite are -reunited; Nasciens' wife, Flegentyne, is sent for; and Label's daughter is -christened by Petrone, a holy man and kinsman of Joseph. She was after -Celidoine's wife, as my lord Robert of Borron testifies, who translated -this history from Latin into French after the holy hermit to whom our Lord -first gave it. (30) Nasciens sets forth in search of his son, his knights -follow on his track, and two are struck dead for their sins. Nasciens -comes again to Solomon's ship, is tempted by the devil in the shape of a -fair damsel, goes on board the ship and dreams as follows:--Celidoine is -in the promised land with all those who had left Sarras; he, Nasciens, -shall go thence likewise and never depart thence, nor shall the ship until -it take back the last of his line to Sarras, together with the Holy Grail, -and that shall be after three hundred years; and thereafter Celidoine -leads before him nine persons, all in guise of Kings, save the eighth who -was like a dog, and the ninth turns into a lion, and at his death the -whole world mourns over him. And the names of these, Nasciens' -descendants, are: Celidoine, Marpus, Nasciens, Alains li Gros, Ysaies, -Jonans, Lancelot, Bans, Lancelot, like unto a dog until his end, Galahad, -foul at the source, but afterwards clear, in whom Christ shall bathe -Himself wholly, and who shall end all the adventures. On the morrow it is -explained to Nasciens that the eighth of his descendants likens a dog on -account of his sins, and the ninth is foul at the beginning as engendered -in fornication and not as Holy Church wills. (31) The story, after -touching on Flegentyne, who retires to her own land, returns to Joseph, -who, with his son, Josephes, and his companions, has been wandering about. -Joseph is ordered by a voice from heaven to beget a son, whose name shall -be Galaad. At length the company comes to the sea shore and laments that -it has no ships; Joseph rebukes them, and says those may pass who have -kept chaste, whereupon four hundred and sixty come forward to confess -their lechery. Josephes is told to put forward the Grail-bearers, to take -the shirt off his back, and having spread it on the water, all the pure -companions shall find place on it. This happens, and all find place save -Symeu and his son, who are not as they should be, and who sink and are -well nigh drowned. The chosen company arrive on the morrow in Great -Britain, then full of Saracens and infidels. Josephes then prays for the -remainder of the company; a heavenly voice says they shall come in good -time, and that this is the promised land in which they shall multiply and -become the worthiest race anywhere. (32) Meantime Nasciens has been led in -Solomon's ship to those of Joseph's followers who had been left behind, as -the history of the Holy Grail testifies. After being warned against fresh -falling into sin they are brought over to Joseph, and are fed with as much -meat as they could want. But the fifth day the company, not having eaten -for a day, come to the tent of a poor woman, wherein are twelve loaves -about which they dispute. Josephes, referred to, breaks each loaf in -three, and having placed the Holy Grail at the head of the table by its -power the bread suffices for more than five hundred people. (33) Hereafter -the company comes to Castle Galafort, where Celidoine is found disputing -with the Saracen wise men. The Christians are well received by Ganort, and -shortly afterwards he and his people are baptised, one hundred and fifty -who refuse being drowned. Over their bodies a tower is built, the Tower of -Marvels, and thereafter, it is prophesied, a King named Arthur should -reign, and from one blow of a sword adventures should arise, lasting -twelve years, until the last descendant of Nasciens should end them, and -till that time no knight of Arthur's house should enter the tower without -having to fight as good a man as himself; thus should it be till he who -was to end the adventures appeared. So they build the tower, and it lasts -until Lancelot destroys it, as the "Tale of Arthur's Death" relates. (34) -Joseph's wife bears a son, who receives the name of Galahad, of the Castle -of Galafort. (35) The King of Northumberland, hearing of Ganort's -conversion, summons him to the court, and on his refusal attacks him, but -is defeated and slain by the Christians. (36) Josephes, his father, and -one hundred and fifty of the Christians, leaving Galafort, come to -Norgales, and are thrown into prison by King Crudel, who says, "Let them -be for forty days, and see if their vessel will feed them." Our Lord comes -to comfort them, and bids them be of good cheer, He will send an avenger -to slay these dogs. (37) Our Lord, in the likeness of one crucified, then -appears to Mordrains, bids him set forth with wife and children and King -Label's daughter and Nasciens' wife and go to Great Britain, there to -avenge him on King Crudel. Mordrains hearkens, and shortly after sets -forth with all his household, leaving his land in charge of Duke Ganor. On -the way a devil carries off the captain of the ship, who had lusted after -Queen Flegentyne. They arrive in Britain and rejoin their friends; great -is the joy; Nasciens' queen is like to have died of joy, and swoons twelve -times. (38) Mordrains sends word to Crudel to set the Christians free, and -on his refusal marches against, overthrows, and slays him, but is -grievously wounded, though he suffers no pain. Josephes and his companions -are freed, and thanksgivings are made before the Grail. On the morrow, as -Josephes is officiating before the holy vessel, Mordains presses near to -see it, in spite of a warning voice; he loses his sight and the power of -his body; he confesses his folly, but prays he may not die till the Good -Knight's coming, the ninth of Nasciens' descendants. A voice promises him -this, and that when the Good Knight comes he shall recover his sight and -his wounds be healed; but three hear this promise beside Mordrains -himself, Joseph, Josephes, and Nasciens. (39) Mordrains is brought to -Galafort, where Celidoine marries King Label's daughter and begets a son, -Nasciens. Mordrains then, after giving his wife and shield into Nasciens' -keeping, retires to a hermitage, and builds a monastery of the White -Monks, and stays there till Perceval sees him and Galahad, too, as the -"Tale of the Holy Grail" tells. (40) Josephes leaves Galafort, and, coming -to Camelot, converts many of the people, whereat King Agrestes, being -grieved, is baptised with false intent, and after Josephes' departure -persecutes the Christians, and is punished by madness and death. Josephes -returning, buries the martyrs, whose blood had blackened a cross, which -keeps the name of the "Black Cross," till the Good Knight, Lancelot of the -Lake's son comes. (41) Josephes comes to a hill called Hill of the Giant; -'tis a Friday, and Brons is sitting next him at the Grail-table, but -between the two is space for a man to sit, and Brons, Josephes' kinsman, -asks him why he does not invite some one to fill it. Josephes answers, -only he who is a holier man than any present can fill that place, as it -typifies Christ's seat at the Last Supper, and is empty waiting His -coming, or whom He shall send. Such of the company as are in mortal sin -take this saying as presumption and fable, and Moys declares his -willingness to sit in it if his companions will ask Josephes' leave. They -do so, and though Josephes minds them how Moys might hardly come to -Britain, and though he solemnly warns Moys himself, he gives his leave. -Moys takes the seat, and at once seven flaming bands from heaven seize -upon him and carry him off to a far place burning like a dry bush. The -people repent, and, in answer to their enquiries, Josephes tells them the -day shall come when they shall know where Moys is. (42) After the meal -Josephes, at Brons' request, has the latter's twelve sons up before him, -and asks them whether they will be wedded or not. Eleven choose wedding, -but the twelfth virginity and the service of the Holy Grail. Josephes, -overjoyed, having married the other eleven, appoints him guardian of the -Grail at his death, and he might leave the guardianship afterwards to whom -he would. (43) Josephes and his companions pass through Britain converting -the heathen. Now the Grail only gives food to such as are not in sin, and -once as the troop is encamped by a lake, Peter, a kinsman of Josephes', -bears it through the ranks, and all are fed with the best food, save the -sinners; these complain, and beg Josephes to pray for them, whereupon he -bids Brons' youngest son, the same he had chosen as Grail-keeper, Alains -le Gros (not that Alains, Celidoine's son, _he_ was king and wore a crown, -but this one never) take the net from the Grail-table and fish with it in -the pond. Alains does so and catches one fish, a big one, but say they, -'Twill not be enough; however, Alains, having shared it in three, and -having prayed it might suffice, all are fed. Alains is called in -consequence the Rich Fisher, and all the Grail-keepers after him bear this -name, but they were more blessed than he, being crowned Kings whereas he -never wore crown. (44) Joseph, leaving his companions, comes into the -Forest of Broceliande, meets a Saracen who would lead him to his sick -brother, but is himself slain by a lion. Joseph is thrown in prison and -wounded in the thigh by the men of the sick knight's castle, but, -obtaining leave to visit the sick knight, heals him, and brings back to -life the Saracen slain by the lion; both brothers are baptised; a fragment -of the sword remaining in the wound, Joseph draws it out, and laying it -with the remainder of the sword prophecies it shall not be made whole till -he come who shall achieve the adventures of the Holy Grail. (45) Joseph, -returning to his companions, finds them in doubt as to how they shall -cross a great water, they pray for guidance, and a white hart appears, -followed by four stags, and leads them across, all save Chanaan, who -crosses later in a fisherman's boat. Josephes, in answer to Alain and -Pierron, explains the hart and lions as Christ and the Evangelists, and -Christ would appear in that wise afterwards to Arthur, Mordred, and -Lancelot. (46) The Christians come to a house where burns a great fire, -out of which is heard a lamentable voice; it is that of Moys; at Josephes' -prayer rain falls from heaven and quenches half the flames, but he may not -be wholly delivered until the Good Knight, Galahad, come. (47) The -Christians come into the land of King Escos, whence Scotland has its name. -The Holy Grail refuses meat to Chanaan and to Symeu, Moys' father, whereat -enraged, Symeu attacks Pierre and wounds him, and Chanaan slays his -twelve brethren. Symeu is carried off by devils, whilst Chanaan's grave -bursts out in flames, which may not quench till Lancelot come. (48) -Meanwhile Pierre's wound having become worse, he is left behind with a -priest, who leads him to the sea shore, and, at his request, places him in -a boat; this carries him to the isle of the heathen king, Orcanz, whose -daughter finding him on the sea shore dying, has pity on him and tends him -secretly till he is healed. Her father requires a champion, Pierre offers -himself, conquers, converts, and baptises Orcanz, who takes the name -Lamer, and marries his daughter, and King Luces comes to the wedding and -is overjoyed. From him came Gauvain, son of King Lot of Orcanie. Mordred -was no true son of Lot's, but of Arthur's. Gauvain is thus of the seed of -Joseph of Arimathea. (49) Josephes after fifteen years' wanderings comes -back to Galafort, and finds his brother Galahad grown up; by Josephes' -advice the men of Hocelice take Galahad for their king, and he became the -ancestor of Ywain, son of Urien. Once whilst riding he comes to Symeu's -fiery grave, which may not be quenched till Galahad, the Good Knight, -comes. At Galahad's death he is buried in an abbey he founds to allay -Symeu's pains, and the tombstone of his grave may not be lifted until by -Lancelot. (50) Joseph dies shortly after Galahad's crowning, and Josephes, -feeling death near, pays a last visit to Mordrains, who begs for a token -from him. Josephes asks for the king's shield, and with blood gushing from -his nose marks on it a red cross, gives it to Mordrains, and says no one -shall hang it on his neck without rue till Galahad do so; the shield is -placed on Nasciens' tomb. On the morrow Josephes dies; his body is carried -afterwards into Scotland to still a famine, and is buried in the Abbey of -Glays. (51) Before his death he has confided the Grail to Alain. The -latter comes with his brethren, one of whom, Josue, is unmarried, to the -Terre Foraine, converts the King and people, and marries Josue to his -daughter. Here is the resting-place of the Holy Grail; a lordly castle is -built for it, hight Corbenic, which is Chaldee, and signifies "holy -vessel." At Josue's wedding, such is the power of the Holy Grail, that all -present are as filled as if they had eaten the finest meats they could -think of. And that night the King, baptized Alfasem, sleeping in the -castle, beholds the holy vessel covered with crimson samite, and a man all -flaming tells him no mortal may sleep where the Holy Grail rests, and -wounds him through both thighs, and bids others beware of sleeping in the -Palace Adventurous. And afterwards many a knight essayed the adventure, -but lost his life, till Gauvain came, and he, though he kept his life, had -such shame and mischance as he had not had for the Kingdom of Logres' -sake. (58) Alain and Alfasem die; Josue becomes King and Grail-keeper, and -after him Aminadap, Catheloys, Manaal, Lambor, all Kings and known as the -Fisher, and Lambor fighting with his enemy, Bruillant, pursues him to the -sea shore, and Bruillant finds there Solomon's ship and enters it, and -finds the sword with which he slays Lambor, and this was the first blow -struck with that sword in Great Britain, and such great woes sprang -therefrom that no labourers worked, nor wheat grew, nor fruit trees bore, -nor fish was found in the waters, so that the land was known as the Waste -Land. But Bruillant falls dead for drawing the sword. After Lambor, -Pelleans, wounded in the two thighs in a battle of Rome, whence he was -always called the Maimed King, and he might not heal till Galahad the Good -Knight come; and from him descends Pelles, and on his daughter does -Lancelot of the Lake beget Galahad. (59) Nasciens, Flegentyne, and -Sarraquite die on the self-same day. Celidoine reigns, and is followed by -Marpus, he by Nasciens, Alain li Gros, Ysaies, Jonas, Lancelot, Bans, -Lancelot of the Lake. Here the story ends of all the seed of Celidoine, -and returns to speak of Merlin, which my lord Robert of Borron thus -begins.[46] - - In making up the slips, the summary of Borron's poem dropped out. In - order not to disturb the page form, which was fixed before the - omission was noticed, it has been inserted after the Grand St. Graal - with a subpagination. - -=Robert de Borron's Poem: Joseph of Arimathea.=--(1) Before Christ's -coming all folk went to Hell, but He came born of a Virgin that He might -bring them out of Hell. He took flesh what time Judæa was under Rome and -Pilate governed it. Now a soldier of Pilate's loved Christ but dared not -show it. Of Christ's few disciples one was bad, his chamberlain, and he -betrayed Him to the Jews. (2) On Thursday Jesus gathers His disciples; -Judas' question, the washing of the feet, the kiss of betrayal follow. -When the Jews carry off Jesus, one of them takes the very fair vessel -wherein He made His sacrament, and gave it to Pilate, who keeps it till he -learns Jesus' death. (3) Joseph is angry hereat, and claims pay for his -and his five knights five years' free service, and his pay is Christ's -body. Pilate grants it him, and Joseph hastens to the Cross, but the -guards deny him, whereon he complains to Pilate, who sends Nicodemus to -see he obtain it, and also gives Joseph the vessel. (4) Joseph and -Nicodemus descend the body, and wash it, which makes the blood flow -afresh. Joseph puts the blood in the vessel, wraps the body in a fine -cloth and entombs it. The descent into Hell and the Resurrection follow. -(5) The Jews are incensed against Joseph and Nicodemus; the latter -escapes, but Joseph is thrust into a horrible and dark prison. To him -Christ appears with His vessel, in a great light, and instructs Joseph, -telling him for his love to Him he shall have the symbol of His death and -give it to keep to whom he would; He then gives Joseph the great, precious -vessel wherein is His holiest blood. Joseph wonders, having hidden it in -his house. Joseph is to yield the vessel to three persons only, who are to -take it in the name of the Trinity. No Sacrament shall ever be celebrated -but Joseph shall be remembered. But Joseph must be taught concerning the -Sacrament; the bread and wine are Christ's flesh and blood, the tomb is -the Altar; the grave-cloth the Corporal, the vessel wherein the blood was -put shall be called Chalice, the cup-platten signifies the tombstone. All -who see Joseph's vessel shall be of Christ's company, have fulfilment of -their heart's wish and joy eternal. (_The author adds_: I dare not, nor -could not, tell this but that I had the great book wherein the histories -are written by the great clerks, therein are the great secrets written -which are called the Graal.) Christ leaves Joseph, who remains in prison, -no man heeding him (6) until, when Vespasian, the Emperor's son, was a -leper, a pilgrim comes to Rome and tells of Christ's cures, and lays his -head Vespasian could be cured could anything of Christ's be brought to -Rome. The Emperor sends messengers, who hear Pilate's story of the -Crucifixion and about Joseph. The Jews are called together, and one tells -of Verrine, who is brought before the messengers, and she relates how she -wiped Christ's face and thus got the likeness of Him. They take her to -Rome, Vespasian is healed, and sets forth to revenge Christ's death. He -kills many Jews, burning some. One Jew offers to find Joseph, and tells -the story of his imprisonment. Vespasian is let down into the prison and -finds Joseph alive, who, to his amazement, welcomes him by name, and -reads him a lecture on Biblical history and Christian Faith. Vespasian is -converted, and sells the Jews at the rate of thirty for a penny. (7) -Joseph exhorts his kin, among them his sister, Enygeus, and -brother-in-law, Hebron. They agree to believe, and to follow him. He sets -off with them and they dwell for long in far-off lands. For awhile things -go well, but then all the host does turns to naught; 'tis on account of -carnal sin. The host complains to Hebron that they and their children die -of hunger. (8) Hebron reports this to Joseph, who goes weeping and kneels -before the vessel and asks why his followers suffer? A voice from the Holy -Ghost answers he is not in fault, but he is to set the vessel before the -people, and to mind him how He, Christ, had eaten with His disciples, and -how the false disciple was detected. In the name of that table whereat -Christ last ate, Joseph is to prepare another, and then to call his -brother-in-law, Brons, and make him go into the water to catch a fish, and -the first he catches Joseph is to put it on the table, and then to take -the vessel, put it on the table, cover it with a towel, and then place -Hebron's fish opposite it. The people are then to be called, who will soon -see wherein they have sinned. And Joseph is to sit where Christ sat at the -Last Sacrament, with Brons at his right. And Brons is to draw back one -seat, to signify the seat of Judas, and the seat thus left empty is not to -be filled until Enygeus have a child by Brons, her husband, and when that -child is born there shall be his seat. The people is then to be bidden sit -down to the grace of our Lord. Joseph does all this; part of the people -sit, part do not, the sitters are filled with sweetness and the desire of -their heart, the others feel nought. One of the sitters, named Petrus, -asks if they feel nothing, and tells them it is because they are defiled -with sin. The sinners then depart, but Joseph bids them come back day by -day. Thus Joseph detects the sinners, and thus is the vessel first proved. -(9) Joseph tells the sinners it severs them from the others, as it holds -no company with nor has love towards any sinner. The sinners ask the name -of the vessel: it is called _Graal_, as it is agreeable to all who see it. -Now all this is verity, hence we call this the Story of the Grail, and it -shall be henceforth known as the Grail. (10) One sinner remains, Moyses, a -hypocrite (here a gap which can be filled up from the prose versions: -Moyses seats himself in the empty seat, whereupon the earth opens and -swallows him). (11) Joseph prays to Christ that as He came to him in -prison, and promised He would come to his aid when in trouble, so now He -would show him what has become of Moyses. The voice tells Joseph again -about the empty seat, and how that the one at Joseph's table was not to be -filled until the third man come, whom Hebron should beget and Enygeus -bear, and _his_ son should fill the seat. Moyses had stayed behind only to -deceive, he had his deserts, no more should be heard of him in fable or -song until _he_ come who should fill the empty seat. (12) In course of -time Brons and Enygeus have twelve sons and are greatly bothered with -them, and ask Joseph what is to be done with them. Joseph prays before the -vessel; eleven will marry, one remain single; this one is Alain. Joseph -is told by the voice when he consults the vessel about this nephew, to -relate all about Christ's death and about the vessel, to tell Alain that -from him shall issue an heir who is to keep the vessel; Alain is to take -charge of his brethren and sisters and go westwards. An angel will bring a -letter for Petrus to read, telling him to go whither he lists; he will -say: the vale of Avaron; thither shall he go and wait for the son of -Alain, and shall not pass away until that one come, and to him shall -Petrus teach the power of the vessel, and say what has become of Moyses, -and then may he die. (13) All happens as foretold by the voice; the letter -comes for Petrus, who declares his intention of departing for the vale of -Avaron, bidding the host pray God he may never go against His will. Alain -leaves with his brethren, and, as Joseph taught him, preaches the name of -Jesus Christ. (14) Petrus stays one day more; it is, says an angel, the -Lord sends to Joseph, that he may see and hear the things of the vessel. -The angel continues: The Lord knows Brons for a worthy man, and 'twas, -therefore His will he should go fishing; he is to keep the vessel after -Joseph, who must instruct him properly especially concerning the holy -words which God spake to Joseph in the prison, which are properly called -the Secrets of the Grail; Brons is to be called the Rich Fisher from the -fish he caught; all the people are to go westwards; Brons is to wait for -the son of his son, and to give him the vessel, then shall the meaning of -the blessed Trinity be made known; after the vessel has been given to -Brons, Petrus is to go, as he may then truly say he has seen Hebron, the -Rich Fisher, put in possession of the vessel; when all this is done, -Joseph is to go to perfect joy and life pardurable. (15) On the morrow -Joseph tells them the angel's message, save the words of Christ in the -prison, which he tells to the Rich Fisher alone. The latter is then put in -possession of Grail and headship; Joseph stays three days with him, then -the Good Fisher goes away--in the land where he was born--and Joseph -remains.[47] - -Master Robert de Borron should doubtless tell where Alain went, Hebron's -son, and what became of him; what life Petrus led, and what became of him; -what became of the long-lost Moyses; where the Rich Fisher went, and where -he stayed. It were well to assemble these four things, but this no man -could do save he had first heard tell the greatest history of the Grail, -which is all true; and in this time I tell it to my Lord Walter, never had -the great history of the Grail been told by mortal man. If God gives me -strength I will assemble these four parts if I can find them in a book, -meanwhile I must go on to the fifth and forget the four. (Then follows the -Merlin). - -=Robert de Borron's Poem: Merlin.=--(In order to give all the materials -for the discussion of Birch-Hirschfeld's theory of the Grail legend in the -next chapter, a brief summary of the Merlin is added. A full one may be -found in Birch-Hirschfeld, pp. 166, _et seq._) - -The devil, incensed at Christ's victory over him, in revenge begets by -fraudful malice upon a virgin, a son, who is to be the wisest of mankind, -and to oppose Christ's teaching. This is Merlin, who at eighteen months is -able to save his mother, threatened with the doom of unchastity. -Afterwards he is brought to King Vortigern, to whom he expounds the -mystery of the unfinished tower. Vortigern is driven from his throne by -Pendragon, with whom Merlin stands in high honour; equally so with his -successor, Uter Pendragon, for whom he builds the Round Table, leaving one -place empty to be filled in the time of Uter's successor. He then helps -the King to satisfy his passion for Yguerne, and takes charge of Arthur, -their son. When the latter grows up to be a youth he fulfils the adventure -of the sword in the anvil, and is proclaimed King. "And I, Robert of -Borron, writer of this book, may not speak longer of Arthur till I have -told of Alain, son of Brons, and how the woes of Britain were caused; and -as the book tells so must I what man Alain was, and what life he led, and -of his seed and their life. And when I have spoken of these things I will -tell again of Arthur." - -(Then follows in one solitary MS., the Didot-Perceval summarised above, p. -28. As will be seen, it does not tell what man Alain was, nor does it -refer to him at all save in the most passing way). - - - - -CHAPTER III. - - The legend formed of two portions: Early History of Grail, Quest--Two - forms of each portion distinguished--Grouping of the various - versions--Alternative hypotheses of development--Their bearing upon - the alleged Celtic origin of the Grail--Closer examination of the - various accounts of the Grail: The first use made of it and its first - possessor; its solace of Joseph; its properties and the effect - produced by it; its name; its arrival in England; the Grail-keeper and - his relationship to the Promised Knight--Three different stages in the - development of the Queste--The work and the qualification of the - Promised Knight--Conclusions: Priority over Early History of - Quest--Chronological arrangement of the versions. - - -The information afforded by the summaries enables us to take a general -view of the legend as a whole, and to attempt a more accurate -chronological classification of its varying forms. It will have been seen -that the legend is formed of two distinct portions: the one dealing with -the origin and wanderings (Early History) of the Grail, the other with its -Quest. The two portions are found combined in the Joseph and -Didot-Perceval and in the Grand St. Graal and Queste considered each as -one organic whole. Versions A, Chrestien and his continuators; C, -Didot-Perceval taken by itself; D, Queste; F, Wolfram, and G, Perceval le -Gallois, treat only of the Quest. Versions B, Metrical Joseph, and E, -Grand St. Graal, only of the Early History. But in nearly all the -versions, no matter of which portion, references are to be found to the -other, and when the versions are carefully examined, it is found that of -each portion there exist two entirely different forms. Taking the Early -History first, versions A, B, C, D, E, and G, in so far as they deal with -it at all, relate much as follows: the Grail is the vessel which our Lord -used at the Last Supper, which, given by Pilate to Joseph, served the -latter to receive the blood flowing from the body of the dead Christ, -sustained him miraculously during his captivity, was, after his release, -used by him to test the faith of his followers, and was brought to England -by Joseph (A, D, E), by Brons (B, C), and was finally confided by Joseph -to his brother-in-law, Brons, to be kept until the coming of the latter's -grandson (versions B and C), or was left in charge of Alain, son of Brons, -from whom it passed to his brother Josue, in whose line it remained until -the Good Knight should come (version E). But F, Wolfram makes the Grail a -vessel of "lapsit exillit" (_i.e._, lapis herilis, or lapsus ex coelis, or -lapis electrix), which, after the fall of the rebel angels, was given in -charge to Titurel and his dynasty, and by them preserved in the Grail -Castle, Montsalvatch, guarded by a sacred order of Knighthood whom it -chooses itself. So far, therefore, as the Early History is concerned all -the versions, save one, are in the main of the same class, the differences -between them being, apparently, ones of development and not of origin. - -Turning now to the Quest, two classes are likewise to be distinguished: in -the first the hero is Perceval, in the second there are three heroes, -Galahad, Perceval, and Bors, chief of whom is Galahad. To the first class -belong versions A, Chrestien, etc., C, Didot-Perceval; F, Wolfram; and G, -Perceval le Gallois; whilst D, Queste, alone of the versions which recount -the Quest only, belongs to the other class. It is followed, however, by E, -Grand St. Graal, in so far as the latter has any reference to the Quest. -In the other Early History version, namely B, Metrical Joseph, the name of -the hero who is to achieve the Quest is not mentioned, but the indications -concerning him agree more closely with the march of the story in C, -Didot-Perceval, than with those of D, Queste; it must therefore be ranged -in the first class. The main incident in the versions of this class is the -hero's visit to the castle of a sick king, his beholding there the Grail -in company with other relics, his neglect on the first visit to ask the -meaning of what he sees, his punishment, second visit to the Grail Castle, -and attainment of his end, whether healing of the Sick King or winning of -the Grail kingship. The two versions, H, Peredur, and I, Sir Perceval, -which belong to the Grail cycle, though they do not mention the Grail, and -although I, Sir Perceval, does not contain the above-mentioned incident, -must likewise be placed in this class, as must also the Gawain episodes -of Diu Crone. In the second class this main incident is missing, though -several of its less important features are present in altogether different -connection. The story in D, Queste, is largely made up of adventures -tallying often detail for detail with those in the Early History version, -E, Grand St. Graal, with which it shares similarity in the Quest form. - -Whilst each portion of the legend exists in two forms, the great majority -of versions in both cases belong to one form. Looking for the moment upon -D and E as one whole, there is in both cases only one minority-version, -viz., for the Early History, F, Wolfram, for the Quest D-E, Queste, Grand -St. Graal. And each of these is only in a minority as far as one portion -of the legend is concerned, D-E, agreeing with the majority in the Early -History, and F in the Quest. Taking the average of all the versions there -results what may be called the _Joseph of Arimathea form_ as the type of -the Early History; the _Perceval form_ as the type of the Quest. As a -rule, it may be confidently assumed that the larger number of versions -represent an older form, an assumption strengthened so far as the Early -History is concerned by the fact that the minority version, F, Wolfram, -can historically be proved to be one of the latest in date of all the -versions, and, so far as the Quest is concerned, by the following -considerations:--The minority version, D-E, has three heroes, of whom -Perceval is second in importance only to the chief hero, Galahad, indeed -he occupies as large a space in the narrative. This position can be due -only to his being the original achiever of the Quest. It is obviously -inadmissible that seven or eight versions should have conspired to pick -out one only, and that one the second, of the three heroes of the Queste, -and should have made him the sole hero, whilst it is easy to understand -that the author of D, Queste, dissatisfied for certain reasons with the -older forms of the story, yet not daring to alter it so far as to entirely -burke the original hero, should have taken the course he did. - -Two alternative hypotheses now naturally suggest themselves. The two parts -of the legend may really form one organic whole, although more frequently -found asunder than combined, or the one part may be an explanatory and -supplementary after-thought. If the first hypothesis be accepted, it is -natural to look upon the Metrical Joseph and the Didot-Perceval as the -first and last parts of a trilogy, which, as presenting the legend in its -fullest and most orderly shape, has a claim to being the oldest form of -the story, and the main, if not the only, source of all other versions. -If, on the other hand, the second hypothesis be exact, if one part of the -legend be later than the other, and has been artificially welded into one -with it, that version in which this fusion is most perfect, instead of -being the earliest is, with greater likelihood, one of the latest forms. -How do these alternative hypotheses affect the special object of these -studies--the investigation of the alleged Celtic element in the Grail -romances? In this way. If the Early History be an integral part of the -romance, the probabilities in favour of a purely Christian legendary -origin for the Grail itself are immensely increased, and the utmost the -Celtic partisan could hope to show was that a Christian legend had somehow -or other been strongly influenced by Celtic popular traditions. But if the -reverse be true the probabilities are at once in favour of the Christian -legendary element being the intruding one, and the chief aim of the Celtic -partisan will be to disengage the present versions of the Quest from the -traces left upon them by the Early History, and to accumulate as many -parallels as possible between the residuum and admittedly genuine Celtic -tradition. It by no means follows, however, that the acceptance of the -second hypothesis involves the acceptance of the Celtic origin of the -Grail. The romance as we have it--Quest, Early History--may be the fusion -of two elements, one of which, the Christian legendary, may claim _all_ -that is connected with the mystic vessel. Were it otherwise our task would -be greatly simplified. For the mere fact that what may be called the -non-Grail members of the cycle, _i.e._, H, Peredur, and I, Sir Perceval, -know nothing of the Early History, gives no uncertain hint as to which -portion of the romance is the original, and which the accretion. Two -points have then to be investigated--the relationship one to the other of -Early History and Quest; and, if the Quest is found to be the older -portion, whether the Grail really belongs to it, or whether its presence -in the various forms of the story as we now have them may not be due to -the Early History. An examination of the various passages in which the -Grail is mentioned will furnish material towards settling the first point. -Such an examination may profitably omit all reference to Wolfram, to the -prose Perceval le Gallois, from which little is apparently to be gained -respecting the oldest forms of the legend, and to Heinrich von dem -Türlin's version of the Gawain episodes. It must also neglect for the -nonce the two non-Grail members of the cycle (the Mabinogi and Sir -Perceval) as their testimony is either of little or of the highest value -according as the Quest is or is not found to be the oldest portion of the -romance. With these exceptions all the versions furnish elements of -comparison, though little is to be got, as far as the point under -discussion is concerned, from what is apparently the latest section of the -Conte du Graal, Gerbert's poem. - -The consideration of the second point will necessitate comparison of the -various Quest forms among themselves, and the examination of numerous -Celtic stories which present analogies with them. - - -_The Grail: the first use made of it and its first Possessor._ - -We learn nothing from Chrestien respecting the early history of the Grail, -nor is Gautier more communicative if the Mons MS. version be followed. The -intercalation, A IIA, however, and Manessier give full details. According -to the former: - - ... c'est icel Graal por voir - Que nostre Sires tant ama - Que de son saint sanc l'anora - Au jor que il fu en croix mis. (16-19) - -According to the latter: - - C'est li vassiaus, ce saciés-vous, - Ù ens li sains sans présious - Nostre Segnor fu recéus - Quant de la lance fu férus. (35,017-20) - -We learn from the former that "Josep le fist fère" (v. 22), and that he -used it to collect the blood that flowed from each foot of our Lord as He -hung on the Cross (verses 30-39), whilst the latter leaves it uncertain -who the first possessor was, and who held the Grail to receive our Lord's -blood. The information given in versions B, is as might be expected, much -fuller. B I, Metr. Jos., which calls it "un veissel mout gent," tells how -Christ used it, He "feisoit son sacrement" in it; how it was found by a -Jew, who delivered it up to Pilate, by whom it was given to Joseph, and by -him used to receive the blood which bursts forth again from Christ's -wounds when the body has been taken down from the Cross.--C, -Didot-Perceval: Brons, after relating how Longis pierced the Lord's body -as it hung on the Cross, says of the Grail, "en cest vessel gist le sanc -que Joseph recueilli qui decoroit par terre" (p. 483).--E, Grand St. -Graal: Joseph himself finds the vessel out of which Christ had eaten, -takes it home, and when he has received the body from Pilate, fetches the -vessel and collects in it all the blood flowing from the wound he can (I, -pp. 23, 24). Curiously enough, the very MS. which gives this version has -an illustration of Joseph sitting under the Cross and collecting the blood -as it drops from the wounds in side and feet. Three different accounts of -how the Grail came into Joseph's possession and to what use he put it thus -exist:-- - - (1) The Grail is the vessel in which Christ's blood was received as He - hung upon the Cross (Pseudo-Gautier, Manessier, Didot-Perceval, and an - illustration in a MS. of the Grand St. Graal); Joseph had had it made - (Pseudo-Gautier). - - (2) The Grail is the vessel which had been used by Christ at the Last - Supper. It is used as a receptacle for the blood of Christ after His - body has been taken down from the Cross (Metr. Jos.). - - (3) Same as No. 2, with minor alterations, such as that it was Joseph - who found the holy vessel himself (Grand St. Graal). - - -_The Grail: its Solace of Joseph._ - -Chrestien and Gautier are again silent, but from A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, we -learn that Joseph was wont to pray before the Grail, that he was, in -consequence, imprisoned in a high tower by the Jews, delivered thence by -the Lord, whereupon the Jews resolve to exile him with Nicodemus, and -that sister of his who had a likeness of Christ (verses 60-110). -Manessier, in the Mons MS. version, passes this over, but A IIIA, has the -following important passage:-- - - En une charte orrible et lède - Fu mis Joseph sanz nul arreste; - - * * * * - - XL ans ilecques estut - C'onques ne menja ne ne but; - Mais Damediex li envoioit - Le Saint Graal que il véoit - II foiées ou III le jor; (V. pp. 153-4.) - -In the B versions this episode is one of capital importance. B I., Joseph -is put into prison, because the Jews suspect him of having stolen away -Christ's body. To him in the dungeon, "qui estoit horrible et obscure" (v. -703), appears Christ, who hands him the Grail, whereat he is surprised, as -he had hidden it in a house where none knew of it (v. 860), and addresses -him as follows:-- - - En ten povoir l'enseigne aras - De ma mort et la garderas - Et cil l'averunt à garder - A cui tu la voudras donner. (847-50) - -These will be three-- - - Joseph, bien ce saras garder, - Que tu ne le doiz commander - Qu'a trois persones qui l'arunt. - Ou non dou Père le penrunt - Et dou Fil et dou Saint-Esprit (871-75) - -The offices Joseph rendered to Christ's body were symbolical of the -Sacrament: the sepulchre is the altar; the sheet in which the body was -wrapped the corporal; the vessel in which the blood was received shall be -called chalice; and by the patina upon which it rests is signified the -tombstone (v. 901-912). Finally Christ promises Joseph that:-- - - Tout cil qui ten veissel verrunt, - En ma compeignie serunt; - De cuer arunt emplissement - Et joie pardurablement. (917-20) - -The prose versions repeat this account in the main, but with some -important additions, thus: B II, Cangé MS., adds after Christ's last -words, "Lors li aprant Jhésu Christ tex paroles que jà nus conter ne -retraire ne porroit," etc. (I, 227); when Christ hands the vessel to -Joseph, "Tu tiens lou sanc as trois personnes en une déité, qui degota des -plaies de la char au fil," etc. (I, 225-26); after the description of the -Grail, "lou Graal c'est à dire sor lou caalice."... In C, Didot-Perceval, -the Holy Ghost, speaking to Brons, commands him to reveal to Perceval, -"icelles paroles segroies qu'il (_i.e._, Christ) aprist à Joseph en la -prison," which, adds the narrator, "je ne vous puis dire ne ne doi" (I, -483). E, Grand St. Graal: The Jews, angry at Joseph's having taken -Christ's body down from the Cross, throw him into "la plu hideuse chartre -qui onques fust veue" and when they hear of the Lord's resurrection -propose to starve him; but Christ comes to him, brings him for comfort "la -sainte esceuele que ostoie en sa maison a tot le sanc qu'il Auoit -requelli," and comforted him much, and assured him that he should not die -in prison but come out safe and sound, and his name be glorified. And -Joseph "fu en la prison ... tant qu'il demoura xlii ans" (pp. 25-26).[48] -Here again are three distinct accounts:-- - - (1) That of Pseudo-Gautier, which merely mentions Joseph's devotions - to the Grail, and does not connect that devotion with any solace - during his captivity. - - (2) That of the B versions, in which Christ Himself brings the holy - vessel to the captive, and connects it with certain promises and - recommendations which He makes to him; the vessel shall remain with - his seed, but it is to be in charge of three persons, a symbol of the - Trinity. The services rendered by Joseph to Christ's body are - connected with the Mass. The late (prose) drafts of this version - insist still more upon the sacramental nature of the Grail. - - (3) The Grand St. Graal and Pseudo-Manessier introduce a fresh - element--the Grail is the material means by which Joseph is sustained - (forty years according to the one, forty-two years according to the - other version) without food or drink. - -The great importance of the incident in the B versions is most remarkable -when contrasted with the comparative indifference displayed by the other -versions, and notably by the Grand St. Graal, which, at the first blush, -looks so like a mere amplification of B, still more remarkable the -agreement between the prose versions of B, with C, Didot-Perceval, -respecting Christ's words to Joseph against B I, Metr. Jos. It is -difficult to decide which of the two versions is the older; B I, after -Christ's words, has the following important passage:-- - - Ge n'ose conter ne retreire, - Ne je ne le pourroie feire, - Neis, se je feire le voloie, - Se je le grant livre n'avoie - Où les estoires sunt escrites, - Par les granz clers feites et dites: - Lá sunt li grant secré escrit - Qu'en numme le Graal et dit. - -which may either have been the reason why the prose versions, followed by -the Didot-Perceval, speak as they do about the secret words, or may be the -versifier's excuse for giving those secret words themselves, _i.e._, the -explanation of the mysteries of the Grail in its relation to the -Sacrament, in which case the verse would be later than the prose -forms.[49] Finally, it would seem that Pseudo-Manessier, A IIIA, and the -Grand St. Graal drew their information one from the other or from a common -source. - - -_Properties and Effect of the Grail._ - -In Chrestien these seem to be of a purely physical nature; the Grail is -borne uncovered through the hall at every meal (4,470-79), it feeds the -Fisher King's father-- - - D'une seule oiste li sains hom - Quant en ce Greal li aporte - Sa vie sostient et conforte - Tant sainte cose est li Graaus. (7,796-99) - -the most direct testimony in Chrestien to its sacred nature. In Gautier, -likewise, the physical properties are insisted upon in the following -passages:-- - - Lors vit parmi la sale aler - La rice Gréail ki servoit - Et mist le pain a grant esploit. (20,114-16) - - Moult mangièrent à grant loisir; - Adonques véissiés servir - Le Gréail moult honestement. (20,142-43) - -but in verses 28,078-81 a remarkable spiritual effect is attributed to -it-- - - Car li diables ne deçoit - Nul homme ki le jor le voie, - Ne ne le met en male voie - Por faire pécié creminal. - -In A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, the physical side alone is insisted upon-- - - Et de quanqu'il lor ert mestiers - Les fornissoit à tel plenté - Com s'il n'eust néant cousté; (12-14) - - Et li Graaux par tot aloit - Et pain et vin par tot portoit - Et autres mès a grant planté. (171-74) - -Manessier makes no special reference to the properties of the Grail. - -In the B versions it is the spiritual power of the Grail which is dwelt -upon. Christ's words to Joseph have already been quoted (_supra_, p. 71), -and the use which the latter puts the Grail to, and which is specially -indicated to Joseph by the Holy Ghost, is in accordance with them. The -Grail is to serve him as a touchstone to distinguish the sinners of his -company-- - - Car il n'a à nul pecheour - Ne compaignie ne amour; (2,629-30) - -whereas to those who have not defiled themselves with sin it brings - - La douceur, l'accomplissement - De leur cueurs tout entièrement; (2,565-67) - -so that according to them-- - - ... Cuers ne pourroit, - A pourpenser ne soufiroit - Le grant delit que nous avuns - Ne la grant joie en quoi nous suns. (2,609-12) - -This testing power of the Grail is especially brought into play when the -vessel is placed on the table in connection with the fish which Brons -caught, and which won him the name of the Rich Fisher. - -C, Didot-Perceval, has only one reference, "ne il ne covient mie en sa -compagnie pechier" (I, 483), agreeing with B and with Gautier's lines -28,079-80. - -In D, Queste, we revert to the physical gifts of the Grail. "And as soon -as it entered the door of the hall the whole court was filled with -perfumes ... and it proceeded to every place in the hall. And as it came -before the tables it filled them with every kind of meat that a man would -wish to have." When it comes in, "Every one looked at each other, and -there was not one that could say a single word;" when it goes out, "Every -one recovered his speech" (D II, pp. 442-43). There is no allusion to a -gathering at which the Grail is used to test the state of grace of its -devotees. E, Grand St. Graal, shows a curious mixture of the two ideas; -the Grail feeds its worshippers, but only those who are "de sainte vie," -to them it bring "toutes le boines viandes ke cuers d'omme pourroit -penser," but "li pecheour n'auoient ke mangier." This version shows itself -here, as in so many other passages, one of the latest in date, embodying -and reconciling as it does the conceptions of the older -versions--conceptions which it is difficult to derive, either from a -common source or from one another. If it were not for the solitary phrase -of Gautier's, lines 28,079, etc. (a passage which affords the strongest -proof against the homogeneity of that part of the Conte du Graal which -goes under Gautier's name), there would be an unbroken chain of testimony -as to the food-giving power of the Grail on the part of the earlier A -versions, supported by the Queste in opposition to the spiritual gifts -insisted on by the B and E, Grand St. Graal, forms. It is in any case -difficult to believe that if the writer of the Queste, with his strong -tendency to mystic allegory, had had before him the highly spiritual -presentment of the Grail-power found in B, he would have neglected it in -favour of the materialistic description he uses. In one point this version -differs from all others, the dumbness with which the Grail strikes those -to whom it appears.[50] - - -_Name of Grail._ - -Whilst the majority of versions afford no explanation of the name of the -Grail, B and C attach a curious punning meaning to it, thus B I, Metr. -Jos.: - - Par droit Graal l'apelera; - Car nus le Graal ne verra, - Ce croi-je, qu'il ne li agrée; (2,659-61) - -and C, Didot-Perceval, "Et por ce l'anpelon-nos Graal, qu'il agrée as -prodes homes" (p. 483). E, Grand St. Graal, seems to follow these versions -in Nasciens' words, "Car tout mi pense sont accompli, puis ke ie voi chou -qui en toutes choses me plaist et m'agrée" (I, 212). Is such a punning -explanation more consonant with the earliness or the lateness of the -versions in which it is found? If the meaning of "Gréal" as cup or vessel -was a perfectly well-established one, it is difficult to see why in the -first treatment of the subject it should have been necessary to explain -the word at all. - - -_Arrival of the Grail in England._ - -Neither A I, Chrestien, nor A II, Gautier, give any indication how the -Grail came to England; not until we come to A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, do we -learn anything on the subject. It is there related (v. 139-48) how Joseph -and his companions take ship and sail till they come to the land promised -Joseph by God--the White Isle, namely, a part of England; and how (v. -161-66) Joseph, finding that "sa vitaille li falloit," prays God to lend -him that Grail in which he had collected the holy blood. The prayer is -granted and the Grail appears and feeds the company. A III, Manessier, -simply says that Joseph, after leaving Sarras, carried the Grail about -with him, then in a singularly enigmatic passage (the Fisher King is -speaking):-- - - Et, quant il furent départis, - Il s'en ala en son païs, - Et tout partout ù il aloit - La loi Jhésucrist essauçoit. - Puis vint en cest païs manoir, - Od lui le saint Gréal, por voir. - Josep qui en Dieu se fia - Icest païs édéfia. (35,123-30) - -The B versions account is much more elaborate, and demands the most -careful analysis. In B I, Metr. Jos., the first mention of the West is -found in Christ's words to Joseph concerning his nephew, Alain, who is to -keep the Grail, to take charge of his brothers and sisters, and - - Puis s'en ira vers occident - Es plus loiteins lius que pourra; (3,100-01) - -further that Petrus is likewise to go "ès vaus d'Avaron" (3,123), it being -added that-- - - Ces terres trestout vraiement - Se treient devers occident. (3,125-26) - -Effectively we learn (v. 3,262, etc.) that Alain leads his brothers into -strange lands. But the Grail remains behind, and in v. 3,353, etc., an -angel declares it necessary that all the people should go to the West, -that Brons should have the vessel, that he should go straight to the West, -and that Petrus, after seeing the Grail safe in Brons' keeping, is to go -likewise. Joseph follows the angel's command, and three days after he has -committed the Grail to Brons' hands. - - Ainsi Joseph se demoura. - Li boens Pescherres s'en ala - (Dont furent puis meintes paroles - Contées, ki ne sunt pas foles) - En la terre lau il fu nez, - Et Joseph si est demourez. (3,455-60) - -A puzzling passage, as it is difficult to be sure whether line 3,459 -refers to the Fisher or to Joseph, a point of obvious importance, as in -the latter case it would indicate that Joseph in this version does not go -West. On turning to the prose versions, some remarkable variations are -found in the corresponding passages; thus B II, Cangé MS. (I, 265) after -relating how Brons finds wives for his children, adds, "Mais ancor estoit -la crestientez moult tenue et moult novele en ce païs que l'an apeloit la -bloe Bretaigne que Joseph avoit novellement convertie à la créance de -Jhésu-Christ," words which would seem to indicate that the writer imagined -Joseph and his company _already_ in England. The corresponding passage to -v. 3,445-60 runs thus: Ensinc se departirent, si s'en ala li riches -peschierres dont maintes paroles furent puis, en la grant Bretaigne et -ensinc remest Joseph et fina en la terre et ou païs où il fu envoiez de -par Jhésu-Crist (275). B III, Didot MS, accentuates the punning reference -to Avalon in the angel's message to Joseph, "Come li monde ... va en -avalant covient-il que toute ceste gent se retraie en occident" (p. 330). -The final passage runs thus: "Eynsi se despartirent Joseph et Bron: et -Joseph s'en ala en la terre et el pais où il fust nez et ampris la terre" -(p. 332). Thus the testimony of these versions favours the application of -v, 2,459 in Metr. Jos. to Joseph. From C, Didot-Perceval, we obtain an -account similar in parts to that of the B versions, the most direct -reference being in the speech of the hermit, Perceval's uncle, "Biaus -niès, sachès que à la table là où Joseph fist et je meismes oïmes la voiz -de saint esperit qui nos comenda venir en loingteines terres en occident, -et comenda le riche péchéor mon père que il venist en cestes parties, là -ou li soleil avaloit" (449-50), where the punning reference to Avalon is -again prominent, and where, apparently, the passage of Joseph himself to -England is not indicated. An entirely different form of the legend is -found in D and E. In the former (D II, 450) it is briefly stated, "And -afterwards it happened to Joseph, and Joseph his father, and a number of -his family with them, to set out from the city of Sarras, and they came as -far as Great Britain"; again, p. 467, Perceval's aunt relates how when -Joseph of Arimathea came, and his son Joseph with him, to Great Britain, -there came with them about 4,000 people, all of whom are fed by ten -loaves, placed on the table, on the head of which is the Grail. E, Grand -St. Graal, dwells specially upon Josephe; he is referred to in I, p. 22, -as having passed "le lignage ioseph son père outre mer iusqu'en la bloie -bertaigne qui ore a nom engleterre," and II, 123, etc., gives a full -account of how the passage is effected; how the Grail-bearers are sent -first, and supported through the water by its power; how, when Josephe -takes off his shirt, and his father Joseph puts his foot upon it, it -swells until it holds 250 persons. These two accounts agree better with -that of A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, than with any of the others; indeed, a -passage in the latter (v. 125-29), which tells how Joseph committed the -portrait of our Lord, made by Verrine, to the mercy of the sea, may have -given the hint for the miraculous shirt story of the Grand St. Graal. In -this version, too, as in D, Queste, we first hear of the passage to -England, and then the Grail appears at the miraculous feeding of the -travellers. The versions thus fall into two clearly-defined groups, Joseph -being the Grail-bearer in the one, Brons in the latter. The latter class -is represented by the Metrical Joseph and the Didot-Perceval alone, if we -except the Berne MS. form of a portion of the Conte du Graal, which, in -its finish, has obviously copied the Metrical Joseph. To the former class -belong all the other versions. Nay, more, one of the prose forms of -Borron's poems is interpolated, so as to countenance the Joseph-account of -the bringing of the Grail to England. Moreover, Borron's account of the -whole transaction is ambiguous and obscure; at first Alain is the destined -hero, long passages being devoted to him, and the keeping of the mystic -vessel being expressly reserved to him. Yet he leaves, quite quietly, -nothing more being heard of him, and the same machinery of angelic -messages is set in motion for Brons, to whom, henceforth, the chief _rôle_ -is assigned. Does not this show that there were from the outset two -accounts of the evangelisation of Britain, one, attributing it to Joseph, -of wider popularity, and followed solely by the majority of the romances, -whilst Borron, who gave greater prominence to the other account, has -maladroitly tried to fuse the two into one? In any case it would be -remarkable were the legend of purely Christian origin, and were the -Metrical Joseph its earliest form, and source of the other forms, that its -testimony on such an important point should be contradicted by nearly -every other version. - -Do the foregoing facts throw any light upon the question whether the two -sections of the romance are originally independent, and which is the -earlier? It is the later forms of the Quest alone which mention Joseph. -But if he be really the older of the two personages to whom, in the Early -History, the evangelisation of Britain is attributed, this would of itself -go a long way to proving that the two portions of the romance only came -into contact at a late stage of their development, and that the Quest is -the older. It is otherwise if Brons be looked upon as the original -Grail-bringer; the same causes which led to his exclusion from the other -versions of the Early History might have kept him out of most versions of -the Quest, and his presence in one Quest version could be claimed as a -proof of the homogeneity of the romance. For the present, it is sufficient -to mark the fact that what may be called the Brons form of the Early -History is in a minority. - - -_The Grail-Keeper and his relationship to the Promised Knight._ - -In the A versions the Grail-keeper is the Fisher King, uncle to the hero -of the Quest, Perceval. The relationship is first plainly put in -Chrestien, where the hermit, speaking to Perceval of the Grail, says-- - - Cil qui l'en sert, il est mes frere - Ma soeur et soie fu ta mère, - Et del rice Pescéour croi - Que il est fius à celui roi - Qui del Graal servir se fait. (7,789-94) - -The origin of his name is fully explained in the passage (v. 4,685-98), -which tells of his being wounded in battle by a lance-thrust through his -two thighs, of his sufferings, and of his only solace being fishing from -a boat. How the Grail came into his possession C does not say. Gautier has -no occasion to mention these facts, but from Manessier we learn that -Joseph, having converted the land, died therein; that the Fisher King is -of his seed, and that if God wills the Grail will never have its dwelling -elsewhere than with him (35,130-36); that he, the Fisher King, had a -brother, Goon Desert, treacherously slain by Partinal, who broke his sword -in the murderous act. Goon's body and the fragments of the sword being -brought by his niece to the Fisher King, he wounds himself with them, -"parmi les gambes en traviers," and may not be healed until a knight -should come to weld the fragments together and avenge his brother's death. - -Pseudo-Gautier tells how Joseph, dying, prays that the Grail may remain -with his descendants-- - - Si fist il, c'est verité fine, - Qu' après sa mort n'en ot sésine - Nus hom, tant fust de son lignage - Se il ne fu del haut parage. - Li riches Peschéor, por voir, - En fu estret et tuit si oir - Et des suens fu Greloguevaus - Ausi en réfu Percevaus. (183-90) - -Manessier disagrees, it will have been noticed, with Chrestien respecting -the cause of the Fisher King's wound, and neither he nor the other -continuators of Chrestien make any mention of that enigmatic personage the -Fisher King's father, so casually alluded to by Chrestien (v. 7,791-99). -Perceval according to them is a direct descendant of Joseph, Brons being -as entirely ignored here as in the transport of the Grail to England. - -In the B versions the Grail-keeper is Brons, and the Promised Knight is -his son or grandson, for a close examination again shows that two varying -accounts have been embodied in one narrative. In the passage where the -Holy Ghost, speaking to Joseph, tells him of the empty place to be left at -the table he is to make, the following lines occur:-- - - Cil lius estre empliz ne pourra - Devant qu' Enygeus avera - Un enfant de Bron sen mari, - Que tu et ta suer amez si; - Et quant li enfès sera nez, - La sera ses lius assenez; (2,531-37) - -followed closely by the prose versions: B II, Cangé MSS., "ne icil leux ne -pourra estre ampliz tant que le filz Bron et Anysgeus ne l'accomplisse" -(I, 254); B III, Didot MS., "Cist leus ne porra mie estre ampliz devant ce -que li fist Bron l'ampleisse" (I, 316). But afterwards a fresh account -appears; in the second message of the Holy Ghost, Joseph is told: - - Que cist luis empliz ne sera - Devant que li tierz hons venra - Qui descendra de ten lignage - Et istera de ten parage, - Et Hebruns le doit engenrer - Et Enygeus ta sueur porter; - Et cil qui de sen fil istra, - Cest liu méismes emplira. (2,789-96) - -In the corresponding passages both B II and III have the following -significant addition, "et I. autre (_i.e._, place) avoc cestui qui el nom -de cestui sera fondé" (I, 261), "raemplira ce leu et I. autre qui en leu -decestu isera fondez" (I, 322), which effectually disposes of M. Hucher's -attempt (I, 254, note) to harmonise the two accounts by the remark that in -the first one "il ne s'agit pas de la Table ronde où c'est Perceval qui -remplit le lieu vide." Henceforth the legend follows the second account. -To Alain, son of Brons, is revealed that - - ... de lui doit oissir - Un oir malle, qui doit venir. (3,091-92) - -Petrus is to wait for "le fil Alein," Brons is to wait for "le fil sen -fil," and when he is come to give him the vessel and Grail (3,363-67). B -II, Cangé MS., again makes a characteristic addition to the promise to -Alain "et si li di que de lui doit issir un oirs masles, à cui la grace de -mon veissel doit repairier" (I, 267). - -C, Didot-Perceval, follows the second account of B. Perceval is son to -Alain li Gros, grandson to Brons, the rich Fisher King, "et cil rois -péchéors est en grant enfermetez, quar il est vieil home et plains de -maladies" (I, 418), and nephew to the hermit, "un des fiz Bron et frère -Alein" (I, 448), though curiously enough when he tells Brons that he knows -him to be father of his father, the latter addresses him as "bieaux niès" -(I, 483). In any case whether B and C do or do not afford proof of a -nearer relationship than that of grandson and grandfather between the -Grail-keeper and the achiever of the Quest, the chronology which bridges -over 400 years in two generations is equally fantastic. - -In D, Queste, no less than three different accounts are to be -distinguished, corresponding certainly to three stages in the development -of this version due to the influence of other versions of the legend. The -earliest is that preserved in D II, the Welsh translation of a now lost -French original. The Promised Knight is Galahad, son of Lancelot, -grandson, on the mother's side, of King Pelles (ch. iv). The Grail is kept -at the court of King Peleur (ch. lxvii), the name of which is apparently -Corbenic (ch. lxiv). The Lame King is mentioned by Perceval's sister (ch. -xlix), as a son of King Lambar, who fought with King Urlain and slew him, -and in consequence of that blow the country was wasted; afterwards (ch. -l.) his lameness is set down to his folly in attempting to draw the magic -sword, for which, though there was not in Christendom a better man than -he, he was wounded with a spear through the thigh. She also speaks of him -here as her uncle. The Grail quest is not connected in any way with the -healing of this Lame King. In the text printed by Furnivall, Galahad is -first introduced as Lancelot's son and Pelles' grandson, but when he comes -to Arthur's court he bids his returning companion, "salues moi tous chiaus -del saint hostel et mon _oncle le roi pelles_ et mon _aioul le riche -peschéour_." Guinevere's ladies, according to this version, prophesy that -Galahad will heal the Lame King. A long account, missing in D I, is given -by the hermit to Lancelot of his ancestry as follows (p. 120):--Celidoine, -son of Nasciens, had nine descendants, Warpus, Crestiens, Alain li Gros, -Helyas, Jonaans, Lancelot, Ban, Lancelot himself, Galahad, in whom Christ -will bathe himself entirely. Perceval is son of a King Pellehem (p. 182). -The Lame King is Pelles, "que l'on apièle lo roi mehaignié" (p. 188); he -is at Corbenic when Lancelot comes there. When Galahad and his companions -arrive at his court a sick man wearing a crown is brought in, who blesses -Galahad as his deliverer. After the appearance of the Grail, Galahad heals -him by touching his wound with the spear. The third account, from the -version of the Queste printed with the Lancelot and the Mort Artur in -1488, at Rouen, by Gaillard le Bourgeois,[51] makes Galahad send greetings -to the Fisher King and to his _grandfather, King Pelles_; it adds to -Perceval's sister's account of how Pelles was wounded, the words, "he was -Galahad's grandfather;"[52] it adds to the account of Lancelot's visit to -the Grail Castle, the words, "this was Castle Corbenic, where the Holy -Grail was kept." Before discussing these differences it is advisable to -see what the Grand St. Graal says on these points. Here Alain, the Fisher -King, son of Brons, is a virgin, and when Josephe commits the Grail to his -care he empowers him to leave it to whom he likes (II, 360--39.) In -accordance with this Alain leaves the Grail to his brother Josue, with the -title of Fisher King. Josue's descendants are Aminadap, Catheloys, Manaal, -Lambor (who was wounded by Bruillans with Solomon's sword, whence arose -such a fierce war that the whole land was laid desert).[53] Pelleans, -wounded in battle in the ankle, whence he had the name Lame King, Pelles, -upon whose daughter Lancelot begets Galahad, who is thus, on the mother's -side, ninth in descent from Brons, brother to Joseph. Galahad's descent is -likewise given from Celidoine, son of Nasciens, as follows: Marpus, -Nasciens, Alains li Gros, Ysaies, Jonans, Lancelot, Bans, Lancelot, -Galahad, who in thus counting Celidoine is tenth in descent from Nasciens, -Joseph's companion, (vol. ii, ch. xxxix.) So far the story is fairly -consistent, although there is a difference of one generation between -father's and mother's genealogy. But ch. 17, in a very important passage, -introduces a different account. The angel is expounding to Josephe and -Nasciens the marvels of the lance; to Josephe he says, "de cheste lance -dont tu as este ferus; ne sera iamis ferus ke vns seus hom. Et chil sera -rois, et descendra de ton lignaige, si serra li daerrains des boins. Chil -en sera ferus parmi les cuisses ambedeus," and will not be healed till the -Good Knight come, "et chil ... serra li daerrains hom del lignaige -nascien. Et tout ausi com nasciens a este li premiers hom qui les -meruelles du graal a veues; autresi sera chil li daerrains qui les -verra.[54] Car che dist li urais crucefis. 'Au premier home du precieus -lignaige, et au daerrain, ai iou deuise à demonstrer mes meruelles.' Et si -dist enchore après. 'Sour le premier et sour le daerrain de mes menistres -nouuiaus qui sont enoint et sacre a mon plaisir, espanderai iou la -venianche de la lanche auentureuse'" (I, 216-17), _i.e._, the last of -Josephe's line shall be the only man wounded by the lance, the last of -Nasciens' line shall be the deliverer. But according to Galahad's -genealogy, given above, it is _not_ the last of Josephe's line -(represented by his cousin Josue) who is the Wounded King, for Galahad -himself is as much the last in descent from Josephe as from Nasciens, and -even if we take the words to apply only to the direct male descendants of -Josue, there is still a discrepancy, as not Pelles, but Pelleant, his -father, is the "roi mehaigniés." If the Wounded King were really the last -of Josephe's line, _i.e._, Pelles, Galahad would be his grandson, as -Percival is to Brons. Taking the two versions D. and E. together, some -idea may be gathered from them of the way in which the legend has grown, -and of the shifts to which the later harmonisers were put in their -attempts to reconcile divergent accounts. In the first draft of the -Queste, Galahad has nothing to do with the Lame King, the latter remains -Perceval's uncle, the very relationship obtaining in Chrestien. Galahad -has supplanted Perceval, but has not stepped into the place entirely. The -second draft of the Queste endeavours to remedy this by clumsily -introducing the Lame King and his healing, missing in the first draft, -into the great Grail scene at the end, an idea foreign to the original -author of the Queste, who, having broken with Perceval as chief hero, also -broke with the distinctive Quest incident as far as the chief hero is -concerned. But a strange blunder is committed; the second draft, anxious -to make Galahad's grandfather both Fisher and Lame King, actually speaks -of Pelles as Galahad's uncle, in direct contradiction to its own -indication. The third draft corrects this mistake, and tries by different -explanatory interpolations to confirm the relationship of Galahad to the -Lame King, and the identity of his castle with the Grail Castle. The -author of the Grand St. Graal now appears on the scene, appropriates the -story about King Lambar, father to the Lame King, Percival's uncle, makes -him an ancestor of Galahad, and gives a name to his son, Pelleant (which -name creeps back into the second draft of the Queste as that of Perceval's -father), and thus derives Galahad on the mother's side from Brons, -although it escapes him that he thus gives the lie to the prophecy which -he puts in the angel's mouth, that it is the last of Josephe's seed who is -to be lamed by the lance, and that he has not given his Lambor fictitious -ancestors enough to equalize the genealogies. - -We are thus led back to the relationship of uncle and nephew as the -earliest subsisting between the Grail King and the achiever of the Quest, -and we find in those versions which supplant Perceval by Galahad a story -told of the former's great uncle, King Lambar, by no means unlike that -told of his uncle in the A versions, and that there, as here, the cause of -the woe brought upon the hero's family is one of the magic talismans which -the hero is in quest of and by means of which he is to achieve his quest. -We further notice that in so far as the Early History influences the Quest -forms, it is the later versions in which its influence is apparent, and it -is the Joseph, not the Brons form, which exercises this influence. Not -until we come to the Grand St. Graal, an obvious and bold attempt to -embody previous versions in one harmonious whole, does the Brons form make -itself felt. - - -_Work of the Promised Knight._ - -In Chrestien we can only guess at what the results of the successful -achievement of the Quest would have been by the reproaches addressed to -the hero upon the failure of his first visits to the Grail Castle; he -would have mended all things, and-- - - Le bon roi ki est mehaigniés; - Que tous eust regaengniés - Ses membres, et tière tenist, - Et si grans bien en avenist; (4,763-67) - -many evils will flow from his failure, and the cause of it is the sin he -has committed in leaving his mother, who thereupon died of grief -(4,768-71); again the Loathly Damsel reproaches him that the Rich King -would have been healed of his wound, he would have kept in peace his land, -which he never may again, for now - - Dames en perdront lor maris - Tières en seront essilies, - Et pucièles deconsellies; - Orfenes, veves en remanront - Et maint Chevalier en morront. (6,056-60) - -Gautier de Doulens gives a vivid description of the effect of Gawain's -partially successful visit to the Grail King; the character of the -landscape changes at once-- - - N'estoit pas plus que mienuis, - Le soir devant, que Dex avoit - Rendu issi com il devoit - As aiges lor cors el païs; - Et tout li bos, ce m'est avis, - Refurent en verdor trové, - Si tos com il ot demandé - Por coi si sainnoit en l'anstier - La lance; si devoit puplier - Li règnes; mais plus ne pupla - Por tant que plus ne demanda. (20,344-55) - -All the country folk both bless and curse Gawain. - - Sire, mors nous as et garis, - Tu dois estre liés et maris; - Car grant aise nos as doné, - S'en devons tout mercier Dé; - Et si te devons moult hair - Pour con que nel vosis öir - Le Greail, por coi il servoit, - Ne de la joie ki devoit - Là venir ne poroit nus dire, - Si en doit avoir duel et ire. (20,357-66) - -In Manessier, when Perceval has finally accomplished the Quest by the -slaying of Partinal, and has come for the third time to the Grail Castle -(though even then he only reaches it after long wanderings and lights upon -it by chance), news whereof is brought to the King;-- - - Li rois, à grant joie et grant feste - Est maintenant salis en piés - Et se senti sain et haitiés. (44,622-24) - -Perceval is crowned King after his uncle's death, and reigns for seven -years. - -Thus, in the A versions, the healing of the Maimed King, and the -consequent restoration to fertility and prosperity of his land, such are -the tasks to be achieved by the hero of the Quest. In the B versions an -entirely different series of conceptions is met with. Brons, the Fisher -King, is to wait for his grandson, and to hand him the vessel which he -received from Joseph. When this is done the meaning of the Trinity is to -be known--[55] - - Lors sera la senefiance - Accomplie et la demonstrance - De la benoite Trinité, - Qu'avons en trois parz devisée. (3,371-74) - -Besides this, the Promised Knight is to visit Petrus, who may not pass -away till he comes, and from whom he is to learn the power of the vessel, -and the fate of Moys (v. 3,127-36). Finally, when he comes he is to fill -the empty seat, and to find Moys, of whom it is said-- - - De lui plus ne pallera-on - Ne en fable ne en chançon, - Devant que cil revenra - Qui li liu vuit raemplira: - Cil-méismes le doit trouver. (2,815-19) - -Here the only indication which can possibly be tortured into a hint of the -waiting of a sick king for his deliverer is the reference to Petrus. It is -not a little remarkable that when the latter is leaving for England, he -asks for the prayers of the company that he may not fall into sin, and -lose the love of God (v. 3320-35) Does this presuppose a version in which -he _does_ sin, and is consequently punished by disease, from which only -the Promised Knight may heal him? - -On turning to C, a totally distinct account of what the Quest achiever is -to do presents itself. He seats himself, it is true, in the empty seat, -but it goes nigh with him that he suffers the fate of Moys, from which he -is only preserved by the great goodness of his father, Alain (p. 427). He -does not find Moys; Petrus is not once mentioned by name, nor does -Perceval visit anyone who may not die till he come, and from whom he -learns the power of the vessel, saving always the Fisher King, for the -references to whom see _supra_, p. 83. This Fisher King is "veil home et -plains de maladies, ne il n'aura james santé devant un chevalier que yà à -la Table ronde aserra, sera prodons vers Deu et vers sainte eglise et ait -fait tant d'armes que il soit le plus alosez del monde. Et lors vendra à -la maison au riche roi péchéor et quant il aura demandé de quoi li Graus -sert, tantost sera li roi gariz de de sa'nfermeté et cherront li -enchentement de Bretaigne et sera la prophétic accomplie" (p. 419). Again, -p. 427 "li riches rois péchéors est chéuz en grant maladie et en grant -enfermeté, ne il peust morir devant que uns de XXX chevalier, qui ci sunt -asis, ait tant fait d'armes et de chevalerie qu'il soit li mieudres -chevalier del monde." Again, p. 427, "Et quant il (_i.e._, the Fisher -King) sera gariz, si ira, dedanz li III jorz, de vie à mort, et baillera à -celui chevalier, le vesseau et li aprendra le segroites paroles qui li -aprist Joseph; et lors ampliz de la grace du Sainct Esprit et cherront li -enchentement de la Bretaigne et les afaires." Again, when Perceval has -come for the second time to the Fisher King's, and has asked the question -and learnt the secret words, he remained there "et moult fust prodons et -chéirent les enchentement de la terre de Bretaigne et par tout le monde." -Here, then, are the Sick King, the mysterious question, the healing, and -the effect upon the land (note how the enchantments of Britain are -insisted upon), as in the A versions. The only points of contact with B -are that Brons is like Petrus in not being able to die till Perceval come, -and that his infirmity seems to be ascribed mainly to his age, and not to -a wound, which at first sight seems to agree better with the vague -indications of B than with the positive statement of A. - -Two accounts, each fairly definite and consistent, are thus forthcoming -respecting the object of the Quest, the one represented by A and C, the -other by B. What light is thrown upon the matter by the remaining -versions, and which of these two accounts do they support? Neither from -the Queste, D, nor from the Grand St. Graal, E, can any clear conception -of the Quest be gathered. Both have a great deal to say about the -adventures and the wonders of the Grail, but absolutely nothing comes of -the achievement so far as the Grail itself, or as Galahad and his two -companions are concerned. It goes to the East, they with it, they become -hermits and die. But in proportion as the main object of the Quest becomes -less definite, the number of secondary objects increases. In D, Queste, -Galahad is to achieve the adventure of the Seat Perillous (ch. iii, iv); -he is to wear the shield left by Joseph to Mordrains (ch. x); he is to -release from life Mordrains himself, struck with blindness for approaching -too near the Grail (ch. xxiii); he (according to the second draft of the -Queste), is to release King Pelles (his grandfather, according to draft -3), wounded through both ankles for trying to draw the sword; he is to -release Simei, burning in a fiery grave for that he once sinned against -Joseph of Arimathea (ch. lxvi). To this sufficiently long list the Grand -St. Graal adds the resoldering of the sword broken by Joseph--"Ha espée, -iamais ne sera resaudée deuant ke chil te tenra qui les hautes auentures -del Saint Graal devra asoumir" (II, 264); the delivery of Moys from out -the furnace where he burns, not for always "ains trouuera enchore merchi -et pardon. Mais che qu'il a mesfait, espanira il en tel manière qu'il en -sera en fu iusc' a tant ke li boines chiualiers uenra" (II, 277). Moys -likewise speaks of Galahad as one who "achieura les auentures de la grant -bertaigne" (II, 279-80). Finally, Pelleur wounded (mehaigniés de ii -cuisses) "en vne bataille de rome" is to be released, "il ne peut garir de -la plaie deuant ke galaad, li tres boins chiualers, le vint visiter. Mais -lors sans faille gari il" (II, p. 373). - -The Queste knows nothing of Petrus, but in the Grand St. Graal he turns -up at the end in the same casual way as Brons, and converts King Luces -(II, 3356-3), _i.e._ is thus brought into connection with Geoffrey of -Monmouth's form of the conversion of Britain legend. - -The foregoing statement confirms all that has previously been urged as to -the lateness of both Queste and Grand St. Graal. The author of the former -again shows himself a daring, but not over skilful, adapter of older -legends, the author of the latter an unintelligent compiler, whose sole -aim it is to lengthen out his story by the introduction of every incident -he can lay his hands upon. But although late, they may nevertheless throw -light upon the question which, of the two strongly differentiated accounts -of the object of the Grail quest which have been noted, has the better -claim to be looked upon as the older one. The Conte du Graal and the -Didot-Perceval agree, as has been seen, against the Metrical Joseph, in -making the main object of the Grail-seeker the healing of a maimed or the -release from life of a supernaturally old King. This _motif_, it is not -too much to say, is the pivot upon which in the Conte du Graal all turns; -in the Metrical Joseph it is barely hinted at. - -The Queste, if looked at closely, is found to bear witness to the Conte du -Graal form. As is seen from the summary (_supra_, p. 41, Inc. 12) it has -the very incident upon which so much stress is laid in Chrestien's poem, -the visit to the Sick King, the omitted question, the consequent -misfortune. True, all this has been transferred from the original hero, -Perceval, to the father of the new hero Galahad, and, true, the final -object which the Queste proposes, in so far as it proposes any definite -object, to its Grail-seeker is of a different character. But the fact that -this object is not stated in the same way as in the Metrical Joseph, -whilst that found in the Conte du Graal _is_ embodied though in a -different connexion, points unmistakably to what may be called the healing -_motif_ as the older one. Here, again, the Metrical Joseph is in a -minority, and it is not even followed by that very version, the -Didot-Perceval, which has been ascribed to the same author, and claimed as -an integral portion of the same trilogy.[56] - - -_Qualifications of the Promised Knight._ - -Neither Chrestien, Gautier, nor Manessier lay any stress upon special -qualifications in the quest-hero for the achievement of his task. In -Chrestien, as already stated, (_supra_, p. 87), it is exclusively the sin -of which Perceval has been guilty in leaving his mother which prevents his -achieving the Quest at his first visit to the Grail Castle (v. 4,768-71 -and 7,766-74), whilst the continuator makes no attempt at any explanation -of the hero's repeated failures. Not until Gerbert does a fresh _motif_ -show itself in the poem, but then it is a remarkable one; if Perceval has -been hitherto unable to attain the goal he has so long striven for, it is -because he has been unfaithful to his first love, Blanchefleur (VI, p. -182); he must return and wed her before he is fit to learn the full secret -of the Grail.[57] - -The other Quest versions are on this point in striking contrast to -Chrestien. The words of C, Didot-Perceval, have already been noted, -(_supra_, p. 89). Again the damsel, reproaching the hero after his first -failure, addresses him thus:--"Mès je sai bien por quoi tu l' ás perdu, -por ceque tu ni es pas si sage ne si vaillant, ne n'as pas fet tant -d'armes; ne n'ies si prodons que tu doies avoir le sanc nostre (sire) en -guarde" (p. 467). - -It is significant to note in this connection that it is only after -Perceval has overcome all the best knights of the Round Table, including -Gawain (the companion hero, as will be shown later, of the oldest form of -the story), and thereby approved himself the best knight of the world, -that Merlin appears and directs him to the Grail Castle.[58] The talk -about Holy Church would seem to be an addition, and the original ideal a -purely physical one. - -In the Queste the qualification of the hero has become the main feature -of the legend, the pivot upon which everything turns. The one thing -necessary is that the hero should be a virgin, and the story is one long -glorification of the supreme virtue of chastity. Yet even here the warlike -deeds of Galahad are dwelt upon in a way that points to a different ideal. -Traces, though slight ones, may be found in C, Didot-Perceval, of the -importance attached to the chastity of the hero; thus his hermit uncle -admonishes him, "ne vous chaille de gésir aveuc fame, quar cest un peché -luxurious et bien sachiez, que la pichié que vous avez fait, vous ont neu -à trover la maison Bron," and in the adventure with the damsel of the -hound, although he had (p. 440) solicited her favours, and she had -promised them if he brought her the head of the white stag, yet (p. 470) -when he returns to her and she offers herself to him, he pleads his quest -as a reason for not even passing one night with her. In Gautier de -Doulens, on the contrary, everything passes in accordance with the -orthodox custom of the day--when knights were as punctual in demanding as -ladies scrupulous in granting the fulfilment of such bargains. But here, -again, references to chastity seem to be additions, and rather unskilful -ones, whilst in the Queste they are the vital spirit of the story. - -What results from the foregoing is much as follows:-- - -The Perceval form of the Quest is certainly the older of the two, and -underlies in reality the Galahad form. When cleared from the admixture of -Christian mystic elements it appears as a coherent and straightforward -story, in which nothing necessarily presupposes the Early History. The -influence of the latter is, however, distinctly traceable. As far as -Chrestien himself is concerned, nothing can be asserted with certainty as -to the origin, extent, and nature of that influence; in the case of his -continuators it can be definitely referred to that form of the Early -History which is represented by the Queste and the Grand St. Graal (save -in the solitary instance of the Berne fragment of Gautier de Doulens). The -later in date the sections of the Conte du Graal, the more strongly marked -is the influence of the Early History, and _pari passu_ the increasing -prominence given to the Christian mystic side of the Grail. - -Of the Early History two forms can be distinguished. In the one, Joseph -and the group of persons whom he converts in the East are made the means -of bringing Christianity to Britain. The Grail is dwelt upon almost solely -in its most material aspect. This form is closely connected with the -Galahad Quest, and its chronology has been elaborately framed to correctly -bridge over the difference in time between the Apostolic and Arthurian -ages. It has also affected, as remarked above, the later versions of the -Perceval Quest. The second or Brons form knows nothing of the companions -of Joseph, who is only indirectly the means of the conversion of Britain, -the real evangelists being kinsmen of his who bear decided Celtic names. -These kinsmen are related as grandfather and father (or simply father or -uncle), to a hero whose exploits are to be dealt with in a sequel. There -is strong insistence upon the spiritual character of the Grail, which is -obviously intended to play an important part in the promised sequel. No -traces of this form are to be found in any version (saving always the -above-mentioned fragment of Gautier), until we come to the Grand St. -Graal, with which such portions as do not conflict with the Joseph form -are embodied. - -The Didot-Perceval, although formally in contact with the Brons Early -History, is not really the sequel announced in that work. It differs -profoundly from it in the most essential feature of the story, the nature -of the task laid upon the hero. Upon examination this appears to be of the -same nature as that of the Conte du Graal, with a seasoning of the -Christian mystic element. It was, however, _intended_ for a sequel to the -Metrical Joseph, a fact which may be taken as a proof that Borron never -completed his plan of a Joseph-Merlin-Grail trilogy of which we possess -the first two parts. - -The first of the two points marked for investigation at the outset of this -chapter may thus be considered settled. The Quest is originally -independent of and older than the Early History. And although in no -instance can the versions of the former be said to be entirely free from -the influence of the latter, yet in the older forms the traces are such as -to be easily separated from the primitive elements of the story. - -The versions which have been examined may now be arranged in the following -order:-- - - (1) Chrestien's portion of the Conte du Graal. The oldest form of the - Perceval Quest, but presupposing an Early History. - - (2) Gautier de Doulens followed Chrestien, in all probability, almost - immediately. Even less can be gathered from him than from Chrestien - respecting the earliest form of the Early History, but this is - probably represented by - - (3) Pseudo-Gautier, which in all likelihood gives the outline of the - work made use of by Queste and Grand St. Graal. Pseudo-Gautier is - almost certainly some years later than Gautier, as the Berne MS. - scribe found it necessary to seek for information in - - (4) Borron's poem, probably written towards the end of the twelfth - century, but which for some reason remained unknown for a time, - although it afterwards, as evidenced by the number of MSS., became - popular. There is every reason to believe that Borron knew nothing of - any other Early History. His work, as we have it, is abridged and - arranged. Meanwhile - - (5) Queste had appeared. The author probably used the same Early - History as Pseudo-Gautier. He knew the Conte du Graal, and wrote in - opposition to it with a view to edification. He certainly knew nothing - of Borron's poem, or he could not have failed, with his strong - mystical tendencies, to dwell upon the spiritual and symbolic - character of the Grail. - - (6) The Grand St. Graal, an earlier draft of the work, now known under - that title. Probably an enlarged version of the hypothetical original - Early History; wanting all the latter portions relating to Brons and - his group, which were added to it when Borron's poem became known. - This work must have appeared before 1204 (in which year it is referred - to by Helinandus), and, as Chrestien wrote his poem about 1189-90, it - follows that at least half-a-dozen works belonging to the Grail cycle - came out in the last twelve years of the twelfth century. - - (7) Manessier and - - (8) Gerbert brought out independent endings to the Conte du Graal from - 1216 to 1225. It was probably shortly after this time that Borron's - poem became known, and that it was incorporated with the Grand St. - Graal, which assumed the shape under which it has come down to us. - - (9) The Didot-Perceval is probably the latest in date of all the - members of the cycle. - -Before proceeding to examine our second point, which is whether the Grail -itself really belongs to the original form of the Quest, or has been -introduced into the Quest versions from the Early History, it will be -advisable to summarise the opinions and researches of previous -investigators. Light will thus be thrown upon many points of interest -which have not received special examination in these pages. A theory of -the origin and development of the cycle, which is in many respects -directly opposed to the conclusions we have reached, will also be fully -set forth, and an opportunity will thus be given for testing by adverse -criticism the soundness of our method of investigation, and of the results -to which it has led us. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -SKETCH OF THE LITERATURE CONNECTED WITH THE GRAIL CYCLE. - - Villemarqué--Halliwell--San Marte (A. Schulz)--Simrock--Rochat-- - Furnivall's reprint of the Grand St. Graal and of Borron--J. F. - Campbell--Furnivall's Queste--Paulin Paris--Potvin's Conte du - Graal--Bergmann--Skeat's Joseph of Arimathea--Hucher: Grail Celtic, - date of Borron--Zarncke, Zur Geschichte der Gralsage; Grail belongs - to Christian legend--Birch-Hirschfeld develops Zarncke's views: Grand - St. Graal younger than Queste, both presuppose Chrestien and an - earlier Queste, the Didot-Perceval, which forms integral part of - Borron's trilogy; Mabinogi later than Chrestien; various members of - the cycle dated--Martin combats Birch-Hirschfeld: Borron later than - Chrestien, whose poem represents oldest stage of the romance, which - has its roots in Celtic tradition--Hertz--Criticism of - Birch-Hirschfeld. - - -Monsieur Th. de la Villemarqué's researches form a convenient starting -point, both on account of the influence they exercised upon later -investigation, and because he was the first to state with fulness and -method the arguments for the Celtic origin of the legend. They appeared -originally in the volume entitled "Contes populaires des anciens Bretons -précédés d'un essai sur l'origine des épopées chevaleresques de la Table -Ronde" (Paris, 1842), and comprising a French translation of the -Mabinogion of Geraint and Peredur, with introductory essays and detailed -explanatory notes. The translation of Peredur is preceded by a study of -Chrestien's poem, in which the following conclusions are stated: The Grail -is Celtic in origin, the French term being equivalent to the Welsh _per_, -and having a like meaning, basin. It is the Druidic basin alluded to by -Taliessin, the same which figures in the Mabinogi of Branwen, which -appears in the oldest folk-tales of Brittany, and which is sought for in -the twelfth century Mabinogi by Peredur, _i.e._, the Basin-Seeker. The -original occult character of the Druidic basin, and of the lance, the -bardic symbol of undying hatred to the Saxon, disappears in the Mabinogi, -the tone and character of which are purely romantic. Composed among a -people comparatively unused to the chivalrous ideal, it breathes, however, -a rude and harsh spirit. But such as it is, it forms the groundwork of -Chrestien's poem. Comparison between the two demonstrates the simple -character of the Welsh romance, and shows how the French poet sought to -transform it by an infusion of feudal courtliness and religious mysticism. -In its last stage of development the story reverts to its pristine, -occult, and mystic character. - -Much of what M. de la Villemarqué says is sound and telling; but, -unfortunately, although well aware that the French poem is the work of -three men and not of one, he yet treats it as an organic whole, and thus -deprives the larger part of his comparison of all value. Moreover, he -supports his thesis by arguments based upon a Breton poem (the story of -which is similar to that of Perceval's youth), ascribed without the shadow -of evidence to the end of the tenth century. - -In 1861 M. de la Villemarqué reprinted his work with extensive additions, -under the title of "Les Romans de la Table Ronde et les Contes des Anciens -Bretons." The section summarised above remained substantially unaltered, -but considerable extension was given to the author's views concerning the -mode of development of the romances. The points chiefly insisted upon are: -the similarity of metre between the Welsh poem and the French metrical -romances; the delight of the Plantagenet kings in the Welsh traditions and -the favour showed them; and the early popularity of the Welsh and Breton -singers. Villemarqué's last word upon the subject is that the Welsh -storytellers received from the ancient bards a pagan tradition, which, -changed in character and confounded with the Mystery of the Sacrament, -they handed on to the romance writers of Northern France and Germany, who -gave it a fresh and undying life. - -Villemarqué's views were worked up by Mr. Baring Gould in his essay on the -Sangreal ("Curious Myths of the Middle Ages," 1867) and in this form or in -their original presentment won wide acceptance as the authoritative -exposition of the Celtic origin of the cycle. - -In England, Mr. Halliwell, when editing, in 1844, the Thornton Sir -Perceval, derived it from Chrestien and his continuators, in spite of the -omission of Lance and Grail, on account of the sequence of incidents being -the same. The Mabinogi is alluded to as an adaptation of Chrestien. The -supposition that Perceval's nick-name, "le Gallois," implies the Welsh -origin of the story is rejected as absurd. - -In Germany the Grail-cycle formed the subject of careful investigation on -the part of San Marte (A. Schulz) for some years prior to 1840. From 1836 -to 1842 he brought out a modern German translation of Wolfram von -Eschenbach's Parzival, accompanied by an elaborate essay on the genesis of -the legend, and in 1841, "Die Arthur-Sage und die Mährchen des rothen -Buchs von Hergest." In the latter work a careful analysis of the Mabinogi -leads to the following conclusions:--Locale and persons are purely Welsh; -tone and character are older than the age of the Crusades and Knighthood; -it may be looked upon with confidence as the oldest known source of the -Perceval _sage_. In comparing the Mabinogi with Kiot's (_i.e._, Wolfram's) -version, stress is laid upon the task imposed upon Peredur, which is held -to be different in character and independent in origin from the Grail -Quest in Kiot. The Thornton Sir Perceval is claimed as the representative -of an early Breton _jongleur_ poem which knew nothing of the Grail story. -In the former work Wolfram von Eschenbach's poem is accepted, so far as -its framework is concerned, as a faithful echo of Kiot's, the Provencal -origin of which is proved by its Oriental and Southern allusions. The -Provencals may have obtained the Peredur _sage_ direct from Brittany, they -at any rate fused it with the Grail legend. Their version is an artistic -whole, whereas the North French one is a confused string of adventures. -Chrestien's share in the latter is rightly distinguished from that of his -continuators, and these are dated with fair accuracy. Robert de Borron is -mentioned, but as a thirteenth century adapter of earlier prose versions; -the Grand St. Graal is placed towards the middle of the thirteenth -century. In analysing the Joseph of Arimathea form of the legend, the -silence of the earlier British historians concerning Joseph's -evangelisation of Britain is noted, and 1140 is given as the earliest -date of this part of the legend. The captivity of Joseph arises probably -from a confusion between him and Josephus. There is no real connection -between the Joseph legend and that of the Grail. Wolfram's Templeisen -agree closely with the Templars, one of the main charges against whom was -their alleged worship of a head from which they expected riches and -victuals, and to which they ascribed the power of making trees and flowers -to bloom.[59] - -San Marte's translation of Wolfram was immediately (1842) followed by -Simrock's, whose notes are mainly directed against his predecessor's views -on the origin and development of the Grail legend. The existence of Kiot -is contested; the _differentia_ between Wolfram and Chrestien are unknown -to Provençal, but familiar to German, poetry. The Grail myth in its oldest -form is connected with John the Baptist. Thus in the Mabinogi the Grail is -represented by a head in a platter; the head the Templars were accused of -worshipping has probably the same origin; the Genoese preserved the Sacro -Catino, identified by them with the Grail, in the chapel of St. John the -Baptist; Chrestien mentions with especial significance, St. John's Eve -(Midsummer Eve). The head of St. John the Baptist, found, according to the -legend, in the fourth century, was carried later to Constantinople, where -in the eleventh century it is apparently used to keep an emperor from -dying (even as of the Grail, it is told, no one could die the day he saw -it). If Wolfram cuts out the references to the Baptist, _en revanche_ he -brings Prester John into the story. The essential element in the Grail is -the blood in the bowl, symbol of creative power as is the Baptist's head, -both being referable to the summer equinox. Associated with John the -Baptist is Herodias, who takes the place of an old Germanic goddess, -Abundia, as John does of Odin or Baldur.[60] The essence of the myth is -the reproductive power of the blood of the slain god (Odin-Hackelberend, -Baldur, Adonis, Osiris). As the Grail may only be seen by those to whom -God's grace is granted, so in the German folk-tale the entrance to the -hollow mounds wherein lies treasure or live elves is only visible to -Sunday children or pure youths. Thus, too, no man may find the grave of -Hackelberg (Odin). Such caves, when entered, close upon the outgoing -mortal as the Grail Castle portcullis closes upon Parzival. Many of -Gauvain's adventures appear in German folk-tradition. As to Parzival's -youth "it cannot be doubted that we have here a variation of the Great -Fool folk-tale (Dummling's Märchen) found among all people. It is hard to -say what people possessing this tale brought it into contact, either by -tradition or in writing, with the Grail story, but that people would have -the first claim among whom it is found in an independent form." The -Mabinogi explanation of the Grail incident is unacceptable, and the -Mabinogi itself is later than Chrestien, as is shown by its foolish -invention of the witches of Gloucester, and by its misrendering the -incident of the dwarves greeting Peredur. In the original folk-tale the -ungainly hero was _laughed at_, not greeted. The Thornton Sir Perceval may -possibly contain an older version of Perceval's youth than any found -elsewhere. Wolfram's poem represents, however, the oldest and purest form -of the Grail myth, which, originally pagan, only became fully -Christianised in the hands of the later North French poets. - -Simrock's speculations, though marred by his standing tendency to claim -over much for German tradition, are full of his usual acute and ingenious, -if somewhat fanciful, learning. His ignorance of Celtic tradition -unfortunately prevented his following up the hint given in the passage -quoted above which I have adopted as one of the mottoes of the present -work. - -In 1855 Rochat published ("Ueber einen bisher unbekannten Percheval li -Gallois," Zurich) selections from a Berne MS. containing part of Gautier -de Doulens' continuation of Chrestien (v. 21,930 to end, with thirteen -introductory and fifty-six concluding original lines, _cf._ p. 19), and -entered at some length into the question of the origin and development of -the Grail legend. The Mabinogi, contrary to San Marte's opinion, is placed -after Chrestien. Villemarqué's ballad of Morvan le Breiz is the oldest -form of the Perceval _sage_, then comes the Thornton Sir Perceval, a -genuine popular production derived probably from a Welsh original. In -spite of what San Marte says, the Grail incident is found in the Mabinogi, -and it might seem as if Chrestien had simply amplified the latter. On San -Marte's theory of the (Southern) origin of the Grail myth, this, however, -is impossible, and the fact that the Mabinogi contains this incident is a -proof of its lateness. - -Up to 1861 all writers upon the Grail legend were under this disadvantage, -that they had no complete text of any part of the cycle before them,[61] -and were obliged to trust largely to extracts and to more or less -carefully compiled summaries. In that year Mr. Furnivall, by the issue for -the Roxburghe Club of the Grand St. Graal, together with a reprint of -Robert de Borron's poem (first edited in 1841 by M. Franc. Michel), -provided students with materials of first-rate importance. His -introductory words are strongly against the Celtic origin of the story, -and are backed up by a quotation from Mr. D. W. Nash, in which that -"authority who really knows his subject" gives the measure of his critical -acumen by the statement that the Mabinogi of Peredur can have nothing to -do with the earliest form of the legend, because "in Sir T. Malory, -Perceval occupies the second place to Galahad." In fact, neither the -editor nor Mr. Nash seems to have tried to place the different versions, -and their assertions are thus of little value, though they contributed, -nevertheless, to discredit the Celtic hypothesis. San Marte, in an essay -prefixed to the first volume, repeated his well-known views respecting the -source of Wolfram's poems, and, incidentally, protested against the idea -that the Mabinogi is but a Welshified French romance. - -In 1862 the accomplished editor of the "Popular Tales of the West -Highlands," Mr. J. F. Campbell, published in his second volume (p. 152) -some remarks on the Story of the Lay of the Great Fool, which ended thus, -"I am inclined ... to consider this 'Lay' as one episode in the adventures -of a Celtic hero, who, in the twelfth century became Perceval le -chercheur du basin. He too, was poor, and the son of a widow, and half -starved, and kept in ignorance by his mother, but, nevertheless ... in the -end he became possessed of that sacred basin, le Saint Graal, and the holy -lance, which, though Christian in the story, are manifestly the same as -the Gaelic talismans which appear so often in Gaelic tales, and which have -relations in all popular lore--the glittering weapon which destroys, and -the sacred medicinal cup which cures." I have taken these words as a motto -for my studies, which are, indeed, but an amplification of Mr. Campbell's -statement. Had the latter received the attention it deserved, had it, for -instance, fallen into the hands of a scholar to whom Simrock's words -quoted on p. 101 were familiar, there would, in all probability, have been -no occasion for the present work. - -The publication of texts was continued by Mr. Furnivall's issue, in 1864, -for the Roxburghe Club, of the Quête del Saint Graal from a British Museum -MS. The opening of twelve MSS. from the Bibliothèque Nationale is likewise -given, and shows substantial unity between them and Mr. Furnivall's text. -In 1868 Mons. Paulin Paris published, in the first volume of his "Romans -de la Table Ronde," a general introduction to the Round Table cycle, and a -special study upon the Metrical Joseph and the Grand St. Graal. A large -share of influence is assigned to Celtic traditions through the medium of -Breton _lais_. The Early History of the Grail is a British legend, and -embodies the national and schismatic aspirations of the British Church. -The date given in the prologue to the Grand St. Graal, and repeated by -Helinandus, is accepted as the genuine date of a redaction of the legend -substantially the same as that found later in the Grand St. Graal. The -word "Grail" is connected with the Latin _gradale_, modern gradual, and -designated the book in which the tradition was first written down. The -Grand St. Graal is anterior to Chrestien's poem, and Robert de Borron's -poem in the first draft preceded the Grand St. Graal, and was written -between 1160 and 1170, but he subsequently revised it towards 1214, as is -shown by his alluding, l. 3,490, "O mon seigneur, Gauter _en peis_" (where -the underlined words are equivalent to the Latin _in pace_) to Gautier of -Montbeliard in the past tense. From 1868 to 1870 M. Potvin brought out -his edition of the Conte du Graal, and of the prose Perceval le Gallois -from Mons MSS. In the after-words priority is claimed for the latter -romance over all other members of the cycle, and three stages are -distinguished in the development of the legend--Welsh national--militant -Christian--knightly--the prose romance belonging to the second stage, and -dating substantially from the eleventh century. The lance and basin are -originally pagan British symbols, and between the lines of the Grail -legend may be read a long struggle between heretic Britain and orthodox -Rome. The Perceval form of the Quest is older than the Galahad one. The -Joseph of Arimathea forms are the latest, and among these the Grand St. -Graal the earliest. - -Conclusions as paradoxical as some of these appear in Dr. Bergmann's "The -San Grëal, an Enquiry into the Origin and Signification of the Romance of -the S. G.," Edinburgh, 1870. The idea of the Grail is due entirely to -Guyot, as also its connection with the Arthurian cycle. Chrestien followed -Guyot, but alters the character of the work, for which he is reproved by -Wolfram, who may be looked upon as a faithful representative of the -earlier poet. Chrestien's alterations are intended to render the poem more -acceptable in knightly circles. On the other hand Walter Map found Guyot -too secular and heretical, and wrote from a purely ecclesiastical -standpoint the Latin version of the legend in which the Grail is -associated with Joseph of Arimathea. This version forms the basis of -Robert de Borron, author of the Grand St. Graal and of the continuators of -Chrestien. Although Bergmann denies the Celtic origin of the Grail itself, -he incidentally accepts the authenticity of the Mabinogi of Peredur, and -admits that the whole framework of the story is Celtic. - -In the endeavour to prove the paradox that one of the latest, most highly -developed, and most mystic of all the versions of the legend (viz., -Wolfram's) really represents the common source of them all, Bergmann is -compelled to make the most gratuitous assumptions, as a specimen of which -may be quoted the statement that the _roi-pecheur_ is originally the -_sinner_ king, and that it is by mistake that the North French _trouvères_ -represent him as a _fisher_. - -Bergmann's views passed comparatively unnoticed. They are, indeed, -alluded to with approval in Professor Skeat's edition of Joseph of -Arimathea, a fourteenth century alliterative abridgement of the Grand St. -Graal (E. E. Text Soc., 1871). In the editor's preface the Glastonbury -traditions concerning the evangelisation of Britain by Joseph are taken as -a starting point, two parts being distinguished in them, the one -_legendary_, tallying with William of Malmesbury's account, and, perhaps, -of considerable antiquity, the other _fabulous_, introducing the -personages and incidents of the romances and undoubtedly derived from -them. Some twenty years after the publication of the "Historia Britonum" -Walter Map probably wrote a Latin poem, from which Robert de Borron, the -Grand St. Graal, and, perhaps, the other works of the cycle were derived. -"Grail" is a bowl or dish. Chrestien may have borrowed his Conte du Graal -from Map; the "Quest" is probably an after-thought of the romance writers. - -Speculations such as these were little calculated to further the true -criticism of the Grail cycle. Some few years later, in 1875, the then -existing texts were supplemented by M. Hucher's work, so often quoted in -these pages. In an introduction and notes displaying great research and -ingenuity, the following propositions are laid down:--The Grail is Celtic -in origin, and may be seen figured upon pre-Christian Gaulish coins. -Robert de Borron's poem may be called the Petit St. Graal, and its author -was a lord of like-named territory near Fontainebleau, who between 1147 -and 1164 made large gifts to the Abbey of Barbeaux, which gifts are -confirmed in 1169 by Simon, son of said Robert. About 1169 Robert came to -England, met Walter Map, and was initiated by him into the knowledge of -the Arthurian romance, and of the legend of the Holy Grail. Between 1170 -and 1199 he entered the service of Walter of Montbeliard and wrote (in -prose) the Joseph of Arimathea and the Merlin. At a later period he -returned to England, and wrote, in conjunction with Map, the Grand St. -Graal. This is shown by MS. 2,455 Bibl. Nat. (of the Grand St. Graal): "Or -dist li contes qui est estrais de toutes les ystoires, sî come Robers de -Borons le translatait de latin en romans, à l'ayde de maistre Gautier -Map." But Hélie de Borron, author of the Tristan and of Guiron le -Courtois, calls Robert his friend and kinsman. Hélie has been placed -under Henry III, who has been assumed to be the Henry to whom he dedicates -his work; if so can he be the friend of Robert, who wrote some fifty years -earlier? Hélie should, however, be placed really under Henry II. Robert -wrote originally in prose; the poem contains later etymological and -grammatical forms, though it has occasionally preserved older ones; -besides in v. 2,817 etc. (_supra_, p. 83) it refers to the deliverance of -Moys by the Promised Knight, and thus implies knowledge of the Grand St. -Graal; this passage is omitted by most of the prose versions, thus -obviously older. Then the poem is silent as to the Christianising of -Britain mentioned by one prose version (C.). We may accept Borron's -statement as to his having dealt later with the histories of Moys and -Petrus, and as to his drawing his information from a Latin original. -Merlin is the pivot of Borron's conception. In comparing the third part of -his trilogy (Joseph of Arimathea, Merlin, Perceval) with Chrestien it must -be born in mind that Chrestien reproduces rather the English -(Joseph--Galahad), than the French (Brons--Perceval) form of the Quest, -and this, although the framework of Chrestien and Robert's Perceval is -substantially the same. Chrestien's work was probably preceded by one in -which the Peredur story as found in the Mabinogi was already adapted to -the Christianised Grail legend. There are frequent verbal resemblances -between Robert and Chrestien (_i.e._, Gautier, Hucher never distinguishing -between Chrestien and his continuators) which show a common original for -both. It is remarkable that Chrestien should never mention Brons, and that -there should be such a difference in the stories of the Ford Perillous and -the Ford Amorous. It is also remarkable that Robert, in his Perceval, -should complain that the _trouvères_ had not spoken of the Good Friday -incident which is to be found in Chrestien. - -M. Hucher failed in many cases to see the full significance of the facts -he brought to light, owing to his incorrect conception of the development -of the cycle as a whole, and of the relation of its component parts one to -the other. He made, however, an accurate survey of the cycle possible. The -merit of first essaying such a survey belongs to Zarncke in his admittedly -rough sketch, "Zur Geschichte der Gralsage," published in the third -volume (1876) of Paul and Braune's Beitraege.--The various forms may be -grouped as follows: (1) Borron's poem, (2) Grand St. Graal, (3) Quête, (4) -Chrestien, (5 and 6) Chrestien's continuators, (7) Didot MS. Perceval, (8) -Prose Perceval li Gallois. Neither the Spanish-Provencal nor the Celtic -origin of the legend is admissible; it has its source wholly in the -apocryphal legends of Joseph of Arimathea, in which two stages may be -distinguished; the first represented by the Gesta Pilati and the Narratio -Josephi, which tell how Christ appeared to Joseph in prison and released -him therefrom; the second by the Vindicta Salvatoris, which combines the -legends of the healing of Tiberius with that of Titus or Vespasian. Joseph -being thus brought into contact with Titus, the space of time between the -two is accounted for by the forty years captivity, and the first hint was -given of a miraculous sustaining power of the Grail. Borron's poem is -still purely legendary in character; the fish caught by the rich fisher is -the symbol of Christ; the incident of the waiting for the Promised Knight -belongs, however, not to the original tradition but to a later style of -Christian mysticism. The Grand St. Graal and the Quête extend and develop -the _donnée_ of the poem, whilst in Chrestien tone, atmosphere, and -framework are profoundly modified, yet there is no reason to postulate for -Chrestien any other sources than Nos. 1-3, the differences being such as -he was quite capable of deliberately introducing. As for No. 7 (the -Didot-Perceval) it is later than Chrestien and his continuators, and has -used both. Wolfram von Eschenbach had only Chrestien for his model, Kiot's -poem being a feigned source. The legend of the conversion of Britain by -Joseph is no genuine British tradition; William of Malmesbury's account of -Glastonbury is a pamphlet written to order of the Norman Kings, and -incapable of serving as a representative of Celtic tradition. The passages -therein relating to Joseph are late interpolations, disagreeing with the -remainder of his work and disproved by the silence of all contemporary -writers. - -Zarncke's acute article was a praiseworthy attempt to construct a working -hypothesis of the growth of the cycle. But it is full of grave -misconceptions, as was, perhaps, inevitable in a hasty survey of such an -immense body of literature. The versions are "placed" most incorrectly. -The argumentation is frequently marred by _a priori_ reasoning, such as -that Chrestien, the acknowledged leading poet of the day, could not have -copied Kiot, and by untenable assertions, such as that Bran, in the -Mabinogi of Branwen, the daughter of Llyr, is perhaps a distant echo of -Hebron in Robert de Borron's poem. He had, however, the great merit of -clearing the ground for his pupil, A. Birch-Hirschfeld, and urging him to -undertake what still remains the most searching and exhaustive survey of -the whole cycle: "Die Sage vom Gral," etc. As Birch-Hirschfeld's analysis -is at present the only basis for sound criticism, I shall give his views -fully:--The Grand St. Graal, as the fullest of the versions dealing with -the Early History of the Grail, is the best starting-point for -investigation. From its pronounced religious tone monkish authorship may -be inferred. Its treatment of the subject is not original as is shown by -(1) the repetition _ad nauseam_ of the same motive (_e.g._, that of the -lance wound four times), (2) the pedigrees, (3) the allusions to -adventures not dealt with in the book, and in especial to the Promised -Knight. The testimony of Helinand (see _supra_, p. 52), which is of -first-rate importance, does not allow of a later date for the Grand St. -Graal than 1204. On turning to the Queste it is remarkable that though -sometimes found in the MSS. in conjunction with the Grand St. Graal it is -also found with the Lancelot, and, when the hero's parentage is -considered, it seems more likely that it was written to supplement the -latter than the former work. This supposition is adverse to any claim it -may lay to being held the earliest treatment of the subject, as it is -highly improbable that the Grail legend occupied at the outset such an -important place in the Arthurian romance as is thus accorded to it. Such a -claim is further negatived by the fact that the Queste has three heroes, -the second of whom is obviously the original one of an older version. In -estimating the relationship between the Grand St. Graal and the Queste it -should be borne in mind that the latter, in so far as it deals with the -Early History, mentions only Joseph, Josephe, Evelach (Mordrain) and -Seraphe (Nascien), from whom descends Galahad; that it brings Joseph to -England, and that it does not give any explanation of the nature of the -Grail itself. It omits Brons, Alain, the explanation of the name "rich -fisherman," the name of Moys, although his story is found in substantially -the same shape as in the Grand St. Graal, and is silent as to the origin -of the bleeding lance. If it were younger than and derived from the Grand -St. Graal alone, these points, all more important for the Early History -than the Mordrain episodes would surely have been dwelt upon. But then if -the Grand St. Graal is the younger work, whence does it derive Brons, -Alain, and Petrus, all of whom are introduced in such a casual way? There -was obviously a previous Early History which knew nothing of Josephe or of -Mordrain and his group, the invention of the author of the Queste, whence -they passed into the Grand St. Graal, and were fused in with the older -form of the legend. There is, moreover, a positive reference on the part -of the Grand St. Graal to the Queste (vol. ii., p. 225). The author of the -Queste introduced his new personages for the following reasons: He had -already substituted Galahad for the original hero, and to enhance his -importance gives him a fictitious descent from a companion of Joseph. From -his model he learnt of Joseph's wanderings in the East, hence the Eastern -origin of the Mordrain group. In the older form the Grail had passed into -the keeping of Joseph's nephew, in the Queste the Promised Knight descends -from the nephew of Mordrain; Brons, as the ancestor of the original Quest -hero necessarily disappears in the Queste, and his place is in large -measure taken by Josephe. The priority of the Queste over the Grand St. -Graal, and the use of the former by the latter may thus be looked upon as -certain. But if Mordrain is the invention of the Queste, what is the -meaning of his illness, of his waiting for the Promised Knight, of the -bleeding lance, and of the lame king whom it heals? These seem to have no -real connection with the Grail, and are apparently derived from an older -work, namely, Chrestien's Conte du Graal. - -Chrestien's work, which ended at v. 10,601, may be dated as having been -begun not later than 1189 (_vide_ _supra_, p. 4). Its unfinished state -accounts for its having so little positive information about the Grail, as -Chrestien evidently meant to reserve this information for the end of the -story. But this very freedom with which the subject is handled is a proof -that he had before him a work whence he could extract and adapt as he saw -fit; moreover we have (Prologue, v. 475, etc.) his own words to that -effect. With Chrestien's account of the Grail--a bowl bejewelled, of -wondrous properties, borne by a maiden, preceded by a bleeding lance, -accompanied by a silver plate, guarded by a king wounded through both -ankles (whose only solace is fishing, whence his surname), ministering to -the king's father, sought for by Perceval, nephew to the fisher king, its -fate bound up with a question which the seeker must put concerning it--may -be compared that of the Queste, in which nothing is known of a question by -which the Grail kingship may be obtained (although it relates the same -incident of Lancelot), which knows not of one wounded king, centre of the -action, but of two, both of secondary importance (though possibly -Chrestien's Fisher King's father may have given the hint for Mordrain), in -which the lance is of minor importance instead of being on the same level -as the Grail. Is it not evident that the Queste took over these features -from Chrestien, compelled thereto by the celebrity of the latter's -presentment? The Queste thus presupposes the following works: a Lancelot, -an Early History, a Quest other than that of Chrestien's, and finally -Chrestien as the lame king and lance features show. It thus falls between -1189 (Chrestien begun) and 1204 (Grand St. Graal ended). - -With respect to the three continuators of Chrestien it would seem that -Gautier de Doulens' account of the Grail, as found in the Montpellier MS., -knowing as it does only of Joseph, and making the Fisher King and Perceval -descendants of his, belongs to an older stage of development than that of -Manessier and Gerbert, both of whom are familiar with the Mordrain group, -and follows that of the original version upon which both the Queste and -the Grand St. Graal are based. There is nothing to show that Gautier knew -of the Queste, whilst from Gautier the Queste may have possibly have taken -Perceval's sister and the broken sword. Gautier would thus seem to have -written immediately after Chrestien, and before the Queste, _i.e._, about -1195. As for the date of the other two continuators, the fact of their -having used the Queste is only one proof of the lateness of their -composition (as to the date of which see _supra_, p. 4). It must be noted -that whilst in their account of the Grail Chrestien's continuators are in -substantial accord with the Queste versions, and yet do not contradict -Chrestien himself, they add considerably to his account of the lance. This -is readily explained by the fact that as Chrestien gave no information -respecting the origin of either of the relics, they, the continuators, had -to seek such information elsewhere; they found all they could wish -respecting the Grail, but nothing as to the lance, the latter having been -first introduced by Chrestien, and the Queste versions knowing nothing -respecting it beyond what he told. Thus, thrown upon their own resources, -they hit upon the device of identifying the lance with the spear with -which Jesus was pierced as He hung on the Cross. This idea, a most natural -one, may possibly have been in Chrestien's intent, and _may_ have been -suggested to him by the story of the discovery of the Holy Lance in -Antioch half a century before. It must, however, be admitted that the -connection of the lance with the Grail legend in its earliest form is very -doubtful, and that Celtic legends may possibly have furnished it to -Chrestien, and indicated the use to which he intended putting it. The -analysis, so far, of the romances has resulted in the presupposition of an -earlier form; this earlier form, the source or basis of all the later -versions of the legend, exists in the so-called Petit St. Graal of Robert -de Borron. Of this work, found in two forms, a prose and a poetic one, the -poetic form, _pace_ Hucher, is obviously the older, Hucher's proofs of -lateness going merely to show that the sole existing MS. is a recent one, -and has admitted new speech-forms;[62] moreover the prose versions derive -evidently from one original. The greater simplicity of the poem as -compared with the Grand St. Graal proves its anteriority in that case; -Paulin Paris' hypothesis that the poem in its present state is a second -draft, composed after the author had made acquaintance with the Grand St. -Graal, is untenable, the poem's reference (v. 929 etc.) to the "grant -livre" and to the "grant estoire dou Graal," written by "nul home qui -fust mortal" (v. 3,495-6) not being to the Grand St. Graal, but having, -on the contrary, probably suggested to the writer of the latter his -fiction of Christ's being the real author of his work. The Grand St. Graal -used the poem conjointly with the Queste, piecing out the one version by -help of the other, and thereby entirely missing the sequence of ideas in -the poem, which is as follows: Sin, the cause of want among the people; -the separation of the pure from the impure by means of the fish (symbol of -Christ) caught by Brons, which fish does not feed the people, but, in -conjunction with the Grail, severs the true from the false disciples; -punishment of the self-willed false disciple; reward of Brons by charge of -the Grail. In the Grand St. Graal, on the contrary, the fish is no symbol, -but actual food, a variation which must be laid to the account of the -Queste. In a similar way the two Alains in the Grand St. Graal may be -accounted for, the one as derived from the poem, the second from the -Queste. As far as conception is concerned, the later work is no advance -upon the earlier one. To return to Borron's work, which consists of three -sections; there is no reason to doubt his authorship of the second, -Merlin, or of the third, Perceval, although one MS. only of the former -mentions the fact, and it is, moreover, frequently found in connection -with other romances, in especial with the Lancelot; as for Perceval, the -silence of the unique MS. as to Borron is no argument, as it is equally -silent in the Joseph of Arimathea section. All outward circumstances go to -show that Borron divided his work into three parts, Joseph, Merlin, -Perceval. But, if so, the last part must correspond in a fair measure to -the first one; recollect, however, that we are dealing with a poet of but -little invention or power of giving unity to discordant themes, and must -not expect to find a clearly traced plan carried out in every detail. Thus -the author's promise in Joseph to speak later of Moses and Petrus seems -not to be fulfilled, but this is due to Borron's timidity in the invention -of new details. What _is_ said of Moses does not disagree with the Joseph, -whereas a later writer would probably follow the Grand St. Graal account; -as for Petrus he is to be recognised in the hermit Perceval's uncle. There -may be some inconsistency here, but Borron _can_ be inconsistent, as is -shown by his treatment of Alain, who at first vows to remain virgin, and -afterwards marries. But a graver argument remains to be met; the lance -occurs in Perceval--now _ex hypothesi_ the first introduction of the lance -is due to Chrestien. The lance, however, only occurs in two passages, both -obviously interpolated. The identity of authorship is evident when the -style and phraseology of the two works are compared; in both the Grail is -always _li graaux_ or else _li veissel_, not as with the later versions, -_li saint graaux_; both speak of _la grace dou graal_; in both the Grail -is _bailli_ to its keeper, who has it _en guarde_; the empty seat is _li -liu vit_, not the _siège perilleux_. The central conception, too, is the -same--the Trinity of Grail-keepers symbolising the Divine Trinity. The -secret words given by Christ with the Grail to Joseph in prison, by him -handed on to Brons, are confided at the end of the Perceval by Brons to -the hero--and there is no trace of the Galahad form of the Quest, as would -inevitably have been the case had the Perceval been posterior in date to -the Queste. As the Perceval is connected with the Joseph, so it is equally -with the Merlin; it is remarkable that neither Merlin nor Blaise play a -prominent part in the Queste versions, but in Borron's poem Merlin is the -necessary binding link between the Apostolic and Arthurian ages. Again the -whole character of the Perceval speaks for its being one of the earliest -works of the cycle; either it must have used Chrestien and Gautier or they -it; if the former, is it credible that just those adventures which were -necessary to supply the ending to the Joseph could have been picked out? -But it is easy to follow the way in which Chrestien used the Perceval; -having the three-part poem before him he took the third only for his -canvas, left out all that in it related to the first two parts, all, -moreover, that related to the origin and early history of the Grail; the -story of the childhood is half indicated in the Perceval, and Chrestien -may have had Breton lays with which to help himself out; all relating to -the empty seat is left out as reaching back into the Early History; the -visit to Gurnemanz is introduced to supply a motive for the hero's conduct -at the Grail Castle; the wound of the Fisher King is again only an attempt -of Chrestien's to supply a more telling motive; as for the sword Chrestien -invented it; as he also did the Grail-messenger, whose portrait he copied -from that of Rosette la Blonde. The order of the last episodes is altered -by Chrestien sensibly for the better, as, with him, Perceval's doubt comes -first, then the Good Friday reproof, then the confession to and absolution -by the hermit; whereas in the Perceval the hero after doubt, reproof, and -absolution rides off again a-tourneying, and requires a second reproof at -Merlin's hands. It is easy to see here which is the original, which the -copy. Chrestien thus took with clear insight just what he wanted in the -Perceval to fit out his two heroes with adventures.[63] As for Borron's -guiding conception, his resolve to have nothing to do with the Early -History made him neglect it entirely; he only cared to produce a knightly -poem, and we find, in consequence, that he has materialised all the -spiritual elements of his model. Gautier de Doulens' method of proceeding -was much simpler: he took over all those adventures that Chrestien -purposely left out, and they may be found brought together (verses -22,390-27,390) with but few episodes (Perceval's visit to Blanchefleur, -etc.) entirely foreign to the model amongst them.[64] The Perceval cannot -be later than Gautier, as otherwise it could not stand in such close -relationship to the Joseph and Merlin; it must, therefore, be the source -of the Conte du Graal, and a necessary part of Borron's poem, which in its -entirety is the first attempt to bring the Joseph of Arimathea legend into -connection with the Arthur _sage_. The question as to the origin of the -Grail would thus seem answered, the Christian legendary character of -Borron's conception being evident; but there still remains the possibility -that that conception is but the Christianised form of an older folk-myth. -Such a one has been sought for in Celtic tradition. The part played by -Merlin in the trilogy might seem to lend colour to such an hypothesis, but -his connection with the legend is a purely artificial one. Nor is the -theory of a Celtic origin strengthened by reference to the Mabinogi of -Peredur. This knows nought of Merlin, and is nearer to Chrestien than to -the Didot-Perceval, and may, indeed, be looked upon as simply a clumsy -retelling of the Conte du Graal with numerous additions. A knowledge of -the Didot-Perceval on Chrestien's part must be presupposed, as where could -he have got the Fisher King and Grail Castle save from a poem which dealt -with the Early History of the Grail, a thing the Mabinogi does not do. -But, it may be said, Chrestien used the Mabinogi conjointly with Borron's -poem. That the Welsh tale is, on the contrary, only a copy is apparent -from the following considerations:--It mixes up Gurnemanz and the Fisher -King; it puts in the mouth of Peredur's _mother_ an exclamation about the -knights, "Angels they are my son," obviously misread from Perceval's -exclamation to the same effect in Chrestien's poem; _Perceval's_ -love-trance over the three blood drops in the snow is explained in -Chrestien by the hero's passion for Blanchefleur, but is quite -inexplicable in the Mabinogi; again, in the Welsh tale, the lance and -basin episode is quite a secondary one, a fact easily explained if it is -looked upon as a vague reminiscence of Chrestien's unfinished work; -moreover the Mabinogi lays great stress upon the lance, which has already -been shown to belong to a secondary stage in the development of the -legend. Again the word Graal occurs frequently in old Welsh literature, -and invariably in its French form, never translated by any equivalent -Welsh term. As for the name Peredur, it is understandable that the Welsh -storyteller should choose the name of a national hero, instead of the -foreign name Perceval; the etymology Basin-Seeker is untenable. There is -no real analogy between the Grail and the magic cauldron of Celtic fable, -which is essentially one of renovation, whereas the Grail in the second -stage only acquires miraculous feeding, and in the third stage healing -powers. It is of course not impossible that such adventures in the -Mabinogi, as cannot be referred directly to Chrestien, may belong to a -genuine Peredur _sage_. - -The question then arises--was Robert de Borron a simple copyist, or is the -legend in its present form due to him, _i.e._, did _he_ first join the -Joseph of Arimathea and Grail legends, or had he a predecessor? Now the -older Joseph legends know nothing of his wandering in company of a -miraculous vessel, Zarncke having shown the lateness of the one commonly -ascribed to William of Malmesbury. Nor is it likely Borron had before him -a local French legend as Paulin Paris (Romania, vol. i.) had supposed; -would he in that case have brought the Grail to England, and left Joseph's -fate in uncertainty? The bringing the Grail to England is simply the -logical consequence of his conception of the three Grail-keepers (the -third of British blood), symbolising the Trinity, and of the relation of -the Arthurian group to this central conception; where the third -Grail-keeper and the third of the three wondrous tables were, there the -Grail must also be. What then led Borron to connect the sacramental vessel -with the Joseph legend? In answering this question the later miraculous -properties of the Grail must be forgotten, and it must be remembered that -with Borron it is only a vessel of "grace;" this is shown in the history -of (Moys) the false disciple, which obviously follows in its details the -account of the Last Supper, and of the detection of Judas by means of the -dish into which Jesus dips a sop, bidding the betrayer take and eat. -Borron's first table being an exact copy of the Last Supper one, _his_ -holy vessel has the property of that used by Christ. In so far Borron was -led to his conception by the story as told in the canonical books; what -help did he get from the Apocrypha? His mention of the Veronica legend and -certain details in his presentment of Vespasian's vengeance on the Jews -(_e.g._, his selling thirty for a penny) show him to have known the -Vindicta Salvatoris, in which Joseph of Arimathea appears telling of his -former captivity from which Christ Himself had delivered him. Thus Borron -knew of Joseph's living when Vespasian came to Jerusalem. From the Gesta -Pilati he had full information respecting the imprisonment of Joseph; he -combined the accounts of these two apocryphal works, substituting a simple -visit of Christ to Joseph for the deliverance as told in the Gesta Pilati, -and making Vespasian the deliverer, whereto he may have been urged by -Suetonius' account of the freeing of _Josephus_ by Vespasian (Vesp. ch. -v.). But why should Joseph become the Grail-keeper? Because the fortunes -of the vessel used by the Saviour symbolise those of the Saviour's body; -as _that_ was present at the Last Supper, was brought to Pilate, handed -over to Joseph, was buried, and after three days arose, so with the Grail. -Compare, too, Christ's words to Joseph (892, etc.) in which the symbolical -connection of the laying in the grave and the mass is fully worked out. -Thus Joseph who laid Christ's body in the grave is the natural guardian of -the symbol which commemorates that event, thus, too, the Grail is the -natural centre point of all the symbolism of mass and sacrament, and thus -the Grail found its place in the Joseph legend, ultimately becoming its -most important feature. Need Perceval's question detain us? May it not be -explained by the fact that as Joseph had to apply twice for Christ's body, -so his representative, the Grail-seeker, had to apply twice for the symbol -of Christ's body, the Grail? But it is, perhaps, best to consider the -question and the Fisher King's weakness as inventions of Borron's, -possibly derived from Breton sources, the ease with which the hero fulfils -a task explained to him beforehand favouring such a view. Borron, it must -be noticed, had no great inventive power; in the Joseph he is all right so -long as he has the legend to follow; in the Merlin and the Perceval he -clings with equal helplessness to the Breton sagas, confining himself to -weaving clumsily the adventures of the Grail into the regular Arthur -legend. - -The question as to the authorship of the Grand St. Graal and the Queste, -the latter so confidently attributed to W. Map, may now profitably be -investigated. Map, who we know flourished 1143-1210 (see _supra_, p. 5), -took part in all the political and social movements of his time. If we -believe the testimony of the MSS. which ascribe to him the authorship of -the following romances: (1) the Lancelot, in three parts; (2) the Queste; -(3) the Mort Artur; (4) the Grand St. Graal, he would seem to have shown a -literary activity quite incompatible with his busy life, when it is -remembered how slow literary composition was in those days. Nor can it be -reconciled with the words of Giraldus Cambrensis,[65] although Paulin -Paris (Rom. i. 472) has attempted such a reconciliation by the theory that -the words _dicere_ and _verba dare_ referred to composition in the -vernacular, and that Map was opposing not his _oratorical_ to Gerald's -_literary_ activity, but his _French_ to Gerald's _Latin_ works. Against -this initial improbability and Gerald's positive testimony must be set, it -is true, the witness of writers of the time and of the MSS. The most -important is that of Hélie de Borron in his prologue to Guiron le -Courtois.[66] After telling how Luces de Gast was the first to translate -from the Latin book into French, and he did part of the story of Tristan, -he goes on: "Apriés s'en entremist maistre Gautiers Map qui fu clers au -roi Henry et devisa cil l'estoire de monseigneur Lancelot du Lac, que -d'autre chose ne parla il mie gramment en son livre. Messiers Robers de -Borron s'en entremist après. Je Helis de Borron, par la prière monseigneur -de Borron, et pour ce que compaignon d'armes fusmes longement, en -commençai mon livre du Bret." Again in the epilogue to the Bret,[67] "Je -croi bien touchier sor les livres que maistres Gautiers Maup fist, qui fit -lou propre livre de monsoingnour Lancelot dou Lac; et des autres granz -livres que messires Robert de Berron fit, voudrai-je prendre aucune flor -de la matière ... en tel meniere que li livres de monsoingnour Luces de -Gant et de maistre Gautier Maapp et ciz de monsoingnour Robert de Berron -qui est mes amis et mes paranz charnex s'acourderont au miens livres--et -je qui sui appelex Helyes de Berron qui fui engendrez dou sanc des gentix -paladins des Barres qui de tous tens ont été commendeour et soingnor -d'Outres en Roménie qui ores est appelée France." Now Hélie cannot -possibly belong to the reign of Henry II (+ 1189) as asserted by Hucher -(p. 59), as he speaks of Map in the past tense (_fu_ clers), and Map -outlived Henry, moreover the mention of Romenie proves the passage to have -been written after the foundation of the Latin Empire in 1304. Hélie's -testimony is thus not that of an immediate contemporary, and it only shows -that shortly after Map's death the Lancelot was ascribed to him. It is, -moreover, in so far tainted, that he speaks with equal assurance -respecting the great Latin book which of course never existed; nor can we -believe him when he says that he was the comrade of Robert de Borron, as -this latter wrote before Chrestien, and must have been at least thirty -years older than Hélie, who in the Guiron (written about 1220) calls -himself a young man. How is it with the testimony of the MSS.? Those of -the Lancelot have unfortunately lost their colophon, owing to the Queste -being almost invariably added; those of the Queste show as a rule a -colophon such as the one quoted by Paulin Paris from the Bibl. Nat., MS. -6,963 (MSS. Franç II., p. 361): "Maistre Gautiers Map les estrait pour son -livre faire dou Saint-Graal, pour l'amor del roy Henri son seignor, qui -fist l'estore translater dou latin en françois." A similar statement -occurs in a MS. of the Mort Artur (Bib. Nat. 6,782.). Both are equally -credible. Now as the King can only be Henry II (+ 1189) and as the Queste -preceded the Mort Artur it must be put about 1185, and Chrestien's Conte -du Graal about 1180, an improbably early date when it is recollected that -the Conte du Graal is Chrestien's last work. The form, too, of these -colophons, expressed as they are in the third person, so different from -the garrulous first person complacency with which Luces de Gast and Hélie -de Borron announce their authorship, excites the suspicion that we have -here not the author's own statement, but that of a copyist following a -traditional ascription. Whether or no Map wrote the Lancelot, it may -safely be assumed that he did not write the Queste, or _a fortiori_ the -Grand St. Graal. The tradition as to his authorship of these romances may -have originated in Geoffrey's mention of the Gualterus archidiaconus -Oxenfordensis, to whom he owed his MS. of the Historia Regum Britanniae. A -similar instance of traditional ascription on the part of the copyist may -be noted in the MSS. of the Grand St. Graal, the author of which is -declared to be Robert de Borron. The ordinary formulæ (quoted _supra_, p. -5) should be compared with Borron's own words in the Joseph (_supra_, p. -5) and the difference in form noted. What proves these passages to be -interpolations is that the author of the Grand St. Graal especially -declares in his prologue that his name must remain a secret. The colophons -in question are simply to be looked upon as taken over from the genuine -ascription of Borron's poem, and there is no positive evidence as to the -authorship of either the Queste or the Grand St. Graal; both works are -probably French in origin, as is shown by the mention of Meaux in the -Grand St. Graal. As for the date of Borron's poem, a _terminus ad quem_ is -fixed by that of the Conte du Graal (1180); and as the poem is dedicated -to Gautier of Montbeliard, who can hardly have been born before 1150, and -who must have attained a certain age before he could become Robert's -patron, it must fall between the years 1170 and 1190. - -The results of the investigation may be summed up as follows: the origin -of the Grail romances must be sought for in a Christian legend based -partly upon the canonical, partly upon the uncanonical, writings. This -Christian legend was woven into the Breton sagas by the author of the -oldest Grail romance; the theories of Provençal Spanish, or Celtic origin -are equally untenable, nor is there any need to countenance the fable of a -Latin original. Chronologically, the versions arrange themselves thus:-- - - (1) Between 1170 and 1190 (probably about 1183) Robert de Borron wrote - his trilogy: Joseph of Arimathea--Merlin--Perceval. Sources: Christian - legend (Acta, Pilati, Descensus Christi, Vindicta Salvatoris) and - Breton sagas (Brut?). Here the Grail is simply a vessel of grace. - - (2) About 1189 Chrestien began his Conte du Graal, the main source of - which was the third part of Borron's poem. Marvellous food properties - attributed to the Grail; introduction of the bleeding lance, silver - dish, and magic sword. - - (3) Between 1190 and 1200 Gautier de Doulens continued Chrestien's - poem. Main sources, third part of (1) and first part of same for Early - History--introduction of broken sword. - - (4) Between 1190 and 1200 (but after Gautier?) the Queste du St. Graal - written as continuation to the Lancelot. Sources (1) and (2) (for - lance) and perhaps (3). New personages, Mordrain, Nascien, etc., - introduced into Early History. - - (5) Before 1204 Grand St. Graal written, mainly resting upon (4) but - with use also of first part of (1). - - (6) Between 1214 and 1220. Manessier's continuation of the Conte du - Graal. For the Early History (5) made use of. - - (7) Before 1225 Gerbert of Montreuil's additions to Manessier. Both - (4) and (5) used. - - (8) About 1225 Perceval li Gallois; compiled from all the previous - versions.[68] - -That part of Birch-Hirschfeld's theory which excited the most attention in -Germany bore upon the relationship of Wolfram to Chrestien (see _infra_, -Appendix A). In other respects his theory won very general acceptance. The -commendatory notices were, however, of a slight character, and no new -facts were adduced in support of his thesis. One opponent, however, he -found who did more than rest his opposition upon the view of Wolfram's -relationship to Chrestien. This was E. Martin, who ("Zeitschrift für d. -Alterthumskunde," 1878, pp. 84 etc.) traversed most of Birch-Hirschfeld's -conclusions. Whilst accepting the priority of Queste over Grand St. Graal -he did not see the necessity of fixing 1204 as a _terminus ad quem_ for -the latter work as we now have it, as Helinandus' statement might have -referred to an older version; if the Grand St. Graal could not be dated -neither could the Queste. As for the Didot-Perceval there was nothing to -prove that it was either Borron's work or the source of Chrestien and -Gautier. Birch-Hirschfeld's arguments to show the interpolation of the -lance passages were unsound; it was highly improbable either that -Chrestien should have used the Perceval as alleged, or that Borron, the -purely religious writer of the Joseph, should have changed his style so -entirely in the Perceval. Moreover, Birch-Hirschfeld made Borron dedicate -a work to Gautier of Montbeliard before 1183 when the latter must have -been quite a young man, nor was there any reason to discredit Hélie de -Borron's testimony that he and Robert had been companions in arms, a fact -incredible had the one written forty years before the other. The work of -Chrestien and his continuators must be looked upon as the oldest we had of -the Grail cycle. It was likely that older versions had been lost. A Latin -version might well have existed, forms such as Joseph de Barimaschie -(_i.e._, ab Arimathea) pointed to it. Martin followed up this attack in -his "Zur Gralsage, Untersuchungen," Strasburg, 1880. A first section is -devoted to showing that Wolfram must have had other sources than -Chrestien, and that in consequence such portions of his presentment as -differ from Chrestien's must be taken into account in reconstructing the -original form of the romance. The second and third sections deal with -Heinrich von dem Türlin's "Die Crone," and with the earliest form of the -tradition. Gawain's second visit to the Grail Castle, as told of by -Heinrich (_supra_, p. 26) has features in common with the widely-spread -traditions of aged men slumbering in caves or ruined castles, unable to -die until the right word is uttered which breaks their spell. This -conception differs from the one found in all the other versions inasmuch -as in them the wonder-working question releases, not from unnaturally -prolonged life, but from sore disease. Can a parallel be found in Celtic -tradition to this sufferer awaiting deliverance? Does not Arthur, wounded -well nigh to death by his nephew Modred, pass a charmed life in Avalon, -whither Morgan la Fay carried him for his healing, and shall he not return -thence to free his folk? The original conception is mythic--the summer god -banished by the winter powers, but destined to come back again. The _sage_ -of Arthur's waiting, often in some subterranean castle, is widely spread, -two of the earliest notices (those of Gervasius of Tilbury, in the "Otia -Imperialia," p. 12 of Liebrecht's edition, and of Caesarius of -Heisterbach) connect it with Etna--the tradition had followed the Norman -Conquerors of Sicily thither--and from Sicily it would seem to have -penetrated to Germany, being first found in German tradition as told of -Frederick II. Again Gerald (A.D. 1188) in the "Itinerarium Cambriae" -(Frankfort, 1603, p. 827, L. 48) tells of a mountain chain in the -South-East of Wales: "quorum principalis Cadair Arthur dicitur i. Cathedra -Arthuri, propter gemina promontorii cacumina in cathedrae modum se -praeferentia. Et quoniam in alto cathedra et in ardua sita est, summo et -maximo Britonum Regi Arthuro vulgari nuncupatione est assignata." The -Eildon Hills may be noted in the same connection, "in which all the -Arthurian chivalry await, in an enchanted sleep, the bugle blast of the -adventurer who will call them at length to a new life" (Stuart Glennie, -"Arthurian Localities," p. 60). If the Grail King is Arthur, the bleeding -lance is evidently the weapon wherewith he was so sorely wounded. And the -Grail? this is originally a symbol of plenty, of a joyous and bountiful -life, hence of Avalon, that land of everlasting summer beyond the waves, -wherein, as the Vita Merlini has it, they that visit Arthur find -"planitiem omnibus deliciis plenam." Of those versions of the romance in -which the Christian conception of the Grail is predominant, Robert de -Borron's poem (composed about 1200) is the earliest, and in it, _maugre_ -the Christianising of the story, the Celtic basis is apparent: the Grail -host go a questing Avalonwards; the first keepers are Brons and Alain, -purely Celtic names, the former of which may be compared with Bran; the -empty seat calls to mind the _Eren stein_ in Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's -Lanzelot, whereof (verse 5,178) _ist gesaget daz er den man niht vertruoc -an dem was valsch oder haz_. Admitting the purely Christian origin of the -Grail leads to this difficulty: the vessel in which Christ's blood was -received was a bowl, not an open or flat dish like that used in -commemoration of the Last Supper. Evidently the identification of the -Grail with the Last Supper cup is the latest of a series of -transformations. Nor can the Christian origin of the legend be held proved -by the surname of Fisher given to the Grail-keeper. True, neither -Chrestien nor Wolfram explains this surname, whilst in Borron's poem there -is at least a fish caught. But if the fish had really the symbolic meaning -ascribed to it would not a far greater stress be laid upon it? In any case -this one point is insufficient to prove the priority of Borron, and it is -simpler to believe that the surname of Fisher had in the original Celtic -tradition a significance now lost. Birch-Hirschfeld's theory supposes, -too, a development contrary to that observed elsewhere in mediæval -tradition. The invariable course is from the racial-heathen to the -Christian legendary stage. Is it likely that in the twelfth century, a -period of such highly developed mystic fancy, an originally Christian -legend should lose its mystic character and become a subject for minstrels -to exercise their fancy upon? In the earlier form of the romance there is -an obvious contrast between the task laid upon the Grail quester and that -laid upon Gawain at Castle Marvellous. The first has suffered change by -its association with Christian legend; but the second, even in those -versions influenced by the legend, has retained its primitive Celtic -character. The trials which Gawain has to undergo may be compared with -those imposed on him who seeks to penetrate into the underworld, as -pictured in the Purgatorium S. Patricii, in the Visio Tnugdali, etc. This -agrees well with the presentment of Castle Marvellous, an underworld realm -where dwell four queens long since vanished from Arthur's court, and -which, according to Chrestien (verse 9,388), Gawain, having once found, -may no longer leave. One of these queens is Arthur's mother, whom a -magician had carried off, a variant it would seem of the tradition which -makes Arthur's father, Uther, win Igerne from her husband by Merlin's -magic aid. Many other reminiscences of Celtic tradition may be found in -the romances--Orgeleuse, whom Gawain finds sitting under a tree by a -spring, is just such a water fairy as may be met with throughout the whole -range of Celtic folk-lore, and differs profoundly from the Germanic -conception of such beings. - -W. Hertz, in his "Sage vom Parzival und dem Gral" (Breslau, 1882) -following, in the main, Birch-Hirschfeld, lays stress upon the two -elements, "_legend_" and "_sage_" out of which the romance cycle has -sprung. He does not overlook many of the weak points in Birch-Hirschfeld's -theory, _e.g._, whilst fully accepting the fish caught by Bron as the -symbol of Christ, he notices that the incident as found in Robert de -Borron, whom he accepts as the first in date of the cycle writers, is not -of such importance as to justify the stress laid upon the nickname "rich -fisher," by all the _ex hypothesi_ later writers. The word "rich" must, he -thinks, have originally referred to the abundant power of conversion of -heathen vouchsafed to the Grail-keeper, but even Robert failed to grasp -the full force of the allusion. Against Birch-Hirschfeld he maintains that -the connection of Joseph with the conversion of Britain in all the -versions shows that the legend must have assumed definite shape first on -British soil, and he looks upon the separatist and anti-papal tendencies -of the British Church as supplying the original impulse to such a legend. -The Grail belongs originally wholly to the "Legend;" only in the later -versions and in Wolfram, owing to the latter's ignorance of its real -nature, does it assume a magic and popular character. The lance, on the -other hand, is partly derived from the Celtic _sage_. The boyhood of -Perceval is a genuine folk-story, a great-fool tale, and had originally -nothing to do with the Grail, as may plainly be seen by reference to the -Thornton Sir Perceval, the most primitive form of the story remaining, the -Mabinogi, and the modern Breton tale of Peronnik, deriving directly or -indirectly from Chrestien. As for the question, although it presented much -that seemed to refer it to folk-tradition, as for instance in Heinrich von -dem Türlin's version, where Gawain's putting the question releases the -lord of the castle and his retainers from the enchantment of -life-in-death, yet the form of the question, "Je vos prie que vous me diez -que l'en sert de cest vessel," shows its original connection with the -Grail cultus, and necessitates its reference to the "Legend." Existing -versions fail, however, to give any satisfactory account of the question. -It is a matter of conjecture whether in the earliest form of the legend -(which Hertz assumes to have been lost) it was found in the same shape as -in the Didot-Perceval. - -Birch-Hirschfeld's theory has already been implicitly criticised in -Chapter III. The considerations adduced therein, as well as Martin's -criticisms and Hertz's admissions, preclude the necessity of examining it -in further detail. Formally speaking, the theory rests upon the assumption -that we have Borron's work substantially as he wrote it, an assumption -which, as shown by the difference in _motif_ between the Metrical Joseph -and the Didot-Perceval, is inaccurate. Again, the theory does not account -for the silence of all the other versions respecting Brons and that -special conception of the Grail found in Borron's poem. Nor does it offer -any satisfactory explanation of the mysterious question which -Birch-Hirschfeld can only conjecture to have been a meaningless invention, -_eine harmlose Erfindung_, of Borron's. In fact, only such, portions of -the cycle are exhaustively examined as admit of reference to the alleged -originating idea, and a show of rigorous deduction is thus made, the -emptiness of which becomes apparent when the entire legend, and not one -portion only, is taken into account. Despite the learning and acuteness -with which it is urged, Birch-Hirschfeld's theory must be rejected, if it -were only because, as Martin points out, it postulates a development of -the legend which is the very opposite of the normal one. We cannot admit -that this vast body of romance sprang from a simple but lofty spiritual -conception, the full significance of which, unperceived even by its -author, was totally ignored, not only, were that possible, by Chrestien -and his continuators, but by the theologising mystics who wrote the Grand -St. Graal and the Queste--aye, and even by the latest and in some respects -the most theologically minded of all the writers of the cycle, the author -of the Prose Perceval le Gallois and Gerbert. We must say, with Otto Küpp -(Zacher's Zeitschrift, XVII, 1, p. 68), "die jetzt versuchte christliche -Motivierung ist ganz unglücklich geraten und kann in keiner Weise -befriedigen." - -The field is thus clear for an examination of the Quest with a view to -determining whether the Grail really belongs to it or not. The first step -is to see what relationship exists between the oldest form of the Quest -and what have been called the non-Grail members of the cycle--_i.e._, the -Mabinogi of Peredur ab Evrawc and the Thornton MS. Sir Perceval. As -preliminary to this inquiry, an attempt must be made to determine more -closely the relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du -Graal--whether it be wholly derived from the latter, or whether it may -have preserved through other sources traces of a different form of the -story than that found in Chrestien.[69] - - - - -CHAPTER V. - - Relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du Graal--The former - not the source of the latter--Relationship of the Conte du Graal and - the Mabinogi--Instances in which the Mabinogi has copied - Chrestien--Examples of its independence--The incident of the blood - drops in the snow--Differences between the two works--The machinery of - the Mabinogi and the traces of it in the Conte du Graal--The - stag-hunt--The Mabinogi and Manessier--The sources of the Conte du - Graal and the relation of the various parts to a common original--Sir - Perceval--Steinbach's theory--Objections to it--The counsels in the - Conte du Graal--Wolfram and the Mabinogi--Absence of the Grail from - the apparently oldest Celtic form. - - -In examining the relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du Graal, -the sequence of the incidents is of importance. This is shown in the -subjoined table (where the numbers given are those of the incidents as -summarized, chapter II), in which the Didot-Perceval sequence is taken as -the standard. - - --------------------------------------------------------------- - DIDOT-PERCEVAL. | CHRESTIEN. | - --------------------------------|-----------------------------| - Inc. |Inc. | - 2. Perceval sets forth in |11. Only after the reproaches| - quest of the rich fisher. | of the loathly damsel | - | does Perceval first set | - | forth in quest of the | - | Grail. | - | | - 3. Finds a damsel weeping over | 8. In so far as finding a | - a knight. Adventure with | damsel weeping over a | - dwarf and the Orgellos | dead knight, and (9) for | - Delande. | overcoming the Orgellous | - | de la Lande. | - | | - 4. Arrival at the Chessboard | ... ... ... ... | - Castle. Adventure of the | | - stag hunt and loss of the | | - hound. | | - | | - 5. Meeting with sister; | ... ... ... ... | - instruction concerning the | | - Grail; vow to seek it. | | - | | - 6. Meeting with, confession |15. _After_ the Good Friday | - to, and exhortation from | incident. | - hermit uncle. | | - | | - 7. Disregard of uncle's | ... ... ... ... | - exhortations (slaying a | | - knight), through thinking | | - of damsel of the | | - Chessboard. | | - | | - 8. Meeting with Rosette and | ... ... ... ... | - Le Beau Mauvais (the | | - loathly damsel). | | - | | - 9. Adventure at the Ford with | ... ... ... ... | - Urbains. | | - | | - 10. The two children in the | ... ... ... ... | - tree. | | - | | - 11. First arrival at Grail | 7. ... ... ... ... | - Castle. | | - | | - 12. Reproaches of the wayside | 8. In so far as in both the | - damsel. | hero is reproached by a | - | wayside damsel. | - | | - 13. Meeting with the damsel who | ... ... ... ... | - had carried off the stag's | | - head and hound, and second | | - visit to Castle of the | | - Chessboard. | | - | | - 14. Period (7 years) of despair |15. ... ... ... ... | - ended by the Good Friday | | - incident. | | - | | - 15. Tournament at Melianz de |13. But told of Gawain not | - Lis. Merlin's reproaches. | of Perceval. | - | | - 16. Second arrival at Grail | ... ... ... ... | - Castle Achievement of Quest.| | - --------------------------------------------------------------- - - --------------------------- - GAUTIER DE DOULENS. - --------------------------- - Inc. - ... ... ... ... - - - - - - 9. In so far as a damsel - is foundlamenting over - a knight. - - - - 7 and 8. - - - - - 12. - - - - 12. - - - - 12. In so far as a knight - is slain, but _before_ - the meeting with the - hermit. - - - 11. - - - - 9. Ford Amorous; _entirely - different adventure_. - - 20. _One_ child. - - - ... ... ... ... - - - ... ... ... ... - - - - 13 and 18. Many adventures - being intercalated. - - - - - ... ... ... ... - - - - ... ... ... ... - - - 22. - - --------------------------- - -The different sequence in the Didot-Perceval and Chrestien may be -explained, as Birch-Hirschfeld explains it, by the freedom which Chrestien -allowed himself in re-casting the work; but why should Gautier, who, _ex -hypothesi_, simply took up from Chrestien's model such adventures as his -predecessor had omitted, have acted in precisely the same way? If the -theory were correct we should expect to find the non-Chrestien incidents -of the Didot-Perceval brought together in at least fairly the same order -in Gautier. A glance at the table shows that this is not the case. In one -incident, moreover, the Didot-Perceval is obviously right and Gautier -obviously wrong, namely, in his incident 12, where the slaying of the -knight before the hero's meeting the hermit takes away all point from the -incident. An absolutely decisive proof that that portion of the Conte du -Graal which goes under Gautier's name (though it is by no means clear that -all of it is of the same age or due to one man), cannot be based upon the -Didot-Perceval as we now possess it, is afforded by the adventure of the -Ford Amorous or Perillous, which in the two versions is quite dissimilar. -This incident stands out pre-eminent in the Didot-Perceval for its wild -and fantastic character. It is a genuine Celtic _märchen_, with much of -the weird charm still clinging to it that is the birthright of the Celtic -folk-tale. It is inadmissible that Gautier could have substituted for this -fine incident the commonplace one which he gives. - -If, then, it is out of the question that Gautier borrowed directly from -the Didot-Perceval, how are the strong resemblances which exist in part -between the two versions to be accounted for? Some of these resemblances -have already been quoted (_supra_, p. 75), the remainder may be usefully -brought together here.[70] - -First arrival at the Castle of the Chessboard-- - - DIDOT-PERCEVAL. GAUTIER. - - Li plus biaux chasteaux del monde Le bel castiel que je vos dis - et vit le pont abeissié et la . . . . . - porte deffermé (p. 439). Et vit si bièles les entrées - Et les grans portes desfremées - (22,395, etc.); - -The damsel exhorts him not to throw the chessman into the water-- - - Votre cors est esmeuz à grant Car çou serait grans vilonie (22,503). - vilainie faire (p. 440). - -Perceval having slain the stag, sees its head carried off-- - - Si vint une veille sor un palestoi Une pucièle de malaire - grant aléure et prist le brachet Vint cevauçant parmi la lande - et s'en ala or tot (p. 442). Voit le braket, plus ne demande - Par le coler d'orfrois le prist - . . . . . . - Si s'en aloit grant aléure - (22,604, etc.). - -On Perceval threatening to take it away from her by force she answers-- - - Sire Chevalier, force n'est mie Force à faire n'est mie drois - droit et force me poez bien Et force me poés vos faire (22,640). - faire (p. 443). - -In the subsequent fight with the Knight of the Tomb, he, overcome-- - - Se torna vers le tonbel grant Que fuiant vait grant aléure - aléure et li tombeaux s'enleva Vers l'arket et la sepouture - contre moultet chevalier s'en Si est entrés plus tost qu'il pot - feri enz (p. 444). (22,723, etc.). - -In the description of Rosette (the loathly damsel)-- - - Ele avoit le col et les mains plus Le col avoit plus noir que fer - noires et le vier, que fer... (25,409). - (p. 453). - -When the loathly damsel and her knight come to Arthur's court, Kay jests -as follows:-- - - Lors pria (_i.e._, Kay) le chevalier Biaus sire, - par la foi que il devoit, le roi, Dites moi, si Dex le vos mire, - qui li déist où il l'avoit prise et Si plus en a en vostre terre, - si en porroit une autre tele avoir, Une autèle en iroie querre - si il l'aloit querre (p. 457). Si jou le quidoie trover - (25,691 etc.). - -These similarities are too great to be accidental. It will be noticed, -however, that they bear chiefly upon two adventures: that of the -chessboard and stag hunt, and that of the loathly maiden. As to the -latter, it is only necessary to allude to Birch-Hirschfeld's idea that -Rosette is the original of the damsel who reproaches Perceval before the -court with his conduct at the Grail Castle, a theory to state which is to -refute it. The former adventure will be closely examined in the following -section. There is no need to suppose direct borrowing on the part of one -or the other versions to account for the parallel in these two incidents; -a common original closely followed at times by both would meet the -requirements of the case. It is difficult to admit that the author of the -Didot-Perceval used Gautier's continuation and not Chrestien's original, -especially when the following fact, strangely overlooked by both -Birch-Hirschfeld and Hucher, is taken into account: Perceval on his first -arrival at the Grail Castle keeps silence (as will be seen by a reference -to the summary, _supra_, p. 31), because, "li souvenoit du prodome qui li -avoit deffandu que ne fust trop pallier," etc. As a matter of fact, the -"prodome" had forbidden nothing of the sort, and this casual sentence is -the first allusion to the motive upon which Chrestien lays so much stress -as explaining his hero's mysterious conduct at the Grail Castle. Evidently -the Didot-Perceval, which, to whoever considers it impartially, is an -obvious abridgment and piecing together of material from different -sources, found in one of its sources an episode corresponding to that of -Gonemans in Chrestien. But its author, influenced probably by the Galahad -version of the Quest, substituted for the "childhood" opening of this -hypothetical source the one now found in his version, and the Gonemans -episode went with the remainder of that part of the story. When the hero -comes to the Grail Castle, the author is puzzled; his hero knows -beforehand what he has to do, sets out with the distinct purpose of doing -it, and yet remains silent. To account for this silence the author uses -the motive belonging to a discarded episode, but applies the words to his -hermit, forgetting that he had put no such words into his mouth, and that, -attributed to him, the injunction to keep silence became simply -meaningless. Is the model treated in this way by the Didot-Perceval -Chrestien's poem? Hardly, for this reason. After the Good Friday incident -occurs the remarkable passage, quoted (_supra_, p. 31), as to the silence -of the _trouvères_ respecting it. Chrestien gives the incident in full, -and the author of the Perceval could have had no reason for his stricture, -or could not have ventured it had he been using Chrestien's work. Two -hypotheses then remain; the unknown source may have been a version akin to -that used by Chrestien and Gautier, or it may have been a summary -abridgment of the Conte du Graal, in which, _inter alia_, the Good Friday -incident was left out. In either case the presence of the passage in the -Perceval is equally hard of explanation; but the first hypothesis is -favoured by the primitive character of the incident of the Ford Perillous, -and several other features which will be touched upon in their place. The -Didot-Perceval would thus be an attempt to provide an ending for Borron's -poem by adapting to its central _donnée_ a version of the Perceval _sage_ -akin to that which forms the groundwork of the Conte du Graal, its author -being largely influenced by the Galahad form of the Quest as found in the -_Queste_. If this view be correct, the testimony of Perceval (wherever not -influenced by Borron's poem or the _Queste_) is of value in determining -the original form of the story, the more so from the author's evident want -of skill in piecing together his materials. It will, therefore, be used in -the following section, which deals with the relationship of the Conte du -Graal and the Mabinogi of Peredur ab Evrawc. - -_Relationship of the Conte du Graal and the Mabinogi._--As was seen in -Chapter IV, opinion began with Monsieur de Villemarqué by accepting the -Mabinogi as the direct source of the Conte du Graal, and has ended with -Zarncke and Birch-Hirschfeld in looking upon it as a more or less direct -copy. The most competent of living scholars in this matter, M. Gaston -Paris, has expressed himself in favour of this opinion in his recent -article on the Lancelot story (Romania, 1886).[71] Before dealing with the -question as presented in this form, Simrock's view, differing as it does -from that of all other investigators, deserves notice. He, too, looks upon -the Mabinogi as derived from Chrestien, and yet bases his interpretation -of the myth underlying the romance upon a feature, the bleeding head in -the dish, found only in it. But if the Mabinogi have really preserved here -the genuine form of the myth, it must represent an older version than -Chrestien's, and if, on the other hand, Chrestien be its only source, the -feature in question cannot belong to the earliest form of the story. -Simrock's theory stands then or falls in this respect by the view taken of -the relationship between the two versions, and need not be discussed until -that view has been stated. - -To facilitate comparison, the incidents common to the two stories are -tabulated as under, those of the Mabinogi being taken as the standard:-- - - MABINOGI. CONTE DU GRAAL. - - Inc. Inc. _Chrestien._ - 1. Encounter with the knights. 1. - - 2. Adventure with the damsel of 2. - the tent. - - 3. Avenging of the insult to 3 and 4. - Guinevere; incident of the - dwarves; departure from Court. - - 5. Arrival at house of first uncle 5. Gonemans. - (found fishing); instruction in - arms. - - 6. Arrival at house of second uncle 7. Uncle found fishing; - (Grail Castle). First sight of talismans, Grail and lance. - the talismans (head in basin and - lance). - - 7. Reproaches of foster-sister whom 8. Reproached by his cousin; also - he finds lamenting over a dead instructed by her about the - knight. magic sword. - - 8. Adventure with the damsel of the 6. Blanchefleur, Gonemant's - besieged castle who offers niece. - herself to hero. - - 9. Second meeting with the lady of 9. - the tent. - - 10. First encounter with the - sorceresses of Gloucester, who - are forced to desist from - assailing hero's hostess. - - 11. Adventure of the drops of blood 10. - in the snow. - - 20. Reproaching of Peredur before 11. - the Court by the loathly damsel. - - 21. Gwalchmai's adventure with the 14. - lady whose father he had slain. - - 22. Peredur's meeting the knight on 15. Hermit, hero's uncle. - Good Friday, and confession to - priest. - _Gautier._ - 24. Arrival at the Castle of Wonders Inc. 7, 8, and partly 13 and 18. - (Chessboard Castle); stag hunt; - loss of dog; fight with the - black man of the cromlech. - - 25. Second arrival at the (Grail) 22. In so far as Gautier ends his - castle; achievement of the Quest part of the story here with - by destruction of sorceresses of the hero's second arrival at - Gloucester. "Thus it is related the Grail Castle, but no - concerning the Castle of similarity in the incidents. - Wonders." - -The sequence is thus exactly the same in the Mabinogi and in Chrestien, -with the single exception of the Blanchefleur incident, which, in the -French poem precedes, in the Welsh tale follows, the first visit to the -Grail Castle. The similarity of order is sufficient of itself to warrant -the surmise of a relation such as that of copy to original. If the -Mabinogi be examined closely, much will be found to strengthen this -surmise. Thus, Birch-Hirschfeld has pointed out that when Peredur first -sees the knights, and on asking his mother what they may be, receives the -answer, "Angels, my son"; this can only be a distorted reminiscence of -Perceval's own exclamation, - - ... Ha! sire Dex, Merchi! - Ce sont angle que je voi ci! (1,349-50). - -as the hero's mother would be the last person to describe thus the knights -whom she has done her best to guard her son from knowledge of. Again, -Simrock has criticised, and with reason, the incident of Peredur's being -acclaimed by the dwarf on his arrival at Arthur's court as the chief of -warriors and flower of knighthood. In the corresponding incident in -Chrestien, the hero is told laughingly by a damsel that he should become -the best knight in the world, and she had not laughed for ten years, as a -fool had been wont to declare. This is an earlier form than that of the -Mabinogi, and closer to the folk-tale account. Thus, to take one instance -only, in Mr. Kennedy's Giolla na Chroicean Gobhar (Fellow with the -Goat-skin) [Fictions of the Irish Celts, p. 23], the hero comes to the -King of Dublin, as Peredur to Arthur, clad in skins and armed with a club. -"Now, the King's daughter was so melancholy that she didn't laugh for -seven years, but when she saw Tom of the Goat-skin knock over all her -father's best champions, then she let a great sweet laugh out of her," and -of course Tom marries her, but not until he has been through all sorts of -trials, aye, even to Hell itself and back. In Chrestien, the primitive -form is already overlaid; we hear nothing further of the damsel moved to -laughter nor of the prophetic fool; and in the Mabinogi it seems obvious -that the hailing of the hero, added in Chrestien to the older laughter, -has alone subsisted. Birch-Hirschfeld takes exception likewise to the way -in which Peredur's two uncles are brought upon the scene, the first one, -corresponding to Gonemans in Chrestien, being found fishing instead of the -real Fisher King, the lord of the Castle of the Magic Talismans, whilst at -the latter's, Peredur has to undergo trials of his strength belonging -properly to his stay at the first uncle's. Evidently, says -Birch-Hirschfeld, there has been a confusion of the two personages. Again, -when Peredur leaves his second uncle on the morrow of seeing the bleeding -head and spear, it is said, "he rode forth with his uncle's permission." -Can these words be a reminiscence of Chrestien's? - - Et trueve le pont abaiscié, - Con li avoit ensi laissié - Por ce que rien nel detenist, - De quele eure qu'il venist - Que il ne passat sans arriest (4,565-69). - -We shall see later on that in the most primitive form of the unsuccessful -visit to the Castle of the Talismans the hero finds himself on the morrow -on the bare earth, the castle itself having vanished utterly. The idea of -permission being given to leave is diametrically opposed to this earliest -conception, and its presence in the Mabinogi seems only capable of -explanation by some misunderstanding of the story-teller's model. - -The Blanchefleur incident shows some verbal parallels, "The maiden -welcomed Peredur and put her arms around his neck." - - Et la damosele le prent - Par le main débonnairement (3,025-26) - Et voit celi ajenouillie - Devant son lit qui le tenoit - Par le col embraciet estroit (3,166-68). - -Can, too, the "two nuns," who bring in bread and wine, be due to the "Il -Abéies," which Perceval sees on entering Blanchefleur's town? It may be -noticed that in this scene the Welsh story-teller is not only more chaste, -but shows much greater delicacy of feeling than the French poet. Peredur's -conduct is that of a gentleman according to nineteenth century standards. -Chrestien, however, is probably nearer the historical reality, and the -conduct of his pair-- - - S'il l'a sor le covertoir mise - - * * * * - - Ensi giurent tote la nuit. - -is so singularly like that of a Welsh _bundling_ couple, that it seems -admissible to refer the colouring given to this incident to Welsh sources. -Another scene presenting marked similarities in the two works is that in -which the hero is upbraided before the court by the loathly damsel. In the -Mabinogi she enters riding upon a _yellow_ mule with _jagged thongs_: in -Chrestien-- - - Sor une _fauve mule_ et tint - En sa main destre une escorgie (5,991-2). - -"Blacker were her face and her two hands than the blackest iron covered -with pitch." - - Ains ne véistes si noir fer - Come ele ot les mains et le cor (5,998-99). - -"And she greeted Arthur and all his household except Peredur." - - Le roi et ses barons salue - Tout ensamble comunalment - Fors ke Perceval seulement (6,020-3). - -In the Mabinogi, Peredur is reproached for not having asked about the -streaming spear; in Chrestien "la lance qui saine" is mentioned first -although the Grail is added. Had Peredur asked the meaning and cause of -the wonders, the "King would have been restored to health, and his -dominions to peace." - - Li rices rois qui moult s'esmaie - Fust or tos garis de sa plaie - Et si tenist sa tière en pais (6,049-51). - -Whereas now "his knights will perish, and wives will be widowed, and -maidens will be left portionless"-- - - Dames en perdront lor maris, - Tières en seront essilies, - Et pucièles desconsellies; - Orfenes, veves en remanront - Et maint chevalier en morront (6,056, etc.). - -In the "Stately Castle" where dwells the loathly damsel, are five hundred -and sixty-six knights, and "the lady whom he loves best with each," in -"Castle Orguellos" five hundred and seventy, and not one "qui n'ait s'amie -avoeques lui." "And whoever would acquire fame in arms and encounters and -conflicts, he will gain it there if he desire it." - - Que la ne faut nus ki i alle, - Qui la ne truist joste u batalle; - Qui viout faire chevalerie, - Si là le quiert, n'i faura mie (6,075, etc.). - -"And whoso would reach the summit of fame and honour, I know where he may -find it. There is a castle on a lofty mountain, and there is a maiden -therein, and she is detained a prisoner there, and whoever shall set her -free will attain the summit of the fame of the world." - - Mais ki vorroit le pris avoir - De tout le mont, je quie savoir - Le liu et la pièce de terre - U on le porroit mius conquerre; - - * * * * - - A une damoisièle assise; - Moult grant honor aroit conquise, - Qui le siège en poroit oster - Et la pucièle délivrer (6,080, etc.). - -In this last case certainly, in the other cases probably, a direct -influence, to the extent at least of the passages quoted, must be -admitted. But before concluding hastily that the Welsh story-teller is the -copyist, some facts must be mentioned on the other side. Thus the incident -of the blood drops in the snow, which Birch-Hirschfeld sets down as one of -those taken over by the Mabinogi, with the remark that the Welsh story -contains no trace of a passion as strong as Perceval's for Blanchefleur, -has been dealt with by Professor H. Zimmer in his "Keltische Studien," -vol. ii, pp. 200. He refers to the awakening of Deirdre's love to Noisi by -similar means, as found in the Irish saga of the Sons of Usnech (oldest -MS. authority, Book of Leinster, copied before 1164 from older MSS.) as -evidence of the early importance of this _motif_ in Celtic tradition. The -passage runs thus in English: "As her foster-father was busy in winter -time skinning a calf out in the snow, she beheld a raven which drank up -the blood in the snow; and she exclaimed, 'Such a man could I love, and -him only, having the three colours, his hair like the raven, his cheeks -like the blood, his body like the snow.'" - -Now the Mabinogi says, almost in the same words--the blackness of the -raven and the whiteness of the snow, and the redness of the blood he -compared to the hair and the skin and the two red spots upon the cheek of -the lady that best he loved. In Chrestien there is no raven, and the whole -stress is laid upon the _three_ drops of blood on the snow, which put the -hero in mind of the red and white of his lady's face. As Zimmer justly -points out, the version of the Mabinogi is decidedly the more primitive -of the two; and that, moreover, as the incident does not figure at all in -what Birch-Hirschfeld presumes to be Chrestien's source, the -Didot-Perceval, the following development of this incident must, _ex -hypothesi_, have taken place. In the Didot-Perceval the hero is once upon -a time lost in thought. To explain this, Chrestien invents the incident of -the three drops of blood in the snow; the Mabinogi, copying Chrestien, -presents the incident in almost as primitive a form as the oldest known -one! Here, then, the Mabinogi has preserved an older form than Chrestien, -alleged to have been its source in all those parts common to both. Nor is -it certain that the fact of Peredur's undergoing the sword-test in the -Talisman Castle _does_ show, as Birch-Hirschfeld maintains, that the Welsh -story-teller confused the two personages whom he took over from Chrestien, -Gonemans and the Fisher King. The sword incident will be examined later -on; suffice here to say that no explanation is given in the Conte du Graal -of the broken weapon; whereas the Mabinogi does give a simple and natural -one. But these two instances cannot weaken the force of the parallels -adduced above. In determining, however, whether these may not be due to -Chrestien's being the borrower, the differences between the two versions -are of even more importance than the similarities. - -What are these? The French romances belonging to the Perceval type of the -Grail quest give two versions of the search for the magic talismans, that -of the Conte du Graal and that of the Didot-Perceval. The latter -pre-supposes an early history which, as already shown, cannot be looked -upon as the starting point of the legend without postulating such a -development of the latter as is inadmissible on _a priori_ grounds, and as -runs counter to many well-ascertained facts. The former is not consistent -with itself, Manessier's finish contradicting Chrestien's opening on such -an essential point as the cause of the maimed king's suffering. Still the -following outline of a story, much overlaid by apparently disconnected -adventures, may be gathered from it. A hero has to seek for magic -talismans wherewith to heal an uncle wounded by his brother, and at the -same time to avenge him on that brother. What, on the other hand, is the -story as told in the Mabinogi? A hero is minded by talismans to avenge -the death of a cousin (and the harming of an uncle); it is not stated that -the talismans pass into his possession. It is difficult to admit that -either of these forms can have served as direct model to the other. If the -Mabinogi be a simple copy of the Conte du Graal, whence the altered -significance of the talismans? whence also the machinery by means of which -the hero is at last brought to his goal, and which is, briefly, as -follows? The woe which has befallen Peredur's kindred is caused by -supernatural beings, the sorceresses of Gloucester; his ultimate -achievement of the task is brought about by his cousin, who, to urge him -on, assumes the form (1) of the black and loathly damsel; (2) of the -damsel of the chessboard, who incites him to the Ysbydinongyl adventure, -reproves him for not slaying the black man at once, and then urges him -into the stag hunt; (3) of the lady who carries off the hound and sends -him to fight against the black man of the cromlech; "and the cousin it was -who came in the hall with the bloody head in the salver and the lance -dripping blood." The whole of the incidents connected with the Castle of -the Chessboard, which appear at such length in both the Conte du Graal and -the Didot-Perceval, but without being in any way connected with the main -thread of the story, thus form in the Mabinogi an integral portion of that -main thread. Would the authors of the Conte du Graal have neglected the -straight-forward version of the Welsh tale had they known it, or could, on -the other hand, the author of the Mabinogi have worked up the disconnected -incidents of his alleged model into an organic whole? Neither hypothesis -is likely. Moreover the Conte du Graal and the Didot-Perceval, if examined -with care, show distinct traces of a machinery similar to that of the -Welsh story. Thus in Chrestien, Perceval, on arriving at the Fisher -King's, sees a squire bringing into the room a sword of such good steel -that it might break in but one peril, and this the King's niece (_i.e._, -Perceval's cousin) had sent her uncle to bestow it as he pleased; and the -King gives it to the hero for-- - - ... biaus frère ceste espée - Vous fu jugie et destineé (4,345-6). - -After Perceval's first adventure at the Grail Castle it is his "germaine -cousine" (4,776) who assails him with her reproaches; she knows all about -the sword (4,835-38) and tells him, how, if it be broken he may have it -mended (4,847-59). So far Chrestien, who furthermore, be it noted, makes -Blanchefleur Perceval's lady-love, likewise his cousin, she being niece to -Gonemans (3,805-95). A cousin is thus beloved of him, a cousin procures -for him the magic sword, a cousin, as in the Mabinogi, incites him to the -fulfilment of the quest, and gives him advice which we cannot doubt would -have been turned to account by Chrestien had he finished his poem. Turning -now to Gautier, in whose section of the poem are to be found the various -adventures growing out of the chessboard incident, this difference between -the Mabinogi and himself may be noted. In the former, these adventures -caused by Peredur's cousin serve apparently as tests of the hero's -strength and courage. The loss of the chessboard is the starting-point of -the task, and the cousin reappears as the black maiden. Nothing of the -sort is found in Gautier. True, the damsel who reproaches Perceval is in -so far supernatural, as she is a kind of water-nix, but it is love for her -which induces the hero to perform the task; she it is, too, who lends him -the dog, and she is not identified with the "pucelle de malaire" who -carries it off (22,604, etc.). But later on Perceval meets a knight who -tells him that a daughter of the Fisher King's (thus also a cousin of -Perceval) had related to him how a knight had carried off a stag's head -and hound to anger another good knight who had been at her father's court, -and had not asked as he should concerning the Grail, for which reason she -had taken his hound and had refused him help to follow the robber knight -(23,163, etc.). This makes the "pucelle de malaire" to be Perceval's -cousin, and she plays the same _rôle_ as in the Mabinogi. True, when later -on (Incident 13) Perceval finds the damsel, nothing is said as to her -being the Fisher King's daughter; on the contrary, as will be seen by the -summary, a long story is told about the Knight of the Tomb, brother to her -knight, Garalas, and how he lived ten years with a fay. She is here quite -distinct from the lady of the chessboard to whom Perceval returns later. -The version found in the Didot-Perceval agrees with the Mabinogi as -against Gautier in so far that the hero is in love with the mistress of -the castle, and not with the damsel who reproaches him for throwing away -the chessmen. This reproaching damsel is not in any way identified with -the lady who carries off the hound, who is described as "une vieille," and -of whom it is afterwards told "elle estoit quand elle voloit une des plus -belles damoiselles du monde. Et est cele meismes que mon frère (the -brother of the Knight of the Tomb, who here, as in Gautier, is the lover -of a fay) amena à la forest," _i.e._, she is the fay herself, sister to -the lady of the Chessboard Castle, who hated her and wished to diminish -her and her knight's pride (p. 469). Here, again, a connection can be -pieced out between the various personages of the adventure; and it appears -that the hero is driven to his fight against the Knight of the Tomb by a -fair damsel transformed into a mysterious hag.[72] The Mabinogi thus gives -one consistently worked-out conception--transformed hag = Peredur's -cousin--which may be recovered partly from that one of the two discordant -versions found in Gautier which makes the pucelle de malaire to be the -Fisher King's daughter, hence Perceval's cousin, and connects the stag -hunt with the Grail incident, partly from the Didot-Perceval, which tells -how the same pucelle de malaire is but playing a part, being when she -wills one of the fairest maids of the world. Now we have seen that the -stag hunt is just one of those portions of the story in which are found -the closest verbal similarities between Gautier de Doulens and the -Didot-Perceval. It is, therefore, perplexing to find that there is not -more likeness in the details of the incident. But the similarities pointed -out concern chiefly the first part of the incident, and are less prominent -in the latter part (the hero's encounter with the Knight of the Tomb). -This, taken together with the difference in the details of the incident -just pointed out, strengthens the opinion expressed above, that the -Didot-Perceval and Gautier are not connected directly but through the -medium of a common source, the influence of which can be seen distinctly -in certain portions of either story, and that when this source fails they -go widely asunder in their accounts. That such an hypothesis is not -unreasonable is shown by the fact that Gautier has two contradictory forms -of this very story, one of which, that which makes the hound-stealing -damsel a daughter of the Fisher King, is on all fours with the Mabinogi, -whilst the other is more akin to, though differing in important respects -from, that of the Didot-Perceval. In this case, at least, Gautier must -have had two sources, and if two why not more? - -It may be urged in explanation of the similarities between Gautier and the -Mabinogi, that the author of the latter used Gautier in the same free way -that he did Chrestien, but that getting tired towards the close of his -work he abridged in a much more summary fashion than at first. If the -comparison of the versions of the stag hunt found in either work be not -sufficient to refute this theory, the following consideration may be -advanced against it: if the Mabinogi derives entirely from the Conte du -Graal, how can the different form given to the Grail episode be accounted -for?--if it only knew Chrestien, where did it get the chessboard adventure -from, and if it knew Gautier as well as Chrestien why did it not finish -the Grail adventure upon the same lines as it began, _i.e._, partly in -conformity with its alleged model? - -Is Manessier any nearer than Gautier to the Mabinogi in the later portion -of the tale? The chief points of the story told by him may be -recapitulated thus:--The Grail damsel is daughter of the Fisher King, the -damsel of the salver, daughter of King Goon Desert, his brother (_i.e._, -both are cousins to Perceval); Goon Desert, besieged by Espinogre, defeats -him, but is treacherously slain by his nephew Partinal, the latter's sword -breaking in the blow. Goon's body is brought to the Fisher King's castle, -whither the broken sword is likewise brought by Goon's daughter to be kept -until a knight should come, join together the pieces, and avenge Goon's -death. In receiving the sword the Fisher King wounds himself through the -thighs, and may not be healed until he be avenged on Partinal. Perceval -asks how he may find the murderer, the blood vengeance (faide = O.H.G. -Fehde) being on him. Perceval fights with Partinal, slays him, cuts off -his head as token of his victory, returns to the Fisher King's castle, -lighting upon it by chance, heals the Fisher King by the mere sight of the -head, which is fixed on a pike on the highest battlements. At the death of -his uncle Perceval succeeds him as King of the Grail Castle. Here, then, -as in the Mabinogi, the story turns definitely upon a blood feud; the same -act which brings about the death of one relative of the hero, also causes, -indirectly, it is true, the laming of another, even as in the Mabinogi the -same supernatural beings kill Peredur's cousin and lame his uncle; the -cousin reappears again, bringing the magic sword by whose aid alone the -hero can accomplish the vengeance, and uttering the prediction the -fulfilment of which will point out the destined avenger. Finally, if the -Mabinogi seems to lay special stress upon the head of the murdered man, -Manessier lays special stress upon the head of the murderer. Now it is -quite evident that the Mabinogi cannot have copied Manessier. It has been -alleged that the Welsh story-teller, adapting Chrestien to the taste of -his fellow countrymen, substituted a blood feud for the Grail Quest, but -what reason would he have had for thus dealing with Manessier? He had -simply to leave out the Christian legendary details, which in Manessier -are, one can hardly say, adapted to the older form of the story, to find -in that older form a clear and straightforward account with no admixture -of mystical elements. It is impossible to explain the strong general -similarity of outline with the equally marked divergences of detail -(Sorceresses of Gloucester instead of Partinal, etc.,) except by saying -that both, though going back to a common legendary source, are unconnected -one with another. - -The facts thus dealt with may be recapitulated as follows:--There is -marked similarity in general outline between the Mabinogi and the Conte du -Graal in the adventures common to both; in that portion of the Conte du -Graal due to Chrestien there occur, moreover, many and close verbal -parallels, and the corresponding part of the Mabinogi is told at greater -length than the remainder of the incidents common to both works. That -which answers in the Mabinogi to the Grail Quest forms a clear and -straightforward whole, the main features of which may be recovered from -the Conte du Graal, but in varying proportions from the various sections -of that work. Thus the indications of this Mabinogi talisman quest, the -central intrigue, as it may be called, of the tale, are in Chrestien of -the slightest nature, being confined to passing hints; in Gautier they are -fuller and more precise, though pointing to a version of the central -intrigue different, not only in details but in conception, from that of -the Mabinogi; in Manessier alone is there agreement of conception, -although the details still vary. Finally, those portions of the Mabinogi -which are in closest verbal agreement with Chrestien contain statements -which cannot easily be reconciled with this central intrigue. - -These facts seem to warrant some such deductions as these. Bearing in mind -that the Mabinogi is an obvious piecing together of all sorts of incidents -relating to its hero, the only connecting link being that of his -personality, its author may be supposed, when compiling his work, to have -stretched out his hand in all directions for material. Now a portion of -the Peredur _sage_ consisted of adventures often found elsewhere in the -folk-tale cycles of the Great Fool and the Avenging Kinsman--cycles which, -in Celtic tradition, at least, cover almost the same ground as the one -described by J. G. von Hahn under the title, "Die Arische Aussetzung und -Rückkehr-Formel." In the original of the Mabinogi this portion probably -comprised the childhood and forest up-bringing, the visit to Arthur with -the accompanying incidents, the training by the uncle (who _may_ have been -the Fisher King), the arrival at the (bespelled) castle, where the hero is -to be minded of his task by the sight of certain talismans and of his -cousin's head, the reproaches of the loathly damsel, her subsequent -testing of the hero by the adventures of the chessboard, stag hunt, etc., -the hero's final accomplishment of the task, vengeance on his kindred's -enemies, and removal of the spells. There would seem to have been no such -love story as that frequently found in stories of the Great Fool class, -_e.g._, in the Irish one (_supra_, p. 134). This original was probably -some steps removed from being a genuine popular version; the incidents -were presented in a way at once over-concise and confused, and some which, -as will be seen in the next chapter, the living folk-tale has preserved -were left out or their significance was not recognized. What more natural -than that the author of the Mabinogi in its present form, knowing -Chrestien, should piece out his bare, bald narrative with shreds and -patches from the Frenchman's poem? The moment Chrestien fails him, he -falls back into the hurried concision of his original. His adaptation of -Chrestien is done with singularly little skill, and at times he seems to -have misunderstood his model. He confines his borrowing to matters of -detail, not allowing, for instance, Chrestien's presentment of the Grail -incident to supersede that of his Welsh original. In one point he may, -following Chrestien, have made a vital change. It seems doubtful whether -the Welsh source of the Mabinogi knew of a maimed king, an uncle to be -healed through the hero's agency; the sole task may have been the avenging -the cousin's death. True the "lame uncle" appears at the end, but this may -be due to some sudden desire for consistency on the arranger's part. But -whether or no he was found in the Welsh story preserved in the Mabinogi, -he certainly played no such leading part as in the Conte du Graal. The two -stories deal with the same cycle of adventures, but the object of the hero -is not the same in both, and, consequently, the machinery employed is not -quite the same. The present Mabinogi is an unskilful fusion of these two -variations upon the one theme.[73] - -Light is also thrown by this investigation upon the question of -Chrestien's relationship to his continuators. Birch-Hirschfeld's theory -that the Didot-Perceval was the source of Chrestien and Gautier has -already been set aside. Apart from the reasons already adduced, the fact -that it does not explain from whence Manessier got his ending of the story -would alone condemn it. It must now be evident that Chrestien and two of -his continuators drew from one source, and this a poem of no great length -probably, the main outlines of which were nearly the same as those of the -Welsh proto-Mabinogi given above, with this difference, that the story -turned upon the healing of the uncle and not the avenging the cousin's -death. This poem, which seems also to have served, directly or indirectly, -as one of the sources of the Didot-Perceval, had probably departed from -popular lines in many respects, and _may_, though this would be an -exceedingly difficult question to determine, have begun the incorporation -of the Joseph of Arimathea legend with its consequent wresting to purposes -of Christian symbolisms of the objects and incidents of the old folk-tale. - -Such an incorporation had almost certainly begun before Chrestien's time, -and was continued by him. There can be little doubt that he dealt with his -model in a free and daring spirit, altering and adding as seemed best to -him. This alone explains how Manessier, slavishly following the common -original, tells differently the cause of the lame king's wound. Gautier, -who lacked Chrestien's creative power, though he often equals him in the -grace and vivacity of his narrative, seems to have had no conception of a -plan; the section of Conte du Graal which goes under his name is a mere -disorderly heap of disconnected adventures brought together without care -for consistency. But for this very reason he is of more value in restoring -the original form of the story than Chrestien, who, striving after -consistency, harmony, and artistic development of his tale, alters, adds -to, or retrenches from the older version. Gautier had doubtless other -sources besides the one made use of by Chrestien. This does not seem to be -the case with Manessier, who, for this portion of the story, confined -himself to Chrestien's original, without taking note of the differences in -_motif_ introduced by his predecessor. What is foreign to it he drew from -sources familiar to us, the Queste and Grand S. Graal, from which more -than two-thirds of his section are derived. - -In working back to the earliest form of the Perceval-_sage_, Mabinogi and -Conte du Graal are thus of equal value and mutually complementary. Both -are second-hand sources, and their testimony is at times sadly corrupt, -but it is from them chiefly that information must be sought as to the -earlier stages of development of this legendary cycle. They do not by -themselves give any satisfactory explanation of the more mysterious -features of the full-blown legend, but they do present the facts in such a -way as to put out of court the hypothesis of a solely Christian legendary -origin. Before proceeding further it will be well to see if the English -Sir Perceval has likewise claims to be considered one of the versions -which yield trustworthy indications as to the older form of the story. - -This poem, described by Halliwell as simply an abridged English version of -the Conte du Graal, has, as may be seen by reference to Ch. IV, been -treated with more respect by other investigators, several of whom, struck -by its archaic look, have pronounced it one of the earliest versions of -the Perceval _sage_. It has quite lately been the object of elaborate -study by Paul Steinbach in his dissertation: "Uber dem Einfluss des -Crestien de Troies auf die altenglische literatur," Leipzig, 1885. The -results of his researches may be stated somewhat as follows: the two works -correspond incident for incident down to the death of the Red Knight, the -chief differences being that Perceval is made a nephew of King Arthur, -that the death of his father at the hands of the Red Knight is explained -as an act of revenge on the part of the latter, that Arthur recognizes his -nephew at once, and tells him concerning the Red Knight, and that the -burning of the Red Knight, only hinted at in Chrestien's lines-- - - Ains auroie par carbonees. - Trestout escarbellié le mort, etc. (2,328-9). - -is fully told in the English poem. After the Red Knight incident the -parallelism is much less close. The English poem has incidents to itself: -the slaying of the witch, the meeting with the uncle and nine cousins, the -fight with the giant for the ring, the meeting with and restoring to -health the mother. Of the remaining incidents, those connected with -Lufamour are more or less parallel to what Chrestien relates of his hero's -adventure with Blanchefleur, and that of the Black Knight, with that of -the Orgellous de la Lande in Chrestien. Of the 2,288 verses of the English -poem the greater part may be paralleled from Chrestien, thus:-- - - P. of G. Cr. - 1-160 485-940 - 161-188 941-1,206 - 189-256 1,207-82 - 257-320 1,283-1,554 - 321-432 1,555-1,828 - 433-80 1,829-1,970 - 481-600 2,091-2,170 - {2,055-90 - 601-56 {2,135-59 - {2,171-2,225 - 657-740 2,268-2,312 - 741-820 2,313-2,398 - 1,061-1,108 4,000-4,060 - 1,109-1,124 5,511-553 - 1,381-1,540 5,600-5,891 - 953-1,012} - 1,125-1,380} {2,900-3,960 - 1,541-1,760} {4,088-94 - 1,761-1,808 4,095-4,150 - 1,809-1,951 4,865-5,375 - -the incidents comprised v. 821-952 and 1,953-2,288, being the only one -entirely unconnected with Chrestien. This general agreement between the -two works shows the dependence of the one on the other. But while -evidently dependent, the English poem, as is shown by the differences -between it and its French original, belongs at once to a less and to a -more highly developed stage of the Perceval _sage_. The differences are -thus of two kinds, those testifying to the writer's adherence to older, -probably Breton, popular traditions and those due to himself, and -testifying to the skill with which he has worked up his materials and -fitted portions of Chrestien's poem into an older framework. Of the first -kind are: the statement that Perceval meets with three knights instead of -five as in Chrestien, the English poem agreeing here with the Mabinogi; -the mention of his riding on a _mare_ and of his being clad in goat-skins, -the English poem again agreeing rather with the Mabinogi than with -Chrestien, and showing likewise points of contact with the Breton ballads -about Morvan lez Breiz, printed by Villemarqué in the Barzaz Breiz. The -combat with the giant may likewise be paralleled from the Lez Breiz cycle -in that hero's fight with the Moorish giant. These points would seem to -indicate knowledge on the author's part of popular traditions concerning -Perceval forming a small cycle, of which the departure from, and return to -the mother were the opening and closing incidents respectively. This form -of the story must have been widely spread and popular to induce the author -to leave out as much as he has done of Chrestien's poem in order to bring -it within the traditional framework. He accomplished his task with much -skill, removing every trace of whatever did not bear directly upon the -march of the story as he told it. In view of this skill differences which -tend to make the story more consequent and logical may fairly be ascribed -to him. Such are: the making Perceval a nephew of Arthur, the mention of a -feud between the Red Knight and Perceval's father, the combat with the -witch arising out of Perceval's wearing the Red Knight's armour, and the -other adventures which follow eventually from the same cause, the feature -that the ring taken by Perceval from the lady in the tent is a magic one, -endowing its wearer with supernatural strength, the change made between -this ring and his mother's which prepares the final recognition, etc. The -original poem probably ended with the reunion of mother and son, the last -verse, briefly mentioning the hero's death, being a later addition. To sum -up, Sir Perceval may be looked upon as the work of a folk-singer who -fitted into the old Breton framework a series of adventures taken partly -from Chrestien, partly from the same Breton traditions which were -Chrestien's main source, and with remarkable skill avoided all such -incidents as would not have accorded with the limits he had imposed upon -himself. - -Against this view of Steinbach's it might be urged that a writer as -skilful as the author of Sir Perceval is assumed to be could easily have -worked Chrestien's Grail episode into his traditional framework. A more -plausible explanation, assuming the theory to be in the main correct, -might be found in the great popularity in this country of the Galahad form -of the Quest, and the consequent unwillingness on the author's part to -bring in what may have seemed to him like a rival version. Steinbach has -not noticed one curious bit of testimony to the poem's being an abridgment -of an older work, more archaic in some respects than Chrestien. When the -hero has slain the Red Knight he knows not how to rid him of his armour, -but he bethinks him-- - - ... "My moder bad me - Whenne my dart solde brokene be, - Owte of the irene brenne the tree, - Now es me fyre gnede" (749-52). - -Now the mother's counsel, given in verses xxv-vi are solely that he should -be "of mesure," and be courteous to knights; nothing is said about burning -the tree out of the iron, nor does any such counsel figure either in -Chrestien or in the Mabinogi, which in this passage has copied, with -misunderstandings, the French poet.[74] The use of Chrestien by the author -of Sir Perceval seems, however, uncontestable; and, such being the case, -Steinbach's views meet the difficulties of the case fairly well. It will -be shown farther on, however, that several of the points in which the -German critic detects a post-Chrestien development, are, on the contrary, -remains of as old and popular a form of the story as we can work back to. -Accepting, then, the hypothesis that Sir Perceval, like the Mabinogi, has -been influenced by Chrestien, what is the apparent conclusion to be drawn -from the fact that the former omits the Grail episode altogether, whilst -the latter joins Chrestien's version to its own, presumably older one, so -clumsily as to betray the join at once? May it not be urged that -Chrestien's account is obviously at variance with the older story as he -found it? may not the fact be accounted for by the introduction of a -strange element into the thread of the romance? This element would, -according to Birch-Hirschfeld, be the Christian holy-vessel legend, and it -would thus appear that the Grail is really foreign to the Celtic -tradition. Let me recapitulate briefly the reasons already urged against -such a view. The early history of the Grail, that part in which the -Christian element prevails, must certainly be regarded as later than the -Quest, to which it could not have given rise without assuming such a -development of the romance as is well nigh incredible--the Quest versions, -moreover, all hang together in certain respects, and point unmistakably to -Celtic traditions as their source. These traditions must then be examined -further to see if they contain such traces of the mystic vessel as are -wanting in the Mabinogi and the English poem, and as may have given rise -to the episode as found in the French romances. As Perceval is the oldest -hero of the Quest, and as the boyhood of Perceval, forming an integral -part of all the oldest Quest versions presents the strongest analogies -with the folk-tale of the Great Fool, it is this tale which must now be -examined. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - - The Lay of the Great Fool--Summary of the Prose Opening--The Aryan - Expulsion and Return Formula--Comparison with the Mabinogi, Sir - Perceval, and the Conte du Graal--Originality of the Highland - tale--Comparison with the Fionn legend--Summary of the Lay of the - Great Fool--Comparison with the stag hunt incident in the Conte du - Graal and the Mabinogi--The folk-tale of the twin brethren--The fight - against the witch who brings the dead to life in Gerbert and the - similar incident in the folk-tale of the Knight of the Red - Shield--Comparison with the original form of the Mabinogi--Originality - of Gerbert. - - -One of the most popular of the poetic narratives in the old heroic -quatrain measure still surviving in the Highlands is the "Lay of the Great -Fool" (Laoidh an Amadain Mhoir), concerning which, according to Campbell, -vol. iii., p. 150, the following saying is current:--"Each poem to the -poem of the Red; each lay to the Lay of the Great Fool; each history to -the history of Connal" (is to be referred as a standard). This Lay, as -will be shown presently, offers some remarkable similarities with the -central Grail episode of the quest romances, but before it is investigated -a prose opening often found with it must be noticed. This prose opening -may be summarised thus from Campbell, vol. iii., pp. 146, _et seq._ - -There were once two brothers, the one King over Erin, the other a mere -knight. The latter had sons, the former none. Strife broke out between the -two brothers, and the knight and his sons were slain. Word was sent to the -wife, then pregnant, that if she bore a son it must be put to death. It -was a lad she had, and she sent him into the wilderness in charge of a -kitchen wench who had a love son. The two boys grew up together, the -knight's son strong and wilful. One day they saw three deer coming towards -them; the knight's son asked what creatures were these--creatures on which -were meat and clothing 'twas answered--it were the better he would catch -them, and he did so, and his foster-mother made him a dress of the deer's -hide. Afterwards he slew his foster-brother for laughing at him, caught a -wild horse, and came to his father's brother's palace. He had never been -called other than "Great fool," and when asked his name by his cousin, -playing shinty, answered, "Great Fool." His cousin mocked at him, and was -forthwith slain. On going into the King's (his uncle's) presence, he -answered in the same way. His uncle recognised him, and reproaching -himself for his folly in not having slain the mother with the father, went -with him, as did all the people. - -In my article on the Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula among the Celts -("Folk-Lore Record," vol. iv.), I have shown that this tale is widely -distributed in the Celtic Heldensage as well as in the Celtic folk-tale. -Before noticing the variants, a word of explanation may be necessary. The -term, Arische Aussetzungs-und Rückkehr-Formel, was first employed by J. G. -v. Hahn in his Sagwissenschaftliche Studien (Jena, 1876), to describe a -tale which figured in the heroic literature of every Aryan race known to -him. He examined fourteen stories, seven belonging to the Hellenic -mythology, Perseus, Herakles, Oedipus, Amphion and Zethos, Pelias and -Neleus, Leukastos and Parrhasius, Theseus; one to Roman mythic history, -Romulus and Remus; two to the Teutonic Heldensage, Wittich-Siegfried, -Wolfdietrich; two to Iranian mythic history, Cyrus, Key Chosrew; two to -the Hindu mythology, Karna, Krishna. I was able to recover from Celtic -literature eight well-defined variants, belonging to the Fenian and -Ultonian cycles of Irish Heldensage (heroes, Fionn and Cu-Chulaind); to -Irish mythic history, Labraidh Maen; to the folk-tale still living in the -Highlands, Conall and the Great Fool; to the Kymric Heldensage, -Peredur-Perceval, Arthur, and Taliesin. An examination of all these tales -resulted in the establishing of the following standard formula, to the -entirety of which it will of course be understood none of the tales -answer:-- - - I. Hero born-- - (_a_) Out of wedlock. - (_b_) Posthumously. - (_c_) Supernaturally. - (_d_) One of twins. - - II. Mother, princess residing in her own country. - - III. Father-- - (_a_) God } - (_b_) Hero } from afar. - - IV. Tokens and warning of hero's future greatness. - - V. He is in consequence driven forth from home. - - VI. Is suckled by wild beasts. - - VII. Is brought up by a (childless couple), or shepherd, or widow. - - VIII. Is of passionate and violent disposition. - - IX. Seeks service in foreign lands. - - IXA. Attacks and slays monsters. - - IXB. Acquires supernatural knowledge through eating a fish, or other - magic animal. - - X. Returns to his own country, retreats, and again returns. - - XI. Overcomes his enemies, frees his mother, seats himself on the - throne. - -I must refer to my article for a full discussion of the various Celtic -forms of this widely-spread tale, and for a tabular comparison with the -remaining Indo-European forms analysed by J. G. von Hahn. Suffice to say -here that the fullest Celtic presentment of the _motif_ is to be found in -the Ossianic Heldensage, the expelled prince being no other than Fionn -himself. The Celtic form most closely related to it is that of the Great -Fool summarised above, the relationship of Peredur-Perceval with which is -evident. In both, the father being slain, the mother withdraws or sends -her son into the wilderness; in both he grows up strong, hardy, ignorant -of the world. Almost the same instances of his surpassing strength and -swiftness are given; in the Mabinogi by celerity and swiftness of foot he -drives the goats and hinds into the goat-house; in the Highland folk-tale -he catches the wild deer, and seeing a horse, and learning it is a beast -upon which sport is done, stretches out after it, catches and mounts it; -in Sir Perceval he sees-- - - ... A fulle faire stode - Offe coltes and meres gude, - Bot never one was tame (v. xxi.). - -and "smertly overrynnes" one.--The Great Fool then comes to his uncle, in -whom he finds the man who has killed his father. Sir Perceval likewise -comes to his uncle, and gets knowledge from him of his father's slayer; in -Chrestien and the Mabinogi no relationship is stated to exist between -Arthur and the hero. The manner of the coming deserves notice. In the -Conte du Graal, entering the hall the hero salutes the King twice, -receives no answer, and, turning round his horse in dudgeon, knocks off -the King's cap. - -In the English poem-- - - At his first in comynge, - His mere withowtenne faylynge, - Kiste the forehevede of the Kynge, - So nerehande he rade (v. xxxi.). - -He then demands knighthood or-- - - Bot (unless) the Kyng make me knyghte, - I shall him here slaa (v. xxxiii.). - -In the Great Fool the horse incident is wanting, but the hero's address to -his uncle is equally curt: "I am the great fool ... and if need were it is -that I could make a fool of thee also." The incident then follows of the -insult offered to Arthur by the Red Knight. Here, be it noted, the -Mabinogi version is much the ruder of the three, "the knight dashed the -liquor that was in the goblet upon her (Gwenhwyvar's) face, and upon her -stomacher, and gave her a violent blow in the face, and said," &c.; in -Chrestien the incident is not directly presented, but related at -second-hand, and merely that the discourteous knight took away the goblet -so suddenly that he spilt somewhat of its contents upon the queen, and -that she was so filled with grief and anger that well nigh she had not -escaped alive; in Sir Perceval the knight takes up the cup and carries it -off. Now it is a _lieu commun_ of Celtic folk-tales that as a King is -sitting at meat, an enemy comes in mounted, and offers him an insult, the -avenging of which forms the staple of the tale. A good instance may be -found in Campbell's lii., "The Knight of the Red Shield." As the King is -with his people and his warriors and his nobles and his great gentles, one -of them says, "who now in the four brown quarters of the Universe would -have the heart to put an affront on the King?"--then comes the rider on a -black filly, and, "before there was any more talk between them, he put -over the fist and he struck the King between the mouth and the nose." It -is noteworthy that this tale shows further likeness to the Mabinogi-Great -Fool series, generally, in so far as it is the despised youngest who out -of the three warriors that set off to avenge the insult succeeds, even as -it is the despised Peredur who slays the Red Knight, and specially in what -may be called the prophecy incident. With the exception of the opening -incidents, this is the one by which the "formula" nature of the Perceval -_sage_ is most clearly shown. In the Mabinogi it is placed immediately -after the hero's first encounter with the sorceresses of Gloucester: "by -destiny and foreknowledge knew I that I should suffer harm of thee," says -the worsted witch. The Conte du Graal has only a trace of it in the Fisher -King's words as he hands the magic sword to Perceval-- - - ... Biaus frère, ceste espée - Vous fu jugie et destinée (4345-6), - -whilst in Sir Perceval a very archaic turn is given to the incident by -Arthur's words concerning his unknown nephew-- - - The bokes say that he mone - Venge his fader bane (v. xxxvi.). - -This comparison is instructive as showing how impossible it is that -Chrestien's poem can be the only source of the Mabinogi and Sir Perceval. -It cannot be maintained that the meagre hint of the French poet is the -sole origin of the incident as found in the Welsh and English versions, -whilst a glance at my tabulation of the various forms of the Aryan -Expulsion and Return formula ("Folk-Lore Record," vol. iv.) shows that the -foretelling of the hero's greatness is an important feature in eight of -the Celtic and five of the non-Celtic versions, _i.e._, in more than -one-third of all the stories built up on the lines of the formula. It is -evident that here at least Mabinogi and Sir Perceval have preserved a -trait almost effaced in the romance. In the above-mentioned Highland tale -the incident is as follows: the hero finds "a treasure of a woman sitting -on a hill, and a great youth with his head on her knee asleep"; he tries -to wake the sleeper, even cuts off his finger, but in vain, until he -learns how it was in the prophecies that none should rouse the sleeping -youth save the Knight of the Red Shield, and he, coming to the island, -should do it by striking a crag of stone upon his breast. This tale, as -already remarked, shows affinity to the Perceval saga in two incidents, -and is also, as I have pointed out ("Folk-Lore Record," vol. v., -Mabinogion Studies), closely allied to a cycle of German hero and -folk-tales, of which Siegfried is the hero. Now Siegfried is in German -that which Fionn is in Celtic folk-lore, the hero whose story is modelled -most closely upon the lines of the Expulsion and Return formula. We thus -find not only, as might be expected, affinity between the German and -Celtic hero-tales which embody the formula, but the derived or allied -groups of folk-tales present likewise frequent and striking -similarities.[75] - -Another Highland tale (Campbell, lviii., The Rider of Grianaig) furnishes -a fresh example of this fact. Here, also, the deeds to be done of the hero -were prophesied of him. But these deeds he would never accomplish, save he -were incited thereto and aided therein by a raven, who in the end comes -out as a be-spelled youth, and a steed, a maiden under spells, and the -spells will not go off till her head be off. Even so Peredur is urged on -and helped by the bewitched youth. In other respects, there is no likeness -of plan and little of detail[76] to the Mabinogi, certainly no trace of -direct influence of the Welsh story upon the Highland one. - -It may, however, be asserted that all of these tales are derived more or -less directly from the French romance. This has been confidently stated of -the Breton ballad cycle of Morvan le Breiz (Barzaz Breiz) and of the -Breton Märchen, Peronik l'idiot (Souvestre, Foyer Breton), and I have -preferred making no use of either. In the matter of the Scotch and Irish -tales a stand must be made. The romance, it is said, may have filtered -down into the Celtic population, through the medium of adaptations such as -the Mabinogi or Sir Perceval. Granted, for argument sake, that these two -works are mere adaptations, it must yet follow that the stories derived -from them will be more or less on the same lines as themselves. Is this -so? Can it be reasonably argued that the folk-tale of the Great Fool is a -weakened copy of certain features of the Mabinogi, which itself is a -weakened copy of certain features of the French poem? Is it not the fact -that the folk-tale omits much that is in the Mabinogi, and on the other -hand preserves details which are wanting not alone in the Welsh tale but -in Chrestien. If other proof of the independent nature of these tales were -needed it would be supplied by the close similarity existing between the -Great Fool opening and the Fionn legend. This is extant in several forms, -one of which, still told in the Highlands (Campbell's lxxxii.), tells how -Cumhall's son is reared in the wilderness, how he drowns the youth of a -neighbouring hamlet, how he slays his father's slayer, and wins the magic -trout the taste of which gives knowledge of past and to come, how he gets -back his father's sword and regains his father's lands, all as had been -prophesied of him. Another descendant of the French romance it will be -said. But a very similar tale is found in a fifteenth century Irish MS. -(The Boyish Exploits of Finn Mac Cumhall, translated by Dr. J. O'Donovan -in the Transactions of the Ossianic Society, vol. iv.); Cumhall, slain by -Goll, leaves his wife big with a son, who when born is reared by two -druidesses. He grows up fierce and stalwart, overcomes all his age-mates, -overtakes wild deer he running, slays a boar, and catches the magic salmon -of knowledge. An eighteenth century version given by Kennedy ("Legendary -Fictions," p. 216) makes Cumhall offer violence to Muirrean, daughter of -the druid Tadg, and his death to be chiefly due to the magic arts of the -incensed father. It will hardly be contended that these stories owe their -origin to adaptations of Chrestien's poem. But in any case no such -contention could apply to the oldest presentment of Fionn as a formula -hero, that found in the great Irish vellum, the Leabhar na h'Uidhre, -written down from older materials at the beginning of the twelfth century. -The tract entitled "The cause of the battle of Cnucha" has been translated -by Mr. Henessey ("Revue Celtique," vol. ii., pp. 86, _et seq._). In it we -find Cumhall and Tadhg, the violence done to the latter's daughter, the -consequent defeat and death of Cumhall, the lonely rearing of Fionn by his -mother, and the youth's avenging of his father. I must refer to my paper -in the "Folk-Lore Record" for a detailed argument in favour of the L.n.H. -account being an euhemerised version of the popular tradition, represented -by the Boyish Exploits, and for a comparison of the Fionn _sage_ as a -whole with the Greek, Iranian, Latin, and Germanic hero tales, which like -it are modelled upon the lines of the Expulsion and Return formula. I have -said enough, I trust, to show that the Fionn _sage_ is a variant (a far -richer one) of the theme treated in the boyhood of Perceval, but that it, -and _a fortiori_ the allied folk-tales are quite independent of the French -poem. It then follows that this portion of Chrestien's poem must itself be -looked upon as one of many treatments of a theme even more popular among -the Celts than among any other Aryan race, and that its ultimate source is -a Breton or Welsh folk-tale. - -The genuine and independent nature of the Great Fool prose opening being -thus established, it is in the highest degree suggestive to find in the -accompanying Lay points of contact with the Grail Legend as given in -Chrestien. Three versions of this Lay have been printed in English, that -edited by Mr. John O'Daly (Transactions of the Ossianic Society, vol. vi., -pp. 161, _et seq._); Mr. Campbell's (West Highland Tales, vol. iii. pp. -154, _et seq._) and Mr. Kennedy's prose version (Bardic Stories of -Ireland, pp. 151, _et seq._). O'Daly's, as the most complete and -coherent, forms the staple of the following summary, passages found in it -alone being italicised.[77] - -_Summary of the Lay of the Great Fool._--(1) There was a great fool who -subdued the world by strength of body; (2) _He comes to the King of -Lochlin to win a fair woman, learns she is guarded by seven score heroes, -overthrows them, and carries her off_; (C. and K. plunging at once _in -medias res_, introduce the Great Fool and his lady love out walking); (3) -The two enter a valley, are meet by a "Gruagach" (champion, sorcerer), in -his hand a goblet with drink; (4) The Great Fool thirsts, and though -warned by his lady love drinks deep of the proffered cup; the "Gruagach" -departs and the Great Fool finds himself minus his two legs; (5) The two -go onward, and ("swifter was he at his two knees than six at their -swiftness of foot;" C.) A deer nears them followed by a white hound, the -Great Fool slays the deer and seizes the hound; (6) whose owner coming up -claims but finally yields it, and offers the Great Fool food and drink -during life; (7) The three fare together (the glen they had passed through -had ever been full of glamour) till they come to a fair city filled with -the glitter of gold, dwelt in solely by the owner of the white hound and -his wife, "whiter than very snow her form, gentle her eye, and her teeth -like a flower"; (8) She asks concerning her husband's guests, and, -learning the Great Fool's prowess, marvels he should have let himself be -deprived of his legs; (9) The host departs, leaving his house, wife, and -store of gold in the Great Fool's keeping, he is to let no man in, no one -out should any come in, nor is he to sleep; (10) Spite his lady love's -urgings the Great Fool yields to slumber, when in comes a young champion -and snatches a kiss from the host's wife, ("She was not ill pleased that -he came," C.); (11) The Great Fool's love awakening him reproaches him for -having slept--he arises to guard the door, in vain does the intruder offer -gold, three cauldrons full and seven hundred townlands, he shall not get -out; (12) _At the instigation of the host's wife_ the intruder restores -the Great Fool's legs, but not then even will the hero let him go--pay for -the kiss he must when the host returns; threats to deprive him of his legs -are in vain, as are likewise the entreaties of the host's wife (All this -is developed with great prolixity in O'Daly, but there is nothing -substantial added to the account in C.); (13) Finally the intruder -discloses that he himself is the host, and he was the Gruagach, whose -magic cup deprived the Great Fool of his legs, and he is, "_his own gentle -brother long in search of him, now that he has found him he is released -from sorcery_." The two kiss (C. and K. end here). (14) The two brothers -fare forth, encounter a giant with an eye larger than a moon and an iron -club, wherewith he hits the Great Fool a crack that brings him to his -knees, but the latter arising closes with the giant, kills him and takes -his club, the two then attack four other giants, three of whom the Great -Fool slays with his club, and the fourth yields to him. The brothers take -possession of the giant's castle and all its wealth. - -There are obvious similarities between the Lay and the story found in the -Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal. A stag hunt is prominent in both, and -whilst engaged in it the hero falls under "illusion," in both too the -incident of the seizure of the hound appears, though in a different -connection. Finally in the Lay, as in the Mabinogi, the mover in the -enchantment is a kinsman whose own release from spells depends upon the -hero's coming successfully out of the trials to which he exposes him. But -while the general idea is the same, the way in which it is worked out is -so different that it is impossible to conceive of the one story having -been borrowed from the other. What can safely be claimed is that the -Great Fool, counterpart of Peredur-Perceval in the adventures of his youth -and up-bringing, is also, to a certain extent, his counterpart in the most -prominent of his later adventures, that of the stag hunt. It is thus -fairly certain that all this part of the Conte du Graal is, like the -_Enfances_, a working up of Celtic folk-tales. The giant fight which -concludes the Lay may be compared with that in Sir Perceval and in Morvan -le Breiz, and such a comparison makes it extremely likely that the -incident thus preserved by independent and widely differing offshoots from -the same folk-tale stem, belongs to the oldest form of the story. - -The analogies of the Lay with the Perceval _sage_ are not yet exhausted. -In virtue of the relationship between the two chief characters, the Lay -belongs to the "twin-brother cycle." This group of folk-tales, some -account of which is given below,[78] is closely related on the one hand -to the "dragon slayer" group of _märchen_, on the other hand to the -Expulsion and Return formula tales. In many versions of the latter (the -most famous being that of Romulus and Remus) the hero is one of twins, -and, after sharing for a while with his brother, strife breaks out between -them. In the folk-tale this strife leads to final reconciliation, or is -indeed a means of unravelling the plot. In the hero-tale on the other hand -the strife mostly ends with the death or defeat of the one brother. It -would seem that when the folk-tale got associated with a definite hero -(generally the founder and patron of a race) and became in brief a -hero-tale, the necessity of exalting the race hero brought about a -modification of the plot. If this is so the folk-tale group of the "two -brothers" must be looked upon as older than the corresponding portion of -the Expulsion and Return hero-tales, and not as a mere weakened echo of -the latter. To return to the twin-brother features. The Peredur-Perceval -_sage_ has a twin-sister, and is parallel herein to the Fionn _sage_ in -one of its forms ("How the Een was set up"), though curiously enough not -to the Great Fool folk-tale (otherwise so similar to "How the Een was set -up"), which, as in the Lay, has a brother. But beyond this formal -recognition of the incident in the Perceval _sage_, I am inclined to look -upon the Perceval-Gawain dualism as another form of it. This dualism has -been somewhat obscured by the literary form in which the _sage_ has been -preserved and the tendency to exalt and idealise _one_ hero. In the -present case this tendency has not developed so far as to seriously -diminish the importance of Gawain; _his_ adventures are, however, left in -a much more primitive and _märchenhaft_ shape, and hence, as will be shown -later on, are extremely valuable in any attempt to reach the early form of -the story.[79] - -If Simrock's words quoted on the title page were indeed conclusive--"If -that race among whom the 'Great Fool' folk-tale was found independent of -the Grail story had the best claim to be regarded as having wrought into -one these two elements"--then my task might be considered at an end. I -have shown that this race was that of the Celtic dwellers in these -islands, among whom this tale is found not only in a fuller and more -significant form than elsewhere, but in a form that connects it with the -French Grail romance. But the conclusion that the Conte du Graal is in the -main a working up of Celtic popular traditions, which had clustered round -a hero, whose fortunes bore, in part, a striking resemblance to those of -Fionn, the typical representative of the Expulsion and Return formula -cycle among the Celts, though hardly to be gainsaid, does not seem to help -much towards settling the question of the origin of the Grail itself. The -story would appear to be Celtic except just the central incident upon -which the whole turns. For the English Sir Perceval, which undoubtedly -follows older models, breathes no word of search for any magic talisman, -let alone the Grail, whilst the Mabinogi, which is also older in parts -than the Conte du Graal, gives a different turn to and assigns a -different _motif_ for the hero's conduct. The avenging of a kinsman's harm -upon certain supernatural beings, and the consequent release from -enchantment of another kinsman, supply the elements of a clear and -consistent action to which parallels may easily be adduced from -folk-tales, but one quite distinct from the release of a kinsman through -the medium of certain talismans and certain magic formulæ. Numerous as -have been the points of contact hitherto established between Celtic folk -belief and the French romance, the parallel would seem to break down at -its most essential point, and the contention that the Grail is a foreign -element in the Celtic legend would still seem to be justified. Before, -however, this can be asserted, what I have called the central episode of -the romance requires more searching and detailed examination than it has -had, and some accessory features, which, on the hypothesis of the -Christian legendary origin of the Grail, remain impenetrable puzzles must -be commented upon. And another instructive point of contact between -romance and folk-tale must be previously noticed, connected as it is with -stories already dealt with in this chapter. - -In the latest portion of the Conte du Graal, the interpolation of Gerbert, -the following incident occurs:--The hero meets four knights carrying their -wounded father, who turns out to be Gonemans, the same who armed him -knight. He vows vengeance upon Gonemans' enemies, but his efforts are at -first of no avail. As fast as in the daytime he slays them, at night they -are brought back to life by "Une vieille" who is thus described:-- - - La poitrine ot agüe et sèche; - Ele arsist ausi come une esche - Si on boutast en li le fu.[80] - - * * * * - - La bouche avoit grant à merveilles - Et fendue dusqu'as oreilles, - Qu'ele avoit longues et tendans; - Lons et lez et gausnes les dans - Avoit. (Potvin vi., 183, 184.) - -She carries with her - - II. barisiax d'ivoire gent; - -containing a "poison," the same whereof Christ made use in the Sepulchre, -and which serves here to bring the dead back to life and to rejoin heads -cut off from bodies. She goes to work thus:-- - - A la teste maintenant prise, - Si l'a desor le bu assise; - -then taking the balm - - Puis en froie celui la bouche - À cui la teste avoit rajointe; - Sor celui n'ot vaine ne jointe - Qui lues ne fust de vie plaine. - -Perceval stops her when she has brought back three of her men to life; she -recognises in him her conqueror: - - Bien vous connois et bien savoie - Que de nului garde n'avoie - Fors que de vous; car, par mon chief - Nus n'en péust venir à chief - Se vous non ... - -So long as she lives, Perceval shall be powerless to achieve his Quest. -She wars against Gonemant by order of the King of the Waste City, who ever -strives against all who uphold the Christian faith, and whose chief aim it -is to hinder Perceval from attaining knowledge of the Grail. Perceval gets -possession of somewhat of the wonder-working balm, brings to life the most -valiant of his adversaries, slays him afresh after a hard struggle, in -which he himself is wounded, heals his own hurt, and likewise Gonemant's, -with the balsam. Compare now Campbell's above-cited tale, the Knight of -the Red Shield. The hero, left alone upon the island by his two -treacherous companions, sees coming towards him "three youths, heavily, -wearily, tired." They are his foster-brothers, and from the end of a day -and a year they hold battle against the Son of Darkness, Son of Dimness, -and a hundred of his people, and every one they kill to-day will be alive -to-morrow, and spells are upon them they may not leave this (island) for -ever until they kill them. The hero starts out on the morrow alone -against these enemies, and he did not leave a head on a trunk of theirs, -and he overcame the Son of Darkness himself. But he is so spoilt and torn -he cannot leave the battle-field, and he lays himself down amongst the -dead the length of the day. "There was a great strand under him below; and -what should he hear but the sea coming as a blazing brand of fire, as a -destroying serpent, as a bellowing bull; he looked from him, and what saw -he coming on the shore of the strand, but a great toothy carlin ... there -was the tooth that was longer than a staff in her fist, and the one that -was shorter than a stocking wire in her lap." She puts her finger in the -mouth of the dead, and brings them alive. She does this to the hero, and -he bites off the finger at the joint, and then slays her. She is the -mother of the Son of Darkness, and she has a vessel of balsam wherewith -the hero's foster-brothers anoint and make him whole, and her death frees -them from her spells for ever.[81] This "toothy carlin" is a favourite -figure in Celtic tradition. She re-appears in the ballad of the -Muilearteach (probably Muir Iarteach, _i.e._, Western Sea), Campbell, -iii., pp. 122, _et seq._, and is there described as "the bald russet one," -"her face blue black, of the lustre of coal, her bone tufted tooth like -rusted bone, one deep pool-like eye in her head, gnarled brushwood on her -head like the clawed-up wood of the aspen root." In another version of the -ballad, printed in the Scottish Celtic Review, No. 2, pp. 115, _et seq._, -the monster is "bald red, white maned, her face dark grey, of the hue of -coal, the teeth of her jaw slanting red, one flabby eye in her head, her -head bristled dark and grey, like scrubwood before hoar."[82] The editor -of this version, the Rev. J. G. Campbell, interprets the ballad, and -correctly, no doubt, "as an inroad of the Personified Sea." There is no -connection, save in the personage of the "toothy carlin," between the -ballad and the folk-tale.[83] - -It is impossible, I think, to compare Gerbert's description of the witch -with that of the Highland "Carlin" without coming to the conclusion that -the French poet drew from traditional, popular Celtic sources. The wild -fantasy of the whole is foreign in the extreme to the French temperament, -and is essentially Celtic in tone. But the incident, as well as one -particular feature of it, admits of comparison: the three foster-brothers -of the Highland tale correspond to the four sons of Gonemant, who be it -recollected, represents in the Conte du Graal, Peredur-Perceval's uncle in -the Mabinogi; in both, the hero goes forth alone to do battle with the -mysterious enemy; the Son of Darkness answers to the King of the Waste -City; the dead men are brought back to life in the same way; the release -of the kinsman, from spells, or from danger of death, follows upon the -witch's discomfiture. And yet greater value attaches to the incident as -connected with the Mabinogi form of the story; in Gerbert, as in the -Mabinogi, the hero's uncle is sick to death, his chief enemy is a -monstrous witch (or witches), who foreknows that she must succumb at the -hero's hands.[84] Something has obviously dropped out from the Mabinogi. -May it not be those very magic talismans, the winning of which is the -chief element of the French romances, and may not one of the talismans -have been the vessel of life-restoring balsam which figures in Gerbert and -the Highland tales?[85] The study of subsidiary versions and incidents may -thus throw upon the connection of the Grail with the Perceval romance a -light which the main Celtic forms of the latter have not hitherto yielded. - -The Thornton MS. Sir Perceval differs in this incident from both Manessier -and Gerbert. As in Gerbert and the Highland Tale the hero meets his uncle -and cousins; there is the same fight with the mother of the enemy of his -kin, the hideous carlin, but it precedes, as does also the slaying of that -enemy, the meeting of uncle and nephews. There is thus no room for the -healing _motif_ for which the unconscious avenging of the father's death -is substituted. These differences bear witness both to the popular and -shifting nature of the traditions upon which the romances are based, and -to the fact that the avenging of a blood feud was the leading incident of -its earliest form. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - - The various forms of the visit to the Grail Castle in the - romances--Conte du Graal: Chrestien; Gautier-Manessier; - Gautier-Gerbert--Didot-Perceval--Mabinogi--Conte du Graal: Gawain's - visit to the Grail Castle--Heinrich von dem Türlin--Conte du Graal: - Perceval's visit to the Castle of Maidens--Inconsistency of these - varying accounts; their testimony to stories of different nature and - origin being embodied in the romances--Two main types: feud quest and - unspelling quest--Reasons for the confusion of the two types--Evidence - of the confusion in older Celtic literature--The Grail in Celtic - literature: the gear of the Tuatha de Danann; the cauldron in the - Ultonian cycle; the Mabinogi of Branwen; vessel of balsam and glaive - of light in the contemporary folk-tale--The sword in Celtic - literature: Tethra; Fionn; Manus--Parallels to the Bespelled Castle; - the Brug of Oengus, the Brug of Lug, the Brug of Manannan Mac Lir, - Bran's visit to the Island of Women, Cormac Mac Art, and the Fairy - Branch; Diarmaid and the Daughter of King Under the Waves--Unspelling - stories: The Three Soldiers; the waiting of Arthur; Arthur in Etna; - the Kyffhäuser Legend, objections to Martin's views concerning - it--Gawain's visit to the Magic Castle and Celtic parallels; The Son - of Bad Counsel; Fionn in Giant Land; Fionn in the House of Cuana; - Fionn and the Yellow Face--The Vanishing of the Bespelled - Castle--Comparison with the Sleeping Beauty cycle--The "Haunted - Castle" form and its influence on Heinrich's version--The Loathly - Grail Messenger. - - -The analysis of the various versions has shown that the Conte du Graal is -the oldest portion of the vast body of French romance which deals with the -Grail, and that it presents the earliest form of the story. The -examination of the theories put forward to explain the genesis and growth -of the legend has shown how untenable is that hypothesis which makes the -Christian legend the starting point of the cycle. The comparison of the -Conte du Graal with Celtic legends and folk-tales has shown that the -former is in the main a North French retelling of tales current then, as -now, among the Celtic peoples of Britain, and probably of Brittany. One -thing alone remains unexplained, the mysterious Grail itself. Nor has any -light been thrown from Celtic sources upon the incident of the hero's -visit to the Castle of Talismans, his silence, and the ensuing misfortune -which overtakes him. Where this incident does appear in a Celtic version, -the Mabinogi, it is not brought in connection with the Grail, and it bears -obvious traces of interpolation. The utmost we have been able to do is to -reconstruct from scattered indications in different Celtic tales a -sequence of incidents similar to that of the French romance. Let us, then, -return to what may be called the central incident of the Grail legend in -its older and purer form. And let us recall the fact that the hypothesis -which finds a Christian origin for the whole legend has no explanation to -offer of this incident. Birch-Hirschfeld can merely suggest that -Perceval's question upon which all hinges is "eine harmlose Erfindung -Borron's," a meaningless invention of Borron's. It is, indeed, his failure -to account for such an essential element of the story that forms one of -the strongest arguments against his hypothesis. - -In the first place it must be noticed that the incident of a hero's visit -to a magic castle, of his omission whilst there to do certain things, and -of the loss or suffering thereby caused, occurs not once, but many times; -not in one, but in many forms in the vast body of Grail romance, as is -seen by the following list, which likewise comprises all the occasions on -which one or other of the questers has come near to or succeeded in seeing -the Grail:-- - - (1) CHRESTIEN: (Inc. 7). Perceval's first visit to the Grail Castle. - Question omitted. - - (2) GAUTIER: (Inc. 22). Perceval's second visit to the Grail Castle. - Question put-- - - _Incident breaks off in middle, and is continued in one version by_:-- - - (2A) MANESSIER, who sends off the hero on a fresh quest, which is - finished in - - (3) MANESSIER: (Inc. 21). Perceval's third visit to Grail Castle. - The question is not mentioned. Hero's final success. - - _In another version by_:-- - - (4) GERBERT: (Inc. 1-3). Perceval is sent forth anew upon Quest. He - has half put the question and been partially successful. - - (5) GERBERT: (Inc. 21). Perceval's third visit to Grail Castle. - Question not mentioned. Hero's success. - - _Besides these forms of the episode in the Conte du Graal of which - Perceval is the hero, we have_:-- - - (6) GAUTIER: (Inc. 3). Gauvain's first visit according to one, second - visit according to another version. Question half put, partial - success. - - _And finally a somewhat similar incident of which Perceval is the hero - in_:-- - - (7) GAUTIER: (Inc. 12). Visit to the Castle of Maidens. Untimely sleep - of hero. - - So far the Conte du Graal. Of the versions closely connected with it - we have: - - (8 & 9) WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH: Two visits of Perceval to Grail - Castle. Question omitted at first, put in second, and crowned with - success. - - (10 & 11) MABINOGI OF PEREDUR: (Inc. 6-25). Two visits of hero to - Grail Castle. Question omitted at first. Second visit successful. No - mention of question. - - (12 & 13) DIDOT-PERCEVAL: (Inc. 11-16). Two visits of Perceval to - Grail Castle. Question omitted at first, put at second, and crowned - with success. - - In a German romance, which presents many analogies with that portion - of the Conte du Graal which goes under Gautier's name: - - (14) HEINRICH VON DEM TÜRLIN: Gawain's first visit to Grail Castle. - Question put. Success. Allusion to previous unsuccessful visit of - Perceval. - - Finally in the QUESTE versions we have four variants of the incident-- - - (15) QUESTE: (Inc. 12). Lancelot at the cross-road, omission to ask - concerning the Grail. - - (15) QUESTE: (Inc. 15). Perceval heals Mordrains. - - " (Inc. 43). Lancelot comes to Grail Castle. Partial - fulfilment of his Quest. - - " (Inc. 48). The three questers come to the Grail Castle. - -On looking at the list we notice that the Conte du Graal knows of three -visits on the part of the principal hero to the Castle of Talismans: 1, 2, -3, or 1, 2-4, 5, and of one visit (or two) of the secondary hero; whilst -Wolfram, the Mabinogi, and the Didot-Perceval know of two only. Heinrich -von dem Türlin gives only one visit to _his_ chief hero, though he -mentions a former one by the secondary hero. In Wolfram, and the -Didot-Perceval, the incident may be compared in the Conte du Graal with 1 -and 2; in the Mabinogi with 1 and 5; in Heinrich with 6. The Queste forms -of the incident are obviously dependent upon those of the Conte du Graal, -although they have been strongly modified. As for 7, it would seem to be a -form of the incident which has been entirely unaffected by the Christian -symbolism which has influenced all the others. - -It will be advisable to recapitulate the leading features of the incident -as found in the different versions. Where the summaries in Chapter II -afford detailed information about it, the recapitulation will be brief, -but it will be necessary to give at least one version at much greater -length than heretofore. - -In the Conte du Graal (1) the hero finds a King fishing, who directs him -to his castle. Just as he deems the fisher has deceived him the castle -bursts upon his sight. He enters, is led into a square room wherein is a -bed sitting on which is an old man wrapped in sables; before him is a -great fire of dry wood; 400 men might sit in the hall. The King rises to -greet him; as they sit, a squire enters with a sword which had but two -fellows, sent by the King's niece for the hero to whom it was destined. -The hall is light as it may be. A squire enters holding a lance by the -middle; all can behold the drop of blood which flows from the point upon -the holder's hand. There follow him two squires with candlesticks, each -with ten candles, in either hand; a damsel holding a Grail, which gives -out a light as greater than that of the candles as the sun outshines the -stars; and another damsel with a plate of fine gold. The procession passes -from one into the other room. The hero refrains from asking who is served -by the Grail. After playing at chess with the King they dine, and again -the Grail passes, uncovered, at each dish. The hero would fain ask what -was done with it, and is about to do so, but puts off the question. On the -morrow he sees no one in the castle, the doors of the rooms he had been in -the eve before are shut, no one answers; and, mounting his horse, which he -finds ready saddled, he sets forth over the drawbridge, which closes of -itself behind him, without learning why lance bleeds or whither the Grail -is borne. (2) At the second visit the hero comes into a magnificent room, -ornamented with fine gold and stars of silver, wherein on a vermeil couch -the rich King is sitting. The hero is fain forthwith to ask about Grail -and bleeding lance, but must sit him down by the rich King and tell of his -adventures, about the chapel in which lay the dead Knight, and the black -hand, the child in the tree and the tree full of candles. The King makes -him eat before answering his questions. Whilst at meat a damsel, fairer -than flowers in April, enters with the Holy Grail, another with the lance, -a squire with the broken sword. The hero asks about these talismans. But -first the King answers the questions about the earlier wonders; the -talismans he will tell of after meat. The hero insists to know about the -sword. The King bids him put it together--can he do so he will learn about -the Knight in the Chapel, and after that about the talismans. Save for one -flaw the hero succeeds, whereupon the King says he knows no one in the -world better than he, embraces him, and yields him up all in his house. -The squire who brought the sword returns, wraps it in a cendal, and -carries it off. - - 2A. The King bids the hero eat. 4. The hero would hold it sin if - Lance and Grail, and a fair silver he did not ask concerning the - dish pass before them, the latter Grail. The King first submits him - held by a damsel. The hero sighs to the sword test.[86] The - and begs to learn about these existence of the flaw is - three. He is told about lance, apparently held to constitute - Grail, Grail-bearing damsel, failure, due to the hero's sin in - dish-bearing damsel, and in quitting his mother so abruptly. - answer to further questions, In the night the hero has a - learns the history of the broken vision, which warns him to hasten - sword, and of the chapel haunted to his sister's aid. On the morrow - by the black hand. After sleeping the Grail Castle has vanished. - in a splendid bed[87] he sets Mounting his horse, which stands - forth on the morrow on the sword ready saddled, he rides forth. - quest (the slaying of Partinal). After a vain essay to gain - entrance to a magnificent castle, - 3. Having accomplished which, and in which he breaks his sword, and - lighted chancewise upon the Grail thereby loads upon himself seven - Castle, the King, apprised by a further years of adventure, but - squire and forthwith healed, meets learns how the sword may be made - the hero who shows him head and whole again, he finds the land - shield. At table lance and Grail which the day before was waste - pass, borne by two maidens; fertile and peopled. The peasants - delectable meats fill the dishes-- hail him: the townsmen come forth - all are filled and satisfied who in his honour--for through him the - behold the Holy Grail and the lance folk have won back lands and - that bleeds. Thereafter enters a riches. A damsel tells him how: at - squire holding a silver dish the Court of the Fisher King he - covered with red samite; the had asked about the Grail. At her - talismans pass thrice; the King castle he has his sword mended. - thanks the hero for having slain (Later the hero learns that his - his enemy and thereby rid him of failure to win the Grail comes - great torment. Asks his name, from his not having wedded his - learns that he is his nephew, and lady-love). - offers him his kingdom. - 5. Hero is directed by a cross to - the Court of the Fisher King. The - latter makes him sit by his side - and tell his adventures, when he - would fain learn about the Grail. - The same procession then passes - as in (2), save that sword instead - of being broken is simply - described as not resoldered. The - hero says he has been twice before - with the King, and reproaches him - for not having answered his - questions, although he had - resoldered the sword to the King's - great joy. The King then bids him - shake the sword, which he does, - and the flaw disappears. The King - is overjoyed, and the hero is now - worthy of knowing everything.[88] - -In comparing with these versions of the incident that found in the -Didot-Perceval, we find that the hero at his first visit is welcomed by -the squires of the castle, clad in a scarlet cloak, and placed upon a -rich bed, whilst four sergeants apprise Brons of his arrival, and the -latter is carried into the hall where sits the hero, who rises to greet -him. Brons questions him before they sit down to meat. The mystic -procession is formed by squire with lance bleeding, damsel with silver -dish, squire with the vessel holding our Lord's blood. On the morrow the -hero sees no one, and finds all the doors open. At his second visit there -is no mention of difficulty in finding the castle. This time the King -rises to greet him; they talk of many things and then sit down to meat. -Grail and worthy relics pass, and the hero asks who is served by the -vessel which the squire holds in his hands. Straightway the King is healed -and changed; overjoyed he first asks the hero who he is, and, on learning -it, tells him concerning lance and Grail, and afterwards, at the bidding -of a heavenly voice, the secret words which Joseph taught him, Brons. - -In the Mabinogi the castle lies on the other side of a meadow. At his -first visit the hero finds the gates open, and in the hall a hoary-headed -man sits, around whom are pages who rise to receive the hero. Host and -guest discourse and eat, seated beside one another. The sword trial -follows, and the hero is declared to have arrived at two-thirds of his -strength. The two youths with the dripping spear enter, amid the -lamentation of the company, are followed by the two maidens with the -salver wherein is a man's head, and the outcry redoubles. On the morrow -the hero rides forth unmolested. - -At the second visit the castle is described as being in a valley through -which runs a river. The grey-headed man found sitting in the hall with -Gwalchmai is described as lame. - -So far we have recapitulated the leading features of Perceval's dealings -at the Talismans Castle in the Conte du Graal and in the most closely -allied versions. But Perceval, the chief hero, has, as we have already -seen, an under-study in Gauvain. And the Gauvain form of the incident -deserves as close examination as the Perceval form. - -(6) Gauvain has met a knight, stranger to him, with whom he travels to -Caerleon. Whilst in his company the stranger is slain by a dart cast by -whom no one knows. Before dying he bids Gauvain take his arms and his -horse; he knows not why he has been slain, he never harmed anyone. Gauvain -suspects and accuses Kex, upon whom he vows to prove the murder, and sets -forth to learn the unknown's name. After affronting the adventure of the -black hand[89] in the chapel and long wanderings, he finds himself one -evening at the opening of a dark, tree-covered road at whose further end -he spies a light. Tired and fasting he lets his horse go at its will, and -is led to a castle where he is received with great honour as though he -were expected. But when he has changed his dress the castle folk see it is -not he whom they thought. In the hall is a bier whereupon lie cross and -sword and a dead knight. Canons and priests raise a great lamentation over -the body. A crowned knight enters and bids Gauvain sit by his side. Then -the Grail goes through the room, serving out meats in plenty, and acting -the part of a steward, whereat Gauvain is astounded. He next sees a lance -which drips blood into a silver cup. From out the same room whence come -the talismans, the King issues, a sword in his hand, the sword of the dead -knight, over whom he laments--on his account the land languishes. He bids -Gauvain essay to make the sword whole, but Gauvain cannot, and is told his -quest may not be accomplished. After his toils and wanderings Gauvain is -sleepy, but he struggles against sleep, and asks about bleeding lance and -sword and bier. Whilst the King is answering him he goes to sleep. On -awakening he is on the sea shore, arms and steed by his side.[90] He then -meets with the peasantry, and is told of the changed condition of the -land in a passage already quoted (p. 87). Had he asked about the Grail -"por coi il servoit," the land had been wholly freed. - -Heinrich von dem Türlin's account of Gauvain's visit to the Grail Castle -differs, as will be seen by the Summary, p. 27, which it is unnecessary to -repeat, more from that of Gautier than from the Perceval visit of the -Conte de Graal, with which it has the common feature, that the person -benefitted by the transaction is the Lord of the Magic Castle. As will -already have been noticed it stands alone in the conception that the -inmates of the castle are under the enchantment of death-in-life from -which the question frees them. - -There still remains to be noticed (7) the incident of Perceval's visit to -the Castle of Maidens, so closely analogous in certain details to the -Grail Castle visit, and yet wholly disassociated from it in the conduct of -the story. Perceval, wandering, sees across a river in fair meadow land a -rich castle built of marble, yellow and vermeil. Crossing a bridge he -enters, and the door at once closes behind him. No one is in the hall, in -the centre of which is a table, and hanging to it by a steel chain a -hammer. Searching the castle he still finds no one, and no one answers to -his call. At length he strikes upon the table three blows with the hammer. -A maiden appears, reproaches him, and disappears. Again he waits, and -again he strikes three blows. A second damsel appears, and tells him if he -strike afresh the tower will fall, and he be slain in its fall. But as he -threatens to go on, the damsel offers to open the door and let him forth. -He declares he will stay till morning, whereupon the damsel says she will -call her mistress. The hero bids her haste as he is not minded to wait -long, and warns her that he still holds the hammer. Other damsels then -show themselves, disarm and tend the hero, and lead him through a splendid -hall into a still more splendid one, wherein a hundred fair and courteous -maidens, all of like age and mien, and richly dressed, rise at his -approach and hail him as lord. The hero deems himself in paradise, and -"sooth 'tis to be in paradise to be with dames and maids; so sweet they -are, the devil can make naught of them, and 'tis better to follow them -than to hearken to sermons preached in church for money." The dame of the -castle bids the hero sit him down by her. "White she is as a lily, rosier -than on a May morn a fresh blown rose when the dew has washed it." She -asks him his name, and on hearing how he had wandered lonely three days -ere meeting with the castle, tells him he might have wandered seven ere -finding where to partake of bread and meat. He is well feasted. In reply -to his questions about the castle, and how is it no man may be seen in it, -he learns he is in the Maidens' Castle, all the inmates of one kin and -land, of gentle birth; no mason put his hand to the castle, no serf toiled -at it. Four maids built it, and in this wise: Whatever knight passed, and -entering, beheld the door closed, and no man meeting him--if craven he -struck no blow with the hammer, and on the morrow he went forth unheeded; -but if wise and courteous he struck the table, and was richly entertained. -As the lady tells this tale the hero, overcome with much journeying, falls -asleep and is laid to bed by the maidens. On the morrow he wakes beneath a -leafy oak, and never a house in sight. - -It is surely superfluous to point out that the foregoing recapitulation of -the various forms under which this incident has come down to us gives the -last blow to the theory which makes Christian symbolism the starting -point, and the Didot-Perceval the purest representative of the legend. We -should have to admit not only that the later romance writers entirely -misunderstood the sense of their model, but that, whilst anxiously casting -about in every direction for details with which to overlay it, they -neglected one of its most fertile hints--that of the secret words handed -down through Joseph from Christ Himself to the successful Grail quester. -What a mine of adventures would not Gautier, Gerbert, and all the other -unknown versifiers, who added each his quota to the Conte, have found in -those "secret words?" Nay, more, we must admit that so much in love were -they with this incident they misunderstood, that they repeated it in -half-a-dozen varying forms, and finally eliminated from it every trace of -its original element. There are theories which ask too much and which must -be set on one side, even if one has nothing equally ingenious and -symmetrical to set in their place. - -Three things strike one in considering this incident apart from the other -adventures with which it is associated; the want of consistency in those -versions which, formally, are closely related, an inconsistency which we -have already noted in dealing with the legend as a whole; the repetition -of the same incident with almost similar details, but with a different -animating conception; and the fact that some of the secondary forms -testify to that same thread of story which we have already extracted from -the comparison of the Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal in their entirety. -Not only is the conception of the Quest different in Chrestien and -Manessier or Chrestien-Gerbert, but the details are different, the centre -of interest being shifted from the omitted question to the broken sword. -In Manessier the _dénoûment_ is brought about without any reference to the -question, in Gerbert the reference is of the most perfunctory kind. Again -we find the same machinery of Grail, lance, and other talismans, which in -Chrestien-Manessier serves to bring about the hero's vengeance on his -uncle's murderer, in Chrestien-Gerbert the re-union of the lovers and the -winning of the Grail Kingship, used in the Gawain quest with the evident -object of compassing vengeance upon the slayer of the unknown knight. And, -thirdly, this secondary form is in close agreement with the -Mabinogi--here, as there, the sword test takes place at the Fisher King's; -here, as there, it immediately precedes the passing of the talismans; -here, as there, it is only partially successful; here, as there, is a -tangible reminder of the object of the quest, in the dead body of the -unknown knight in the one case, in the head swimming in blood in the -other. And here we may note that of the two forms in which the _Queste_ -reproduces this incident, the one which holds the more prominent position -in the narrative, the one of which Lancelot is the hero, closely resembles -that secondary form in the Conte du Graal which is connected with Gawain. -The wounded knight whom Lancelot beholds at the crossways borne into the -chapel upon a bier, and clamouring for the succour of the Grail, recalls -forcibly the dead knight of the Gawain quest. It is, perhaps, still more -significant that when the Queste does reproduce the Perceval form, it is -only in its externals, and the mystic vessel, which in the older version -is obviously a means of achieving the quest, has, in the later one, -become the end of that quest. - -It seems impossible to resist the following conclusions:--The many forms -of the incident found in the Grail romances are not variants of one, and -that an orderly and logical original; they testify to the fact that in the -body of popular tradition which forms the basis of these romances the -incident of the visit to a magic castle was a common one, that it entered -into the thread of stories, somewhat similar in outline and frequently -centered in the same hero, but differing essentially in conception, and -that the forms in the romances which are most likely to keep close to the -traditional model are those secondary ones with which the innovating -spirit, whether due to the genius of the individual artist, or to -intruding Christian symbolism, has least concerned itself. There is -apparently but one case in the Conte du Graal, that of Perceval's visit to -the Castle of Maidens, which has been modified by neither of these -influences. - -To accept these conclusions is to clear the ground. If we rid our minds of -the idea that there is _a Grail legend_, a definite fixed sequence of -incidents, we need not be discouraged if we fail to find a prototype for -it in Celtic tradition or elsewhere. We shall be prepared to examine every -incident of which the Grail is a feature upon its own merits, and -satisfied if we can find analogies to this or that one. And by so doing we -are more likely to discover the how and why of the development of the -legends as we find them in the romances. - -Leaving subsidiary details out of account, we may bring all the instances -in which the Grail appears under two formulas: that of the kinsman -avenging a blood feud by the means of the three magic talismans, sword and -lance and vessel; and that of the visit to the Bespelled Castle, the -inmates of which enjoy, thanks to the magic vessel, a supernaturally -prolonged life, from which they are released by the hero's question -concerning that vessel. The one we may call the feud quest, the other the -unspelling quest. The Proto-Mabinogi belonged, as we have already seen -(_supra_, p. 139), to the first class, and accordingly we find that all -relating to the question is obviously interpolated from Chrestien. -Chrestien's model belonged, in all probability if not wholly, chiefly to -the first class, and accordingly we find that Manessier, certainly more -faithful than Chrestien to that original, lays no stress upon the -question. But in Chrestien himself there is a mixture of the two formulas; -the question and the food-producing qualities of the magic vessel have -been incorporated in the feud formula. Once started upon this track the -legend continues to mingle the formulas. The mystic procession, which -probably owes its form to Chrestien, is repeated with monotonous sameness -by his continuators; the machinery of the feud quest almost invariably -doubles that of the visit to the Bespelled Castle, and _vice versâ_. Thus -Heinrich von dem Türlin, along with the most archaic presentment of the -unspelling quest, has that procession of the talismans which properly -belongs to the feud quest; and, to complete his conception, we must turn -to incidents at present set in the framework of the other formula. For the -effect upon the land produced by the hero's action at the Castle of -Talismans is obviously analagous to, though of directly contrary nature -to, that produced upon the inmates of the Bespelled Castle. They are dead -though they seem quick, the land is full of life though it seems waste. -The question which frees the one from the spell of life-in-death, frees -the other from the spell of death-in-life.[91] The Didot-Perceval has the -complete conception. Perceval's question not only releases Brons, who may -not die until then, but it also ends the enchantment of Britain. - -The identity of hero in stories originally dissimilar was one reason for -the confusion between the two formulas; the nature of the Grail was -another. Its attributes were in all probability not very clearly defined -in the immediate models of the French romance writers; these found it -enveloped in mysterious haze, which simple story-tellers, such as Gautier, -did not try to clear up, and which gave free play to the mystic -imaginings of those writers who used romance as a vehicle for edification. -The one tangible thing about it in stories of the one class, its food -producing-power, has left its trace upon every one of the romances. But we -shall also find in our survey of Celtic literature that this attribute, as -well as that of healing or restoring to life, is found indifferently in -stories of both the classes, to the fusion of which we refer the Grail -legends in their present form. Another link between the two formulas is -formed by the sword. It is almost invariably found associated with the -healing vessel of balsam in task stories connected with the feud quest of -the Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal; it is also a frequent feature in the -legend of the unsuccessful visit to the Bespelled Castle.[92] Finally, the -most important reason for running into one the stories derived from these -two formulas, and the one which could hardly fail to lead to the fusion, -is to be found in the identity of the myth which underlies both -conceptions. The castle to which the avenger must penetrate to win the -talismans, and that to which the hero comes with the intent of freeing its -lord, are both symbols of the otherworld. - -Bearing in mind this double origin of the Grail, and reviewing once more -the entire cycle, we note that, whilst it is that presentment of the magic -vessel due to the second formula which is most prominent in the romances, -the feud quest has furnished more and more varied sequences of incident, -and is the staple of the oldest literary Celtic form (the Proto-Mabinogi) -and of those North French forms which are most closely akin to it. Here -the magic vessel is at best one of three equally potent treasures; as a -matter of fact its _rôle_ in this section of the romances is, as we have -seen, inferior to that of the sword. Obviously intended to be the -immediate cause of restoration to life or health of the hero's kinsman, -its functions have been minimised until they have been forgotten. If this -is so already in the Proto-Mabinogi and in the model of the Conte du -Graal, we may expect to find that elsewhere in Celtic tradition the magic -vessel is of less account than sword or lance. - -We should likewise misconceive the character of popular tradition if we -expected to find certain attributes rigidly ascribed to the mystic vessel -in this or that set of stories. The confusion we have noted in the -romances may be itself derived from older traditions. Certain it is that -in what maybe looked upon as the oldest account of the vessel[93] in -Celtic literature (although the form in which it has reached us is -comparatively modern), there is a vessel of abundance associated with -three other talismans, two of them being sword and lance. The Tuatha de -Danann (the race of fairies and wizards which plays a part in Irish -tradition analogous to that of Gwydion ap Don, Gwynn ap Nudd, and their -kin in Welsh) so runs the tradition preserved by Keating in his History of -Ireland (Book I, ed. by Joyce, Dublin, 1880, p. 117), had four treasures: -The Lia Fail, the stone of Fate or Virtue ("now in the throne upon which -is proclaimed the King of the Saxons," _i.e._, the stone brought by Edward -I., from Scone); the sword that Lug[94] Lamhfhada (Lug the Longhanded) was -wont to use; the spear the same Lug used in battle; the cauldron of the -Dagda, "_a company used not ever go away from it unsatisfied_." Keating -followed old and good sources, and although the passage I have underlined -is not to be found in all MSS. of his work (_e.g._, it is missing in that -translated by Halliday), and although the verse which he quotes, and which -probably goes back to the eleventh century, whilst the traditions which -it embodies may be regarded as a couple of centuries older, does not -mention this property of the Dagda's[95] Cauldron, it may, I think, be -assumed that the tradition here noticed is genuine, and that a vessel akin -to the Grail, as well as talismans akin to those that accompany the Grail, -formed part of the gear of the oldest Celtic divinities.[96] - -This conclusion appears no rash one when we consider the further -references to the cauldron in Middle Irish Literature. The Battle of Magh -Rath, a semi-historical romance relating to events which took place in the -seventh century, is ascribed by its editor, Dr. J. O'Donovan, to the -latter half of the twelfth century. It relates (pp. 51, _et seq._) how the -sons of the King of Alba sought to obtain from their father the "Caire -Ainsicen" so called, because "it was the caire or cauldron which was used -to return his own proper share to each, and no party ever went away from -it unsatisfied, for whatever quantity was put into it there was never -boiled of it but what was sufficient for the company according to their -grade or rank." The mediæval story-teller then goes on to instance similar -cauldrons to be met with in the older history of Ireland. These may nearly -all be referred to the oldest heroic Irish cycle, the Ultonian, of which -Cuchulainn is the most prominent figure. This cycle, in its origin almost -if not wholly mythic, was at an early date (probably as early as the -eighth century) euhemerised, and its gods and demi-gods made to do duty as -historical personages living at the beginning of the Christian era. It is, -indeed, not improbable that actual historical events and personages of -that period may have coloured and distorted the presentment of the myth; -and it is highly probable that the substance of these stories does go back -to that age, as they are almost entirely free from any admixture of -Christian elements, and such admixture as there is can be readily detected -as the handiwork of the tenth and eleventh century monks by whom these -tales were written in MSS. which have for the most part come down to us. -The cauldron is found with the same properties as those set forth in the -Battle of Magh Rath, in two of the most celebrated tales of this cycle, -the Toghail Bruighne da Derga, and the Tale of Mac Datho's pig. - -Turning from Irish to Welsh literature we may note that the Grail has -frequently been compared with the cauldron of Bran in the Mabinogi of -Branwen, the daughter of Llyr. I have dealt with this tale fully -(Folk-Lore Record, Vol. V.), and see no reason to depart from the -conclusion I then arrived at; namely, that it goes back in the main to the -eleventh or tenth century. Here, the revivifying power of the vessel is -dwelt upon, "The property of it is that if one of thy men be slain to-day, -and be cast therein, the morrow he will be as well as ever he was at his -best, except that he will not regain his speech." We cannot fail to recall -that in the Queste which, as far as the Grail itself is concerned, must be -referred on the whole to the feud quest formula, when the sacred vessel -appears the assembled company is struck dumb.[97] - -Later Celtic folk-literature has followed the Mabinogi rather than the -older Irish legend in its account of the mystic vessel. Where it appears -in the folk-tale its function is to heal or to bring back to life. We may -leave out of account for the present the references in the Welsh "bardic" -literature to the cauldron of Ceridwen, chief among which is that in the -Mabinogi of Taliesin. I am far from thinking that this literature deserves -the wholesale condemnation that has been passed upon it, but it has been -too little and too uncritically studied to afford, as yet, a firm basis -for investigation. We are on surer ground in dealing with the living -folk-tale. Thus the tale of Fionn's Enchantment, although belonging more -properly to the other formula, may be noticed here as containing a cup of -balsam, the washings of which restore the maimed Fionn to complete health. -Mr. Campbell, who has noted the tale, remarks that the cup of healing is -common in all the Fenian stories, which is what we should naturally -expect, seeing the close connection between Fionn and Peredur (Rev. Celt. -I., p. 194). Other instances have already been given in Chapter VI. of the -appearance of the vessel of balsam in connection with the glaive of light, -and of its use in bringing back to life the hero's enemies. And here it -maybe noted that almost the very mode in which it is introduced in the -folk-tales may be paralleled from the romances. The Grail appears to -Perceval and Hector, lying well nigh dead upon the field of battle, and -makes them whole, even as the vessel of balsam revivifies the dead -warriors whom Conall Gulban has just slain, and heals the latter. It is, -perhaps, only a coincidence that the angel in the one, the Carlin in the -other case, appear in a great flashing of light. But, as a rule, in those -task-stories which otherwise present such close similarities to the feud -quest of the Proto-Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal, the mystic vessel has -dropped out altogether, and the sword is the chief if not the only -talisman. This is the case in Campbell, I., the young King of Easaidh -Ruadh, and in XLVI. Mac Iain Direach. In one instance the glaive of light -is met with outside the task group, in Campbell XLI., the Widow and her -Daughters, variant ii (a Bluebeard story), and here it is found associated -with the vessel of balsam. In the folk-tales, then, as in one section of -the Conte du Graal, the healing vessel is decidedly of less account than -the avenging or destroying weapon. This, as the sword, plays such an -important part in the French romances that an examination of its _rôle_ in -Celtic literature will repay examination. - -Besides the already quoted instances in which the sword of light -accompanies the vessel of balsam as one of the treasures which reward the -hero's quest, but in which it does not otherwise affect the march of the -story, we find others in which the sword is either that weapon which -causes the woe, the subject of the story, or else is the one means of -testing the hero's fitness for his quest. In either case it is parallel to -the sword of the Grail romances. Apart from these special instances there -are general references in the oldest Irish literature to the -quasi-supernatural nature attributed to the sword. Thus the Leabhar -Gabhala, or Book of Invasions, the tenth and eleventh century tract in -which Irish mythology was euphemerised into an historical relation of the -pre-Christian invasion of Ireland, has a passage relating to the sword of -Tethra, King of the Fomori,[98] which spake, and, adds the Christian -scribe, the ancient Irish adored swords.[99] This is borne out by a -passage in the Seirglige Conculainn, a story belonging to the Ultonian -cycle, which Mr. Whitley Stokes has translated (Rev. Celt. I., 260). The -men of Ulster, when showing their trophies, had their swords upon their -thighs, "for their swords used to turn against them where they made a -false trophy." - -The Christian transcriber notes that it was reasonable for the pagan Irish -to trust their swords "because demons used to speak from out them." To -return to the sword of Tethra. The most famous battle of Irish mystic -history is that of Mag-Tured, in which the Tuatha de Danann, the gods of -light and life, overcome their enemies the Fomori. Ogma, the champion of -the Tuatha de Danann, wins the sword of Tethra, and as he cleans it it -tells him the many and great feats it had wrought. - -It is, however, in the second of the great heroic cycles of the ancient -Irish, the Fenian or Ossianic, that we find the sword put to a use which -strongly recalls that of the romances. Not until the hero is able to wield -the weapon so that it break not in his hand, or to weld it together so -that no flaw appears,[100] is he fit to set forth on the quest. In -Campbell's LXXVII., "How the Een was set up," Fionn applies for his sword -to Ullamh Lamhfhada[101] (Ullamh the Longhanded), who gives him the most -likely sword and the best he found. The hero takes it, shakes it, casts it -out of the wooden handle and discards it. Thrice is this repeated, and -when the right weapon is in Fionn's hand, he quells utterly all he -sees.[102] Now how had Fionn obtained this sword originally? By slaying -black Arcan, his father's slayer. It may, I think, be looked upon as -certain that in an earlier form of the story, the weapon in question would -turn out to be the one with which the treacherous deed was done, and -Fionn, a counterpart of Peredur in his bringing up, would also be his -counterpart in this incident.[103] For the sword with which Partinal slew -Goon Desert is treasured up for the use of Perceval, but only after a -repeated essay is he held worthy of it.[104] - -The sword incident reappears in a tale of Campbell's, Manus (Vol. III.), -which presents some very remarkable analogies with the romances. Manus is -driven into various adventures by his aunt; an armourer of his -grandfather offers to get him a sword; but all given to him he breaks save -the armourer's old sword, and it beat him to break that. The armourer then -gives him a cloth, "When thou spreadest it to seek food or drink, thou -wilt get as thou usest." Subsequently, helped by a lion, he achieves many -feats. He comes to the help of the White Gruagach by fetching the blood of -a venemous horned creature belonging to the King over the Great World, by -which alone the White Gruagach could be restored to life when the magic -trout with which his life was bound up had been slain. Afterwards he -accompanies him against his enemy the Red Gruagach, who is slain, and his -head stuck on a stake. This Red Gruagach is apparently the father of the -aunt who so persecutes Manus.[105] - -This examination of the sword incident shows that the Mabinogi has -preserved the original form of the story, and links afresh this portion of -the Conte du Graal with the other Celtic stories belonging to the -Expulsion and Return formula group, with which it has so much else in -common. In all the formula-stories, except those of the Conte du Graal and -the Proto-Mabinogi, the hero has to avenge his father, not his uncle; and -it is highly suggestive that at least one version of the Perceval cycle -(the Thornton romance) follows suit. With this remark we may take leave of -the feud quest. - -Many and interesting as have been the parallels from the older Celtic -literature to the feud quest, they are far outweighed by those which that -literature affords to the second formula--the visit to the Bespelled -Castle--which we have noted in the romances. - -From the recapitulation (_supra_, pp. 173, _et. seq._) we may learn -several things. The castle lies, as a rule, on the other side of a river; -the visitor to it is under a definite obligation; he must either do a -certain thing, as, _e.g._, in Perceval's visit to the Castle of Maidens, -strike on the table three blows with the hammer, or he must put a certain -question, or again he must abstain from certain acts, as that of falling -asleep (Perceval and Gawain) or drinking[106] (Gawain, in Heinrich von dem -Türlin). Disregard of the obligation is punished in various ways. In the -case of the Castle of Maidens the craven visitor is allowed to fare forth -unheeded without beholding the marvels of the castle; but, as a rule, the -hero of the adventure finds himself on the morrow far away from the -castle, which has vanished completely. The inmates of this castle fall -into two classes--they are supernatural beings like the maidens, who have -apparently no object to gain from their mortal visitor, but who love -heroism for its own sake, and are as kindly disposed towards the mortal -hero in the folk-lore and mythology of the Celts as gods, and especially -goddesses, are in the mythic lore of all other races; or they suffer from -an over-lengthened life, from which the hero alone can release them. This -latter feature, seen to perfection only in Heinrich von dem Türlin, is -apparent in the Didot-Perceval, and has, in the Conte du Graal, supplied -the figure of the old man, father to the Fisher King, nourished by the -Grail. - -These features sufficiently indicate that the Magic Castle is the realm of -the other world. The dividing water is that across which lies Tír-na n-Og, -the Irish Avalon, or that Engelland dwelt in by the shades which the -inhabitants of the Belgian coast figured in the west.[107] In Celtic lore -the earliest trace of this realm is found, as is the earliest trace of -Grail and sword, in connection with the Tuatha de Danann, that race of -dispossessed immortals which lives on in the hollow hill sides, and is -ever ready to aid and cherish the Irish mythic heroes. The most famous -embodiment of this conception in Irish myth is the Brug na Boine, the -dwelling place of Oengus,[108] son of the Dagda, and the earliest account -of it is that contained in the Book of Leinster, the second of the two -great Irish vellums written down in the twelfth century. It is a land of -Cockayne; in it are fruit trees ever loaded with fruit, on the board a pig -ready roasted which may not be eaten up, vessels of beer which may not be -emptied, and therein no man dies.[109] But Oengus is not the only one of -the Tuatha de Danann who has such a fairy palace. The dwelling place of -Lug is of the same kind, and in the story of the Conception of -Cuchulainn,[110] which tells how the god carried off Dechtire, sister of -Conchobor, and re-incarnated himself in her as the great Ulster hero, we -learn that when Conchobor and his men go in search of Dechtire and her -fifty maidens, they first come to a small house wherein are a man and -woman; the house suddenly becomes a splendid mansion,[111] therein are the -vanished maidens in the shape of birds (and all sorts of goods, and dishes -of divers sorts, known and unknown; never did they have a better night, in -the morning they found themselves houseless, birdless in the east of the -land, and they went back to Emain Macha).[112] Although no prohibition is -mentioned the similarity in parts of this story, which, it must be -repeated, is older than the introduction of Christianity in Ireland, to -the romances is evident. Another famous Brug of the Tuatha de Danann is -that of Manannan Mac Lir. Among the visitors was Bran, the son of Febal, -whose story may be found in the Leabhar na h' Uidhre, the oldest of the -great Irish vellums.[113] One day as he was alone in his palace there came -to him soft, sweet music, and he fell asleep. When he awoke a silver -branch, covered with flowers, was at his side. A short while after, as he -was in the midst of his kinsfolk, his chiefs, and his nobles, an unknown -damsel appeared, and bid him to her in the land of _Sidhe_, and then -vanished, and with her the branch. Bran set sail, and with him thirty men. -After two days' wandering they met Manannan Mac Lir. They continued their -journey until they came to an island dwelt in solely by women; their queen -it was who had sent for Bran. He stayed with her a while, and then came -back to Ireland. - -But the most famous of the visits to the Brug of Manannan is that of -Cormac Mac Art, whom the Irish legendary annals place in the third century -of our era, and bring into connection with Fionn. The story, though only -known to us from later MSS., can be traced back to the tenth century at -least, as the title of it figures in a list preserved in the Book of -Leinster, and as it is apparently alluded to by the eleventh century -annalist, Tighernach.[114] The following summary is from a version, with -English translation by Mr. Standish Hayes O'Grady, in the third volume of -the Ossianic Society's publications. - -Of a time that Cormac was in Liathdruim he saw a youth having in his hand -a glittering fairy branch, with nine apples of red gold upon it.[115] And -this was the manner of that branch, that when any one shook it, men -wounded and women with child would be lulled to sleep by the sound of the -very sweet fairy music which those apples uttered, and no one on earth -would bear in mind any want, woe, or weariness of soul when that branch -was shaken for him. Cormac exchanged for this branch his wife and son and -daughter, overcoming their grief by shaking the branch. But after a year, -Cormac went in search of them. And he chanced upon a land where many -marvels were wrought before his eyes, and he understood them not. At -length he came to a house wherein was a very tall couple, clothed in -clothes of many colours, and they bade him stay. And the man of the house -brought a log and a wild boar, and if a quarter of the boar was put under -a quarter of the log, and a true story was told, the meat would be cooked. -At Cormac's request the host told the first story, how that he had seven -swine with which he could feed the world, for if the swine were slain, and -their bones put in the sty, on the morrow they would be whole again; and -the hostess the second, how that the milk of her seven white kine would -satisfy the men of the world. Cormac knew them for Manannan and his wife, -and then told his story how he had lost and was seeking for wife and -children. Manannan brought in the latter, and told Cormac it was he who -gave him the branch, that he might bring him to that house. Then they sat -down to meat, and the table-cloth was such that no food, however delicate, -might be demanded of it, but it should be had without doubt; and the -drinking cup was such that if a false story was told before it, it went in -four pieces, and if a true one, it came whole again, and therewith was the -faith of Cormac's wife made evident. And Manannan gave branch and cloth -and goblet to Cormac, and thereafter they went to slumber and sweet sleep. -Where they rose upon the morrow was in the pleasant Liathdruim. - -The foregoing examples have been akin to the incident of the Maiden -Castle. We have seen the race of immortals caring for the sons of men, -signalling out and alluring to themselves the brave and wise hero. In the -tales we are now about to examine the benefit conferred by the visitor -upon the inmates of the Magic Castle is insisted upon. But we must first -notice a tale which presents many of the incidents of the Grail romances, -without actually belonging to the same story group as they. In Campbell's -No. LXXXVI, the Daughter of King Under the Waves, Diarmaid, the fairest -and bravest of the Fenian heroes, weds a fay who, as her description -indicates, belongs to the same order of beings as the damsels who lure -away Connla and Bran, the son of Febal. She comes to him in loathly guise, -and the other heroes shrink from her; but Diarmaid, courteous as he is -brave, gives her the shelter of tent and bed and has his reward. She -builds for him such a castle as the fay mistress of the Knight of the -Black Tomb (_supra_, p. 17) builds for her lover. But she warns him that -after a threefold reproach as to how he found her she would have to leave -him. Through the cunning of Fionn he is led to break the taboo and "it was -in a mosshole he awoke on the morrow. There was no castle, or a stone left -of it on another." Diarmaid sets forth to seek his wife, he finds her -ailing to death, and to be cured she must have three draughts from the cup -of the King of the Plain of Wonder. Helped by a little russet man, he gets -the talisman, as was prophesied of him; but, advised by the little russet -man, he gives the maiden to drink out of a certain well, which changes -their love into aversion, and he returns to the light of day. - -This last feature should be noted as characteristic. The mortal lover -always tires sooner than the fay mistress. Oisin cannot stay in Tír-na -n-Og. Perceval gives but one night to the Lady of the Chessboard. - -We now come to the "unspelling" stories, and I will cite in the first -place one which is the most striking testimony I know of to the influence -of this formula upon Celtic mythic lore. There is a widely spread -folk-tale of a hero robbed of three magic gifts and getting them back -thus; by chance he eats some fruit or herb which changes him into an ass, -causes his nose to grow, sets horns upon his head, or produces some -equally unpleasant result. Another herb he finds heals him. Armed with -specimens of either, he wins back his talismans. In Grimm it is No. 122, -Der Krautesel, and in Vol. III., p. 201, variants are given. In one the -hero is one of three soldiers, and he receives the gifts from a little -grey man. But neither here nor in the variants given by Dr. R. Köhler -(Orient und Occident, II., p. 124) is the opening the same as in -Campbell's No. X.--The Three Soldiers. - -The three come to a house in the wilderness dwelt in by three girls who -keep them company at night, but disappear during the day. In the house is -a table, overnight they eat off it, and when they rise the board is -covered, and it would not be known that a bit had ever come off it. At the -first night's close one soldier gets a purse never empty; at the second, -the next one a cloth always filled with meat; and the third, the youngest -(the hero), a transporting whistle. But as they leave he must needs ask -them who they are, and they burst out crying, "They were under charms till -they could find three lads who would spend three nights with them without -putting a question--had he refrained they were free." - -In one variant the time of probation lasts a year, and the talismans are: -a cup that empties not, and a lamp of light, the table-cloth of meat, and -a bed for rest. In another the damsels are swanmaids,[116] and the -visitors are bidden "not to think nor order one of us to be with you in -lying down or rising up."[117] - -There can, I think, be little doubt that this last variant represents the -oldest form of the story, and that the swanmaid damsels belong to the -otherworld, as do the daughter of King Under the Waves and the maiden who -fetches Connla. There is nothing surprising in swanmaids being the object -of a taboo, this is so invariably the case in myth and folk-lore that it -is needless to accumulate instances; what is unique to my knowledge, I -speak under correction, is the fact of these damsels being in possession -of the talismans, one of which is so obviously connected with the Grail. -It may be noted that the obligation laid upon the hero is the direct -opposite of that in the Grail romances, in the one case a question must -not be asked, in the other it must. In this respect Campbell's tale of -course falls into line with all the widely spread and varying versions of -the Melusine legend. The supernatural wife always forbids her husband some -special act which, as is perhaps natural, he can never refrain from doing. - -The next form of the Bespelled Castle legend is one which has attained far -greater celebrity than any other on account of its traditional association -with historical personages. It pictures the inmate of the castle as a -King, with his warriors around him, sunk into magic sleep, and awaiting a -signal to come forth and free his folk. To many English readers this -legend will be more familiar in connection with Frederick Barbarossa[118] -or with Holger the Dane than with any Celtic worthy. Yet the oldest -historic instance is that of Arthur.[119] I have quoted (_supra_, p. 122) -Gerald's words relating to the mountain seat of Arthur. A more definite -tradition, and one closely resembling the episode in the Grail romances, -is the one noted by Gervasius of Tilbury[120] (c. 1211 A.D.). A groom of -the Bishop of Catania, following a runaway horse even to the summit of -Mount Etna, found himself in a far reaching plain, full of all things -delightful. A marvellous castle rose before him, wherein lay Arthur on a -royal bed, suffering from the wound inflicted upon him by Modred his -nephew, and Childeric the Saxon, and this wound broke out afresh each -year. The King caused the horse to be given to the groom, and made him -many rich presents.[121] - -This tradition of Arthur in Sicily raises some very interesting questions. -For one thing it is a fresh example of the tremendous and immediate -popularity of the Arthurian legend. It also shows with what rapidity a -tradition, however remote in its origin from a particular spot, may -associate itself with that. Of more immediate interest to us is the -question whether this tradition has any direct connection with the Grail -romances, whether it has shaped or been shaped by them. Martin refers the -Maimed King of the romances to the same myth-root as the wounded Arthur -waiting in Etna or in Avalon till his wound be healed and he come forth. -It seems to me more likely that in so far as the wound is concerned there -is a coincidence merely between the two stories, and that the Wounded King -belongs properly to the feud quest. I do not, however, deny that the fact -of the Lord of the Bespelled Castle, of the otherworld, being sometimes -pictured as suffering from an incurable wound, may have aided that fusion -of the two strains of legend which we find in the romances. - -It is not my purpose to examine here in detail the innumerable versions of -this widely-spread tradition[122], the more so as I have been able to -trace no exact parallel to that presentment of the story found in Heinrich -von dem Türlin and in the Didot-Perceval. No other version of this form of -the legend, to my knowledge, pictures the Bespelled King as awaiting the -deliverance of death at the hands of his visitor. Before endeavouring to -find a reason for the singularity of Heinrich's account, I will first -quote one variant of the common form of the legend which has not been -printed before save by myself in the Folk-Lore Journal, Vol. I., p. -193.[123] King Arthur sleeps bespelled in the ruins of (Richmond) Castle. -Many have tried to find him but failed. One man only, Potter Thompson by -name, wandering one night among the ruins chanced upon the hall wherein -sat the King and his men around a table upon which lay a horn and a sword. -Terrified, he turned and fled, and as he did so a voice sounded in his -ears-- - - "Potter Thompson, Potter Thompson, - Had'st thou blown the horn, - Thou had'st been the greatest man - That ever was born." - -for then he would have freed Arthur from his magic sleep. Never again -could he reach that hall. - -This version, besides being practically inedited has the merit of -exemplifying that association of the sword with the Lord of the Bespelled -Castle to which I have already alluded. - -The instances of the visit to the otherworld which have thus far been -collected from Celtic mythic literature, and which have been used as -parallels to the unspelling quest of the romances, are more closely akin -to one example of this incident, Perceval's visit to the Castle of -Maidens, than to that found in Heinrich and the Didot-Perceval. None, -indeed, throw any light upon that death-in-life which is the special -feature in these two works. All are of one kind in so far as the -disposition of the inmates towards the visitor is concerned; he is -received with courtesy when he is not actually allured into the castle, -and the trials to which he is subjected are neither painful nor -humiliating. But it will not have escaped attention that the Conte du -Graal contains another form of the visit, one which I have hitherto left -unnoticed, in Gawain's visit to the Magic Castle. A new conception is here -introduced: the Lord of the Castle[124] is an evil being, who holds -captive fair dames and damsels; they it is, and not he, whom the hero must -deliver, and the act of deliverance subjects him to trial and peril -(_supra_, p. 14, Chr. Inc. 17). Let us see if this form affords any -explanation of the mysterious features of Heinrich's version. This -incident may, it is easily conceivable, be treated in two ways; the hero -may be a worthy knight and succeed, or a caitiff and fail. A story of this -latter kind may throw some light upon Gawain's adventures at the Magic -Castle. The story in question (The Son of Bad Counsel) is ascribed by -Kennedy, Legendary Fictions, pp. 132, _et seq._, to an author of the -early eighteenth century, Brian Dhu O'Reilly, and traced back to an older -Ossianic legend--Conan's delusions in Ceash, of which Kennedy prints a -version, pp. 232, _et seq._ The hero of the story comes to the Castle of a -Gruagach, named the Giant of the Unfrequented Land, and his wife, daughter -to the King of the Lonesome Land. The name of the castle is the Uncertain -Castle. Very fair is their daughter, and she is proffered to the hero for -his promised aid against other fairy chieftains. After playing at -backgammon with the Gruagach, the hero lays himself to bed. He is -assailed, as he fancies, by great dangers from which he hastens to flee, -and, waking, finds himself in a ridiculous plight with his lady-love, and -the other folk of the castle laughing at him. In the morning he awakes, -"and his bed was the dry grass of a moat." - -The names of the personages in the story at once recall those of the -romances--the Waste Land or Forest, the Castle Perillous, and the -like--and one of the trials, the being shot at with fairy darts, is the -same as that to which Gawain is exposed in the Conte du Graal. But it is -interesting chiefly as being a version of a wide-spread tale of how gods -or heroes penetrating to the other world are made mock of by its inmates. -In Scandinavian mythology the story is well-known as Thor's visit to -Utgarth Loki. It is equally well-known in the Fionn saga, and, considering -the many points of contact we have hitherto found between Fionn and the -Grail hero, the Fenian form claims our notice. The oldest preserved form -of the story, that in the Book of Leinster, has been printed with -translation by Mr. Whitley Stokes, Revue Celt., Vol. VII., pp. 289, _et -seq._--Fionn comes at nightfall with Cailte and Oisin to a house he had -never heard of in that glen, knowing though he was. A grey giant greets -them; within are a hag with three heads on her thin neck, and a headless -man with one eye protruding from his breast. Nine bodies rise out of a -recess, and the hideous crew sing a strain to the guests; "not melodious -was that concert." The giant slays their horses; raw meat is offered them, -which they refuse; the inmates of the house attack them; they had been -dead had it not been for Fionn alone. They struggle until the sun lights -up the house, then a mist falls into every one's head, so that he was dead -upon the spot. The champions rise up whole, and the house is hidden from -them, and every one of the household is hidden.--In the later Fenian saga -(later that is as far as the form in which it has come down to us is -concerned) the story closely resembles Thor's visit. Kennedy (Bardic -Stories, pp. 132, _et seq._) has a good version.[125]--Fionn and his -comrades follow a giant, on his shoulders an iron fork with a pig -screeching between the prongs, behind him a damsel scourging him. They -follow them to a house wherein is an aged hoary-headed man and a beautiful -maid, a rough giant cooking the hog, and an old man having twelve eyes in -his head, a white-haired ram, and a hag clad in dark ash coloured garment. -Two fountains are before the house: Fionn drinks of one which at first -tastes sweet, but afterwards bitter to death; from the other, and though -he never suffered as much as while drinking, when he puts the vessel from -his lips he is as whole as ever he was. The hog is then shared; the ram -left out of count revenges itself by carrying out the guest's share, and -smite it with their swords as they may, they cannot hurt it. The hag then -throws her mantle over the guests, and they become four withered -drooping-headed old men; on the mantle being removed they resume their -first shape. These wonders are explained. The giant is _sloth_, urged on -by _energy_; the twelve-eyed old man is the _world_; and the ram the -_guilt of man_; the wells are _truth_ and _falsehood_; the hag _old age_. -The warriors sleep and in the morning find themselves on the summit of -Cairn Feargaill with their hounds and their arms by them. - -This tale betrays its semi-literary origin at once; and, though there is -no reason to doubt that the Irish Celts had a counterpart to Thor's -journey to Giantland, I am inclined to look upon the version just -summarised as influenced by the Norse saga. Certain it is that the popular -version of Fionn's visit to Giantland is much more like the eleventh -century poem, preserved in the Book of Leinster, than it is like the -mediæval, "How Fionn fared in the House of Cuana." I have already alluded -(_supra_, p. 186) to one feature of the tale of Fionn's enchantment, but -the whole tale is of interest to us.--As Fionn and his men are sitting -round the fire boasting of their prowess in comes a slender brown hare and -tosses up the ashes, and out she goes. They follow her, a dozen, to the -house of the Yellow Face, a giant that lived upon the flesh of men. A -woman greets them, and bids them begone before the Face returns, but Fionn -will not flee. In comes the Face and smells out the strangers. Six of the -Fenians he strikes with a magic rod, "and they are pillars of stone to -stop the sleety wind." He then cooks and devours a boar, and the bones he -throws to the Fenians. They play at ball with a golden apple, and the Face -puts an end to Fionn's other comrades. Hereafter he wrestles with Fionn, -and the griddle is put on the fire till it is red hot, and they all get -about Fionn and set him on the griddle till his legs are burnt to the hips -('twas then he said, "a man is no man alone"), and stick a flesh-stake -through both his hams, so that he could neither rise nor sit, and cast him -into a corner. But he manages to crawl out and sound his horn, and -Diarmaid hears it and comes to his aid, and does to the Face as the Face -did to Fionn, and with the cup of balsam which he wins from him makes -Fionn whole.--It is not necessary to dwell on the parallel between -Diarmaid healing his uncle Fionn, wounded with a stake through the two -thighs, by winning the cup of balsam, and Perceval healing his uncle -(mehaignié des II cuisses) by the question as to the Grail. This, alone, -would be sufficient to show us what _rôle_ the Grail played in the oldest -form of the feud quest before the latter was influenced by the visit to -the Bespelled Castle. - -If we look at the stories we have just summarised, we shall easily -understand the meaning of the Magic Castle vanishing at dawn. As sleep is -brother to death, so are night and its realm akin to the otherworld; many -phantoms haunt them and seem quick and strive with and often terribly -oppress the mortal wanderer through this domain, but with the first gleam -of sunlight they vanish, leaving no trace behind them, and the awakening -hero find himself in his own place. The conditions of the visit to the -otherworld are thus partly determined by man's nightly experience in that -dreamland which he figures to himself as akin to, if not an actual -portion of the land of shades. This visit, as we have seen, is conceived -of in several ways. Its object is almost invariably to win precious -talismans; all we have comes to us from our forefathers, and it is natural -to suppose that in the world whence they came, and whither they go back, -is to be found all that man seeks here, only in a form as more wonderful -than earthly objects as the dwellers in the otherworld are mightier and -cleverer than man. At times the talismans are held by beneficent beings, -who either gladly yield them to the mortal visitor, or from whom they may -be won by the exhibition of valour and magnanimity; at times by evil -monsters with whom the mortal must strive. In either case the visitor -arrives at nightfall and in the morning awakes to the life of this earth. - -The secondary or Gawain form of the myth, as found in the Conte de Graal, -may help us to understand Heinrich's version. It is to free imprisoned -damsels that Gauvain undergoes the trials of the Magic Castle. Now the -effect of his visit in the German poem is to free the sister of -Gansguoter, who, with her maidens, remains when the other inmates of the -castle, released by the question, have utterly vanished.[126] But what -means the death-in-life condition of the King and his men? Is it merely an -expedient to account for their sudden vanishing at daylight? I rather see -here the influence of another form of the unspelling myth, one that mixed -with Christian elements has powerfully impressed the popular imagination, -and is in many European countries the only one in which this old myth -still lives on.[127] - -The inmates of the Magic Castle or house are in this form figured as men -doomed for some evil deed to haunt that particular spot, until some mortal -is bold enough to win their secret and bring them rest. One would think -that under the circumstances they would be as amiable as possible to any -visitor. But the older form of the story persists, and they have not -terrors or trials enough for the man who is to be their deliverer. I will -only quote one version, from Irish sources.[128] - -A youth engages to sleep in a haunted castle. If he is alive in the -morning he will get ten guineas and the farmer's daughter to wife. At -nightfall he goes thither, and presently three men in old-fashioned dress -come down in pieces through a hole in the ceiling, put themselves -together, and begin playing at football. Jack joins them, and towards -daybreak he judges they wish him to speak, so he asks them how he can give -them rest if rest they want. "Them is the wisest words you ever spoke," is -answered to him. They had ground the poor and heaped up wealth evilly. -They show him their treasure, and tell him how to make restitution. As -they finish, "Jack could see the wall through their body, and when he -winked to clear his sight the kitchen was as empty as a noggin turned -upside down." Of course Jack does as he is told, and has the daughter to -wife, and they live comfortably in the old castle.[129] - -We have here, it seems to me, the last echo of such a story as one of -those which enter into the Grail romances. In Heinrich's version, as -elsewhere in these romances, different story types can be distinguished, -different conceptions are harmonised. Many, indeed, are both the early -conceptions and the varying shapes in which they embodied themselves, to -be traced in the complex mass of the romances. That a kinsman is bound to -avenge a blood feud, and that until he does so his kin may suffer from -ailment or enchantment and their land be under a curse; that the -otherworld is a land of feasting and joyousness and all fair things; that -it contains magic treasures which he who is bold may win; that it is -peopled with beings whom he may free by his courage; that it is fashioned -like dreamland--all these ideas find expression. - -If the foregoing exposition be accepted we have a valuable criterion for -the age of the immediate originals of the romances. That famous version of -the legend which pictured the dwellers in the otherworld as Kings, spell -bound, awaiting the releasing word to come forth and aid their folk, to -which special circumstances gave such wide popularity in the later middle -ages, causing it to supplant older tales of gods dwelling in the hollow -hills, this version has left no trace upon the romances. These must, -therefore, be older than the full-blown Arthurian legend. One or two minor -points may be briefly noticed. The ship in which is found the magic sword -which wounds all bold enough to handle it save the destined Knight may be -thought to have taken the place of an older island. The loathly Grail -messenger shows the influence of the two formulas: as coming from the -Bespelled Castle,[130] type of the otherworld, she should be radiantly -fair; as the kinswoman of the destined avenger, under spells until the -vengeance be accomplished, she is hideous in the last degree. - -But before we take leave of this incident we must examine two features -upon which, as yet, no light has been thrown, the meaning of the epithet -the _Fisher_ King, and the hero's silence upon his first visit to the -Castle of Talismans. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - - The Fisher King in the Conte du Graal, in the Queste, and in Borron - and the Grand St. Graal--The accounts of latter complete each - other--The Fish is the Salmon of Wisdom--Parallel with the Fionn - Saga--The nature of the Unspelling Quest--The Mabinogi of Taliesin and - its mythological affinities--Brons, Bran, Cernunnos--Perceval's - silence: Conte du Graal explanation late; explanation from the Fionn - Saga--Comparison of incident with _geasa_; nature of latter; - references to it in Celtic folk-tales and in old Irish literature, - Book of Rights, Diarmaid, Cuchulainn--_Geasa_ and _taboo_. - - -The Conte du Graal, as we have seen, offers no satisfactory explanation of -the Fisher King. By Chrestien he is represented on Perceval's first -meeting with him as angling from a boat steered by his companion (v. -4,187); he directs Perceval to his castle. Perceval is afterwards informed -that, being wounded and consequently unable to mount on horseback, fishing -is his only solace, whence the name applied to him (vv. 4,681, _et seq._). -This is practically all the Conte du Graal has to say about him, as the -continuators, whilst repeating the epithet, add no fresh details. Indeed -in none of the after-visits of Perceval is the King represented as -fishing, or is there the slightest reference to, let alone insistence -upon, this favourite occupation of his. It is another proof of the -inadequacy of Birch-Hirschfeld's theory of the development of the legend, -that it represents Chrestien, who, _ex hypothesi_, divested Borron's poem -of its religious character, as retaining this feature due wholly to -religious symbolism, whilst the continuators with their obvious fondness -for such symbolism entirely neglected it. The Queste, which in so far as -the quest portion is concerned is formally connected with the Conte du -Graal, says nothing about the Fisher, nor does that section of the Grand -St. Graal which presents the same Early History as the Queste. In -Borron's poem, on the other hand, and in that later section of the Grand -St. Graal which agrees with it, an explanation is given of the epithet. -According to Borron, Brons catches a fish at Joseph's bidding; Joseph, -having placed the vessel on the table and covered it with a towel, takes -the fish and lays it opposite the vessel; the people are then called -together, and it is possible to distinguish the sinners from the righteous -(vv. 2,500-2,600). Joseph is afterwards told by an angel, that, as Brons -was a good man, it was the Lord's will he should catch the fish (vv. -3,310, _et seq._), and he is to be called the Rich Fisher (v. 3,348). In -the Grand St. Graal (Vol. II., pp. 248, _et seq._) not Brons but his son -Alain is bidden by Joseph to fish, and this with a view to providing food -for the sinners of the company whom the Holy Vessel leaves unsatisfied. -Alain fishes from a boat with a net. He catches but one fish, and there -are at first murmurs, but Joseph, by virtue of Alain's prayers, multiplies -the fish so that it feeds the host, and thus Alain wins the name of Rich -Fisher. - -These accounts complete each other. Chrestien dwells upon the continued -act of fishing which, for aught to the contrary we learn from him or his -continuators, is always fruitless. Borron and the Grand St. Graal dwell -upon the one successful haul, and especially upon the miraculous -properties of the one fish caught. Reading the two accounts together, we -find that the Fisher King passes his life seeking for a fish which, when -caught, confers upon him the power of distinguishing good from evil, or -enables him to furnish an inexhaustible meal to his men. - -The Conte du Graal has been shown to derive more of its substance from the -feud quest--the Didot-Perceval from the unspelling quest. Borron's poem, -as far as its primitive Celtic elements are concerned, is probably to be -ranged with the Didot-Perceval, to which many links unite it. We may, -therefore, turn to Celtic stories belonging to either of these formulas -for parallel features. The inexhaustible nature of the fish at once -recalls the pigs of Manannan Mac Lir (_supra_, p. 194); they, too, can -feed a multitude. But it is in stories formally connected with the feud -quest that we find what I venture to suggest is an adequate explanation of -the nature of the Fisher King and of the fish. The latter is, I think, -the Salmon of Wisdom,[131] which appears so often and so prominently in -Irish mythic lore; and the former is that being who passes his life in -vain endeavours to catch the wonderful fish, and who, in the moment of -success, is robbed of the fruit of all his long toils and watchings. I am -prepared to admit that the incident as found in Borron's poem has been -recast in the mould of mediæval Christian symbolism, but I think the older -myth can still be clearly discerned and is wholly responsible for the -incident as found in the Conte du Graal.[132] - -Let us first look at the Irish story. This is found in an account, to -which allusion has already been made, of the Boyish Exploits of Finn Mac -Cumhail.[133] It is there told how Finn seeks his namesake, Finn-eges, to -learn poetry from him, as until then he durst not stay in Ireland for fear -of his foes. Now Finn-eges had remained seven years by the Boyne, watching -the salmon of Linn-Feic, which it had been foretold Finn (himself as he -thought) should catch and know all things afterwards. Finn, who conceals -his name, takes service with him and the salmon is caught. Finn is set to -watch it while it roasts, but warned not to eat of it. Inadvertently he -touches it with his thumb, which he burns, and carries to his mouth to -cool. Immediately he becomes possessed of all knowledge, and thereafter he -had only to chew his thumb to obtain wisdom. Finn-eges recognises that the -prophecy has been fulfilled, and hails his pupil as Finn. - -It is needless to dwell upon the archaic features of this tale, which -represents the hero seeking service of a powerful magician, from whom he -hopes to learn the spells and charms that may guard him against his foes. -Here, as in many other portions of the Ossianic saga, Fionn is strikingly -like a Red Indian medicine man, or the corresponding wizard among other -savage tribes. It is more to our purpose to note that this tale contains -the fullest presentment of Fionn as hero of the Expulsion and Return -Formula, and that a similar incident is to be found in the lives of other -heroes of the formula (notably Siegfried: the Adventure with Mimir.) Now, -as we have already seen that Peredur-Perceval is a formula hero, there is -nothing remarkable in finding an analogous incident in his _sage_. A -formal connection is thus at once made out. But we must look into the -matter a little closer, as the incident found in the romances is but a -faint echo, and that in part distorted by alien conceptions, of the -original story. - -The unspelling quest in one form resolves itself ultimately into the -hero's search for riches, power, or knowledge, in prosecution of which he -penetrates to the otherworld. This is figured in the Grail romances both -by Brons' or Alain's (who here answers to Fionn) catching the wonderful -fish, and by Peredur-Perceval coming to the house of Brons, the Fisher -King (who here answers to Finn-eges), winning from him the mysterious -vessel of increase, and learning the secret words which put an end to the -enchantments of Britain. In the Grail romances the idea of wisdom is not -associated with the Grail, the vessel, at all; it is either bound up with -the fish, as in the Irish tale, or is the possession of the Fisher King as -the wonder-working spells are the possession of Finn-eges. - -But in the Welsh tradition which corresponds to that of Fionn and the -salmon, it is the vessel, the cauldron, or rather the drink which it -holds, which communicates the gift of wisdom and knowledge. I allude, of -course, to the story of Gwion, set by Ceridwen to watch the cauldron of -inspiration, inadvertently tasting its contents, becoming thereby filled -with knowledge, pursued by Ceridwen, who swallows him, and in whom he -re-incarnates himself as Taliesin, the Allwise Bard. Campbell had already -(Vol. IV., p. 299) drawn attention to the similarity of the two stories, -and equated Fionn, father of Oisin, with Gwion, father of Taliesin; and, -as Professor Rhys has now (Hibbert Lectures, p. 551) given the equation -his sanction, it may be accepted as philologically sound. - -I have hitherto refrained in the course of these studies from making any -use of the Mabinogi of Taliesin, or of references to the cauldron of -Ceridwen of a like nature with those contained in that tale; but it will, -I think, be admitted now that the Welsh Mabinogi, however late in form, -and however overlaid it may be with pseudo-archaic bardic rubbish, does go -back to a primitive stratum of Celtic mythology. - -In connection with this myth the name Brons is of high import. This -catcher of the fish, this lord of the Grail, at once suggests Bran, who is -also a guardian of the magic cauldron. Professor Rhys (pp. 85-95) shows -reason for looking upon Bran (as he is presented in the Mabinogi of -Branwen) as the representative of an old Celtic god, Cernunnos, that -Celtic Dis from whom, as Cæsar reports, the Gauls claimed descent, and -who, as god of the otherworld and the shades was also god of knowledge and -riches. We are thus brought back again to the fundamental conception of -the Grail quest. - -It is to this tale that I would turn for one of the possible explanations -of Perceval's silence at the Court of the Fisher King. That the romance -writers did not understand this incident is evident from the explanation -they give. - -Gonemans' moral advice to his nephew on the evil of curiosity may have its -foundation in a possible feature of the original, about which I shall -speak presently; or it may simply be an expedient of Chrestien's or of his -immediate model. In either case its present form is obviously neither old -nor genuine. The silence of Perceval may, perhaps, be referred to the same -myth-root as Fionn's concealment of his name whilst in the service of -Finn-eges.[134] This prohibition might extend not only to the disclosing -of his name by the mortal visitor to the realm of the shades, but to the -utterance of any words at all. As he might not eat or drink in the -underworld, so he might not speak lest he lose the power to return to the -land of the living. One tale we have seen (_supra_, p. 195) does contain -this very injunction to say no word whilst in company of the dwellers in -the Bespelled Castle. In this case we should have to assume that two -varying redactions of the theme have been maladroitly fused into one in -the romances--that, namely, which bids the visitor to the otherworld -abstain from a certain act, and that which, on the contrary, bids him -perform a certain act, failure of compliance with the injunction being -punished in either case. The positive injunction of one form of the story -is used as an explanation of the hero's failure in another. - -An alternative hypothesis is that whilst the hero's unreadiness of speech, -the cause of his want of success at his first visit, comes wholly from the -unspelling quest, the motive by which the romances seek to account for -that unreadiness comes from the feud quest. The latter, as has been shown, -is closely akin to many task-stories; and it is a frequent feature in such -stories, especially in the Celtic ones, that the hero has to accomplish -his quest in spite of all sorts of odd restrictions which are laid upon -him by an enemy, generally by a step-mother or some other evil-disposed -relative. In the language of Irish mythic tradition Perceval would be -under _geasa_ to ask no questions, and Gonemans' advice would be the last -faint echo of such an incident. The form which such prohibitions take in -Celtic folk-tales is very curious. The _gess_ is generally embodied in a -magical formula, the language of which is very old and frequently -unintelligible to the narrators themselves. As a rule, the hero, by advice -of a friendly supernatural being, lays a counterspell upon his enemy. -Thus, in "How the Great Tuairsgeul was put to Death" (Scot. Celt. Rev. I., -p. 70) the magician "lays it as crosses and charms that water leave not -your shoe until you found out how the Great Tuairsgeul was put to death." -The hero retorts by laying the same charms that the magician leave not the -hillock until he return. In Campbell, No. XLVII., Mac Iain Direach, the -stepmother, "sets it as crosses, and as spells, and as the decay of the -year upon thee; that thou be not without a pool of water in thy shoe, and -that thou be wet, cold, and soiled until, etc.;" and the hero bespells -her, "that thou be standing with the one foot on the great house and the -other foot on the castle: and that thy face be to the tempest whatever -wind blows, until I return back." The formula in Campbell, No. LI, the -Fair Gruagach is very archaic. "I lay thee under spells, and under -crosses, under holy herdsmen of quiet travelling, wandering woman, the -little calf, most feeble and powerless, to take thy head and thine ear and -thy wearing of life from off thee if thou takest rest by night or day; -where thou takest thy breakfast that thou take not thy dinner, and where -thou takest thy dinner that thou take not thy supper, in whatsoever place -thou be, until thou findest out in what place I may be under the four -brown quarters of the globe." - -These instances will suffice to show the nature of the _gess_ in Celtic -folk-lore, but some references to older Irish literature are necessary to -show its great importance in the social and religious life of the race. -O'Donovan (Book of Rights, p. xlv.) explains the word _geasa_ as "any -thing or act forbidden because of the ill luck that would result from its -doing;" also "a spell, a charm, a prohibition, an interdiction or -hindrance." This explanation occurs in the introduction to a poem on the -restrictions (_geasa_) and prerogatives (_buada_) of the Kings of Eire, -found in the Book of Ballymote (late fourteenth century) and Book of Lecan -(early fifteenth century). The poem is ascribed to Cuan O'Lochain (A.D. -1024), and, from the historical allusions contained in it, O'Donovan looks -upon it as in substance due to that poet, and as embodying much older -traditions. Some of these _geasa_ may be quoted. For the King of Eire, -"that the sun should rise upon him on his bed in Magh Teamhrach;" for the -King of Leinster, "to go round Tuath Laighean left hand-wise on -Wednesday;" for the King of Munster, "to remain, to enjoy the feast of -Loch Lein from one Monday to another;" for the King of Connaught, "to go -in a speckled garment on a grey speckled steed to the heath of Luchaid;" -for the King of Ulster, "to listen to the fluttering of the flocks of -birds of Luin Saileach after sunset."[135] Even these instances do not -exhaust the force or adequately connote the nature of this curious -institution. In the Irish hero-tales _geasa_ attach themselves to the hero -from his birth up, and are the means by which fate compasses the downfall -of the otherwise invincible champion; thus it is a _gess_ of Diarmaid that -he never hunt a swine, and when he is artfully trapped into doing it by -Fionn he meets his death; it is a _gess_ of Cuchulainn's that he never -refuse food offered him by women, and as he goes to his last fight he -accepts the poisoned meal of the witches though he full well knows it will -be fatal to him.[136] But, besides this, _geasa_ may also be an appeal to -the hero's honour as well as a magic charm laid upon him, and it is -sometimes difficult to see by which of the two motives the hero is moved. -Thus Graine, wife of Fionn, lays _geasa_ upon Diarmaid that he carry her -off from her husband, and though he is in the last degree unwilling he -must comply.[137] - -Enough has been said to show that we have in the _geasa_ a cause quite -sufficient to explain the mysterious prohibition to ask questions laid -upon Perceval, if the first explanation I have offered of this prohibition -be thought inadequate. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - - Summing up of the elements of the older portion of the - cycle--Parallelism with Celtic tradition--The Christian element in the - cycle: the two forms of the Early History; Brons form older--Brons and - Bran--The Bran conversion legend--The Joseph conversion legend: Joseph - in apocryphal literature--Glastonbury--The head in the platter and the - Veronica portrait--The Bran legend the starting point of the Christian - transformation of the legend--Substitution of Joseph for - Bran--Objections to this hypothesis--Hypothetical sketch of the growth - of the legend. - - -I have now finished the examination of all those incidents in the Grail -Quest romances which are obviously derived from some other sources than -Christian legend, and which are, indeed, referred by pronounced adherents -of the Christian-origin hypothesis to Celtic tradition. I have also -claimed a Celtic origin for features hitherto referred to Christian -legend. This examination will, I trust, convince many that nearly all the -incidents connected with the Quest of the Grail are Celtic in their -origin, and that thus alone can we account for the way in which they -appear in the romances. The latter are, as we have seen, in the highest -degree inconsistent in their account of the mystic vessel and its -fortunes; the most cursory examination shows the legend to be composed of -two parts, which have no real connection with each other; the older of -these parts, the Quest, can easily be freed from the traces of Christian -symbolism; this older part is itself no homogeneous or consistent tale, -but a complex of incidents diverse in origin and character. These -incidents are: the rearing of the hero in ignorance of the world and of -men; his visit to the court of the King, his uncle; his slaying of his -father's murderer, the trial made of him by means of the broken sword; his -service with the Fisher King; his quest in search of the sword and of the -vessel by means of which he is to avenge the death or wounding of his -kinsman; his accomplishment of this task by the aid of a kinsman who is -under spells from which he will not be loosed until the quest be ended; -the adventure of the stag-hunt, in which the bespelled kinsman tests the -hero's skill and courage; the hero's visit to the Castle of Talismans; the -prohibition under which he labours; his failure to accomplish certain -acts; the effects of his failure; his visit to the Magic Castle, the lord -of which is under the enchantment of death-in-life; his visit to the -Castle of Maidens; his visit to the Castle Perillous; and his deliverance -of the captive damsels by means of the trials which he successfully -undergoes. To one and all of these incidents Celtic parallels have been -adduced; these have in each case been drawn from stories which present a -general similarity of outline with the Grail romances, or share with them -similar guiding conceptions, whilst at the same time they are so far -disconnected with them that no hypothesis of borrowing can account for the -features they have in common. The inconsistencies of the romances have -been explained by the fusion into one of two originally distinct groups of -stories, and this explanation is confirmed by the fact that traces of this -fusion may readily be found in the parallel Celtic tales. These latter, -when studied by scholars who never thought of comparing them with the -Grail romances, have been found to contain mythical elements which other -scholars had detected independently in the romances. Those features of the -romances which have perplexed previous students, the Fisher King and the -omitted question, have been explained from the same group of Celtic -traditions, and in accordance with the same scheme of mythical -interpretation which have been used to throw light upon the remainder of -the cycle. Finally, the one Celtic version of the Grail Quest, the -Mabinogi, which presents no admixture of Christian symbolism, has been -shown, when cleared of certain easily distinguishable interpolations, to -be genuine in character, and to present the oldest form of one of the -stories which enters into the romances. - -I have tried not to force these parallels, nor to go one step beyond what -the facts warrant. I have also tried to bear in mind that a parallel is of -no real value unless it throws light upon the puzzling features in the -development of the romances. I thus rest my case, not so much upon the -accumulative effect of the similarities which I have pointed out between -the romances and Celtic tradition, as upon the fact that this reference of -the romances to certain definite cycles of Celtic myth and legend makes us -understand, what otherwise we cannot do, how they came by their present -shape. It now remains to be seen if this reference, can in any way explain -the Christian element in the legend, which I have hitherto left almost -entirely out of account. Birch-Hirschfeld's hypothesis is condemned, in my -opinion, by its failure to account for the Celtic element; although I do -not think an explanation of a late and intruding feature is as incumbent -upon me as that of the original Celtic basis of the legend is upon him, I -yet feel that an hypothesis which has nothing to say on such a vital point -can hardly be considered satisfactory. It is the Christian transformation -of the old Celtic myths and folk-tales which gave them their wide vogue in -the Middle Ages, which endowed the theme with such fascination for the -preachers and philosophers who used it as a vehicle for their teaching, -and which has endeared it to all lovers of mystic symbolism. The question -how and why the Celtic tales which I have tried, not unsuccessfully I -trust, to disentangle from the romances were ever brought into contact -with Christ and His disciples, and how the old mystic vessel of healing, -increase, and knowledge became at last the sacramental cup, must, -therefore, be faced. The hypotheses set forth in the preceding page might -be accepted in their entirety, and the merit of this transformation still -be claimed, as Birch-Hirschfeld claims it, for the North French poets, to -whom we owe the present versions of the romances. On first reading -Birch-Hirschfeld's book, I thought this claim one of the flaws in his -argument, and, as will be seen by reference to Chapter IV., other -investigators, who accept the Christian origin of the larger part of the -legend, hold that it has been shaped in these islands, or in accordance -with Celtic traditions now lost. I think we can go a step farther. A -number of myths and tales have been used to illustrate the romances. In -them may be found the personages through whom probably took place the -first contact between Celtic mythic tradition and Christian legend. - -We must revert for one moment to the results obtained in Chapter III. by -an examination of the way in which the Grail and its fortunes are -mentioned in the romances. We there distinguished two forms of the -distinctively Christian portion of the legend, the Early History. In both -Joseph is the first possessor and user of the holy vessel, but in one its -farther fortunes are likewise bound up with him or with his seed. He, or -his son, it is who leads the Grail host to Britain, who converts the -island, and by whom the precious vessel is handed down through a chosen -line of kings in anticipation of the promised Knight's coming. In the -other form, on the contrary, Joseph has nothing to do with Britain, which -is converted by Brons and his son, Alain; Brons is the guardian of the -holy vessel, and, in one version, the fisher of the mystic fish, whilst in -another his son takes this part. There is repeated insistence upon the -connection between the Grail host and Avalon. Finally Brons is the -possessor of "secret words," and may not die until he has revealed them to -his grandson. - -This account is, we saw, later in form than the Joseph one. As we have it, -it was written after the greater portion of the Conte du Graal, after that -redaction of the Early History made use of by the author of the Queste and -of the first draft of the Grand St. Graal. Its influence only makes itself -felt in the later stages of development of the legend. But none the less -it clearly represents an older and purer form of the Early History than -that of the Queste and of Chrestien's continuators. It has not been -doctored into harmony with the full-blown Arthurian legend as the Joseph -Early History has. It is still chiefly, if not wholly, a legend, the main -purport of which is to recount the conversion of Britain. - -Such a legend is surely more likely to have been shaped by Welsh or Breton -monks than by North French _trouvères_. And when we notice the Celtic -names of the personages, and their connection with the Celtic paradise, -Avalon, there can remain little, if any, doubt respecting the first home -of the story. We may thus look upon Brons, owner of a mystic vessel, -fisher of a mystic fish, as the hero of an early conversion legend. But -the name Brons has at once suggested to most students of the cycle that of -Bran. The latter is, as we saw in the last Chapter, the representative of -an old Celtic god of the otherworld. He is the owner of the cauldron of -renovation. He is also the hero in Welsh tradition of a conversion legend, -and is commonly known as Bran the Blessed. Unfortunately the only -explanation we have of this epithet occurs in a late triad, to which it is -not safe to assign an earlier date than the fourteenth century. He is -described therein as son of Llyr Llediath, "as one of the three blissful -Rulers of the Island of Britain, who first brought the faith of Christ to -the nation of the Cymry from Rome, where he was seven years a hostage for -his son Caradawc."[138] But if late in form this triad may well embody an -old tradition. It gives the significant descent of Bran from Llyr, and -thereby equates him with Mannanan Mac Lir, with whom he presents otherwise -so many points of contact. It is quite true that the Bran legend, as is -pointed out to me by Professor Rhys, is mentioned neither in the earliest -genealogies nor in Geoffrey. But it should be noted that the Grand St. -Graal does bring one member of the Brons group, Petrus, into contact with -King Luces, the Lucius to whom Geoffrey ascribes the conversion. Again, -the epithet "blessed" is applied to Bran in the Mabinogi of Branwen, -daughter of Llyr. I have placed this tale as a whole as far back as the -eleventh-tenth centuries, and my arguments have met with no opposition, -and have won the approval of such authorities as Professor Windisch and -Monsieur Gaidoz. But the Mabinogi, as we have it, was written down in the -fourteenth century; the last transcriber abridged it, and at times did not -apparently understand what he was transcribing. By his time the full-blown -Bran legend of the triad was in existence, and it may be contended that -the epithet was due to him and did not figure in his model. On the other -hand, Stephens (Lit. of the Cymry, p. 425) quotes a triad of Kynddelw, a -poet of the twelfth century, referring to the three blessed families of -the Isle of Britain, one of which is declared by a later tradition to be -that of Bran.[139] Again, the triads of Arthur and his Warriors, printed -by Mr. Skene, Four Ancient Books, Vol. II., p. 457, from MS. Hengwrt, 566, -of the beginning of the fourteenth century, and probably at least fifty -years older, mentions the "blessed head of Bran."[140] On the whole, in -spite of the silence of older sources, I look upon the epithet and the -legend which it presupposes as old, and I see in a confusion between Bran, -Lord of the Cauldron, and Bran the Blessed, the first step of the -transformation of the Peredur _sage_ into the Quest of the Holy Grail. In -the first capacity Bran corresponds to the Lord of the Castle of -Talismans. From the way in which the fish is dwelt upon in his legend, it -may, indeed, be conjectured that he stood to Peredur in some such relation -as Finn-eges to Fionn. As hero of a conversion legend he came into contact -with Joseph. We do not know how or at what date the legend of the -conversion of Britain by Joseph originated. It is found enjoying wide -popularity in the latter half of the twelfth century, the very time in -which the romances were assuming their present shape. Wülcker (Das -Evangelium Nicodemi in der abendländischen Literatur, Paderborn, 1872) -shows that the legend is not met with before William of Malmesbury; and -Zarncke, as already stated (_supra_, p. 107), has argued that the passage -in William is a late interpolation due to the popularity of the -romances.[141] But to accept Zarncke's contention merely shifts back the -difficulty. If William did not first note and give currency to the -tradition, the unknown predecessor of Robert de Borron and of the authors -of the Queste and Grand St. Graal did so; and the question still remains -how did he come by the tradition, and what led him to associate it with -Glastonbury. Birch-Hirschfeld, it is true, makes short work of this -difficulty. The fact that there is no earlier legend in which Joseph -figures as the Apostle of Britain is to him proof that Borron evolved the -conception of the Grail out of the canonical and apocryphal writings in -which Joseph appears, and then devised the passage to Britain in order to -incorporate the Arthurian romances with the legend he had invented. It is -needless to repeat that this theory, unacceptable on _a priori_ grounds, -is still more so when tested by facts. - -But Joseph under other aspects than that of Apostle of Britain is worthy -of notice. The main source whence the legend writers drew their knowledge -of him was the Evangelium Nicodemi, the history of which has been -investigated by Wülcker. The earliest allusion in western literature to -this apocryphal gospel is that of Gregory of Tours (Wülcker, p. 23), but -no other trace of its influence is to be met with in France until we come -to the Grail romances, and to mystery-plays which relate Christ's -Harrowing of Hell. In Provence, Italy, and Germany the thirteenth and -twelfth centuries are the earliest to which this gospel can be traced. In -England, on the contrary, it was known as far back as the latter quarter -of the eighth century; Cynewulf based upon it a poem on the Harrowing of -Hell, and alludes to it in the Crist; the ninth century poem, "Christ and -Satan," likewise shows knowledge of it, and there is a West-Saxon -translation dating from the early eleventh century. - -Whence this knowledge and popularity of the gospel in England several -centuries before it entered prominently into the literature of any other -European people? Wülcker can only point by way of answer to the early -spread of Christianity in these Islands, and to the possibility of this -gospel having reached England before it did France or Germany. He also -insists upon the early development of Anglo-Saxon literature. - -Whether the fact that the apocryphal writings which told of Joseph were -known here when they were unknown on the Continent be held to warrant or -no the existence of a specifically British Joseph legend, they at all -events prove that he was a familiar and favourite legendary figure on -British soil. It would be rash to go any farther, and to argue from the -inadequacy of the reasons by which Wülcker seeks to account for the early -knowledge of the Evangelium Nicodemi in England, that Joseph enjoyed -particular favour among the British Christians, and that it was from them -the tidings of him spread among their Saxon conquerors. - -The legendary popularity of Joseph in these islands, though not in any -special capacity of Apostle of Britain, is thus attested. Let us admit for -argument's sake that the conversion legend did first take shape in the -twelfth century, is it not more likely to have done so here, where the -apocryphal writings about him were widely spread, than in France, where -they were practically unknown? And why if Borron, or any other French -poet, wanted to connect the Holy Vessel legend which he had imagined with -Arthur, should he go out of his way to invent the personages of Brons and -Alain? The story as found in the Queste would surely have been a far more -natural one for him. And why the insistence upon Avalon? We have plain -proof that Borron did not understand the word, as he explains it by a -ridiculous pun (_supra_, p. 78).[142] - -These difficulties are met in a large measure if we look upon Bran -(Brons) as the starting point of the Christian transformation of the -legend. In any case we may say that a conversion legend, whether -associated with Joseph or anyone else, would almost inevitably have -gravitated towards Glastonbury, but there are special reasons why this -should be the case with a Bran legend. Avalon is certainly the Welsh -equivalent of the Irish Tír na n-Og, the land of youth, the land beyond -the waves, the Celtic paradise. When or how this Cymric myth was localised -at Glastonbury we know not.[143] We only know that Glastonbury was one of -the first places in the island to be devoted to Christian worship. Is it -too rash a conjecture that the Christian church may have taken the place -of some Celtic temple or holy spot specially dedicated to the cult of the -dead, and of that Lord of the Shades from which the Celts feigned their -descent? The position of Glastonbury, not far from that western sea beyond -which lie the happy isles of the dead, would favour such an hypothesis. -Although direct proof is wanting, I believe that the localisation is old -and genuine: Bran, ruler of the otherworld, of Avalon, would thus come -into natural contact with Glastonbury; and if, as I assume, Joseph took -his place in the conversion legend the association would extend to him. -The after development of the legend would then be almost a matter of -course. Bran, the ruler in Avalon, would pass on his magic gear (cauldron, -spear, and sword, as in the case of the Tuatha de Dannan) to Bran the -Blessed, who would in his turn transfer them to Joseph. And once the -latter had entered into the legend, he would not fail to recall that last -scene of the Lord's life with which he was so closely associated, not by -any pseudo-gospel but by the canonical writings themselves, and thus the -gear of the old Celtic gods became transformed into such objects as were -most prominent in the story of the Passion and of the scene that -immediately preceded it. The spear became that one wherewith Christ's side -was pierced. As for the vessel, the sacramental nature is the last stage -of its Christian development; its original object was merely to explain -the sustenance of Joseph in prison, and to provide a miraculous -refreshment for the Grail host, as is shown by the Early History portion -of the Conte du Graal and by the Queste. In a dim and confused way the -circumstances of the Resurrection helped to effect the change of the pagan -resuscitation-cauldron into a symbol of the risen Lord. And some now lost -feature of the original legend--some insistence upon the _contents_ of the -vessel, some assimilation of them to blood--may have suggested the use to -which the vessel was first put. - -This hypothesis assumes many things. It assumes a Bran conversion legend, -of which the only evidence of anything like the same date as the romances -is a single epithet; it assumes that the hero of this legend was -originally an old Celtic divinity; it assumes a Joseph conversion legend, -for which there is really no other evidence than that of the romances; it -assumes the amalgamation of the two legends, and that Joseph took over in -a large measure the _rôle_ and characteristics of Brons. And when it is -recollected that the primary assumption, the identification of the two -Brans, rests in a large measure upon the appearance of the fish in the -Brons legend, that this fish is nowhere in Celtic tradition associated -with Bran, that it is associated on the other hand with a being, Fionn, -whom we have compared with Peredur, but that it is absent from the -Peredur-saga, the hypothesis must be admitted to be of a tentative nature. -I fully appreciate the force of the objections that can be urged against -it; at the same time it has the merit of accounting for many puzzling -features in the legend. When in the same story two personages can be -distinguished whose _rôle_ is more or less of the same nature, when the -one personage is subordinated in one version and has disappeared -altogether from the other, it is quite legitimate to conclude that two -originally independent accounts have become blended, and that one has -absorbed the other. The hypothesis is on safe ground so far. It thus -explains the presence of Brons in the legend, as well as his absence from -some versions of it; it has something to say in explanation of the -connection with Glastonbury; it explains in what way the Celtic traditions -were started on their path of transformation; and it provides for that -transformation taking the very course it did. There is nothing to be urged -against it on _a priori_ grounds; once admit the premisses, and the rest -follows easily and naturally. Its conjectural character (the main -objection to it) is shared in an even higher degree by the other -hypotheses, which have essayed to account for the growth and origin of the -legend, and _they_ have the disadvantage of being inherently impossible. - -In the light of the foregoing investigations and hypotheses we may now -amplify the sketch history of the whole cycle given in Chapter III. The -Peredur-saga probably came into existence in much its later form at an -early date in the Middle Ages. A number of older mythical tales centered -in a, perhaps, historical personage. The circumstances of his life and -adventures may have given them not only cohesion, but may also have -coloured and distorted them; nevertheless they remained, in the main, -mythical tales of the same kind as those found all over the world. One of -these tales was undoubtedly a Cymric variant of the Celtic form of the -Expulsion and Return formula; another dealt with the hero's journey to the -Land of Shades; traces of many others are to be found in the Mabinogi. -Another Celtic worthy, Gwalchmai, was early associated with Peredur, and -the two stood in some such relation to each other as the twin brethren of -a widely spread folk-tale group. Curiously enough, whilst comparatively -few incidents in the Peredur-saga were worked up into the version which -served as immediate model to the North French romances, that version -contained many adventures of Gwalchmai's which have not been preserved in -Welsh. We can trace three main crystallizations of the original saga-mass; -one represented by the Proto-Mabinogi contained the feud quest, and, -probably, some only of the other adventures found in the present Mabinogi; -the second, based more on the lines of the Expulsion and Return formula, -is represented by the Thornton MS. romance; in the third the feud quest -was mixed up with the hero's visit to the Bespelled Castle, and those -portions of the Gwalchmai-saga which told of his visit to Castle Perillous -as well as to the Bespelled Castle. Whilst the Proto-Mabinogi was probably -in prose, the Proto-Conte du Graal was probably in verse, a collection of -short _lais_ like those of Marie de France. Meanwhile, one of the chief -personages of the older mythic world which appear in the Peredur-saga, -Bran, the Lord of the Land of Shades, of the Bespelled Castle, of the -cauldron of healing, increase and wisdom, and of the knowledge-giving -salmon, had become the Apostle of Britain, his pagan attributes thus -suffering a Christian change, which was perfected when Joseph took the -place of Brons, bringing with him his gospel associations and the -apocryphal legends that had clustered round his name. Thus a portion of -the saga was Christianised, whilst the other portion lost its old, fixed -popular character, owing to the fusion of originally distinct elements, -and the consequent unsettling both of the outlines and of the details of -the story. Incidents and features which in the earlier folk-tale stage -were sharply defined and intelligible became vague and mysterious. In this -state, and bearing upon it the peculiarly weird and fantastic impress of -Celtic mythic tradition, the story, or story-mass rather, lay ready to the -hand of courtly poet or of clerical mystic. At first Christian symbolism -was introduced in a slight and meagre way--the Brons-Joseph legend -supplied the Christian meaning of the talismans, and that was all. But the -Joseph legend was soon vigorously developed by the author of the work -which underlies the Queste and the Grand St. Graal. He may either not have -known or have deliberately discarded Brons, the old Celtic hero of the -conversion, as he certainly deliberately thrust down from his place of -pre-eminence Perceval, the Celtic hero of the Quest, substituting for him -a new hero, Galahad, and for the adventures of the Conte du Graal, based -as they were upon no guiding conceptions, fresh adventures intended to -glorify physical chastity. With all his mystic fervour he failed to see -the full capacities of the theme, his presentment of the Grail itself -being in especial either over-material or over-spiritual. But his work -exercised a profound influence, as is seen in the case of Chrestien's -continuators. Robert de Borron, on the other hand, if to him the merit -must be assigned, if he was not simply transcribing an older, forgotten -version, was a more original thinker, if a less gifted writer. Although he -was not able to entirely harmonise the conflicting accounts of which he -made use, he yet succeeded in keeping close to the old lines of the legend -whilst giving a consistent symbolical meaning to all its details. His work -came too late, however, to exercise the influence it should have done upon -the development of the legend; the writers who knew it were mere heapers -together of adventures, and the very man who composed a sequel to it -abandoned Robert's main conception. - -The history of the Legend of the Holy Grail is, thus, the history of the -gradual transformation of old Celtic folk-tales into a poem charged with -Christian symbolism and mysticism. This transformation, at first the -inevitable outcome of its pre-Christian development, was hastened later by -the perception that it was a fitting vehicle for certain moral and -spiritual ideas. These have been touched upon incidentally in the course -of these studies, but they and their manifestation in modern as well as in -mediæval literature deserve fuller notice. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - - Popularity of the Arthurian Romance--Reasons for that - Popularity--Affinities of the Mediæval Romances with early Celtic - Literature; Importance of the Individual Hero; Knighthood; the _rôle_ - of Woman; the Celtic Fairy and the Mediæval Lady; the Supernatural--M. - Renan's views--The Quest in English Literature, Malory--The earliest - form of the Legend, Chrestien, his continuators--The Queste and its - Ideal--The Sex-Relations in the Middle Ages--Criticism of Mr. - Furnivall's estimate of the moral import of the Queste--The Merits of - the Queste--The Chastity Ideal in the later versions--Modern English - Treatments: Tennyson, Hawker--Possible Source of the Chastity Ideal in - Popular Tradition--The Perceval Quest in Wolfram; his Moral - Conception; the Question; Parzival and Conduiramur--The Parzival Quest - and Faust--Wagner's Parsifal--The Christian element in the - Legend--Ethical Ideas in the folk-tale originals of the Grail - Romances: the Great Fool, the Sleeping Beauty--Conclusion. - - -Few legends have attained such wide celebrity, or been accepted as so -thoroughly symbolical of one master conception, as that of the Holy Grail. -Poets and thinkers from mediæval times to our own days have used it as a -type of the loftiest goal of man's effort. There must be something in the -romances which first embodied this conception to account for the enduring -favour it has enjoyed. Nor is it that we read into the old legend meanings -and teachings undreamt of before our day. At a comparatively early stage -in the legend's existence its capacities were perceived, and the works -which were the outcome of that perception became the breviary and the -exemplar of their age. There are reasons, both general and special, why -the Celtic mythic tales grew as they did, and had such overwhelming vogue -in their new shapes. In no portion of the vast Arthurian cycle is it more -needful or more instructive to see what these reasons were than in that -which recounts the fortunes of the Grail. - -The tales of Peredur and Gwalchmai, bound up with the Arthurian romance, -shared its success, than which nothing in all literary history is more -marvellous. It was in the year 1145 that Geoffrey of Monmouth first made -the legendary history of Britain accessible to the lettered class of -England and Continent. He thereby opened up to the world at large a new -continent of romantic story, and exercised upon the development of -literature an influence comparable in its kind to that of Columbus' -achievement upon the course of geographical discovery and political -effort. Twenty years had not passed before the British heroes were -household names throughout Europe, and by the close of the century nearly -every existing literature had assimilated and reproduced the story of -Arthur and his Knights. Charlemagne and Alexander, the sagas of Teutonic -tribes, the tale of Imperial Rome itself, though still affording subject -matter to the wandering jongleur or monkish annalist, paled before the -fame of the British King. The instinct which led the twelfth and -thirteenth centuries thus to place the Arthurian story above all others -was a true one. It was charged with the spirit of romance, and they were -pre-eminently the ages of the romantic temper. The West had turned back -towards the East, and, although the intent was hostile, the minds of the -western men had been fecundated, their imagination fired by contact with -the mother of all religions and all cultures. The achievements of the -Crusaders became the standard of attainment to the loftiest and boldest -minds of Western Christendom. For these men Alexander himself lacked -courage and Roland daring. The fathers had stormed Jerusalem, and the -sons' youth had been nourished on tales of Araby the Blest and Ophir the -Golden of strife with the Paynim, of the sorceries and devilries of the -East. Nothing seemed impossible to a generation which knew of toils and -quests greater than any minstrel had sung, which had beheld in the East -sights as wondrous and fearful as any the jongleur could tell of. -Moreover, the age was that of Knight Errantry, and of that phase of love -in which every Knight must qualify himself for the reception of his lady's -favours by the performance of some feat of skill and daring. Such an age -and such men demanded a special literature, and they found it in -adaptations of Celtic tales. - -The mythic heroic literature of all races is in many respects alike. The -sagas not only of Greek or Persian, of Celt or Hindu, of Slav or Teuton, -but also of Algonquin or Japanese, are largely made up of the same -incidents set in the same framework. But each race shapes this common -material in its own way, sets upon it its own stamp. And no race has done -this more unmistakably than the Celtic. Stories which go back to the first -century, stories taken down from the lips of living peasants, have a -kinship of tone and style, a common ring which no one who has studied this -literature can fail to recognise. What stamps the whole of it is the -prevailing and abiding spirit of romance. To rightly urge the Celtic -character of the Arthurian romances would require the minute analysis of -many hundred passages, and it would only be proving a case admitted by -everyone who knows all the facts. It will be more to the point to dwell -briefly upon those outward features which early (_i.e._, pre-eleventh -century) Celtic heroic literature has in common with the North French -romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, especially as we thus -gain a clue to much that is problematic in the formal and moral growth of -the Arthurian cycle in general and of the Grail cycle in particular. - -In Celtic tradition, as little as in mediæval romance, do we find a record -of race-struggles such as meets us in the Nibelungenlied, in the Dietrich -saga, or the Carolingian cycle.[144] In its place we have a glorification -of the individual hero. The reason is not far to seek. The Celtic tribes, -whether of Ireland or Britain, were surrounded by men of their own speech, -of like institutions and manners. The shock of opposing nations, of rival -civilisations, could not enter into their race-tradition. The -story-teller had as his chief theme the prowess and skill of the -individual "brave," the part he took in the conflicts which clan -incessantly waged with clan, or his encounters with those powers of an -older mythic world which lived on in the folk-fancy. To borrow Mr. -Fitzgerald's convenient terminology, the "constants" of this tradition may -be the same as in that of other Aryan races, the "resultants" are not. To -give one instance: the conception of a chief surrounded by a picked band -of warriors is common to all heroic tradition, but nowhere is it of such -marked importance, nowhere does it so mould and shape the story as in the -cycles of Conchobor and the Knights of the Red Branch, of Fionn and the -Fianna, and of Arthur and his Knights. The careers of any of the early -Irish heroes, the single-handed raids of Cét mac Magach or Conall -Cearnach, above all the fortunes of Cuchullain, his hero's training in the -Amazon-isle, his strife with Curoi mac Daire, his expeditions to -fairy-land, his final holding of the ford against all the warriors of -Erinn, breathe the same spirit of adventure for its own sake, manifest the -same subordination of all else in the story to the one hero, that are such -marked characteristics of the Arthurian romance. - -Again, in the bands of picked braves who surround Conchobor or Fionn, in -the rules by which they are governed, the trials which precede and -determine admission into them, the duties and privileges which attach to -them, we have, it seems to me, a far closer analogue to the knighthood of -mediæval romance than may be found either in the Peers of Carolingian saga -or in the chosen warriors who throng the halls of Walhalla. - -In the present connection the part played by woman in Celtic tradition is -perhaps of most import to us. In no respect is the difference more marked -than in this between the twelfth century romances, whether French or -German, and the earlier heroic literature of either nation. The absence of -feminine interest in the earlier _chansons de geste_ has often been noted. -The case is different with Teutonic heroic literature, in which woman's -_rôle_ is always great, sometimes pre-eminently so. But a comparison of -the two strains of traditions, Celtic and Teutonic, one with the other, -and again with the romances, may help to account for much that is -otherwise inexplicable to us in the mediæval presentment of the -sex-feelings and sex-relations. - -The love of man, and immortal, or, if mortal, semi-divine maid is a -"constant" of heroic tradition. Teuton and Celt have handled this theme, -however, in a very different spirit. In the legends of the former the man -plays the chief part; he woos, sometimes he forces the fairy maiden to -become the mistress of his hearth. As a rule, overmastered by the prowess -and beauty of the hero, she is nothing loth. But sometimes, as does -Brunhild, she feels the change a degradation and resents it. It is -otherwise with the fairy mistresses of the Celtic hero; they abide in -their own place, and they allure or compel the mortal lover to resort to -them. Connla and Bran and Oisin must all leave this earth and sail across -ocean or lake before they can rejoin their lady love; even Cuchullain, -mightiest of all the heroes, is constrained, struggle as he may, to go and -dwell with the fairy queen Fand, who has woed him. Throughout, the -immortal mistress retains her superiority; when the mortal tires and -returns to earth she remains, ever wise and fair, ready to welcome and -enchant a new generation of heroes. She chooses whom she will, and is no -man's slave; herself she offers freely, but she abandons neither her -liberty nor her divine nature. This type of womanhood, capricious, -independent, severed from ordinary domestic life, is assuredly the -original of the Vivians, the Orgueilleuses, the Ladies of the Fountain of -the romances; it is also one which must have commended itself to the -knightly devotees of mediæval romantic love. Their "_dame d'amour_" was, -as a rule, another man's wife; she raised in their minds no thought of -home or child. In the tone of their feelings towards her, in the character -of their intercourse with her, they were closer akin to Oisin and Neave, -to Cuchullain and Fand, than to Siegfried and Brunhild, or to Roland and -Aude. Even where the love-story passes wholly among mortals, the woman's -_rôle_ is more accentuated than in the Teutonic sagas. She is no mere -lay-figure upon a fire-bound rock like Brunhild or Menglad, ready, when -the destined hero appears, to fall straightway into his arms. Emer, the -one maiden of Erinn whom Cuchullain condescends to woo, is eager to show -herself in all things worthy of him; she tests his wit as well as his -courage, she makes him accept her conditions.[145] In the great tragic -tale of ancient Ireland, the Fate of the Sons of Usnech, Deirdre--born -like Helen or Gudrun, to be a cause of strife among men, of sorrow and -ruin to whomsoever she loves--Deirdre takes her fate into her own hands, -and woos Noisi with outspoken passionate frankness. The whole story is -conceived and told in a far more "romantic" strain than is the case with -parallel stories from Norse tradition, the loves of Helgi and Sigrun, or -those of Sigurd and Brunhild-Gudrun. And if the lament of Deirdre over her -slain love lacks the grandeur and the intensity with which the Norse -heroines bewail their dead lords, it has, on the other hand, an intimate, -a personal touch we should hardly have looked for in an eleventh century -Irish epic.[146] - -Another link between the Celtic sagas and the romances is their treatment -of the supernatural. Heroic-traditional literature is made up of mythical -elements, of scenes, incidents, and formulas which have done service in -that account of man's dealings with and conceptions of the visible world -which we call mythology. All such literature derives ultimately from an -early, wholly animistic stage of culture. Small marvel, then, if in the -hero-tales of every race there figure wonder-working talismans and -bespelled weapons, if almost every great saga has, as part of its -_dramatis personæ_, objects belonging to what we should now call the -inanimate world. Upon these a species of life is conferred, most often by -power of magic, but at times, it would seem, in virtue of the older -conception which held all things to be endowed with like life. All heroic -literatures do not, however, accentuate equally and similarly this magic -side of their common stock. Celtic tradition is not only rich and varied -beyond all others in this respect, it often thus secures its chief -artistic effects. The talismans of Celtic romance, the fairy branch of -Cormac, the Ga-bulg of Cuchullain, the sounding-hammer of Fionn, the -treasures of the Boar Trwyth after which Prince Kilhwch sought, the -glaives of light of the living folk-tale, have one and all a weird, -fantastic, half-human existence, which haunts and thrills the imagination. -No Celtic story-teller could have "mulled" the Nibelung-hoard as the poet -of the Nibelungenlied has done. How different in this respect the twelfth -century romances are from the earlier German or French sagas, how close to -the Irish tales is apparent to whomsoever reads them with attention.[147] - -I do not for one moment imply that the romantic literature of the Middle -Ages was what it was, wholly or even mainly in virtue of its Celtic -affinities. That literature was the outcome of the age, and something akin -to it would have sprung up had Celtic tradition remained unknown to the -Continent. The conception of feudal knighthood as a favoured class, in -which men of different nations met on a common footing; the conception of -knightly love as something altogether disassociated from domestic life, -must in any case have led to the constitution of such a society as we find -portrayed in the romances. What is claimed is that the spirit of the age, -akin to the Celtic, recognised in Celtic tales the food it was hungering -for. It transformed them to suit its own needs and ideas, but it carried -out the transformation on the whole in essential agreement with tradition. -In some cases a radical change is made; such a one is presented to us in -the Grail cycle. - -The legend thus started with the advantages of belonging to the popular -literature of the time, and of association through Brons with Christian -tradition. Its incidents were varied, and owing to the blending of diverse -strains of story vague enough to be plastic. The formal development of the -cycle has been traced in the earlier chapters of these studies; that of -its ideal conceptions will be found to follow similar lines. Various -ethical intentions can be distinguished, and there is not more difference -between the versions in the conduct of the story than in the ideals they -set forth. - -To some readers it may have seemed well nigh sacrilegious to trace that - - ... vanished Vase of Heaven - That held like Christ's own Heart an Hin of Blood, - -to the magic vessels of pagan deities. In England the Grail-legend is -hardly known save in that form which it has assumed in the Queste. This -French romance was one of those which Malory embodied in his _rifacimento_ -of the Arthurian cycle, and, thanks to Malory, it has become a portion of -English speech and thought.[148] In our own days our greatest poet has -expressed the quintessence of what is best and purest in the old romance -in lines of imperishable beauty. As we follow Sir Galahad by secret shrine -and lonely mountain mere until - - Ah, blessed vision! Blood of God, - The spirit beats her mortal bars, - As down dark tides the glory slides, - And star-like mingles with the stars. - -we are under a spell that may not be resisted. And yet of the two main -paths which the legend has trodden that of Galahad is the least fruitful -and the least beautiful. Compared with the Perceval Quest in its highest -literary embodiment the Galahad Quest is false and antiquated on the -ethical side, lifeless on the æsthetic side. - -As it first meets us in literature the legend has barely emerged from its -pure and simple narrative stage. There is a temptation to exaggerate -Chrestien's skill of conception when speculating how he would have -finished his work, but we know enough, probably, to correctly gauge his -intentions. It has been said he meant to portray the ideal knight in -Perceval. As was formerly the wont of authors he presents his hero in a -good light, and he may be credited with a perception of the opportunity -afforded him by his subject for placing that hero in positions wherein a -knight could best distinguish himself. In so far his work may be accepted -as his picture of a worthy knight. But I can discover in it no scheme of a -quest after the highest good to be set forth by means of the incidents at -his command. Perceval is brave as a matter of course, punctual in obeying -the counsels of his mother and of his teachers, Gonemans and the -hermit-uncle, unaffectedly repentant when he is convicted of having -neglected his religious duties. But it cannot be said that the hermit's -exhortations or the hero's repentance, confession, and absolution mark, or -are intended to mark, a definite stage in a progress towards spiritual -perfection. The explanation of the hero's silence as a consequence of his -sin in leaving his mother, shows how little real thought has been bestowed -upon the subject. This explanation, whether wholly Chrestien's, as I am -tempted to think, or complacently reproduced from his model, gives the -measure of his skill in constructing an allegory. Beyond insistence upon -such points (the hero's docility) as were indicated to him by his model, -or, as in the case of his religious opinions, were a matter of course in a -work of the time, Chrestien gives Perceval no higher morality, no loftier -aims than those of the day. The ideal of chastity, soon to become of such -importance in the development of the legend, is nowhere set forth. -Perceval, like Gawain, takes full advantage of what _bonnes fortunes_ come -in his way. And if the Quest connotes no spiritual ideal, still less does -it one of temporal sovereignty. Had Chrestien finished his story he would -have made Perceval heal the Maimed King and win his kingdom, but that -kingdom would not have been a type of the highest earthly magnificence. We -have seen reason to hold that Chrestien made one great change in the story -as he found it in his model; he assigns the Fisher-King's illness to a -wound received in battle. This he did, I think, simply with a view to -shortening the story by leaving out the whole of the Partinal episode. No -mystical conception was floating in his mind. Yet, as we shall see, the -shape which he gave to this incident strongly influenced some of the later -versions, and gave the hint for the most philosophical _motif_ to be found -in the whole cycle. - -The immediate continuators of Chrestien lift the legend to no higher -level. I incline to think that Gautier, with less skill of narrative and -far greater prolixity, yet trod closely in Chrestien's footsteps. In the -love episodes he is as full of charm as the more celebrated poet. The -second meeting of Perceval and Blanchefleur is told with that graceful -laughing _naïveté_ of which French literature of the period has the -secret. But of a plan, an animating conception even such slight traces as -Chrestien had introduced into the story are lacking. Here, as in -Chrestien, the mysterious talismans themselves in no way help forward the -story. Chrestien certainly had the Christian signification of them in his -mind, but makes no use of it. The Vessel of the Last Supper, the Spear -that pierced Christ's side might be any magic spear or vessel as far as he -is concerned. The original Pagan essence is retained; the name alone is -changed. - -Thus far had the legend grown when it came into the hands of the author of -the Queste. The subject matter had been partly shaped and trimmed by a -master of narrative, the connection with Christian tradition had been -somewhat accentuated. It was open to the author of the Queste to take the -story as it stood, and to read into its incidents a deep symbolical -meaning based upon the Christian character of the holy talismans. He -preferred to act otherwise. He broke entirely with the traditional -framework, dispossessed the original hero, and left not an incident of his -model untouched. But his method of proceeding may be likened to a shuffle -rather than to a transformation. The incidents reappear in other -connection, but do not reveal the author's plan any more than is the case -in the Conte du Graal. The Christian character of the talismans is dwelt -upon with almost wearisome iteration, the sacramental act supplies the -matter of many and of the finest scenes, and yet the essence of the -talismans is unchanged. The Holy Grail, the Cup of the Last Supper, the -Sacramental Chalice is still when it appears the magic food-producing -vessel of the old Pagan sagas. What is the author's idea? Undoubtedly to -show that the attainment of the highest spiritual good is not a thing of -this world; only by renouncing every human desire, only by passing into a -land intermediary between this earth and heaven, is the Quest achieved. In -the story of the prosecution of that Quest some attempt may be traced at -portraying the cardinal virtues and deadly sins by means of the adventures -of the questers, and of the innumerable exhortations addressed to them. -But no skill is shown in the conduct of this plan, which is carried out -chiefly by the introduction of numerous allegorical scenes which are made -a peg for lengthy dogmatic and moral expositions. In this respect the -author compares unfavourably with Robert de Borron, who shapes his story -in full accord with his conception of the Grail itself, a conception -deriving directly from the symbolic Christian nature he attributed to it, -and who makes even such unpromising incidents as that of the Magic Fisher -subserve his guiding idea.[149] - -If the author's way of carrying out his conception cannot be praised, how -does it stand with the conception itself? The fact that the Quest is -wholly disassociated from this earth at once indicates the standpoint of -the romance. The first effect of the Quest's proclamation is to break up -the Table Round, that type of the noblest human society of the day, and -its final achievement brings cheer or strengthening to no living man. The -successful questers alone in their unhuman realm have any joy of the -Grail. The spirit in which they prosecute their quest is best exemplified -by Sir Bors. When he comes to the magic tower and is tempted of the -maidens, who threaten to cast themselves down and be dashed to pieces -unless he yield them his love, he is sorry for them, but unmoved, thinking -it better "they lose their souls than he his." So little had the Christian -writer apprehended the signification of Christ's most profound saying. The -character of the principal hero is in consonancy with this aim, wholly -remote from the life of man on earth. A shadowy perfection at the outset, -he remains a shadowy perfection throughout, a bloodless and unreal -creature, as fit when he first appears upon the scene as when he quits it, -to accomplish a quest, purposeless, inasmuch as it only removes him from a -world in which he has neither part nor share. Such human interest as there -is in the story is supplied by Lancelot, who takes over many of the -adventures of Perceval or Gawain in the Conte du Graal. In him we note -contrition for past sin, strivings after a higher life with which we can -sympathise. In fine, such moral teaching as the Queste affords is given us -rather by sinful Lancelot than by sinless Galahad. - -But the aversion to this world takes a stronger form in the Queste, and -one which is the vital conception of the work, in the insistence upon the -need for physical chastity. To rightly understand the author's position we -must glance at the state of manners revealed by the romances, and in -especial at the sex-relations as they were conceived of by the most -refined and civilised men and women of the day. The French romances are, -as a rule, too entirely narrative to enable a clear realisation of what -these were. Wolfram, with his keener and more sympathetic eye for -individual character--Wolfram, who loves to analyse the sentiments and to -depict the outward manifestations of feeling of his personages--is our -best guide here. The manners and customs of the day can be found in the -French romances; the feelings which underlie them must be sought for in -the German poet. - -The marked feature of the sex-relations in the days of chivalry was the -institution of _minnedienst_ (love-service). The knight bound himself to -serve a particular lady, matron or maid. To approve himself brave, hardy, -daring, patient, and discreet was his part of the bargain, and when -fulfilled the lady must fulfil hers and pay her servant. The relation must -not for one moment be looked upon as platonic; the last favours were in -every case exacted, or rather were freely granted, as the lady, whether -maid or wedded wife, thought it no wrong thus to reward her knight. It -would have been "bad form" to deny payment when the service had been -rendered, and the offender guilty of such conduct would have been scouted -by her fellow-women as well as by all men. Nothing is more instructive in -this connection than the delightfully told episode of Gawain and -Orgueilleuse. The latter is unwedded, a great and noble lady, but she has -already had several favoured lovers, as indeed she frankly tells Gawain. -He proffers his service, which she hardly accepts, but heaps upon him all -manner of indignity and insult, which he bears with the patient and -resourceful courtesy, his characteristic in mediæval romance. Whilst the -time of probation lasts, no harsh word, no impatient gesture, escapes him. -But when he has accomplished the feat of the Ford Perillous he feels that -he has done enough, and taking his lady-love to task he lectures her, as a -grave middle-aged man might some headstrong girl, upon the duties of a -well-bred woman and upon the wrong she has done knighthood in his person. -To point the moral he winds up, at mid-day in the open forest, with a -proposition which the repentant scornful one can only parry by the naïve -remark, "Seldom she had found it warm in the embrace of a mail-clad arm." -Not only was it the lady's duty to yield after a proper delay, but at -times she might even make the first advances and be none the worse thought -of. Blanchefleur comes to Perceval's bed with scarce an apology.[150] -Orgueilleuse, overcome with admiration at the Red Knight's prowess, offers -him her love. True, she has doubts as to the propriety of her conduct, but -when she submits them to Gawain, the favoured lover for the time being, he -unhesitatingly approves her--Perceval's fame was such that had he accepted -her proffered love she could have suffered naught in honour. - -Customs such as these, and a state of feelings such as they imply, are so -remote from us, that it is difficult to realise them, particularly in view -of the many false statements respecting the nature of chivalrous love -which have obtained currency. But we must bear in mind that the age was -pre-eminently one of individual prowess. The warlike virtues were all in -all. That a man should be brave, hardy, and skilful in the use of his -weapons was the essential in a time when the single hero was almost of as -much account as in the days of Achilles, Siegfried, or Cuchullain. That -_minnedienst_ tended to this end, as did other institutions of the day -which we find equally blamable, is its historical excuse. Even then many -felt its evils and perceived its anti-social character. Some, too, there -were who saw how deeply it degraded the ideal of love. - -A protest against this morality was indeed desirable. Such a one the -Queste does supply. But it is not enough to protest in a matter so -profoundly affecting mankind as the moral ideas which govern the -sex-relations. Not only must the protest be made in a right spirit, and on -the right lines, but a truer and loftier ideal must be set up in place of -the one attacked. In how far the Queste fulfils these conditions we shall -see. Meanwhile, as a sample of the feelings with which many Englishmen -have regarded it, and as an attempt to explain its historical and ethical -_raison d'être_, I cannot do better than quote Mr. Furnivall's -enthusiastic words: "What is the lesson of it all? Is the example of -Galahad and his unwavering pursuit of the highest spiritual object set -before him, nothing to us? Is that of Perceval, pure and tempted, on the -point of yielding, yet saved by the sight of the symbol of his Faith, to -be of no avail to us? Is the tale of Bohors, who has once sinned, but by a -faithful life ... at last tasting spiritual food, and returning to devote -his days to God and Good--is this no lesson to us?... On another point, -too, this whole Arthur story may teach us. Monkish, to some extent, the -exaltation of bodily chastity above almost every other earthly virtue is; -but the feeling is a true one; it is founded on a deep reverence for -woman, which is the most refining and one of the noblest sentiments of -man's nature, one which no man can break through without suffering harm to -his spiritual life." - -It would be hard to find a more striking instance of how the "editorial -idol" may override perception and judgment. He who draws such lofty and -noble teachings from the Queste del Saint Graal, must first bring them -himself. He must read modern religion, modern morality into the mediæval -allegory, and on one point he must entirely falsify the mediæval -conception. Whether this is desirable is a question we can have no -hesitation in deciding negatively. It is better to find out what the -author really meant than to interpret his symbolism in our own fashion. - -The author of the Queste places the object and conditions of his mystic -quest wholly outside the sphere of human action or interest; in a similar -spirit he insists, as an indispensable requirement in the successful -quester, upon a qualification necessarily denied to the vast majority of -mankind. His work is a glorification of physical chastity. "Blessed are -the pure--in body--for they shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven," is the -text upon which he preaches. In such a case everything depends upon the -spirit of the preacher, and good intent is not enough to win praise. His -conception, says Mr. Furnivall, is founded upon a deep reverence for -woman. This is, indeed, such a precious thing that had the mediæval -ascetic really felt it we could have forgiven the stupidity which ignores -all that constitutes the special dignity and pathos of womanhood. But he -felt nothing of the kind. Woman is for him the means whereby sin came into -the world, the arch stumbling-block, the tool the devil finds readiest to -his hands when he would overcome man. Only in favour of the Virgin Mother, -and of those who like her are vowed to mystical maidenhood, does the -author pardon woman at all. One single instance will suffice to -characterize the mediæval standpoint. When the Quest of the Holy Grail was -first proclaimed in Arthur's Court there was great commotion, and the -ladies would fain have joined therein, "car cascune dame ou damoiselle -(qui) fust espousée ou amie, dist à son chiualer qu'ele yroit od lui en la -queste." But a hermit comes forward to forbid this; "No dame or damsel is -to accompany her knight lest he fall into deadly sin." Wife or leman, it -was all one for the author of the Queste; woman could not but be an -occasion for deadly sin, and the sin, though in the one case less in -degree (and even this is uncertain), was the same in kind. Fully one-half -of the romance is one long exemplification of the essential vileness of -the sex-relation, worked out with the minute and ingenious nastiness of a -Jesuit moral theologian. The author was of his time; it was natural he -should think and write as he did, and it would be uncritical to blame him -for his degrading view of womanhood or for his narrow and sickly view of -life. But when we are bidden to seek example of him, it is well to state -the facts as they are.[151] - -If his transformation of the story has been rudely effected without regard -to its inherent possibilities, if the spirit of his ideal proves to be -miserably ascetic and narrow, what then remains to the Queste, and how may -we account for its popularity in its own day, and for the abiding -influence which its version of the legend has exercised over posterity. -Its literary qualities are at times great; certain scenes, especially such -as set forth the sacramental nature of the Grail, are touched with a -mystical fervour which haunts the imagination. It has given some of the -most picturesque features to this most picturesque of legends. But I see -in the idea of the mystic quest proclaimed to and shared in by the whole -Table Round the real secret of the writer's success. This has struck the -imagination of so many generations and given the Queste an undeserved -fame. In truth the conception of Arthur's court, laying aside ordinary -cares and joys, given wholly up to one overmastering spiritual aim, is a -noble one. It is, I think, only in a slight degree the outcome of definite -thought and intent but was dictated to the writer by the form into which -he had recast the story. Galahad had supplanted Perceval, but the latter -could not be suppressed entirely. The achievement of the quest involved -the passing away out of this world of the chief heroes, hence a third less -perfect one is joined to them to bring back tidings to earth of the -marvels he had witnessed. Lancelot, to whom are assigned so many of -Perceval's adventures, cannot be denied a share in the quest; it is the -same with Gawain, whose character in the older romance fits him, moreover, -excellently for the _rôle_ of "dreadful example." By this time the -Arthurian legend was fully grown, and the mention of these Knights called -up the names of others with whom they were invariably connected by the -romance writers. Well nigh every hero of importance was thus drawn into -the magic circle, and the mystic Quest assumed, almost inevitably, the -shape it did. - -This conception, to which, if I am right, the author of the Queste was led -half unconsciously, seems to us the most admirable thing in his work. It -was, however, his ideal of virginity which struck the idea of his -contemporaries, and which left its mark upon after versions. An age with -such a gross ideal of love may have needed an equally gross ideal of -purity. Physical chastity plays henceforth the leading part in the moral -development of the cycle. With Robert de Borron it is the sin of the flesh -which brings down upon the Grail host the wrath of Heaven, and -necessitates the display of the Grail's wondrous power. Here may be noted -the struggle of the new conception with the older form of the story. -Alain, the virgin knight, would rather be flayed than marry, and yet he -does marry in obedience to the original model. Robert is consistent in all -that relates to the symbolism of the Grail, but in other respects, as we -have already seen, he is easily thrown off his guard. In the -Didot-Perceval, written as a sequel to Robert's poem, the same struggle -between old and new continues, and the reconciling spirit goes to work in -naïve and unskilful style. The incidents of the Conte du Graal are kept, -although they accord but ill with the hero's ascetic spirit. In the -portion of the Conte du Graal itself which goes under Manessier's name, -along with adventures taken direct from Chrestien's model, and far less -Christianised than in the earlier poet's work, many occur which are -simply transferred from the Queste. No attempt is made at reconciling -these jarring elements, and the effect of the contrast is at times almost -comic. In two of the later romances of the cycle the fusion has been more -complete, and the result is, in consequence, more interesting. The prose -Perceval le Gallois keeps the original hero of the Quest as far as name -and kinship are concerned, but it gives him the aggressive virginity and -the proselytising zeal of Galahad. Gerbert's finish to the Conte du Graal -is, perhaps, the strangest outcome of the double set of influences to -which the later writers were exposed. Without doubt his model differed -from the version used by Gautier and Manessier. It is more Celtic in tone, -and is curiously akin to the hypothetical lost source of Wolfram von -Eschenbach. The hero's absence from his lady-love is insisted upon, and -the need of returning to her before he can find peace. The genuineness of -this feature admits of little doubt. Many folk-tales tell of the severance -of lover and beloved, and of their toilful wanderings until they meet -again; such a tale easily lends itself to the idea that separation is -caused by guilt, and that, whilst severed, one or other lover must suffer -misfortune. Often, as in the case of Diarmaid and the Daughter of King -Under the Waves (_supra_, p. 194), definite mention is made of the guilt, -as a rule an infringed taboo. Such an incident could scarcely fail to -assume the ethical shape Gerbert has given it. Thus he had only to listen -to his model, to take his incidents as he found them, and he had the -matter for a moral conception wholly in harmony with them. The chastity -ideal has been too strong for him. His lovers do come together, but only -to exemplify the virtue of continence in the repulsive story of their -bridal night. After Gerbert the cycle lengthens, but does not develop. The -Queste retains its supremacy, and through Malory its dominant conception -entered deeply into the consciousness of the English race. - -How far the author of the Queste must be credited with the new ideal he -brought into the legend is worth enquiry. Like so much else therein, it -may have its roots in the folk and hero tales which underlie the romances. -The Castle of Talismans visited by Perceval is the Land of Shades. In -popular tradition the incident takes the form of entry into the hollow -hill-side where the fairy king holds his court and hoards untold riches. -Poverty and simplicity are the frequent qualifications of the successful -quester; oftener still some mystic birthright, the being a Sunday's child -for instance, or a seventh son; or again freedom from sin is required, -and, perhaps, most frequently maidenhood.[152] The stress which so many -peoples lay upon virginity in the holy prophetic maidens, who can -transport themselves into the otherworld and bring thence the commands of -the god, may be noted in the same connection. No Celtic tale I have -examined with a view to throwing light upon the Grail romances insists -upon this idea, but some version, now lost, may possibly have done so. -Celtic tradition gave the romance writers of the Middle Ages material and -form for the picture of human love; it may also have given them a hint of -the opposing ideal of chastity.[153] - -All this time it should be noted that no real progress is made in the -symbolical machinery of the legend. The Holy Grail becomes superlatively -sacrosanct, but it retains its pristine pagan essence, even in the only -version, the Grand St. Graal, which knew of Borron and of his mystical -conception. - -Such, then, had been the growth of the legend in one direction. The -original incidents were either transformed, mutilated, or, where they kept -their first shape, underwent no ethical deepening or widening. The -talismans themselves had been transferred from Celtic to Christian -mythology, but their fate was still bound up with the otherworld. He who -would seek them must turn his back upon this earth from which the Palace -Spiritual and the City of Sarras were even more remote than Avalon or -Tir-na n-Og. Was no other course open? Could not framework and incidents -of the Celtic tales be retained, and yet, raised to a loftier, wider -level, become a fit vehicle for philosophic thought and moral exhortation? -One side of popular tradition figured the hero as wresting the talismans -from the otherworld powers for the benefit of his fellow men. Could not -this form of the myth be made to yield a human, practical conception of -the Quest and Winning of the Holy Grail? - -We are luckily not reduced to conjecture in this matter. A work largely -fulfilling these hypothetical requirements exists in the Parzival of -Wolfram von Eschenbach. On the whole it is the most interesting individual -work of modern European literature prior to the Divina Commedia, and its -author has a better claim than any other mediæval poet to be called a man -of genius. He must, of course, be measured by the standard of his time. It -would be useless to expect from him that homogeneity of narrative, that -artistic proportion of style first met with 150 years later in Italy, and -which from Italy passed into all European literatures. Compared with the -unknown poets who gave their present shape to the Nibelungenlied or to the -Chanson de Roland he is an individual writer, but he is far from deserving -this epithet even in the sense that Chaucer deserves it. His subject -dominates him. Even when his philosophic mind is conceiving it under a new -aspect he anxiously holds to the traditional form. Hence great -inconsistencies in his treatment of the theme, hence, too, the frequent -difficulty in interpreting his meaning, the frequent doubt as to how far -the interpretation is correct. Here, as in the discussion respecting the -_origines_ of the Grail legend, resort must often be had to conjecture, -and any solution of the fascinating problems involved is necessarily and -largely subjective. - -Wolfram's relation to his predecessors must be taken into account in -estimating the value of the Parzival. The earlier portion of his work -differs entirely, as we have seen, from any existing French romance; so -does the finish in so far as it agrees with the opening. The greater part -of the story is closely parallel to Chrestien; there are points of -contact, peculiar to these two writers, with Gerbert. Little invention, -properly so called, of incident can be traced in the Parzival. The part -common to it and Chrestien is incomparably fuller and more interesting in -the German poet, but the main outlines are the same. Wolfram has, however, -been at some pains to let us know what was his conception of the legend. -That much is allowed to remain at variance therewith is a clear proof of -his timidity of invention. - -Doubt, he says, is the most potent corrupter of the soul. Whoso gives -himself over to unfaith and unsteadfastness treadeth in truth the downward -path. God Himself is very faithfulness. Strife against Him, doubt of Him, -is the highest sin. But humility and repentance may expiate it, and he who -thus repents may be chosen by God for the Grail Kingship, the summit of -earthly holiness. Peace of soul and all earthly power are the chosen -one's; alone, unlawful desire and the company of sinners are denied him by -the Grail. - -How is this leading conception worked out? The framework and the march of -incidents are the same as in the Conte du Graal. One capital change at -once, however, lifts the story to a higher level. The Fisher King suffers -from a wound received in the cause of unlawful love, in disobedience to -those heavenly commands which govern the Grail community. The healing -question can be put only by one worthy to take up the high office Amfortas -has dishonoured, in virtue of having passed through the strife of doubt, -and become reconciled to God by repentance and humble trust. If Parzival -neglected to put the question on his first arrival at the Grail Castle, it -was that in the conceit of youth he fancied all wisdom was his. Childish -insistence upon his mother's counsels had brought down reproof upon him; -he had learnt the world's wisdom from Gurnemanz, he had shown himself in -defence of Conduiramur a valiant knight, worthy of power and woman's love. -When brought into contact with the torturing sorrow of Amfortas, he is too -full of himself, of his teacher's wisdom, to rightly use the opportunity. - -The profound significance of the question which at once releases the -sinner, and announces the one way in which the sin may be cancelled, -namely, by the coming of a worthier successor, is due, if we may credit -Birch-Hirschfeld, to an accident. Wolfram only knew Chrestien. The latter -never explains the real nature of the Grail, and the German poet's -knowledge of French was too slight to put him on the right track. The -question, "Whom serve they with the Grail?" which he found in Chrestien, -was necessarily meaningless to him, and he replaced it by his, "Uncle, -what is it tortures thee?" The change _may_ be the result of accident as -is so much else in this marvellous legend, but it required a man of genius -to turn the accident to such account. It is the insistence upon charity as -the herald and token of spiritual perfection that makes the grandeur of -Wolfram's poem, and raises it so immeasureably above the Queste. - -The same human spirit is visible in the delineation of the Grail Kingship -as the type of the highest good. Wolfram's theology is distinctively -antinomian--no man may win the Grail in his own strength; it choseth whom -it will--and has been claimed on the one hand[154] as a reflex of orthodox -Catholic belief, on the other as a herald of the Lutheran doctrine of -grace.[155] Theological experts may be left to fight out this question -among themselves. Apart from this, Wolfram has a practical sense of the -value of human effort. With him the Quest is not to be achieved by utter -isolation from this earth and its struggles. The chief function of the -Grail Kingdom is to supply an abiding type of a divinely ordered Society; -it also trains up leaders for those communities which lack them. It is a -civilising power as well as a Palace Spiritual. - -In the relation of man to Heaven, Wolfram, whilst fully accepting the -doctrines of his age, appeals to the modern spirit with far greater power -and directness than the Queste. In the other great question of the legend, -the relation of man to woman, he is likewise nearer to us, although it -must be confessed that he builds better than he knows. To the love ideal -of his day, based wholly upon passion and vanity and severed from all -family feeling, he opposes the wedded love of Parzival and Conduiramur. -The hero's recollection of the mother of his children is the one saving -influence throughout the years of doubt and discouragement which follow -Kundrie's reproaches. Whilst still staggering under this blow, so cruelly -undeserved as it seems to him, he can wish his friend and comrade, Gawain, -a woman chaste and good, whom he may love and who shall be his guardian -angel. The thought of Conduiramur holds him aloof from the offered love of -Orgeluse. In his last and bitterest fight, with his unknown brother, when -it had nigh gone with him to his death, he recalls her and renews the -combat with fresh strength. She it is for whom he wins the highest earthly -crown, of which her pure, womanly heart makes her worthy. Reunion with her -and with his children is Parzival's first taste of the joy that is -henceforth to be his. - -Passages may easily be multiplied that tally ill with the ideas of the -poem as here briefly set forth. But the existence of these ideas is patent -to the unprejudiced reader. Despite its many shortcomings, the poem which -contains them is the noblest and most human outcome of that mingled strain -of Celtic fancy and Christian symbolism whose history we have traced.[156] - -In Wolfram, equally with the majority of the French romance writers, there -is little consistency in the formal use of the mystic talismans. Be the -reason what it may, Wolfram certainly never thought of associating the -Grail with the Last Supper. But its religious character is, at times, as -marked with him as with Robert de Borron or the author of the Queste. It -is the actual vehicle of the Deity's commands; it restrains from sin; it -suffers no unchaste servant; it may be seen of no heathen; the simple -beholding of it preserves men from death. This last characteristic would -be thought in modern times a sufficient tribute to the original nature of -the old pagan cauldron of increase and rejuvenescence. But Wolfram was of -his time, and followed his models faithfully. Along with the lofty -spiritual attributes of his Grail, he pictures in drastic fashion its -food-dispensing powers. The mystic stone, fallen from Heaven itself, -renewed each Good Friday by direct action of the Spirit, becomes all at -once a mere victual producing machine. We can see how little Wolfram liked -this feature of his model, and how he felt the contrast between it and his -own more spiritual conception. But here, as elsewhere in the poem, he -allowed much to stand against which his better judgment protested. His own -share in the development of the legend must be gauged by what is -distinctively his, not by what he has in common with others. Judged thus, -he must be said to have developed the Christian symbolic side of the -legend as much as the human philosophic side. If in Robert de Borron the -Grail touches its highest symbolic level through its identification with -the body of the dead and risen Lord, we can trace in Wolfram the germ of -that approximation of the Grail-Quester to the earthly career of the -Saviour which Wagner was to develop more than 600 years later.[157] - -What influence Wolfram's poem, with its practical, human enthusiasm, its -true and noble sexual morality, might have had on English literature is an -interesting speculation. It would have appealed, one would think, to our -race with its utilitarian ethical instinct, with its lofty ideal of wedded -love. The true man, Parzival, should, in the fitness of things, be the -English hero of the Quest, rather than the visionary ascetic Galahad. -Mediæval England was dominated by France and knew nothing of Germany, and -when in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries we can trace German -influence on English thought and writ, taste had changed, and the Parzival -was well-nigh forgotten in its own land. It remained so almost until our -own days. The Quest after Perfection still haunted the German mind, but it -was conceived of on altogether different lines from those of the twelfth -century poet. The nation of scholars pictured the quester as a student, -not as a knight. When it took shape in the dreary period of Protestant -scholasticism the quest is wholly cursed. Faust's pursuit of knowledge is -unlawful, a rebellion against God, which dooms him irrevocably. Not until -Goethe's day is the full significance of the legend perceived, is the -theme widened to embrace the totality of human striving. Thus the last -glimpse we have of Faust is of one devoted to the service of man; the last -words of the poem are a recognition of the divine element in the love of -man and woman.[158] - -In Germany, as in England, the old legend has appealed afresh to poets and -thinkers, and then, as was natural, they turned to Germany's greatest -mediæval poet. Wagner's Parsifal would, in any case, be interesting as an -expression of one of the strongest dramatic geniuses of the century. -Considered purely as a work of literature, apart from the music, it has -rare beauty and profound significance. The essentially dramatic bent of -Wagner's mind, the stage destination of the poem, must be borne in mind -when considering it. Wolfram's conception--youthful folly and inexperience -chastised by reproof, followed by doubt and strife, cancelled by the -faithful steadfastness of the full-grown man--is obviously unsuited for -dramatic purposes. At no one point of Wolfram's poem do we find that clash -of motives and of characters which the stage requires. In building up -_his_ conception Wagner has utilised every hint of his predecessor with -wonderful ingenuity. Klinschor, the magician, becomes with him the active -opponent of the Grail King, Amfortas, from whom he has wrested the holy -spear by the aid of Kundry's unholy beauty. Kundry is Wagner's great -contribution to the legend. She is the Herodias whom Christ for her -laughter doomed to wander till He come again. Subject to the powers of -evil, she must tempt and lure to their destruction the Grail warriors. And -yet she would find release and salvation could a man resist her love -spell.[159] She knows this. The scene between the unwilling temptress, -whose success would but doom her afresh, and the virgin Parsifal thus -becomes tragic in the extreme. How does this affect Amfortas and the -Grail? In this way. Parsifal is the "pure fool," knowing nought of sin or -suffering. It had been foretold of him he should become "wise by -fellow-suffering," and so it proves. The overmastering rush of desire -unseals his eyes, clears his mind. Heart-wounded by the shaft of passion, -he feels Amfortas' torture thrill through him. The pain of the physical -wound is his, but far more, the agony of the sinner who has been unworthy -his high trust, and who, soiled by carnal sin, must yet daily come in -contact with the Grail, symbol of the highest purity and holiness. The -strength which comes of the new-born knowledge enables him to resist -sensual longing, and thereby to release both Kundry and Amfortas. - -In the latest version of the Perceval Quest, as in the Galahad Quest, the -ideal of chastity is thus paramount. This result is due to Wagner's -dramatic treatment of the theme. The conception that knowledge of sin and -fellowship in suffering are requisite to enable man to resist temptation, -and that thus alone does he acquire the needful strength to assist his -fellows, however true and profound, can obviously only be worked out on -the stage through the medium of one form of sin and suffering. The long -psychological process of Wolfram's poem, the slow growth of the unthinking -youth into the steadfast, faithful man, is replaced by a mystic, -transcendental conversion. From out a world of human endeavour, human -motive, we have stepped into one wholly ascetic and symbolical. The love -of man for woman only appears in the guise of forbidden desire; the aims -and needs of this world are not even thought of. Every incident has been -remoulded in accord with Christian tradition. Wagner fully accepts the -sacramental nature of the Grail, and the Grail feast is with him a -faithful reproduction of the Last Supper. Holiness and purity are the -essence of the Grail, which is cleared from every taint of its pagan -origin. And whilst Wagner, following the French models, identifies the -Grail with the most sacred object of Christian worship, he also, -developing hints of Wolfram's, reshapes the career of his Grail-seeker in -accord with that of Christ. Parsifal, the releaser of sin-stricken Kundry, -of sin-stricken Amfortas--Parsifal, the restorer of peace and holiness to -the Grail Kingdom--becomes a symbol of the Saviour. - -In the reasoned, artistic growth of the legend, the plastic, living -element is that supplied by Christian tradition. From the moment that the -Celtic lord of the underworld is identified with the evangelist of Britain -we see the older complex of tales acquire consistency, life, and meaning. -Even where the direct influence of the intruding element is slightest, as -in the Conte du Graal, we can still perceive that it is responsible for -the germs of after development. Sometimes violently and unintelligently, -sometimes with a keen feeling for the possibilities of the original -romance, sometimes with the boldest introduction of new matter, sometimes -with slavish adherence to pre-Christian conceptions, the transformation of -the Celtic tales goes on. The cauldron of increase and renovation, the -glaive of light, the magic fish, the visit to the otherworld, all are -gradually metamorphosed until at last the talisman of the Irish gods -becomes the symbol of the risen Lord, its seeker a type of Christ in His -divinest attributes. - -The ethical teaching of the legend becomes also purely Christian as the -Middle Ages conceived Christianity. Renunciation of the world and of the -flesh is its key-note. Once only in Wolfram do we find an ideal human in -its essence, though dogmatic in form; the path thus opened is not trodden -further, and the legend remains as a whole, on the moral side, a monument -of Christian asceticism. - -We have seen reason to surmise that the folk-tales which underlie the -romances themselves gave the hint for the most characteristic -manifestation of this ascetic ideal. It is worth enquiry if these tales -have developed themselves independently from the Christianised legend, and -if such development shows any trace of ethical conceptions comparable with -those of the legend. Can we gather from the tales as fashioned by the folk -teaching similar to that of the preachers, philosophers, and artists by -whom the legend has been shaped? Few enquiries can be more interesting -than one which traces such a conception as the Quest after the highest -good as pictured by the rudest and most primitive members of the race. - -Many of the tales which formed a part of the (hypothetical) Welsh original -of the earliest Grail romances have been shown to come under the Aryan -Expulsion and Return Formula (_supra_, Ch. VI). Among most races this -formula has connected itself with the national heroes, and has given rise -to hero-tales in which the historical element outweighs the ethical. -Sometimes, as in the tale of Perseus, the incidents are so related as to -bring out an ethical _motif_; Perseus is certainly thought of as avenging -his mother's undeserved wrongs. I cannot trace anything of the kind among -the Celts. All the incidents of the formula in Celtic tradition which I -know of are purely historical in character. This element of the old -Saga-mass thus yields nothing for the present enquiry. Others are more -fruitful. Perceval is akin not only to Fionn, but also to the Great Fool. -The Lay of the Great Fool was found to tally closely with adventures in -the Mabinogi and in the Conte du Graal (_supra_, Ch. VI). It also sets -forth a moral conception that admits of profitable comparison with that of -the Grail romances. - -Ultimately, the Lay is, I have little doubt, one of the many forms in -which a mortal's visit to the otherworld was related. Wandering into the -Glen of Glamour, the hero and his love encounter a magician; the hero -drinks of the proffered cup, despite his love's remonstrances, and -forthwith loses his two legs. This is obviously a form of the -widely-spread myth which forbids the visitant to the otherworld to partake -of aught there under penalty of never returning to earth. But this -mythical _motif_ has taken an ethical shape in popular fancy. According to -Kennedy's version, it is the hero's excess in draining the cup to the -dregs which calls for punishment. This change is of the same nature as -that noted with regard to a similar incident in the Grail romances. There, -the old mythic taboo of sleeping or speaking in the otherworld called at -last for an explanation, and found one in Wolfram's philosophic -conception. The parallel does not end here. Perceval may retrieve his -fault, and so may the Great Fool; Wolfram makes his hero win salvation by -steadfast faith, the folk-tale makes its hero in the face of every form of -temptation a pattern of steadfast loyalty to the absent friend and to the -pledged word. It may, or may not, be considered to the advantage of the -folk-tale that, unlike the mediæval romance, it deals neither in mysticism -nor in asceticism. The sin and atonement of the Great Fool are such as the -popular mind can grasp; he is an example of human weakness and human -strength. The woman he loves is no temptress, no representative of the -evil principle--on the contrary, she is ever by his side to counsel and to -cheer him. - -When it is remembered that the two off-shoots, romantic-legendary and -popular, from the one traditional stem have grown up in perfect -independence of each other, the kinship of moral idea is startling. The -folk-lorist has often cause to wonder at the spontaneous flower-like -character of the object of his study; folk-tradition seems to obey fixed -laws of growth and to be no product of man's free thought and speech. The -few partisans of the theory that folk-tradition is only a later and -weakened echo of the higher culture of the race are invited to study the -present case. A Celtic tale, after supplying an important element to the -Christianised Grail legend, has gone on its way entirely unaffected by the -new shape which that legend assumed, and yet it has worked out a moral -conception of fundamental likeness to one set forth in the legend. It -would be difficult to find a more perfect instance of the spontaneous, -evolutional character of tradition contended for by what, in default of a -better name, must be called the anthropological school of folk-lorists. - -We must quit Celtic ground to find another example of an element in the -originals of the Grail romances, embodying a popular ethical idea. This -instance is such an interesting one that I cannot pass it by in silence. -As was shown in Chapter VII, one of the many forms of the hero's visit to -the otherworld has for object the release of maidens held captive by an -evil power. A formal connection was established between this section of -the romance and the folk-tale of the Sleeping Beauty. As a whole, too, -this tale admits of comparison with the legend. Its origin is mythic -without a doubt. Whether it be regarded as a day or as a year myth, as the -rescue of the dawn from night, or of the incarnate spring from the bonds -of winter, it equally pictures a victory of the lord of light and heat and -life over the powers of darkness, cold, and death. With admirable fidelity -folk-tradition has preserved the myth, so that its true nature can be -recognised without fail. It would be wrong, though, to conclude that -retention of the mythic framework implied any recognition of its mythic -character on the part of those who told or listened to the story. Some -investigators, indeed, hold it idle to consider it otherwise than as a -tale told merely for amusement. But a story, to live, must appeal to moral -as well as to æsthetic emotions. In the folk-mind this story sets forth, -dimly though it may be, that search for the highest human felicity which -is likewise a theme of the Grail romances. What better picture of this -quest could be found than the old mythic symbol of the awakening of life -and increase beneath the kiss of the sun-god. The hero of the folk-tale -makes his way through the briars and tangle of the forest that he may -restore to the deserted castle life and plenty; so much has the tale -retained of the original mythic signification. As regards the quester -himself, the maiden he thus woos is his reward and the noblest prize earth -has to offer him. Where the romance writers made power, or riches, or -learning, or personal salvation the goal of man's effort, the folk-tale -bids him seek happiness in the common human affections. - -Such, all too briefly sketched, has been the fate and story of these -tales, first shaped in a period of culture wellnigh pre-historic, gifted -by reason of their Celtic setting with a charm that commended them to the -romantic spirit of the middle ages, and made them fit vehicles for the -embodiment of mediæval ideas. Quickened by Christian symbolism they came -to express and typify the noblest and the most mystic longings of man. The -legend, as the poets and thinkers of the twelfth century fashioned it, has -still a lesson and a meaning for us. It may be likened to one of the -divine maidens of Irish tradition. She lives across the western sea. Ever -and again heroes, filled with mysterious yearning for the truth and beauty -of the infinite and undying, make sail to join her if they may. They pass -away and others succeed them, but she remains ever young and fair. So long -as the thirst of man for the ideal endures, her spell will not be -weakened, her charm will not be lessened. But each generation works out -this Quest in its own spirit. This much may be predicted with some -confidence: henceforth, whosoever would do full justice to the legend must -take pattern by Wolfram von Eschenbach rather than by any of his rivals; -he must deal with human needs and human longings; his ideal must be the -widening of human good and human joy. Above all, he must give reverent yet -full expression to all the aspirations, all the energies of man and of -woman. - - -FINIS. - - - - -APPENDIX A. - -THE RELATIONSHIP OF WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH AND CHRESTIEN. - - -The various arguments for and against the use of any other French source -than Chrestien by Wolfram have been clearly summed up by G. Bötticher, Die -Wolfram Literatur seit Lachmann, Berlin, 1880. The chief representative of -the negative opinion is Birch-Hirschfeld, who first gives, Chapter VIII. -of his work, a useful collection of passages relating to the Grail, the -Castle, and the Quest, from both authors. His chief argument is this:--The -Grail in all the romances except in Wolfram is a cup or vessel, but in -Wolfram a stone, a peculiarity only to be explained by Wolfram's ignorance -of any source than Chrestien, and by the fact that the latter, in -accordance with his usual practice of leaving objects and persons in as -mysterious an atmosphere as possible, nowhere gives a clear description of -the Grail. He undoubtedly would have done so if he had finished his work. -Such indications as he gave led Wolfram, who did not understand the word -_Graal_, to think it was a stone. It is inconceivable that Kyot, if such a -personage existed, should have so far departed from all other versions as -not to picture the Grail as a vessel, inconceivable, again, that his -account of it should have been just as vague as Chrestien's, that he -should have afforded Wolfram no hint of the real nature of the object. In -Chrestien Perceval's question refers to the Grail, but Wolfram, missing -the significance of the holy vessel owing to the meagreness of the -information respecting it given to him by Chrestien, was compelled to -transform the whole incident, and to refer it solely to the sufferings of -the wounded King. Again, Chrestien meant to utilise the sword, and to -bring Gawain to the Grail Castle; but his unfinished work did not carry -out his intention, and in Wolfram Gawain also fails to come to the Grail -Castle; the sword is passed over in silence in the latter part of the -poem.--Simrock, jealous for the credit of Wolfram, claimed for him the -invention of all that could not be traced to Chrestien, resting the claim -chiefly upon consideration of a sentimental patriotic nature.--In -opposition to these views, although the fact is not denied that Wolfram -followed Chrestien closely for the parts common to both, it is urged to be -incredible that he, a German poet, should invent a prologue to Chrestien's -unfinished work connecting with an Angevin princely genealogical legend. -It was also pointed out, with greatest fulness by Bartsch, Die Eigennamen -im Parcival und Titurel, Germanist. Studien, II., 114, _et seq._, that the -German poet gives a vast number of proper names which are not to be found -in Chrestien, and that these are nearly all of French, and especially -Southern French and Provençal origin.--Simrock endeavoured to meet this -argument in the fifth edition of his translation, but with little -success.--Bötticher, whilst admitting the weight of Birch-Hirschfeld's -arguments, points out the difficulties which his theory involves. If -Wolfram simply misunderstood Chrestien and did not differ from him -personally, why should he be at the trouble of inventing an elaborately -feigned source to justify a simple addition to the original story? If he -only knew of the Grail from Chrestien, what gave him the idea of endowing -it, as he did, with mystic properties? Martin points out in addition (Zs. -f. d. A., V. 87) that Wolfram has the same connection of the Grail and -Swan Knight story as Gerbert, whom, _ex hypothesi_, he could not have -known, and who certainly did not know him.--In his Zur Gralsage, Martin -returned to the question of proper names, and showed that a varying -redaction of a large part of the romance is vouched for by the different -names which Heinrich von dem Türlin applies to personages met with both in -Chrestien and in Wolfram. If, then, one French version, that followed by -Heinrich, who is obviously a translator, is lost, why not another? - -The first thorough comparison of Chrestien and Wolfram is to be found in -Otto Küpp's Unmittelbaren Quellen des Parzival, (Zs. f. d. Ph. XVII., l). -He argues for Kyot's existence. Some of the points he mentions in which -the two poems differ, and in which Wolfram's account has a more archaic -character, may be cited: The mention of Gurnemanz's sons; the food -producing properties of the Grail on Parzival's first visit; the -reproaches of the varlet to Parzival on his leaving the Grail Castle, "You -are a goose, had you but moved your lips and asked the host! Now you have -lost great praise;"[160] the statement that the broken sword is to be made -whole by dipping in the Lake Lac, and the mention of a sword charm by -virtue of which Parzival can become lord of the Grail Castle; the mention -that no one seeing the Grail could die within eight days. In addition Küpp -finds that many of the names in Wolfram are more archaic than those of -Chrestien. On the other hand, Küpp has not noticed that Chrestien has -preserved a more archaic feature in the prohibition laid upon Gauvain not -to leave for seven days the castle after he had undergone the adventure of -the bed. - -Küpp has not noticed that some of the special points he singles out in -Wolfram are likewise to be found in Chrestien's continuators, _e.g._, the -mention of the sons of Gurnemanz, by Gerbert. - -I believe I have the first pointed out the insistence by both Wolfram and -Gerbert upon the hero's love to and duty towards his wife. - -The name of Parzival's uncle in Wolfram, Gurnemanz, is nearer to the form -in Gerbert, Gornumant, than to that in Chrestien, Gonemant. - -The matter may be summed up thus: it is very improbable that Wolfram -should have invented those parts of the story found in him alone; the -parts common to him and Chrestien are frequently more archaic in his case; -there are numerous points of contact between him and Gerbert. All this -speaks for another French source than Chrestien. On the other hand, it is -almost inconceivable that such a source should have presented the Grail as -Wolfram presents it. - -I cannot affect to consider the question decidedly settled one way or the -other, and have, therefore, preferred to make no use of Wolfram. I would -only point out that if the contentions of the foregoing studies be -admitted, they strongly favour the genuineness of the non-Chrestien -section of Wolfram's poem,[161] though I admit they throw no light upon -his special presentment of the Grail itself. - - - - -APPENDIX B. - -THE PROLOGUE TO THE GRAND ST. GRAAL AND THE BRANDAN LEGEND. - - -I believe the only parallel to this prologue to be the one furnished by -that form of the Brandan legend of which Schröder has printed a German -version (Sanct Brandan) at Erlangen, in 1871, from a MS. of the fourteenth -century, but the first composition of which he places (p. 15) in the last -quarter of the twelfth century. The text in question will be found pp. 51, -_et seq._: Brandan, a servant of God, seeks out marvels in rare books, he -finds that two paradises were on earth, that another world was situated -under this one, so that when it is here night it is day there, and of a -fish so big that forests grew on his back, also that the grace of God -allowed some respite every Saturday night to the torments of Judas. Angry -at all these things he burnt the book. But the voice of God spake to him, -"Dear friend Brandan thou hast done wrong, and through thy wrath I see My -wonders lost." The holy Christ bade him fare nine years on the ocean, -until he see whether these marvels were real or a lie. Thereafter Brandan -makes ready a ship to set forth on his travels. - -This version was very popular in Germany. Schröder prints a Low German -adaptation, and a chap book one, frequently reprinted during the -fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. But besides this form -there was another, now lost, which can be partially recovered from the -allusions to it in the Wartburg Krieg, a German poem of the thirteenth and -early fourteenth century, and which is as follows:--An angel brings -Brandan a book from heaven: Brandan finds so many incredible things in it -that he taxes book and angel with lying, and burns the book. For his -unfaith he must wander till he find it. God's grace grants him this at -last; an angel gives him the sign of two fires burning, which are the eyes -of an ox, upon whose tongue he shall find the book. He hands it to -Uranias, who brings it to _Scotland_ (_i.e._, of course Ireland) Schröder, -p. 9. - -The closeness of the parallel cannot be denied, and it raises many -interesting questions, which I can here only allude to. The Isle of -Brandan has always been recognized as a Christian variant of the Celtic -Tír-na n-Og, the Land of the Shades, Avalon. Schröder has some instructive -remarks on this subject, p. 11. The voyage of Brandan may thus be -compared with that of Bran, the son of Febal (_supra_, p. 232), both being -versions of the wide-spread myth of a mortal's visit to the otherworld. It -is not a little remarkable that in the Latin legend, which differs from -the German form by the absence of the above-cited prologue, there is an -account (missing in the German), of a "conopeus" ("cover" or "canopy,") -_cf._ Ducange and Diez, _sub voce_; the old French version translates it -by "Pavillon of the colour of silver but harder than marble, and a column -therein of clearest crystal." And on the fourth day they find a window and -therein a "calix" of the same nature as the "conopeus" and a "patena" of -the colour of the column (Schröder, p. 27, and Note 41). - -Thus there is a formal connection between the Brandan legend and the Grail -romances in the prologue common to two works of each cycle, and there is a -likeness of subject-matter between the Brandan legend and the older Celtic -traditions which I have assumed to be the basis of the romances. But -German literature likewise supplies evidence of a connection between -Brandan and Bran. Professor Karl Pearson has referred me to a passage in -the Pfaffe Amis, a thirteenth century South German poem, composed by Der -Stricker, the hero of which, a prototype of Eulenspiegel, goes through the -world gulling and tricking his contemporaries. In a certain town he -persuades the good people to entrust to him their money, by telling them -that he has in his possession a very precious relic, the head of St. -Brandan, which has commanded him to build a cathedral (Lambl's Edition, -Leipzig, 1872, p. 32). The preservation of the head of Bran is a special -feature in the Mabinogi. I have instanced parallels from Celtic tradition -(Branwen, p. 14), and Professor Rhys has since (Hibb. Lect., p. 94) -connected the whole with Celtic mythological beliefs. This chance -reference in a German poem is the only trace to my knowledge of an earlier -legend in which, it may be, Bran and Brandan, the visitor to and the lord -of the otherworld, were one and the same person. - -It is highly desirable that every form of or allusion to the Brandan -legend should be examined afresh, as, perhaps, able to throw fresh light -upon the origin and growth of the Grail legend. In Pseudo-Chrestien -Perceval's mother goes on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Brandan. - - - - -INDEX I. - -DRAMATIS PERSONÆ. - - -[This Index is to the Summaries contained in Chapter II, and the -references are not to page and line, but to Version and Incident. The -Versions are distinguished by the following abbreviations:-- - -Conte du Graal =Co=, Pseudo-Chrestien =PC=, Chrestien =C=, Gautier =G=, -Manessier =Ma=, Gerbert =Ge=, Wolfram =W=, Heinrich von dem Türlin =H=, -Mabinogi of Peredur =M=, Thornton MS. Sir Perceval =T=, Didot-Perceval -=D=, Borron's poem =B=, Queste =Q= (=Q={1} and =Q={2} refer to the -different drafts of the romance distinguished p. 83) Grand St. Graal =GG=. -With the less important entries, or when the entries are confined to one -version, a simple number reference is given. But in the case of the more -important personages, notably Perceval, Gawain, and Galahad, an attempt -has been made to show the life history, by grouping together references to -the same incident from different versions; in this case each incident -group is separated from other groups by a long dash ----. Any speciality -in the incident presented by a version is bracketed _before_ the reference -initial, and, when deemed advisable, reference has been made to allied as -well as to similar incidents. This detail, to save space, is, as a rule, -given only once, as under Perceval, and not duplicated under other -headings, the number reference alone being given in the latter cases. The -fullest entry is Perceval, which practically comprises such entries as -Fisher King, Grail, Sword, Lance, etc.] - -=ABEL= =Q=37, =GG=24. - -=ABRIORIS= =G=9. - -=ACHEFLOUR= =T=1. - -=ADAM= =Q=37, =GG=24. - -=ADDANC OF LAKE= =M=16, 19. - -=AGARAN= =Q=23. - -=AGRESTES= =GG=40. - -=AGUIGRENONS= =Co=, _Kingrun_ =W=, anonymous =M=, =C=6, =W=, =M=8. - -=ALAINS=, Celidoine's son =GG=43. - -=ALAINS= or =ALEIN= (=li Gros= =D=, =Q=, =GG=) =B=12----=Dprol=, 1, 6, 12, -=Q=26, =GG=30, 43, 45, 51, 58, 59. - -=ALEINE=, Gawain's niece, =D=1. - -=ALFASEM= =GG=51, 58. - -=AMANGONS= =PC=1, 2, 4. - -=AMFORTAS=, see Fisher King. - -=AMINADAP= =GG=58. - -=ANGHARAD= Law Eurawc, =M=12, 14. - -=ANTIKONIE=, see Facile Damsel. - -=ARGASTES= =Q=27. - -=ARIDES= of Cavalon =Ma=14, 16 (a King of Cavalon mentioned =C=12 -corresponds to _Vergulat_ of Askalon in =W=). - -=ARTHUR= =PC=2, 3, 5, =C=1, =Dprol=----arrival of Perceval at his court -=C=3, =W=, =M=3, =T=4, =Dprol=----=C=6, 9, 10, =W=, =M=9, 10, 11----=M=13, -14----=C=11, =W=, =M=20----=T=7----=C=18, =W=----=G=1, =W=----=G=2, 3, 6, -9, 11, 13, 16, 19, 20, =Ma=10, 16, 23, =Ge=5, =H=, =D=1, 3, 5, 8, 14, 16, -=M=25, =Q=3, 5, 13, =GG=33, 45, 48. - -=AUGUSTUS CÆSAR= =GG=11. - -=AVALON= or =AVARON= =B=12, 13, =D=9. - -=BAGOMMEDES= =G=19, 20. - -=BANDAMAGUS= =Q=5, 6, 43. - -=BANS= =Q=26, =GG=30, 59. - -=BEAU MAUVAIS=, le, =G=11, =D=8. - -=BEDUERS= =D=2. - -=BLAISE= =Dprol=, 14. - -=BLANCHEFLEUR= =Co=, Conduiramur =W=, anonymous =M=, _cf._ Lufamour -=T=----Perceval's cousin =Co=, =W=----first meeting with Perceval =C=6, -=W=, =M=8----second meeting with Perceval =G=10----third meeting -=Ma=13-16----third meeting and marriage with Perceval =Ge=8-10, _cf._ =W=. - -=BLIHIS= =PC=1 = Blaise? - -=BLIHOS BLIHERIS= =PC=2. - -=BLIOCADRANS= (of Wales, Perceval's father), =PC=6. - -=BORS, BOHORS, BOORT= =Q=1, 3, 13, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, =Ma=18----=Q=35, -48-52. - -=BRANDALIS= =G=1, 2. - -=BRIOS= =G=16. - -=BRONS, BRON=, or =HEBRON=. =B=7, 8, 12, 14, =Dprol=, 6, 16, =GG=41, 42, -_cf._ p. 19. - -=BRUILLANT= =GG=58 = Urlain =Q=35. - -=BRUN DE BRANLANT= =G=1. - -=CAIN= =Q=37, =GG=24. - -=CAIPHAS= =GG=2, 3. - -=CAIUS= =GG=3. - -=CALIDES= =Ma=9. - -=CALOGRENANT= =Q=33. =CALOGRINANT= =Ma=18----_Calocreant_ in =H=, one of -the three Grail-seekers. - -=CARAHIES= =G=5. - -=CARCHELOIS= =Q=39. - -=CARDUEL= =C=3----_Carduel_ of Nantes =G=1. - -=CASTRARS= =PC=4. - -=CATHELOYS= =GG=58. - -=CAVALON= =C=12----=Ma=14, 16. - -=CELIDOINE= =GG=22, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 39, 59, =Q=26. - -=CHANAAN= =GG=45, 47. - -=CHESSBOARD CASTLE= =G=7, =D=4, =M=24----=G=14----=G=18, =D=13. - -=CHRIST= =B=1-3, 5, 6, 8, 11, =Q=7, 10, 13, 15, 20, 26, 50, =Dprol=, 16, -=Ge=15, =GG=1-4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16, 21, 23, 30, 37, 41, 45. - -=CLAMADEX= =C=6, Clamide =W=, the earl =M=8 = the Sowdane =T=7. - -=CLARISSE= =Co= Mons MS. or _Clarissant_ Montpellier MS., ITONJE -=W=----=C=18, =G=1, =W=. - -=CLAUDIUS= =GG=3. - -=CLAUDIUS=, son of Claudas =Q={2}51. - -=CORBENIC= =Q=, =GG=, =CORBIÈRE= =Ma=23, =Q=13, 43, 48, =GG=51. - -=CORSAPIAS= =GG=22. - -=COWARD KNIGHT= =Ma=17, 19. - -=CRUDEL= =Q=6, 15, =Ge=15, =GG=36-38. - -=DAVID= =Q=37. - -=DODINEL= =Ma=14. - -=ELIEZER= =Q=27. - -=EMPTY SEAT=, see Seat Perillous. - -=ENYGEUS=, =ENYSGEUS=, or =ANYSGEUS= =B=7, 8, 11, 12. - -=EREC= =D=2. - -=ERNOUS= =Q=39. - -=ESCORANT= =Q={2}51. - -=ESCOS= =GG=47. - -=ESPINOGRE= =Ma=5. - -=ESTROIS DE GARILES= =Q={2}51. - -=ETLYM GLEDDYV COCH= =M=16-18. - -=EVALACH.= Evalach li mescouncus =GG=, Eualac =Q= (Anelac 26), Evelac -=Ma=, =Ge=. Overcoming Tholomes =GG=6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, =Q=6, 15, 26, -=Ma=3, =Ge=15, name changed to _Mordrains_, which see. - -=EVE= =Q=37, =GG=24. - -=FACILE DAMSEL=, Anonymous =Co=, =H=, =M=, _Antikonie_ =W=, =C=14, =W=, -=H=, =M=21. - -=FEIREFIZ= =W=. - -=FELIX= =GG=3, 11. - -=FISHER KING.= Anonymous =Co=, Amfortas =W=, Brons =B=, =D=, Alain =GG=. -Anonymous (?), =Q={1}, Pelles =Q={2}. In =M= the Fisher corresponds to -Gonemans. In all the French works of the cycle the adjective rich is -commonly applied to the Fisher. Splendour of court =PC=1----learned in -black art =PC=3----old and sick =Dprol=, First meeting with Perceval =C=7, -=W=, =D=11, _cf._ =PC=3, =M=6----=C=8, =W=, _cf._ =D=2, 12----=C=11, =W=, -_cf._ =D=15, =M=21----=G=7, 8, 9, 16, 18, 19, 20----Second meeting with -Perceval =G=22, =Ma=1-7 or =Ge=1-5, =D=16, _cf._ =M=25----=Ma=10----Third -meeting with Perceval =Ma=22, =Ge=22, =W=----Grandfather of Galahad -=Q={1}2, 26. See also Maimed King. - - Surname given to Brons =B=12, to Alain =GG=43. - - Vessel given to him =D=1----commanded to go to the West =D=6. - -=FLEGENTYNE= =GG=22, 29, 31, 37, 59. - -=GAHMURET= =W=. - -=GALAHAD= (GALAAD). _Father_: Lancelot =Q=, =GG=----_Mother_: daughter of -King Pelles =Q={1}, =GG=, or Fisher King =Q={2}----Seat Perillous -=Q=2----Sword =Q=3----Quest proclaimed =Q=5----Evelac's Shield =Q=6, -=GG=50----Devil-inhabited tomb =Q=7, _cf._ =Ge=17----Melians' -discomforture =Q=8----Castle of Maidens =Q=9----overcoming of Lancelot and -Perceval =Q=11----destined achiever of Quest =Q=13----rescue of Perceval -=Q=16----Genealogy =Q=26, =GG=21, 30, 58----likening to a spotless bull -=Q=29----overcoming of Gawain =Q=34----stay on ship =Q=35, 36----sword -=Q=36----Maimed King =Q={2} 36----capture of Castle Carchelois -=Q=39----stag and lions =Q=40, _cf._ =GG=45----castle of the evil custom -=Q=41----stay with father =Q=42----healing of Mordrains =Q=44, _cf._ -=GG=39----cooling of fountain =Q=45----making white the Cross -=GG=40----release of Symeu =Q=46, =GG=49----making whole sword -=GG=44----release of Moys =GG=46----five years' wanderings -=Q=47----arrival at King Peleur's =Q={1}, Maimed King's =Q={2}, witnessing -of Grail and healing of Maimed King =Q=48-50----Sarras, crowning, death -=Q=51, 52. - -=GALAHAD= (GALAAD) son of Joseph =GG=8, 31, 34----King of Hocelice and -ancestor of Urien =GG=49----founding of abbey for Symeu =GG=49. - -=GANSGUOTER= =H=. - -=GANORT= =GG=33, 35. - -=GARALAS= =G=13. - -=GAWAIN.= Gauvain =Co=, =Q=, =GG=, Gwalchmai =M=, Gawan =W=, Gawein =H=, -Gawayne or Wawayne =T=----of the seed of Joseph of Arimathea =GG=48, -Arthur's nephew =Co=, =Q=----conquers Blihos Bliheris =PC=2----allusion to -his finding the Grail =PC=3----one of the knights met by Perceval in wood -=M=1, =T=2----helps Perceval to disarm Red Knight =T=4----meeting with -Perceval after blood-drops incident =C=10, =W=, =M=11----vow to release -imprisoned maiden =C=11, =M=20----reproached by Guigambresil =C=12, -(Kingrimur) =W=, (anonymous) =M=20----tournament at Tiebaut's =C=13, -(Lippaot) =W=, (Leigamar) =H=, _cf._ =D=15, where Perceval is hero but -Gawain best knight after him----adventure with the facile damsel =C=14, -(Antikonie) =W=, =H=, =M=21----injunction to seek bleeding lance =C=14, -=W=, (Grail) =H=----adventure with Griogoras =C=16, (Urjan) =W=, (Lohenis) -=H=----meeting with scornful damsel, Orgeuilleuse, arrival at ferryman's -=C=16, =W=----Magic Castle =C=17, =W=, _cf._ =GG=51----may not leave -castle =C=17----second meeting with Orgueilleuse =C=18, =W=, -(Mancipicelle) =H=----Ford Perillous, Guiromelant =C=18, (Gramoflanz) =W=, -(Giremelanz) =H=----marriage with Orgueilleuse =W=, (?) =C=18----arrival -of Arthur to witness combat with Guiromelant =C=18 continued by =G=1, =W=, -=H=----fight with Perceval =W=, _cf._ =T=7----reconciliation with -Guiromelant =G=1, =W=, =H=----departure on Grail Quest and winning various -talismans =H=----[first arrival at Grail Castle according to Montpellier -MS. of =Co=]----Brun de Branlant, Brandalis =G=1 and 2----slaying of -unknown knight and Quest to avenge him =G=3----Chapel of Black Hand -=G=3----arrival at Grail Castle (first according to Mons MS. of =Co=), -half successful =G=3, wholly successful =H=, _cf._ =M=25 found by Peredur -at Castle of Talismans, and reference in =Q=51 Welsh version----greetings -of country folk =G=3, _cf._ =Ge=3----meeting with his son =G=4----Mount -Dolorous Quest =G=19----renewed Grail Quest, reproached for conduct at -Fisher King's, slaying of Margon =Ma=10----rescue of Lyonel -=Ma=18----rescue by Perceval =Ge=16. - - Joins in search for Grail with remainder of Table Round =D={2}, =Q=, - betraying knowledge of Maimed King =Q=5. - - Meeting with Ywain, Gheheris and confession to hermit =Q=10. - - Meeting with Hector de Mares =Q=29. - - Overcoming at Galahad's hand =Q=34. - -=GHEHERIES= =Q=10. - -=GIFLÈS= =C=11, =G=2. - -=GONEMANS= or =GONEMANT= =Co=, Gornumant =Ge=, Gurnemanz =W=, Fisher Uncle -=M=, =C=5, =W=, =M=5, uncle to Blanchefleur =C=6, =C=7, =W=, second -meeting with Perceval =Ge=8-9, _cf._ =T=6. - -=GOON DESERT= =Ma=4. - -=GRAIL=, Early History of. Last Supper cup given to Joseph =B=2, 3, 4, -=GG=2, =Q=50, =Ma=3----Solace of Joseph =B=5, 6, =GG=2, =D=16, =Ma=3 -(Montpellier MS.)----Grail and Fish =B=8, 9 _cf._ =GG=43----Directs Joseph -what to do with Alain =B=12, _cf._ =GG=42, confided to Brons =B=14,15, -=Dprol= 6, (Alain) =GG=51----=D=6, 10----feeds host =GG=5, =Q=13, also -=GG=32----Blinding of Nasciens =GG=16, 21, 23, 30, passage to England 31, -=D=6, =Q=6, 13, 15----Crudel =GG=38, =Q=15, =Ge=15----Blinding of -Mordrains =GG=38, 39, 42, only feeds the sinless 43, 44, refuses meat to -Chanaan and Symeu 47, resting-place, Castle Corbenic =GG=51. - - Book of, revealed to hermit =GG=2. - -=GRAIL=, Quest of _by Perceval_: first seen at Fisher King's =PC=3, =C=7, -=W=, =D=11----properties of =C=8, =W=, =D=12----=C=11, =W=----=C=15, -=W=----lights up forest =G=14----=G=21----seen for second time -=G=22-=Ma=1-7 or =Ge=1-3, =D=16----heals Hector and Perceval -=Ma=20----taken from earth =Ge=6, _cf._ =W=----opposed by witch, =Ge=8, -9----connection with Shield =Ge=13----seen for third time =Ma=23, 24, -=Ge=22; _by Gawain_: =H= and =G=3; _by Lancelot_: =Q=12, 22, 43; _by -Galahad_: =Q=2, feeds Arthur's court =Q=4, quest proclaimed =Q=5, feeds -host =Q=13, =GG=32, denied to Gawain and Hector =Q=29, 30, accomplished -=Q=50-52. - -=GRAIL-MESSENGER=, see Loathly Damsel. - -=GRAMOFLANZ= see Guiromelant. - -=GRIOGORAS= =C=16 = Lohenis =H=. - -=GUIROMELANT= =Co=, Gramoflanz =W=, Giremelanz =H=, =C=18-=G=1, =W=, =H=. - -=HECTOR= (de =MARES= =Q=) =Q=29, 34, 43, =Ma=20. - -=HELAIN= =Q=27. - -=HELICORAS= =GG=22. - -=HELYAB= =GG=2, 8, 34. - -=HELYAS= =Q=26 = Ysaies =GG=30, 38. - -=HERZELOYDE= =W=. - -=HUDEN= =PC=4. - -=HURGAINS= or =HURGANET= =D=2, 3. - -=JONAANS= =Q=26, =JONANS= =GG=30, =JONAS= =GG=59. - -=JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA.= D'Arymathye =B=, de Arimathie =GG=, d'Abarimathie -or d'Arimathie =Q=, de Barimacie =G=, and =Ma= (Montpellier MS.), Josep -(without mention of town =Ma=, Mons MS.), de Barismachie =Ge=----care of -Christ's body, captivity, solace, release =B=2-7, =GG=2, 3, =D=16, _cf._ -=Q=6, =Ma=2----stay in Sarras =GG=4-11, =Q=6, 26, =Ge=15, -=Ma=3----=B=7----Passage to England =GG=31, =Q=6----feeding by Grail -=GG=32, =Q=13, _cf._ =B=8, 9----Moys =B=11, 12, =Dprol=, _cf._ -=GG=41----=B=12-15----=GG=34, 36, =Q=15, =Ge=15----=GG=38, 44, 45, 48, -50--=D=1, 6, 12. - -=JOSEPHES=, =JOSEPHE=, =JOSEPHUS=, or =JOSAPHES=, son of Joseph of -Arimathea, =GG=2, 5, 9, 10, 11 =Q=6, 13, 14, 16, 17, 31 =Q=6, 13 and 32, -36 =Q=6, 38 =Q=6 and 15, 40, 41 =Q=13 _cf._ =D=6, 42, 43, 45, 46, 49, 50 -=Q=6, =Q=50, 51. - -=JOSUE= =GG=51, 58. - -=KALAFIER= =GG=20, 22. - -=KARDEIZ= =W=. - -=KAY.= Kex =Co=----=T=2----=C=3, =W=, =M=3----=C=4, =W=, =M=4----=C=6, -=C=9----=C=10, =W=, =M=11----=M=14----=T=7----=G=3, 19, =Ma=10, =Ge=21, -=D=8----one of the three Grail-questers =H=. - -=KLINSCHOR= =W.= - -=LABAN= =Q=35 (query variant of Lambar?). - -=LABEL= =GG=26. - -=LABEL'S DAUGHTER= =GG=28, 29, 37, 39. - -=LAMBAR= or =LABRAN= =Q=35, =LAMBOR= =GG=58. - -=LANCE= (Spear) =PC=3, 4, =C=7, 8, =M=6, =C=11, 14, 15, =G=3, 22, =Ma=1, -2, 24, =Ge=22, =H=, =D=11, 12, 16, =Q=50, 51, =GG=9, 15, 16. - -=LANCELOT=, Lancelot of Lake's grandfather =Q=26, =GG=30, 59. - -=LANCELOT.= Galahad's father =Q=, =GG=, =Q=1, 2, 4 (_cf._ =C=11), 5, 11, -12 (_cf._ =C=7 and =G=3), 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 (_cf._ =GG=58) 27, 28, 29, -42, 43, =GG=30, 33, 40, 45, 58, 59, =PC=4. - -=LEUCANS= =GG=10. - -=LIONEL Q=1, 3, attacks Bors =Q=33, =Ma=18. - -=LOATHLY DAMSEL.= Anonymous =Co=, Kundrie =W=, Perceval's cousin =M=, -reproaches Perceval =C=11, =W=, =M=20----announces end of Quest, =Ma=23, -=M=25. - -=LOGRES= =PC=1, =G=3, =Q=12, 35, 47. - -=LOHENIS= =H= = Griogoras =C=16. - -=LOHERANGRIN= =W=. - -=LONGIS= =PC=4, =Ma=2, =D=16. - -=LOT= =GG=48. - -=LUCES= =GG=48. - -=LUFAMOUR= =T=7, _cf._ Blanchefleur. - -=MAIDENS' CASTLE= =PC=5, =G=12=a=, =Ge=6----=Q=9. - -=MAIMED= or =LAME KING=. Same personage as Fisher King. Designated in this -way _only_ =M=, almost entirely so =Q={2} (5, 13, also =Q={1} 36, 39, 47, -50), never so =B=, =D=. =GG=58 applies the designation to Pelleans. - -=MANAAL= =GG=58. - -=MANCIPICELLE=, see Orgueilleuse. - -=MARGON= =Ma=10. - -=MARIE LA VENISSIENNE= =GG=3 = Verrine, =B=6, =W=. - -=MARPUS= (=WARPUS= =Q=26) =GG=30, 59. - -=MEAUX= =GG=11. - -=MELIANS=, Galahad's companion =Q=8, 10. - -=MELIANS DE LIS= =C=13, =D=15. - -=MERLIN= (see p. 64D) =G=20, =Dprol=, 14, 15, =Q=13. - -=MORDRAINS= =GG=, Mordains =Q=, _once_ Noodrans =Ma=, _once_ Mordrach -=Ge=----Baptism =GG=14, 15, =Q=6, 26, =Ma=3 =Ge=15----=GG=16, 17, vision -of descendants 18, =Q=26----=GG=19, 20, stay on island 21, _cf._ -=Q=19----=GG=27, =Q=36----=GG=29 Crudel, and blinding by Grail 37, 38, -=Q=15, =Ge=15----retires to hermitage =GG=39, =Q=44----his shield =GG=50, -=Q=6. - -=MORDRED= =GG=45. - -=MORDRET= =Ge=6, 7. - -=MORGHE LA FÉE= =G=18. - -=MORONEUS= =Q={2}26. - -=MORS DEL CALAN= =PC=4. - -=MOUNT DOLOROUS= =G=19, 20, =Ge=5. - -=MOYS=, =MOYSES= (=B=). Seat Perillous =B=10, 11, 12, =Dprol=, 1, =GG=41, -46. - -=NASCIENS= =GG=, =Q=, Natiien =Ma=----Baptism =GG=14, =Q=6, 26, -=Ma=3----Blinded by Grail =GG=16----=GG=18, 19, 20, 21, 22, turning isle -and Solomon's ship, 23-27, =Q=35-37----=GG=28, 29, 30, 32, 33, Crudel 37, -38, (called Seraphe) =Q=15----=GG=39----his tomb =GG=50----death -=GG=59----appears as hermit in Arthur's time =Q=4, 5, 6, 29. - -=NASCIENS=, son of Celidoine, =GG=39. - -=NASCIENS=, grandson of Celidoine =GG=30, 59. - -=NICODEMUS= =B=3, 4, 5. - -=NOIRONS=, _i.e._, Nero =GG=3. - -=ORCANZ= =GG=48. - -=ORGUEILLEUSE.= Orguellouse =C=, Orgeluse =W= = Mancipicelle =H=, -=C=16----=G=1, =W=, =H=. - -=OWAIN= =M=, =EWAYNE= =T=, =YONES= =C=4, =YWAIN= "li aoutres" =Q=6, 9, 10, -29, =GG=49----meets Perceval =M=1, =T=2----helps him =M=3, =C=4. - -=PARTINAL= =Ma=5, 8, 21, 22. - -=PECORINS= =PC=4. - -=PELEUR= =Q={1}5, 47, 48. - -=PELLEANS= =GG=58. - -=PELLEHEM= =Q={2}35. - -=PELLES= =Q={2}1-3, 14, 27, 36, 44, 48, 50, =GG=59. - -=PERCEVAL= =Co=, =D=, =Q=, =GG=; PARZIVAL =W=, =H=; PEREDUR =M=; -PERCYVELLE =T=.--_Father_: Bliocadrans =PC=; anonymous =Co=, =Q=; Alain -=D=; Gahmuret =W=; Evrawe =M=; Percyvelle =T=; Pellehem =Q={2}. _Mother_: -Anonymous =Co=, =D=, =Q=, =M=; Herzeloyde =W=; Acheflour (Arthur's sister) -=T=----brought up in wood =C=1, =W=, =M=, =T=1----meets knights (5) =C=1, -=W=, (3) =M=1, =T=2----leaves mother =C=1, =W=, =D=, =M=1, =T=2----first -meeting with lady of tent =C=2, (Ieschute) =W=, =M=2, =T=3----arrival at -Arthur's Court =C=3, =W=, =D=, =M=3, =T=4----laughing prophetic damsel -=C=3, =W=, dwarves =M=3----slays _red_ knight =C=4, (Ither of Gaheviez) -=W=, (colour not specified) =M=3, =T=4----overcomes 16 Knights -=M=4----burns witch =T=5----arrival at house of first uncle, Gonemans -=C=5, Gurnemanz =W=, Anonymous =M=5, and (different adventure partly -corresponding to =Ge=8) =T=6----first arrival at castle of lady love, -Blanchefleur =C=5, Conduiramur =W=, Anonymous =M=8, Lufamour =T=7----first -arrival at Fisher King's =C=7, =W=, =D=11, =M=6----is reproached by -wayside damsel, cousin: (Anonymous) =C=8, (Sigune) =W=, =D=12, foster -sister =M=7----second meeting with lady of tent =C=9, =W=, -=M=9----overcoming of Sorceresses of Gloucester =M=10----blood drops in -the snow =C=10, =W=, =M=11----Adventures with Angharad Law Eurawc; at the -castle of the huge grey man; serpent on the gold ring; Mound of Mourning; -Addanc of the Lake; Countess of Achievements =M=12-19----reproaches of the -loathly damsel =C=11, (Kundrie) =W=, =M=20----Good Friday incident and -confession to uncle =C=15, (Trevrezent) =W=, =D=14, =M=22----the Castle of -the Horn =G=6----the Castle of the Chessboard =G=7, =D=4, =M=24----meeting -with brother of Red Knight =G=8----Ford _amorous_ =G=9, _perillous_ -=D=9----second meeting with Blanchefleur =G=10----meeting with Rosette and -Le Beau Mauvais =G=11, =D=8----meeting with sister and visit to hermit -=G=12, =D=5 and 6----the Castle of Maidens =G=12=a=----meeting with the -hound-stealing damsel =G=13, =D=13, =M=24----meeting with the damsel of -the white mule =G=14----tournament at Castle Orguellous =G=16 = =D=15 -(Melianz de Lis) and =M=19 (?)----Deliverance of knight in tomb -=G=17----second visit to the Castle of the Chessboard =G=18, -=D=13----delivery of Bagommedes =G=19----arrival at Mount Dolorous -=G=20----the Black Hand in the Chapel =G=21----second arrival at Grail -Castle =G=22-=Ma=1-7 and =Ge=1, =D=16, (with final overcoming of -Sorceresses of Gloucester) =M=25. - - Puts on red armour for love of Aleine, accomplishes the feat of the - Seat Perillous, and sets forth on Quest =D=1 and 2. - - Slays the red knight, Orgoillous Delandes, =D=3. - - Overcomes Black Knight, slays giant and finds mother =T=9. - -Perceval and Saigremors =Ma=8----Second visit to Chapel of the Black Hand -=Ma=11----the demon horse =Ma=12, =Q=18----Stay on the island =Q=19, and -20, and temptation by damsel 21, =Ma=13----Delivery of Dodinel's lady love -=Ma=14----Tribuet =Ma=15----third meeting with Blanchefleur -=Ma=16----meeting with coward knight =Ma=17----combat with Hector -=Ma=20----slaying of Partinal =Ma=21----third arrival at Grail Castle -=Ma=22----learns death of his uncle the Fisher King from loathly damsel -=Ma=23, =W=----retires into wilderness =Q=52, =Ma=24----dies =Q=52, goes -to Palestine and dies (?) =T=. - - Encounter, unknown to either, with Galahad =Q=11. Meeting with recluse - aunt =Q=13. - - Assistance at the hands of the Red Knight =Q=16. - - Adventure of the ship =Q=33, essay to draw sword =Q=35. - - Receives Galahad's sword =Q=41, bears Galahad company for five years - =Q=47----adjusts the sword at the Court of Pelles =Q={2}48. - -Breaking of sword at the Gate of Paradise =Ge=2----Blessings of the -country folk for putting question =Ge=3----Mending of sword at forge of -the serpent =Ge=4----Accomplishment of the feat of the Perillous Seat -=Ge=5----adventures at sister's Castle, with Mordret, and at cousin's, -Castle of Maidens =Ge=6----encounter with Kex, Gauvain, and Tristan =Ge=7, -_cf._ =T=7----meeting with Gornumant =Ge=8 (_cf._ =T=6) and fight with the -resuscitating hag----third arrival at Blanchefleur's Castle, marriage -=Ge=9----deliverance of maiden, abolition of evil custom, knight on fire -=Ge=10-12----obtains the promised shield =G=13----combat with the Dragon -King =Ge=14----arrival at abbey and story of Mordrains =Ge=15, -=Q=15----the swan-drawn coffin =Ge=16----Devil in tomb =Ge=17, _cf._ -=Q=7----deliverance of maiden from fountain =Ge=18----punishment of -traitress damsel =Ge=19----combat with giant =Ge=20, _cf._ -=T=9----encounters Kex =Ge=21----third arrival at Grail Castle =Ge=22. - -=PERCEVAL'S AUNT= =Q=13, 14. - -=PERCEVAL'S SISTER=, daughter to Pellehem =Q={2}, =G=12, =D=5-7, =Q=35, -36, 38, 41, 42----_cf._ =M=7. - -=PERCEVAL'S UNCLE=, see Gonemans, Fisher King. - -=PETRONE= =GG=29. - -=PETRUS= =B=8, 12, 13, 14, =PETER= =GG=43, =PIERRON= =GG=45, 47, 48. - -=PHILOSOPHINE= =Ge=6, 15. - -=PILATE= =B=1, =GG=2, =B=3, 6. - -=PRIADAM THE BLACK= =Q=30. - -=QUIQUAGRANT= =Ma=5. - -=RED KNIGHT.= Slain by Perceval =C=3, 4, =T=1, 5, who takes his arms, and -is mistaken for him =C=6, =T=6, transferred to Galahad when latter takes -Perceval's place =Q=14, 16----=G=8, 9. - -=ROSETTE=, Loathly Maiden, =G=11, =D=8. - -=SAIGREMORS= =C=10, =Ma=8, 9, 18, =D=2. - -=SARRAQUITE= =GG=13, 16, 22, 28, 29, 59. - -=SARRAS= =GG=5, 11, 13, 15, 18, =Ma=3, =Q=26, 41, 50, =GG=30. - -=SEAT PERILLOUS= (empty) =B=10, =Dprol=, 1----=Q=2, =GG=41, =Ge=5, =Q=13. - -=SERAPHE= =GG=, =Q=, =Ge=, _once_ Salafrès =Ma=----Battle with Tholomes -=GG=12, 14, =Q=6, 26, =Ma=3, =Ge=15, renamed _Nasciens_, which see. - -=SEVAIN OF MEAUX= =GG=11. - -=SOLOMON'S SHIP= =Q=35-38, =GG=24, 27, 30, 58. - -=SOLOMON'S SWORD= =Q=35, 38, =GG=27, _cf._ =Q=48. - -=SORCERESSES OF GLOUCESTER= =M=10, 25. - -=STAG HUNT= =G=7, 8, 16, 18, =D=4, 13, =M=24. - -=SWORD= =PC=3, =C=7, 8, =M=6, =G=3, 12, 22, =Ma=5, 22, =Ge=1, 2, 4, 15, -22, =H=, =Q=2, 3, 48, =GG=33, 44, 58. See also Solomon's sword. - -=SYMEU= =Q=46, =GG=31, 47, 49. - -=THOLOMES= =Q=6, =Ge=15, =GG=11, 12, 14. - -=THOLOME CERASTRE= =GG=11. - -=TIBERIUS CÆSAR= =GG=3, 11, =Ma=3. - -=TITUS= =GG=3. - -=TREBUCET= or =TRIBUET= =C=8, =W=, =Ma=15. - -=URBAN OF THE BLACK THORN= =D=9, =Co=. - -=URLAIN= or =URBAN= =Q=35 = Bruillant =GG=58. - -=UTHER PENDRAGON= =GG=9, _cf._ p. 64D. - -=VERRINE= =B=6 = Marie la Venissienne =GG=3. - -=VESPASIAN= =B=6, =GG=3, 4, =Ma=3, =Q=7. - -=WASTE CITY=, King of the, =Ge=8. - -=WASTE LAND= =PC=1, (forest) 6, =Q=13, 35, =GG=58. - -=YSAIES= =GG=30, 59 = Helyas, =Q=26. - -=YWAIN=, see Owain. - - - - -INDEX II. - - -[This Index comprises the whole of the work with exception of the -Summaries, for which see Index I. The references are to the pages. The -entries apply solely to the page number or page group-number which they -immediately precede, and not to all the pages between themselves and the -next entry. In the majority of cases a simple number reference is given, -and the fuller entries are to those points which the author wishes -specially to emphasise.] - - Abundia and Herodias, 100. - - Adonis, 101. - - Alain (son of Brons), 66, 77, 79, 82, 83, 84, 89, 109, 112, 123, - as Fisher King, 208, 210, 218, 222, 245. - - Amfortas, Fisher King in Wolfram, 249, - in Wagner's Parsifal, 253-55, 263. - - Aminadap, 84. - - Arbois de Jubainville, 184-85, 188, 192-93. - - Arthur, Arthur saga, Arthurian romance or legend, 108, 114, 116, 117, - Martin's interpretation of, 122-24, 130, 134, 136, 144, 147, 148, 153, - 155, 156, 188, - A's waiting, 197-98, - A and Potter Thompson, 198, 205, 218, 219, 221, 222, - popularity of, 228-29, - Celtic character of, 230, 231, 236, 243, 244, 245. - - Avalon (Avaron), 77, - punning explanation of, 78, - parallel to the Grail, 122-23 and 188, - with the Magic Castle, 191, 198, 218, 222, - connection with Glastonbury, 223, 248, - parallel with Brandan's isle, 264. - - - Baldur, 100. - - Ban, 83, 84. - - Baring-Gould, 98. - - Bartsch, 261. - - Battle of Magh Rath, 185, 186. - - Bergmann's San Grëal, 104. - - Bespelled Castle in Celtic tradition, 190-206. - - Birch-Hirschfeld, 4, 5, 6, 38, 52, 64_d_, 84, - full analysis of his work, 108-121, - Martin's criticism, 121-23, 124, - objections to his hypothesis, 125-126, 128, 132, 133, 134, 137, 138, - 145, 151, 168, 171, 174, 207, 217, 220, 250, - Wolfram and Chrestien, 261-62. - - Blaise, 113. - - Blanchefleur, 92, 114, 115, 133, - comparison of Chrestien and Mabinogi, 135, 140, 147, 204, 238, - example of sex-relations of the time, 241. - - Blood-drops in the snow, 137-38. - - Books of Rights and Geasa, 213. - - Borron, Robert de, author of the Joseph d'Arimathie, bibliographical - details, 2, - MS. statements respecting, 4-6, 19, - passage of Grail to England, 79-80, 94, 95, 96, - Hucher's views, 105-6, - relation to other versions according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 111-115, - 116, 118-20, - Martin's views, 121-124, 125, 131, 171, - secret words, 186, 188, - Fisher King in, 207-9, 220, 221, 222, - his conception, 239, - chastity ideal in, 245, 247, 251, 252. - - Bors, 66, - exemplification of spirit of Queste, 239. - - Bötticher, Wolfram and Chrestien, 261. - - Bran (the Blessed), 108, - and Cernunnos, 211, - connection with conversion of Britain, 218-20, 226, - connection with Brandan legend, 265. - - Bran the Son of Febal, 192, 194, 232, 265. - - Brandan legend, 264-65. - - Branwen (Mabinogi of), 76, 97, 108, 167, 168, - cauldron, 186, 211, 219, 260. - - Britain, evangelisation of, 80, 91, 95, 105-106, 107, 124, 218, - connection with the Brons and Joseph legends, 219-24. - - Brons, 66, 70, 72, 75, 77, - special form of Early History, 78-79, 80, 81, - two accounts respecting, 82-83, 84, 85, 86, 88, - in the Didot-Perceval, 89, 91, 93, 94, 95, 106, 109, 112, 113, 123, - 124, 125, 182, - as Fisher King, 208-11, - as Apostle of Britain, 218-26, 235. - - Bruillans, 84. - - Brunhild, 232. - - Bundling, 135. - - - Caesarius of Heisterbach, 122. - - Campbell, J. F., 102-03, 152, 159-60, - cup of healing, 187, 210. - - Campbell, - No. 1 Young King of Easaidh Ruadh, 187; - No. 10 The Three Soldiers, 195-96; - No. 41 The Widow and her Daughters, 187; - No. 47 Mac Iain Direach, 187, 212; - No. 51 The Fair Gruagach, 213; - No. 52 The Knight of the Red Shield, 156-57, - the resuscitating carlin, 166-67; - No. 58 The Rider of Grianaig, 157, 209; - No. 76 Conall Gulban, 167, 187; - No. 82 How the Een was set up, 158, 189; - No. 84 Manus, 189-90; - No. 86 The Daughter of King Under the Waves, 194-95, 246. - - Campbell, J. G., Muilearteach, 167. - - Catheloys, 84. - - Celidoine, 83, 84. - - Celtic tradition, origin of or elements in Grail legend, 7, - how affected by placing of versions, 68-69, - opinions of previous investigators, 97-107, - Birch-Hirschfeld, 111-113-14-15-17-20, - Martin, 121-24, - Hertz, 125, - Grail apparently foreign to, 151, 164-65, - Carlin in, 167-69, 170-71, 181, 183-84, - Vessel in, 184-88, - Sword in, 188-90, 191, 195, 197, 199, 208, - origin of legend, 215-18, 223-27, - relation to mediæval romance, 230, - individualism in, 231, - woman in, 231-33, - the supernatural in, 234, 235, - chastity ideal, 247, 248, 251, - transformation of, 255, 265. - - Ceridwen, 186, 210-11. - - Cernunnos, 211. - - Cét mac Magach, 231. - - Chanson de Roland, 248. - - Charlemagne, Carolingian Saga, 197, 229, 230, 231. - - Chastity ideal in the Queste, 243-44, - in later versions, 245-46, - in popular and Celtic tradition, 246-47. - - Chessboard Castle, 127-30, 139-41. - - Chrestien, bibliographical description, 1, 2, - statements of MSS. respecting, 4, 5, 8, 66, 69, 70, 74, 76, 80, 81, - 85, 86, 91, 92, 93, 95, - views of previous investigators, 98-108, - Birch-Hirschfeld, 108-121, 122, 124, 125, 126, - relation to Didot-Perceval, 127-131, - to Mabinogi, 132-145, - nature of model, 145-46, - relation to Sir Perceval, 147-51, - relation to Great Fool, 155-56-58-59, 164, 168, - visit to Grail Castle in, 171-74, 175, - represents mainly feud quest, 180-82, 199, 207, 208, 211, 218, - his ideal, 237-38, 245, 249, 250, - relation to Wolfram, 261-63. - - Christian origin of or elements in Grail legend, Christian tradition, - legend, etc.; - as affected by placing of versions, 68, 80, 123, 143, 146, 165, - 170-73, 179, 181, 186, 209, - as affected by my hypothesis, 215-18, 220, 224, 226-27, - relation to the talismans, 238-39, 251-52, - influence on the legend as a whole, 255. - - Chronological arrangement of versions, 6, - Author's, 95-96, - Zarncke's, 107, - Birch-Hirschfelds', 120-21. - - Conall Cearnach, 231. - - Conan's delusions, 200. - - Conchobor, 192, 231, 233. - - Conduiramur, 204, - and Parzival, 249-51. - - Connla, 188, 194, 196, 232. - - Constituent elements in the romances, 215-16. - - Corbenic, 83, 84. - - Cormac's visit to the otherworld, 193-94, 234. - - Counsels, the, in the romances, 150. - - Crestiens, p. 83 = Nasciens, p. 84. - - Cuchulainn, 153, 185, 188, 189, - conception of, 192, - _gess_ of, 214, - parallel of legend to mediæval romances, 231-34. - - Cumhall, father of Fionn, 158-59. - - Curoi mac Daire, 231. - - Cynewulf, 221. - - - Dagda, the, and the cauldron, 184-85, 192. - - Deirdre, 137, - and the Sons of Usnech, 233. - - Diarmaid, 202, - _gess_ of, 214. - - Didot-Perceval, prose sequel to Borron's poem, numbered as C 2, 65, 66, - 68, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 78, 79, 82, - the Quest in, 89-91, 92, 93, 94, 96, - Zarncke's opinion of, 107, - Authorship of according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 112-15, 117, 120, 121, - 125, 126, - relationship to Conte du Graal, 127-30, - origin of, 131, 138, 139, - stag hunt in, 141-42, 145-46, 172-73, 179, 182, 191, 198-99, 208, 245. - - Dietrich Saga, 230. - - Domanig, Parzival-Studien, 250. - - Duvau, 192. - - Dwarves incident in Chrestien and Mabinogi, 134. - - - Elton, 219. - - Emer, wooing of, 232-33. - - Encyclopædia Britannica, 126. - - England, arrival of Grail in 76-80, - Birch-Hirschfeld 116, - Joseph legend in 221-22. - - Enygeus (Brons' wife), 81, 82. - - Evangelium Nicodemi, 221-22. - - Espinogre, 142. - - Expulsion and Return Formula (Aryan), 144, 153-54, 156, 159, 163-64, - 190, 210, 225, 256. - - - Fand, 232. - - Faust, 253. - - Fenian saga or cycle, sword in, 188-90, 230. - - Feud-Quest in the romances and in Celtic tradition, 181-90. - - Finn-eges, 209-11, 220. - - Fionn (Finn), Fionn-saga, 153-54, 157, - connection with Great Fool and boyhood of Peredur, 158-59, 163-64, - Fionn's enchantment, 186-87, - and sword, 189-90, 195, - in the otherworld, 200-03, - and salmon, 209-11, 214, 220, 224, 231, 234, 256. - - Fish, according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 112, - Martin, 123-24, 224. - See also Salmon. - - Fisher King, Fisher or Rich Fisher, 77, 78, - as Grail-Keeper, 80-86, - relation the Promised Knight, 87-89, 107, 110, 113, 115, - accounted for by Birch-Hirschfeld, 117, 123, 124, 134, 138, 139, 140, - 142, 143, 144, 180, 206, - Author's explanation of, 207-11, 237, - in Wolfram, 249. - - Fisher King's daughter, 140-42. - - Fisher King's father, 74, 81, 110, 191. - - Fitzgerald, 198, 231. - - Fomori, 188, 230. - - Förster on Peredur, 132. - - Frederick II, 122, - in the Kyffhäuser, 196-97. - - Frederick I (Barbarossa), 196-97. - - Furnivall, 2, 3, 102-03, - estimate of Queste criticised, 242-43. - - - Gaelic talismans = Grail and lance, 103. - - Gaidoz, 219. - - Galahad, Galahad Quest, 66, 67, 83-86, - as Promised Knight, 90-94, 102, 104, 106, 108, 109, 113, 131, 149, 226, - comparison with Perceval Quest, 236, - morality of, 240, 245-46, 252, 254. - - Gaston Paris on relation between Chrestien and Mabinogi, 132. - - Gautier (de Doulens), Pseudo-Gautier, numbered A II., 1-2, - statements respecting in MS., 4, - Berne MS. of, 19, 69-70, 72, 74-75, 76-77, 81, 87, 92-95, 101, 106, - 110, 113, 114, 120-21, - relation to Didot-Perceval, 128-30, - to Mabinogi ,133 and 140-44, 145, 146, - visit to Grail Castle in, 171-72, - Gawain Quest in, 174 and 178-79, 182, 189, 199, 237, 246. - - Gautier (Walter) de Montbeliart and Borron, 5, 103, 105, 120, 121. - - Gawain (Gauvain), 2, 67, 69, - visit to Grail King, 87, 92, 101, - Martin's view of, 122 and 124, 125, 164, 172, - special form of Quest, 176-78, 180, 189, 191, - visit to Magic Castle, 199-200, - in Heinrich, 203-05, 237, - and Orgueilleuse, 240-41, 245, 251, 261-62. - - Geasa, 212-14. - - Geoffrey of Monmouth, 91, 119, 219, 229. - - Gerald (Giraldus Cambrensis), testimony respecting Map's authorship, - 117-18, 122. - - Gerbert, numbered A IV., 1, 5, 69, - love _motif_ in, 92, 95, 110, 121, 126, - the witch who brings the dead to life in, 165-69, 172, 174-75, 179, - 180, 199, - chastity ideal in, 246, 249, - relation to Wolfram, 262-63. - - Gervasius of Tilbury, 122, 197. - - Glastonbury, Skeat's view, 105, - Zarncke, 107, 220, - and Avalon, 223-25. - - Goethe, 253. - - Gonemans, 130-34, - and Fisher King, 138, 140, - and the witch, 165-68, - advice to Perceval, 211-12. - See also Gurnemanz. - - Goon Desert, 81, 142. - - Grail, 66, - hypothetical Christian origin of, 68, - first possessor of, 69-70, - solace of Joseph, 70-72, - connection with Sacrament, 71 and 73, - and Trinity, 72, - properties and effect of, 74-76, - name, 76, - arrival in England, 76-79, 83-84, 89-90, 94, 96, 99, 100-112, - phraseology used by romances in mentioning it, 113, 114-16, - symbol of Christ's body, 117, 120, - symbol of Avalon, 123, 124-26, 136, 140-142, - absence of from Mabinogi and Thornton Sir P., 164, - apparently foreign to Celtic legend, 165, 169, - various forms of visit to castle of, 170-79, - double nature of, 182-83, - parallel to magic vessel of Celtic tradition, 185-96, - and Fionn, 202, 218, 221, - mode of transformation, 224, 245, 247, - in Wolfram, 250-52, - in Wagner, 254-55, 261-63. - - Grail (Early History of), two forms, 65-66, - Joseph form, 67, - relation to Christian origin hypothesis, 68, 69, - Brons form, 80, 86, - two forms in French romances, 93-94, - later than Queste, 93, 95-96, 103, - according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 108-21, 151, 208, - origin of, 218 and 224. - - Grail (Quest of), two forms, 65-67, - Perceval form, 67, - relation to Celtic origin hypothesis, 68, 69, 80, 83, 86, - object of according to different versions, 88-90, - original form of, 91, 92, - Perceval form older, 93-94, 95-96, 105-06, 109-26, 131, 138, - Mabinogi form of, 139-44, 151, - inconsistency of accounts respecting, 180-81, - two formulas fused in, 181, - constituent elements in, 215-16, - mode of transformation, 220, 237-39, 243, 245, 248, 251, 252. - - Grail legend, romance or cycle, origin of according to Birch-Hirschfeld, - 120, 159, - Christian element in, 217, - genesis and growth of, 225-27, - popularity of, 228, 230, - development of ethical ideas in, 235 _et seq._, 248, - future of, 259, 265. - - Grail-Keeper and Promised Knight, 80-81. - - Grail-Messenger and Rosette, 114. - See also Loathly Damsel. - - Graine, 214. - - Gramoflanz, 193. - - Grand St. Graal, numbered E 3, authorship ascribed to Borron, 5, - Helinandus' testimony, 52, 65-67, 70, 72-73, 75-76, 79, - conflicting accounts respecting Promised Knight in, 84-86, 90, 91, 93, - 94-96, 99, 102-112, 117, - authorship of, 119-20, 121, 126, 146, 207-08, 219, 220, 247, - prologue of and Brandan legend, 264-65. - - Great Fool, lay or tale of the, 101-02, 144, - prose opening, 152-53, - comparison with romances, 154-56, - originality of, 158, - relation to Fionn legend, 159, - Lay, 159-162, 163, 164, - ethical import of, 256-57. - - Gregory of Tours and Evangelium Nicodemi, 221. - - Greloguevaus, 81. - - Grimm, No. 122, Der Krautesel, 195, 197, 198, 204-05, 247. - - Gudrun, 233. - - Guinevere, 83. - - Gurnemanz, 113, 115, 249, 262-63. - See also Gonemans. - - Guyot = Kiot, 104. - - Gwalchmai, 225-26, 228. - See Gawain. - - Gwion and Fionn, 210. - - - Hahn, J. G. von, 153-54. - - Halliwell, 98, 147. - - Haunted Castle, 204-05. - - Hawker, 244. - - Hebron, 108 = Brons, which see. - - Hector, 187. - - Heinrich von dem Türlin, numbered K, 4, - citation of Chrestien, 6, 69, 91, - Martin's view of, 122, 125, - visit to Grail Castle in, 172-73 and 178, - double origin, 182, 191, - special form of Quest, 198-99 and 203, - parallel with Sleeping Beauty, 203. - - Hélie de Borron, 105-06, - testimony of, 118-19, 121. - - Helinandus, 52, 95, 103, 121. - - Helyas, 83 = Ysaics, 84. - - Hennessy, 159. - - Henry II, 118-19. - - Herodias, 100, 254. - - Hertz' views, 124-25. - - How the Great Tuairsgeul etc., 212. - - Hucher, 2, - attempt to harmonise conflicting accounts in Borron, 82, - statement of views, 105-06, - criticised by Birch-Hirschfeld, 111 and 118, 130, - and cauldron, 184. - - - Iduna, apples of, 182. - - - John the Baptist, 100. - - Jonaans, 83, 84. - - Joseph of Arimathea, Joseph legend, 65-67, 69, 70, - and Grail, 70-73, 74, 77, - and England, 78-80, 81, 82, 84, 88, 89, 90, 93, 94, 99, 100, 104-109, - 112-117, 124, 146, - and the Fisher, 208, 218, - Apocryphal legend of, 220-24, 226. - - Joseph, Metrical, poem by Robert de Borron, numbered B 2, author of, 5, - 65-66, 68, 70-73, 74-76, 77-80, - two accounts in, 81-82, 88, 91, 93-94, 102-103, - relation to Didot-Perceval according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 112-14, 125. - - Josephes (son of Joseph), and Veronica, 79, 84-86, 109. - - Josue, 66, 84, 85. - - - Kay, 130. - - Keating and the treasures of the Tuatha de Danann, 184. - - Kennedy's Fellow with the Goat-skin, 134, - Castle Knock, 159, - Great Fool, 159-61, - Son of Bad Counsel, 199-200, - Fionn's visit to Cuana, 201, - haunted castle tale, 204, 257. - - Kiot, 6, - San Marte's view, 99-100, 107-08, 121, - and Wolfram, 261-63. - - Klinschor, 253, 263. - - Knight Errantry, 229. - - Knighthood, prototype of in Celtic tradition, 231. - - Knights of the Red Branch, 231. - - Knowles' Said and Saiyid, 196. - - Koch, Kyffhäuser Sage, 197. - - Köhler, 195. - - Kundry in Wagner, 254-55, 263. - See Loathly Damsel. - - Küpp on Pseudo-Chrestien, 8, 126, - and the branch, 193, 262. - - Kynddelw, 219. - - - Lambar, 83-84, 86, 183. - - Lame King, see Maimed King. - - Lance, 109, - and Grail legend according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 111, 113, 121. - - Lancelot, 83, 84, 108, 110, 112, 118, 119, 123, 172-173, 180, 240, 245. - - Latin original of French romances probable, 122. - - Liebrecht, 197-98. - - Llyr Llediath, 219-20. - - Loathly Damsel, 87, - and Rosette, 114, - in Mabinogi and Chrestien, 136, - hero's cousin, 139-41, - double origin of in romances, 205-06, - and Wagner, 254. - - Longis, 70. - - Luces de Gast, 118-19. - - Luces (Lucius), 91, 219. - - Lufamour, 147. - - Lug Lamhfhada, 184, 189, 192. - - Mabinogi of Peredur (generally Mabinogi sometimes Peredur) numbered H 3, - 5, 66, 68, 69, - Villemarqué on, 97-98, 89, - Simrock on, 100, 101, - Nash, 102, 104, - Hucher, 106, - lateness of according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 114-115, 125-26, - relation to Conte du Graal, 131-37, - dwarves incident in, 134, - greater delicacy in Blanchefleur incident, 135, - blood drops incident, 137-38, - differences with Chrestien, 138-39, - machinery of Quest in, 139-42, - relation to Manessier, 142-44, - origin and development of, 143-145, - special indebtedness to Chrestien, 145, 146, - relation to Sir Perceval, 148-49, - counsels in, 150, - apparent absence of Grail from, 151, - comparison with Great Fool tale, 154-57, - with Great Fool Lay, 161-62, 164, - with Gerbert's witch incident, 168-69, 171, - visit to Talismans Castle in, 172-73 and 176, 180, 181, 183, 184, 190, - 216, - fusion of numerous Celtic tales in, 225-26, - Sex-relations in, 241, 256. - - Maidens' Castle, parallels to in Celtic tradition, 191-94. - - Maimed or Lame or Sick King, 66, 83-88, 90, 91, 109, - parallel with Arthur, 122, - probable absence from Proto Mabinogi, 145, - belongs to Feud Quest, 198, - parallel to Fionn, 202, 237. - - Malory, 236. - - Manaal, 84. - - Manannan mac Lir, 192-94, 208, - and Bran, 219. - - Manessier, numbered A III, 1-2, - date etc., 4-5, 69-71, 73-74, 77, 81, 88, 92, 95, 110, 121, 138, - relation to the Mabinogi, 142-46, 168-69, 171, 175, - disregard of question, 180-82, 199, 245-46. - - Manus, 189-90. - - Mapes or Map, 5, 104, 105, - not author of Queste or Grand St. Graal according to Birch-Hirschfeld, - 117-19. - - Martin's views, 121-26, - Kyffhäuser hypothesis criticised, 197, 198, - Wolfram and Gerbert, 262. - - Meaux, 120. - - Menglad, 232. - - Merlin, 92, 114, 124. - - Merlin, Borron's poem, 2, 64D, 105, 106, 112-13, 117. - - Meyer, Kuno, 209, 233. - - Minnedienst, 240-41. - - Modred, 122. - - Montsalvatch, 66. - - Mordrains, 90, 109-10, 120, 173. - - Morgan la Fay, 122. - - Morvan lez Breiz, 148, 158, 162. - - Moys or Moses, 88-90, 106, 109, 112, 116. - - Mythic conceptions in the romances, 205. - - - Nasciens, 76, 83, 85, 120. - - Nash, 102. - - Nibelungenlied, 230, 234, 248. - - Nicodemus, 71. - - Noisi, 137, 233. - - - O'Daly, 159-61, 163. - - Odin, 100-01. - - O'Donovan, 185, 209, 213. - - Oengus of the Brug, 191-92, - and swanmaid, 196. - - O'Flanagan, 233. - - Ogma, 188. - - Oisin, 195, 200, - and Gwion, 210, 232. - - O'Kearney, 201. - - Orgueilleuse, Celtic character of, 124 and 232, - illustrates mediæval morality, 240-41, 263. - - Osiris, 101. - - - Pagan essence of Grail etc. in the Christianised romances, 238. - - Partinal, 81, 88, 142-43. - - Parzival, 101, 252-53. - See Perceval and Wolfram. - - Paulin-Paris, 5, - explanation of word Grail, 103, 111, 116-17, 119. - - Pearson on the Veronica legend, 222, - and St. Brandan, 265. - - Peleur, 83. - - Pelleans or Pellehem, 83-86, 90. - - Pelles, 83-86, 90. - - Perceval, Perceval-Quest, type hero of Quest, 66-67, 72, 78, - relation to the Grail-keeper, 80-86, 88-89, 91-92, - oldest hero of Quest, 93, 94, 98, 101, 102-04, - according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 110-119, 125, - in Didot-Perceval and Conte du Graal, 127-31, - in Mabinogi and Conte du Graal, 131-45, - relation to (bespelled) cousin, 139-42, - relation of existing versions to earliest form, 146, - in the Thornton MS. romance, 147-51, - hero of Expulsion and Return Formula, 153-56, - parallel with Highland folk-tales, 157-58, - relation to Twin Brethren folk-tale and dualism in, 162-64, 169, - versions of Quest, 171-76, - visit to the Maidens' Castle, 178-79, 180, 181, - significance of Didot-Perceval form, 182, 187, - and sword, 189, - Castle of Maidens, 191, 195, 199, - parallel with Diarmaid, 202, - possible hero of Haunted Castle form, 204-05, - relation to Fisher, 207, - his silence, 211-14, 226, - superiority to Galahad Quest, 236, 237-38, 240-41, 245, 247, 254, 256, - 261-62. - See also Parzival and Peredur. - - Perceval's aunt, 79. - - Perceval's sister, 83-84, 163. - - Perceval's uncle, 78. - - Perceval le Gallois, numbered G 3, authorship, 6, 65-66, 69, 104, 121, - 126, 246. - - Peredur (hero of Mabinogi = Perceval), Peredur-saga, 106, - mother of, 115, 132-36, - parallel to Tom of the Goat-skin, 134, - the sword test, 138, - hero of the stag hunt, 139-42, 143, - original form of saga, 144-45, 153-54, 157, 162, 163, 164, 168-69, - and Fionn, 187 and 203, 220, - fish absent from, 224, - genesis and growth of, 225-227, 228, - Blanchefleur incident in, 241. - See Perceval. - - Peronnik l'idiot, 125, 158. - - Perseus, 256. - - Petrus, 77, 82, 88-90, 106, 109, 112, - connection with Geoffrey conversion legend, 219. - - Pfaffe Amis, 265. - - Pilate, 65, 70. - - Potter Thompson and Arthur, 198, 262. - - Potvin, 1, 2, 6, - his views, 104, 174, 177. - - Prester John, 100. - - Procopius, 191. - - Promised or Good Knight, and Grail Keeper, 80-86, - Galahad as, 85-86 - work of, 86-91, - qualifications of, 92-93, 107, 109. - - Prophecy incident in Grail romances, 156. - - Pseudo-Chrestien, 8, 209. - - Pseudo-Gautier, numbered AII_a_, 2, 15-16, 70, 72, 74, 77, 79, 81, 95. - - Pseudo-Manessier, numbered AIII_a_, 2, 19, 72-73. - - - Queste del St. Graal, numbered D 2-3, varying redactions distinguished - typographically, 38, 65-67, 72, 75-76, 79, - three drafts of, 83-86, 90-91, - glorification of virginity in, 93, 95, 103, 107, - relation to Grand St. Graal, 108-09, - to Conte du Graal, 110-11, 112, 113, - authorship of, 117-20, 121, 126, 131, 146, - visit to Grail Castle in, 172-73, 180, 183, 186, 207, 218, 220, 222, - 224, 226, 236, - ideal of, 238-40 and 243-44, - ideal criticised, 243-44, - merits of, 244-45, 246, - inferiority to Wolfram, 250, 251. - - Question, Birch-Hirschfeld's opinion, 171, 180, - belongs to Unspelling Quest, 181-82, 191, 196, 203, - Wolfram's presentment, 249-50. - - - Red Knight, 147-49, 155-56, 162, 189. - - Renan on Celtic poetry, 234-35. - - Rhys, 198, 209, 211, - Bran legend, 219-20, 265. - - Rich Fisher or King. See Fisher King. - - Riseut, 141. - - Robert de Borron. See Borron. - - Rochat, 19, - his views, 101-02. - - Roland, 229, 232. - - Roménie, 118. - - Rosette, 130, 141. - See Loathly Damsel. - - - Salmon of Wisdom, 209-10. - - San Marte, views, 99-100, 101-02, - and Wolfram, 250-5. - - Sarras, 72, 77, 79. - - Schröder, Brandan legend, 264-65. - - Seat, empty or Perillous, 81-82, 88-90. - - Secret words, 73, 89, 179. - - Seraphe, 108. - - Sex-relations in Middle Ages, 240-42. - - Siegfried, 157, 162, 203, 210, 232-33. - - Simei, 90. - - Simrock, views, 100-101, 103, 132, 134, 164, 251, 261-62. - - Skeat, 104. - - Skene, 219-20. - - Sleep and the Magic Castle myth, 202-03. - - Sleeping Beauty, parallel with Heinrich's version, 203, - ethical import of, 258. - - Solomon's sword, 84. - See Sword. - - Sons of Usnech, 137, 233. - - Sorceresses of Gloucester, 101, 139, 156. - - Spontaneity of folk tradition, 254, 257-58. - - Stag Hunt in Conte du Graal and Mabinogi, 139-40, - in Didot-Perceval, 141, - parallel with Lay of Great Fool, 162. - - Steinbach on Sir Perceval, 147-50. - - Stephens, 219-20. - - Stokes, 188, 200, 233. - - Suetonius, 116. - - Sword, 113, 142, - belongs more to Feud Quest, 180-82, - found also in Unspelling Quest, 183, - of Lug, 184, - in Celtic myth, 187-90, 198-99. - - Taboo and Geasa, 214. - - Taliesin, 97, 186, - and Oisin, 210-11. - - Templars, 100. - - Tennyson, 236, 244. - - Tethra, 188. - - Thor, Irish parallels to, 200-01. - - Thornton MS. Sir Perceval (often simply Sir Perceval), numbered I 4, 66, - 68-69, 101-02, 125, 126, - Steinbach's theory of, 147-50, - criticised, 149, - absence of Grail from, 151, - connection with Great Fool tale, 154-58, 162, 164-65, - witch incident, 169, 190, 225. - - Tír-na n-Og, 191, 195, 223, 248, 264. - - Titurel, 66. - - Titus, 107. - - Trinity, symbolizing of, 88. - - Tuatha de Danann, treasures of, 184-85, 189-92, 223, 230. - - Two Brothers tale, 157, 162-63. - - - Ultonian cycle, 185. - - Unspelling Quest, 181, - Celtic parallels to, 190-206, 208. - - Urban (Urlain), 83, 84, 183. - - - Van Santen, 252. - - Vanishing of Bespelled Castle, 202-03. - - Veronica (Verrine), 79, 116, - Ward's theory, 222. - - Vespasian, 107, 116. - - Vessel in Celtic myth, 184, - in Ultonian cycle, 185, - in Welsh myth, 186, - in Celtic folk-tales, 187. - See Grail. - - Villemarqué, views 97-98, 101, 131, 148. - - Virginity, 247. - - - Wagner, 252-54. - - Ward, 220, 222. - - Wartburg Krieg and Brandan legend, 264. - - William of Malmesbury, 105, - Zarncke's opinion of, 107, 115, - Ward's opinion of, 220. - - Windisch, 188, 219. - - Witch who brings the dead to life, 165-69. - - Wolfram von Eschenbach, numbered F 3, sources, 6, 25-26, 65-67, 69, - and Gerbert, 92, 99-102, 104, 107, 121-25, 150, 157, - brother incident in, 164, 172-73, - branch in, 193, - magician lord, 199, - account of mediæval morality, 240-41, 246, - ideal of, 248-52, 254, 255, 256, - pattern for future growth of legend, 261, - relation to Chrestien, 261-63. - - Woman in Celtic tradition, 231-33. - - Wülcker, Evangelium Nicodemi, 220-21. - - - Zarncke, views, 106-07, 115, 132, 220. - - - HARRISON AND SONS, - PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY, - ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON. - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Fully described by Potvin, VI, lxix, etc. - -[2] Potvin, VI, lxxv, etc. - -[3] Birch-Hirschfeld: Die Sage vom Gral, 8vo., Leipzig, 1877, p. 81. - -[4] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 89. - -[5] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 110. - -[6] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 232, quoting the colophon of a Paris MS., after -Paulin Paris, Cat. des MSS. français, vol. ii, pp. 361, etc. - -[7] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 143. - -[8] This prologue is certainly not Chrestien's work; but there is no -reason to doubt that it embodies a genuine tradition, and affords valuable -hints for a reconstruction of the original form of the story. _Cf._ Otto -Küpp in Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, vol. xvii., No. 1. - -[9] Potvin's text, from the Mons MS., is taken as basis. - -[10] Several MSS. here intercalate the history of Joseph of Arimathea: -Joseph of Barimacie had the dish made; with it he caught the blood running -from the Saviour's body as it hung on the Cross, he afterwards begged the -body of Pilate; for the devotion showed the Grail he was denounced to the -Jews, thrown into prison, delivered thence by the Lord, exiled together -with the sister of Nicodemus, who had an image of the Lord. Joseph and his -companions came to the promised land, the White Isle, a part of England. -There they warred against them of the land. When Joseph was short of food -he prayed to the Creator to send him the Grail wherein he had gathered the -holy blood, after which to them that sat at table the Grail brought bread -and wine and meat in plenty. At his death, Joseph begged the Grail might -remain with his seed, and thus it was that no one, of however high -condition, might see it save he was of Joseph's blood. The Rich Fisher was -of that kin, and so was Greloguevaus, from whom came Perceval. - -It is hardly necessary to point out that this must be an interpolation, as -if Gauvain had really learnt all there was to be told concerning the -Grail, there would have been no point in the reproaches addressed him by -the countryfolk. The gist of the episode is that he falls asleep before -the tale is all told. - -[11] The existence of this fragment shows the necessity of collating all -the MSS. of the Conte du Graal and the impossibility of arriving at -definite conclusions respecting the growth of the work before this is -done. The writer of this version evidently knew nothing of Queste or Grand -St. Graal, whilst he had knowledge of Borron's poem, a fact the more -remarkable since none of the other poets engaged upon the Conte du Graal -knew of Borron, so far, at least, as can be gathered from printed sources. -It is hopeless in the present state of knowledge to do more than map out -approximately the leading sections of the work. - -[12] It is by no means clear to me that Gerbert's portion of the Conte du -Graal is an interpolation. I am rather inclined to look upon it as an -independent finish. As will be shown later on, it has several features in -common with both Mabinogi and Wolfram, features pointing to a common -prototype. - -[13] In the solitary MS. which gives this version, it follows, as has -already been stated, prose versions of Robert de Borron's undoubted poems, -"Joseph of Arimathea" and "Merlin." - -[14] Birch-Hirschfeld, in his Summary (p. 37, l. 22) or his MS. authority, -B.M., xix, E. iii., has transposed the relationships. - -[15] And buried it, adds B. H. in his Summary, whether on MS. authority or -not I cannot say, but the Welsh translation has--"there was a period of -240 years" (an obvious mistake on the part of the translator) "after the -passion of J. C. when Jos. of A. came; he who buried J. C. and drew him -down from the cross." - -[16] Thus was Evelach called as a Christian, adds B. H. Here W. agrees -with Furnivall. - -[17] Here Birch-Hirschfeld's Summary agrees with W. - -[18] B. H. agrees with W. - -[19] According to B. H., the recluse tells him he has fought with his -friends, whereupon, ashamed, he hurries off. - -[20] B. H. here agrees with W. - -[21] B. H. has _five_ candles. - -[22] B. H.: "When will the Holy Vessel come to still the pain I feel? -Never suffered man as I." - -[23] B. H. agrees with W. - -[24] B. H. agrees with Furnivall. - -[25] B. H., the _ninth_. - -[26] B. H., the vision is that of a crowned old man, who with two knights -worships the cross. - -[27] B. H., Nasciens. - -[28] B. H. has all this passage, save that the references to the vision at -the cross-ways seem omitted. - -[29] B. H., the latter. - -[30] B. H., in Chaldee. - -[31] B. H., Labran slays Urban. - -[32] The 1488 text has Urban. - -[33] B. H., Thus was the King wounded, and he was Galahad's grandfather. - -[34] It does not appear from B. H.'s Summary whether his text agrees with -F. or W. - -[35] B. H., seven knights. - -[36] B. H., that was the Castle of Corbenic where the Holy Grail was kept. - -[37] B. H., the Castle of the Maimed King. - -[38] B. H., ten. Obviously a mistake on the part of his text, as the nine -with the three Grail questers make up twelve, the number of Christ's -disciples. - -[39] B. H., three. - -[40] B. H. agrees with F. - -[41] One cannot see from B. H. whether his text agrees with F. or W. - -[42] B. H. agrees with F. - -[43] It will be advisable to give here the well-known passage from the -chronicle of Helinandus, which has been held by most investigators to be -of first-rate importance in determining the date of the Grand St. Graal. -The chronicle ends in the year 1204, and must therefore have been finished -in that or the following year, and as the passage in question occurs in -the earlier portion of the work it may be dated about two years earlier -(Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 33). "Hoc tempore (717-719) in Britannia cuidam -heremitae demonstrata fuit mirabilis quaedam visio per angelum de Joseph -decurione nobili, qui corpus domini deposuit de cruce et de catino illo -vel paropside, in quo dominus caenavit cum discipulis suis, de quo ab -eodem heremita descripta est historia quae dicitur gradale. Gradalis autem -vel gradale gallice dicitur scutella lata et aliquantulum profunda, in qua -preciosae dapes divitibus solent apponi gradatim, unus morsellus post -alium in diversis ordinibus. Dicitur et vulgari nomine greal, quia grata -et acceptabilis est in ea comedenti, tum propter continens, quia forte -argentea est vel de alia preciosa materia, tum propter contentum .i. -ordinem multiplicem dapium preciosarum. Hanc historiam latine scriptam -invenire non potui sed tantum gallice scripta habetur a quibusdem -proceribus, nec facile, ut aiunt, tota inveniri potest." - -The Grand St. Graal is the only work of the cycle now existing to which -Helinandus' words could refer; but it is a question whether he may not -have had in view a work from which the Grand St. Graal took over its -introduction. Helinandus mentions the punning origin of the word "greal" -(_infra_, p. 76), which is only hinted at in the Grand St. Graal, but -fully developed elsewhere, _e.g._, in the Didot-Perceval and in Borron's -poem. - -Another point of great interest raised by this introduction will be found -dealt with in Appendix B. - -[44] The MS. followed by Furnivall has an illustration, in which Joseph is -represented as sitting under the Cross and collecting the blood from the -sides and feet in the basin. - -[45] MS. reading. - -[46] I have not thought it necessary to give a summary of the prose -romance Perceval le Gallois. One will be found in Birch-Hirschfeld, pp. -123-134. The version, though offering many interesting features, is too -late and unoriginal to be of use in the present investigation. - -[47] _Cf._ p. 78 as to this passage. - -[48] It is forty-two years, according to D. Queste (p. 119), after the -Passion that Joseph comes to Sarras. - -[49] It is plain that B I is abridged in the passage dealt with, from the -following fact: Joseph (v. 2,448, etc.) praying to Christ for help, -reminds Him of His command, that when he (Joseph) wanted help he should -come "devant ce veissel precieus Où est votre sans glorieus." Now Christ's -words to Joseph in the prison say nothing whatever about any such -recommendation; but E, Grand St. Graal, does contain a scene between our -Lord and Joseph, in which the latter is bidden, "Et quant tu vauras à moi -parler si ouuerras l'arche en quel lieu que tu soies" (I, 38-39) from -which the conclusion may be drawn that B I represents an abridged and -garbled form of the prototype of E. - -[50] In the Mabinogi of Branwen, the daughter of Llyr, the warriors cast -into the cauldron of renovation come forth on the morrow fighting men as -good as they were before, except that they are not able to speak (Mab., p. -381). - -[51] The version summarised by Birch-Hirschfeld. - -[52] Curiously enough this very text here prints Urban as the name of the -Maimed King; Urban is the antagonist of Lambar, the father of the Maimed -King in the original draft of the Queste, and his mention in this place in -the 1488 text seems due to a misprint. In the episode there is a direct -conflict of testimony between the first and second drafts, Lambar slaving -Urlain in the former, Urlain Lambar in the latter. - -[53] This account agrees with that of the second draft of the Queste, in -which Urlain slays Lambar. - -[54] Only _one_ beholder of the Quest is alluded to, although in the -Queste, from which the Grand St. Graal drew its account, _three_ behold -the wonders of the Grail. - -[55] This, of course, belongs to the second of the two accounts we have -found in the poem respecting the Promised Knight, the one which makes him -the grandson and not the son merely of Brons. - -[56] The object of the Quest according to Heinrich von dem Türlin will be -found dealt with in Chapter VII. - -[57] This is one of a remarkable series of points of contact between -Gerbert and Wolfram von Eschenbach. - -[58] It almost looks as if the author of C were following here a version -in which the hero only has to go once to the Grail Castle; nothing is said -about Perceval's first unsuccessful visit, and Merlin addresses Perceval -as if he were telling him for the first time about matters concerning -which he must be already fully instructed. - -[59] It is remarkable, considering the scanty material at his disposal, -how accurate Schulz' analysis is, and how correct much of his -argumentation. - -[60] Wagner has admirably utilised this hint of Simrock's in his Parsifal, -when his Kundry (the loathly damsel of Chrestien and the Mabinogi) is -Herodias. _Cf._ _infra_, Ch. X. - -[61] Excepting, of course, the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century -Paris imprints, which represented as a rule, however, the latest and most -interpolated forms, and Mons. Fr. Michel's edition of Borron's poem. - -[62] Hucher's argument from v. 2817 (_supra_ p. 106) that the poem knew of -the Grand St. Graal is, however, not met. - -[63] _Vide_ p. 200, for Birch-Hirschfeld's summary comparison of the two -works, and _cf._ _infra_ p. 127. - -[64] _Cf._ _infra_ p. 128, for a criticism of this statement. - -[65] Opera V. 410: Unde et vir ille eloquio clarus W. Mapus, Oxoniensis -archidiaconus (cujus animae propitietur Deus) solita verborum facetia et -urbanitate praecipua dicere pluris et nos in hunc modum convenire solebat: -"Multa, Magister Geralde, scripsistis et multum adhue scribitis, et nos -multa diximus. Vos scripta dedistis et nos verba." - -[66] Printed in full, Hucher, I. 156, etc. - -[67] Printed by Hucher, I. p. 35, etc. - -[68] The remainder of Birch-Hirschfeld's work is devoted to proving that -Chrestien was the only source of Wolfram von Eschenbach, the latter's Kiot -being imagined by him to justify his departure from Chrestien's version; -departures occasioned by his dissatisfaction with the French poet's -treatment of the subject on its moral and spiritual side. This element in -the Grail problem will be found briefly dealt with, Appendix A. - -[69] I have not thought it necessary, or even advisable, to notice what -the "Encyclopædia Britannica" (Part XLI, pp. 34, 35) and some other -English "authorities" say about the Grail legends. - -[70] They are brought together by Hucher, vol. i, p. 383, etc. - -[71] In the preface to the second volume of his edition of Chrestien's -works (Halle, 1887), W. Förster distinguishes Peredur from the Lady of the -Fountain and from Geraint, which he looks upon as simple copies of -Chrestien's poems dealing with the same subjects. Peredur has, he thinks, -some Welsh features. - -[72] It is perhaps only a coincidence that in Gautier the "pucelle de -malaire" is named Riseut la Bloie, and that Rosette la Blonde is the name -of the loathly damsel whom Perceval meets in company of the Beau Mauvais, -and whom Birch-Hirschfeld supposes to have suggested to Chrestien _his_ -loathly damsel, the Grail messenger. But from the three versions one gets -the following:--Riseut (Gautier), loathly damsel (Didot-Perceval), Grail -messenger (Chrestien), = Peredur's cousin, who in the Mabinogi is the -loathly Grail messenger, and the protagonist in the stag-hunt. - -[73] I have not thought it necessary to discuss seriously the hypothesis -that Chrestien may have used the Mabinogi as we now have it. The foregoing -statement of the facts is sufficient to negative it. - -[74] THE COUNSELS. _Chrestien_ (v. 1,725, etc.): aid dames and damsels, -for he who honoureth them not, his honour is dead; serve them likewise; -displease them not in aught; one has much from kissing a maid if she will -to lie with you, but if she forbid, leave it alone; if she have ring, or -wristband, and for love or at your prayer give it, 'tis well you take it. -Never have comradeship with one for long without seeking his name; speak -ever to worthy men and go with them; ever pray in churches and monasteries -(then follows a dissertation on churches and places of worship generally). -_Mabinogi_ (p. 83): wherever a church, repeat there thy Paternoster; if -thou see meat and drink, and none offer, take; if thou hear an outcry, -especially of a woman, go towards it; if thou see a jewel, take and give -to another to obtain praise thereby; pay thy court to a fair woman, -_whether she will or no_, thus shalt thou render thyself a better man than -before. (In the italicised passage the Mabinogi gives the direct opposite -of Chrestien, whom he has evidently misunderstood.) _Sir Perceval_ (p. -16): "Luke thou be of mesure Bothe in haulle and boure, And fonde to be -fre." "There thou meteste with a knyghte, Do thi hode off, I highte, and -haylse hym in hy" (He interprets the counsel to be of measure by only -taking half the food and drink he finds at the board of the lady of the -tent. The kissing of the lady of the tent which follows is in no way -connected with his mother's counsel.) _Wolfram_: "Follow not untrodden -paths; bear thyself ever becomingly; deny no man thy greeting; accept the -teaching of a greybeard; if ring and greeting of a fair woman are to be -won strive thereafter, kiss her and embrace her dear body, for that gives -luck and courage, if so she be chaste and worthy." Beside the mother's -counsels Perceval is admonished by Gonemans or the personage corresponding -to him. In _Chrestien_ (2,838, _et seq._) he is to deny mercy to no knight -pleading for it; to take heed he be not over-talkful; to aid and counsel -dames and damsels and all others needing his counsel; to go often to -church; not to quote his mother's advice, rather to refer to him -(Gonemans). In the _Mabinogi_ he is to leave the habits and discourse of -his mother; if he see aught to cause him wonder not to ask its meaning. In -_Wolfram_ he is not to have his mother always on his lips; to keep a -modest bearing; to help all in need, but to give wisely, not heedlessly; -and in especial not to ask too much; to deny no man asking mercy; when he -has laid by his arms to let no traces thereof be seen, but to wash hands -and face from stain of rust, thereby shall ladies be pleased; to hold -women in love and honour; never to seek to deceive them (as he might do -many), for false love is fleeting and men and women are one as are sun and -daylight.--There seems to me an evident progression in the ethical -character of these counsels. Originally they were doubtless purely -practical and somewhat primitive of their nature. As it is, Chrestien's -words sound very strange to modern ears. - -[75] In the notes to my two articles in the "Folk-Lore Record" will be -found a number of references establishing this fact. - -[76] The hero renews his strength after his various combats by rubbing -himself with the contents of a vessel of balsam. He has moreover to enter -a house the door of which closes to of itself (like the Grail Castle -Portcullis in Wolfram), and which kills him. He is brought to life by the -friendly raven. The mysterious carlin also appears, "there was a turn of -her nails about her elbows, and a twist of her hoary hair about her toes, -and she was not joyous to look upon." She turns the hero's companions into -stone, and to unspell them he must seek a bottle of living water and rub -it upon them, when they will come out alive. This is like the final -incident in many stories of the Two Brothers class. _Cf._ note, p. 162. - -[77] O'Daly's version consists of 158 quatrains; Campbell's of 63. The -correspondence between them, generally very close (frequently verbal), is -shown by the following table:-- - - O'D., 1, 2. C., 1, 2. - -- C., 3. - O'D., 3. C., 4. - O'D., 4-15. -- - O'D., 16. C., 4. - O'D., 17-24. C., 5-12. - O'D., 25. -- - -- C., 13-15. - O'D., 26-47. C., 16-36. - O'D., 48-56. -- - O'D., 57-61. C., 37-40. - O'D., 62. -- - O'D., 63-65. C., 41-43. - O'D., 66. C., 45. - O'D., 67. C., 44. - O'D., 68, 69. C., 46, 47. - O'D., 70. C., 49. - O'D., 71. C., 48. - -- C., 50. - O'D., 72. C., 52. - O'D., 73. -- - O'D., 74. C., 53. - O'D., 75. C., 54. - O'D., 76-80. C., 55-59. - O'D., 81-134. -- - O'D., 135, 136. C., 60, 61. - -- C., 62. - O'D., 137. -- - O'D., 138. C., 63. - O'D., 139-158. -- - -[78] Of this widely spread group, Grimm's No. 60, Die zwei Brüder, may be -taken as a type. The brethren eat heart and liver of the gold bird and -thereby get infinite riches, are schemed against by a goldsmith, who would -have kept the gold bird for himself, seek their fortunes throughout the -world accompanied by helping beasts, part at crossways, leaving a life -token to tell each one how the other fares; the one delivers a princess -from a dragon, is cheated of the fruit of the exploit by the Red Knight, -whom after a year he confounds, wins the princess, and, after a while, -hunting a magic hind, falls victim to a witch. His brother, learning his -fate through the life token, comes to the same town, is taken for the -young king even by the princess, but keeps faith to his brother by laying -a bare sword twixt them twain at night. He then delivers from the witch's -spells his brother, who, learning the error caused by the likeness, and -thinking advantage had been taken of it, in a fit of passion slays him, -but afterwards, hearing the truth, brings him back to life again. Grimm -has pointed out in his notes the likeness between this story and that of -Siegfried (adventures with Mimir, Fafnir, Brunhilde, and Gunnar). In India -the tale figures in Somadeva's Katha Sarit Sagara (Brockhaus' translation, -ii., 142, _et seq._). The one brother is transformed into a demon through -accidental sprinkling from a body burning on a bier. He is in the end -released from this condition by his brother's performing certain exploits, -but there is no similarity of detail. Other variants are _Zingerle_ (p. -131) where the incident occurs of the hero's winning the king's favour by -making his bear dance before him; this I am inclined to look upon as a -weakened recollection of the incident of a hero's making a princess -_laugh_, either by playing antics himself or making an animal of his play -them (_see_ _supra_, p. 134, Kennedy's Irish Tale). Grimm also quotes -_Meier_ 29 and 58, but these are only variants of the dragon-killing -incident. In the variant of 29, given p. 306, the hero makes the king -laugh, and in both stories occurs the familiar incident of the hero coming -unknown into a tournament and overcoming all enemies, as in Peredur (Inc. -9). _Wolf._, p. 369, is closer, and here the hero is counselled by a grey -mannikin whom he will unspell if he succeeds. _Stier_, No. I. (not p. 67, -as Grimm erroneously indicates) follows almost precisely the same course -as Grimm's 60, save that there are three brothers. _Graal_, p. 195, has -the magic gold bird opening, but none of the subsequent adventures tally. -_Schott_, No. 11, is also cited by Grimm, but mistakenly; it belongs to -the faithful-servant group. Very close variants come from Sweden -(Cavallius-Oberleitner, V_a_, V_b_) and Italy (Pentamerone, I. 7 and I. -9). The Swedish tales have the miraculous conception opening, which is a -prominent feature in tales belonging to the Expulsion and Return group -(_e.g._, Perseus, Cu-Chulaind, and Taliesin), but present otherwise very -nearly the same incidents as Grimm. The second of the Italian versions has -the miraculous conception opening so characteristic of this group of -folk-tales, and of the allied formula group, the attainment of riches -consequent upon eating the heart of a sea dragon, the tournament incident -(though without the disguise of the hero), the stag hunt, wherein the -stag, an inimical wizard haunting the wood, is a cannibal and keeps the -captured hero for eating. In the story of the delivery by the second -brother, the separating sword incident occurs. The first version opens -with what is apparently a distorted and weakened form of the hero's -clearing a haunted house of its diabolical inmates (_see_ _infra_ Ch. -VII., Gawain) and then follows very closely Grimm's Two Brothers, save -that the alluring witch is young and fair, the whole tale being made to -point the moral, "more luck than wit." Straparola, _a_ 3, is a variant of -the dragon fight incident alone. It is impossible not to be struck by the -fact that in this widely spread group of tales are to be found some of the -most characteristic incidents of the Perceval and allied Great Fool group. -The only version, however, which brings the two groups into formal contact -is O'Daly's form of the Great Fool. - -[79] The brother feature appears likewise in Wolfram von Eschenbach, where -Parzival's final and hardest struggle is against the unknown brother, as -the Great Fool's is against the Gruagach. This may be added to other -indications that Wolfram _did_ have some other version before him besides -Chrestien's. - -[80] I cannot but think that these words have connection with the incident -in the English Sir Perceval of the hero's throwing into the flames and -thus destroying his witch enemy. - -[81] I must refer to my Mabinogion Studies, I. Branwen for a discussion of -the relation of this tale with Branwen and with the Teutonic Heldensage. - -[82] Another parallel is afforded by the tale of Conall Gulban (Campbell, -III., 274). Conall, stretched wounded on the field, sees "when night grew -dark a great Turkish carlin, and she had a white glaive of light with -which she could see seven miles behind her and seven miles before her; and -she had a flask of balsam carrying it." The dead men are brought to life -by having three drops of balsam put into their mouths. The hero wins both -flask and glaive. - -[83] _Cf._ my Branwen for remarks on the mythological aspect of the -ballad. It should be noted that most of the ballads traditionally current -in the Highlands are of semi-literary origin, _i.e._, would seem to go -back to the compositions of mediæval Irish bards, who often sprinkled over -the native tradition a profusion of classical and historical names. I do -not think the foreign influence went farther than the "names" of some -personages, and such as it is is more at work in the ballads than in the -tales. - -[84] This may seem to conflict with the statement made above (p. 145), -that the Mabinogi probably took over the maimed uncle from Chrestien. But -there were in all probability several forms of the story; that hinted at -in Chrestien and found in Manessier had its probable counterpart in Celtic -tradition as well as that found in Gerbert. It is hardly possible to -determine what was the form found in the proto-Mabinogi, the possibility -of its having been exactly the same as that of Gerbert is in no way -affected by the fact that the Mabinogi, as we now have it, has in this -respect been influenced by Chrestien. Meanwhile Birch-Hirschfeld's -hypothesis that Gerbert's section of the Conte du Graal is an -interpolation between Gautier and Manessier is laid open to grave doubt. -It is far more likely that Gerbert's work was an independent and original -attempt to provide an ending for Chrestien's unfinished poem, and that he -had before him a different version of the original from that used by -Gautier and Manessier. - -[85] It occurs also in Peredur (Inc. 16), where the hero comes to the -Castle of the Youths, who, fighting every day against the Addanc of the -Cave, are each day slain, and each day brought to life by being anointed -in a vessel of warm water and with precious balsam. - -[86] For the second time, if Gerbert's continuation be really intended for -our present text of Gautier, and if Potvin's summary of Gerbert is to be -relied upon; Birch-Hirschfeld seemingly differs from him here, and makes -the King at once mention the flaw. - -[87] It may be worth notice that v. 35,473 is the same as Chrestien, v. -4,533. - -[88] It is evident that, although in the MS. in which this version is -found it is followed by Manessier's section, the poem was intended by -Gerbert to end here. - -[89] Told at other times, and notably by Gautier himself (Inc. 21), of -Perceval, where the feature of a dead knight lying on the altar is added. - -[90] According to the Montpellier MS., which here agrees substantially -with Potvin's text (the Mons MS.), this is Gauvain's second visit to the -Grail Castle. At his first visit he had been subjected to the sword test -and had slept. The mystic procession is made up as follows:--Squire with -lance; maidens with plate; two squires with candlesticks; fair maiden -weeping, in her hands a "graal;" four squires with the bier, on which lies -the knight and the broken sword. Gauvain would fain learn about these -things, but is bidden first to make the sword whole. On his failure he is -told - - Vous n'avez par encore tant fet - D'armes, que vous doiez savoir, etc., - -and then goes to sleep. His awakening finds him in a marsh. - -[91] It may be conjectured that the magic vessel which preserves to this -enchanted folk the semblance of life passes into the hero's possession -when he asks about it, and that deprived of it their existence comes to an -end, as would that of the Anses without the Apples of Iduna. I put this -into a note, as I have no evidence in support of the theory. But read in -the light of this conjecture some hitherto unnoticed legend may supply the -necessary link of testimony. - -[92] Nearly all the objections to the view suggested in the text may be -put aside as due to insufficient recognition of the extent to which the -two formulas have been mingled, but there is one which seems to me of real -moment. The wasting of the land which I have looked upon as belonging to -the unspelling formula, is traced by the Queste to the blow struck by King -Lambar against King Urlain, a story which, as we have seen, is very -similar to that which forms the groundwork of one at least of the models -followed by the Conte du Graal in its version of the feud quest. It does -not seem likely that the Queste story is a mere echo of that found in the -Conte du Graal, nor that the fusion existed so far back as in a model -common to both. But the second alternative is possible. - -[93] I do not follow M. Hucher upon the (as it seems to me) very insecure -ground of Gaulish numismatic art. The object which he finds figured in -pre-Christian coins may be a cauldron--and it may not--and even if it is a -cauldron it may have no such significance as he ascribes to it. - -[94] _Cf._ as to Lug D'Arbois de Jubainville, Cycle Mythologique -Irlandais; Paris, 1884, p. 178. He was revered by all Celtic races, and -has left his trace in the name of several towns, chief among them -Lug-dunum = Lyons. In so far as the Celts had departmental gods, he was -the god of handicraft and trade; but _cf._ as to this Rhys, Hibb. Lect., -p. 427-28. - -[95] _Cf._ D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._, p. 269-290. The Dagda--the -good god--seems to have been head of the Irish Olympus. A legend anterior -to the eleventh century, and belonging probably to the oldest stratum of -Celtic myth, ascribes to him power over the earth: without his aid the -sons of Miledh could get neither corn nor milk. It is, therefore, no -wonder to find him possessor of the magic cauldron, which may be looked -upon as a symbol of fertility, and, as such, akin to similar symbols in -the mythology of nearly every people. - -[96] _Cf._ as to the mythic character of the Tuatha de Danann, D'Arbois de -Jubainville, _op. cit._, and my review of his work, Folk-Lore Journal, -June, 1884. - -[97] I at one time thought that the prohibition to reveal the "secret -words," which is such an important element in Robert de Borron's version, -might be referred to the same myth-root as the instances in the text. -There is little or no evidence to sustain such a hazardous hypothesis. -Nevertheless it is worth while drawing attention in this place to that -prohibition, for which I can offer no adequate explanation. - -[98] Powers of darkness and death. Tethra their king reigns in an island -home. It is from thence that the maiden comes to lure away Connla of the -Golden Hair, as is told in the Leabhar na-h-Uidhre, even as the Grail -messenger comes to seek Perceval--"'tis a land in which is neither death -nor old age--a plain of never ending pleasure," the counterpart, in fact, -of that Avalon to which Arthur is carried off across the lake by the fay -maiden, that Avalon which, as we see in Robert de Borron, was the earliest -home of the Grail-host. - -[99] _Cf._ D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._ p. 188. - -[100] When Cuchulainn was opposing the warriors of Ireland in their -invasion of Ulster one of his feats is to make smooth chariot-poles out of -rough branches of trees by passing them through his clenched hand, so that -however bent and knotted they were they came from his hands even, -straight, and smooth. _Tain bo Cualgne_, quoted by Windisch, Rev. Celt., -Vol. V. - -[101] This epithet recalls Lug, of whom it is the stock designation. Now -Lug was _par excellence_ the craftsman's god; he, too, at the battle of -Mag Tured acted as a sort of armourer-general to the Tuatha de Danann. A -dim reminiscence of this may be traced in the words which the folk-tale -applies to Ullamh l.f., "he was the one special man for taking their -arms." - -[102] _Cf._ my Aryan Expulsion and Return formula, pp. 8, 13, for variants -of these incidents in other stories belonging to this cycle and in the -allied folk-tales. - -[103] This incident is only found in the living Fionn-_sage_, being absent -from all the older versions, and yet, as the comparison with the allied -Perceval sage shows, it is an original and essential feature. How do the -advocates of the theory that the Ossianic cycle is a recent mass of -legend, growing out of the lives and circumstances of historical men, -account for this development along the lines of a formula with which, _ex -hypothesi_, the legend has nothing to do? The Fionn-_sage_, it is said, -has been doctored in imitation of the Cuchulainn-_sage_, but the assertion -(which though boldly made has next to no real foundation) cannot be made -in the case of the Conte du Graal. Mediæval Irish bards and unlettered -Highland peasants did not conspire together to make Fionn's adventures -agree with those of Perceval. - -[104] In the Gawain form of the feud quest found in Gautier, the knight -whose death he sets forth to avenge is slain by the cast of a dart. Can -this be brought into connection with the fact that Perceval slays with a -cast of his dart the Red Knight, who, according to the Thornton romance, -is his father's slayer. - -[105] This prose tale precedes an oral version of one of the commonest -Fenian poems, which in its present shape obviously goes back to the days -when the Irish were fighting against Norse invaders. The poem, which still -lives in Ireland as well as in the Highlands, belongs to that later stage -of development of the Fenian cycle, in which Fionn and his men are -depicted as warring against the Norsemen. It is totally dissimilar from -the prose story summarised above, and I am inclined to look upon the prose -as belonging to a far earlier stage in the growth of the cycle, a stage in -which the heroes were purely mythical and their exploits those of mythical -heroes generally. - -[106] The prohibition seems to be an echo of the widely-spread one which -forbids the visitor to the otherworld tasting the food of the dead, which, -if he break, he is forfeit to the shades. The most famous instance of this -myth is that of Persephone. - -[107] _Cf._ Procopius quoted by Elton, Origins of English History, p. 84. - -[108] Prof. Rhys, Hibbert Lectures for 1886, looks upon him as a Celtic -Zeus. He dispossessed his father of the Brug by fraud, as Zeus -dispossessed Kronos by force. - -[109] D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._, p. 275. Rhys, _op. cit._, p. -149. - -[110] M. Duvau, Revue Celtique, Vol. IX., No. 1, has translated the -varying versions of the story. - -[111] Like many of the older Irish tales the present form is confused and -obscure, but it is easy to arrive at the original. - -[112] The part in brackets is found in one version only of the story. Of -the two versions each has retained certain archaic features not to be -found in the other. - -[113] Summarised by D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._, p. 323. - -[114] D'Arbois de Jubainville, p. 326. - -[115] Otto Küpp, Z.f.D. Phil. xvii, i, 68, examining Wolfram's version -sees in the branch guarded by Gramoflanz and broken by Parzival a trace of -the original myth underlying the story. Gramoflanz is connected with the -Magic Castle (one of the inmates of which is his sister), or with the -otherworld. Küpp's conjecture derives much force from the importance given -to the branch in the Irish tales as part of the gear of the otherworld. - -[116] This recalls the fact that Oengus of the Brug fell in love with a -swanmaid. See text and translation Revue Celtique, Vol. III., pp. 341, -_et. seq._ The story is alluded to in the catalogue of epic tales (dating -from the tenth century) found in the Book of Leinster. - -[117] In a variant from Kashmir (Knowles' Folk-tales of Kashmir, London, -1888, p. 75, _et. seq._), Saiyid and Said, this tale is found embedded in -a twin-brethren one. - -[118] Frederick (I.) Barbarossa is a mistake, as old as the seventeenth -century (_cf._ Koch, Sage vom Kaiser Friedrich in Kyffhäuser, Leipzig, -1886), for Frederick II., the first German Emperor of whom the legend was -told. The mistake was caused by the fact that Frederick took the place of -a German red-bearded god, probably Thor, hence the later identification -with the _red-bearded_ Frederick, instead of with that great opponent of -the Papacy whose death away in Italy the German party refused for many -years to credit. - -[119] Unless the passage relating to Carl the Great quoted by Grimm (D.M., -III., 286) from Mon. Germ. Hist., Vol. VIII., 215, "inde fabulosum illud -confictum de Carolo Magno, quasi de mortuis in id ipsum resuscitato, et -alio nescio quo nihilominus redivivo," be older. - -[120] Liebrecht's edition of the Otia Imperialia, Hanover, 1856, p. 12, -and note p. 55. - -[121] Martin Zur Gralsage, p. 31, arguing from the historical connection -of Frederick II. with Sicily, thinks that the localisation of this -Arthurian legend in that isle was the reason of its being associated with -the Hohenstauffen; in other words, the famous German legend would be an -indirect offshot of the Arthurian cycle. I cannot follow Martin here. I -see no reason for doubting the genuineness of the traditions collected by -Kuhn and Schwartz, or for disbelieving that Teutons had this myth as well -as Celts. It is no part of my thesis to exalt Celtic tradition at the -expense of German; almost all the parallels I have adduced between the -romances and Celtic mythology and folk-lore could be matched from those of -Germany. But the romances are historically associated with Celtic -tradition, and the parallels found in the latter are closer and more -numerous than those which could be recovered from German tradition. It is, -therefore, the most simple course to refer the romances to the former -instead of to the latter. - -[122] See Grimm, D.M., Ch. XXXII.; Fitzgerald, Rev. Celt., IV., 198; and -the references in Liebrecht, _op. cit._ - -[123] Personally communicated by the Rev. Mr. Sorby, of Sheffield. - -[124] In Chrestien the part of the Magician Lord is little insisted upon. -But in Wolfram he is a very important personage. It may here be noted that -the effects which are to follow in Chrestien the doing away with the -enchantments of this Castle, answer far more accurately to the description -given by the loathly Grail-Maiden of the benefits which would have accrued -had Perceval put the question at the Court of the Fisher King than to -anything actually described as the effect of that question being put, -either by Gautier, Manessier, or Gerbert. This castle seems, too, to be -the one in which lodge the Knights, each having his lady love with him, -which the loathly maiden announces to be her home. - -[125] Kennedy follows in the main Oss. Soc., Vol. II, pp. 118, _et. seq._, -an eighteenth century version translated by Mr. O'Kearney. This particular -episode is found, pp. 147, _et. seq._ I follow the Oss. Soc. version in -preference to Kennedy's where they differ. - -[126] The story as found in Heinrich may be compared with the folk-tale of -the Sleeping Beauty. She is a maiden sunk in a death-in-life sleep -together with all her belongings until she be awakened by the kiss of the -destined prince. May we not conjecture that in an older form of the story -than any we now possess, the court of the princess vanished when the -releasing kiss restored her to real life and left her alone with the -prince? The comparison has this further interest, that the folk-tale is a -variant of an old myth which figures prominently in the hero-tales of the -Teutonic race (Lay of Skirni, Lay of Swipday and Menglad, Saga of Sigurd -and Brunhild), and that in its most famous form Siegfried, answering in -Teutonic myth to Fionn, is its hero. But Peredur is a Cymric Fionn, so -that the parallel between the two heroes, Celtic and Teutonic, is closer -than at first appears when Siegfried is compared only to his Gaelic -counterpart. - -[127] I have not examined Gawain's visit to the Magic Castle in detail, in -the first place because it only bears indirectly upon the Grail-Quest, and -then because I hope before very long to study the personality of Gawain in -the romances, and to throw light upon it from Celtic mythic tradition in -the same way that I have tried in the foregoing pages to do in the case of -Perceval. - -[128] Kennedy, Legendary Fictions, p. 154, _et. seq._ - -[129] Grimm, Vol. III., p. 9 (note to Märchen von einem der auszog das -Fürchten zu lernen), gives a number of variants. It should be noted that -in this story there is the same mixture of incidents of the Magic Castle -and Haunted Castle forms as in the romances. Moreover, one of the trials -to which the hero's courage is subjected is the bringing into the room of -a coffin in which lies a dead man, just as in Gawain's visit to the Grail -Castle. Again, as Grimm notes, but mistakenly refers to Perceval instead -of to Gawain, the hero has to undergo the adventures of the magic bed, -which, when he lays himself down in it, dashes violently about through the -castle and finally turns topsy turvy. In connection with this story, and -with the whole series of mythical conceptions noted in the Grail romances, -Chapter XXXII. of the Deutsche Mythologie deserves careful study. Grimm -compares Conduiramur's (Blanchefleur's) nightly visit to Percival's -chamber to the appearance at the bedside of the delivering hero of that -white maiden, who is so frequently figured as the inmate of the Haunted -Castle. As niece of the Lord of the Grail Castle, Blanchefleur is also a -denizen of the otherworld, but I hardly think that the episode of -Perceval's delivering her from her enemies can be looked upon as a version -of the removal of the spells of the Haunted Castle. In a recent number of -the Revue des Traditions Populaires (III., p. 103), there is a good Breton -version of the Bespelled Castle sunk under the waves. A fair princess is -therein held captive; once a year the waves part and permit access, and he -who is bold enough to seize the right moment wins princess and castle, -which are restored to earth. - -[130] Whether it be the Castle of the Fisher King, _i.e._, the Castle of -the Perceval Quest; or the Magic Castle, _i.e._, the Castle of the Gawain -Quest. - -[131] For fuller information about this mysterious fish, see Rhys, Hibbert -Lectures, pp. 553-54. - -[132] In an already quoted tale of Campbell's (LVIII., the Rider of -Grianaig) allusion is made to the "black fisherman working at his tricks." -Campbell remarks that a similar character appears in other tales. Can this -wizard fisher be brought into contact with the Rich Fisher of -Pseudo-Chrestien (_supra_, p. 8), who knew much of black art, and could -change his semblance a hundred times? - -[133] Complete text, edited by Kuno Meyer, Revue Celt., Vol. V. Major -portion of text with English translation by Dr. J. O'Donovan, Oss. Soc., -Vol. IV. The tract as a whole is only known to us from a fifteenth century -MS.; but the earlier portion of it appears in the L.n.H., in a strongly -euhemerised form, only such incidents being admitted as could be presented -historically, and these being divested of all supernatural character. See -my paper, "Folk-Lore Record," Vol. IV., for a discussion of the genuine -and early character of the tract. - -[134] A reason for this concealment may be found in the idea, so -frequently met with in a certain stage of human development, that the name -is an essential portion of the personality, and must not be mentioned, -especially to possible enemies or to beings possessed of magical powers, -lest they should make hurtful use of it. - -[135] _Cf._ the whole of the Book of Rights for an exemplification of the -way in which the pre-Christian Irishman was hedged and bound and fettered -by this amazingly complicated system of what he might and what he might -not do. - -[136] They offer him dog's-flesh cooked on rowan spits, and, it has been -conjectured that the _gess_ has a totemistic basis, Culann's Hound -(Cuchulainn) being forbidden to partake of the flesh of his totem. - -[137] It is only within the last 100 years that our knowledge of savage -and semi-savage races has furnished us with a parallel to the "geasa" in -the "taboo" of the Polynesian. I am not advancing too much in the -statement that this institution, although traces of it exist among all -Aryan races, had not the same importance among any as among the Irish -Gael. It is another proof of the primitive character of Irish social life, -a character which may, perhaps, be ascribed to the assimilation by the -invading Celts of the beliefs and practices of much ruder races. - -[138] Mr. Elton (Origins, pp. 291, 292) looks upon Bran and Caradoc as -original war gods. Caradoc, he thinks, was confounded with Caractacus, -Bran with Brennus, and hence the two personages were sent to Rome in -imitation of the presumed historical prototypes. - -[139] Kynddelw's triad does not really refer to the "blessed" families at -all, but to the "faithful" or "loyal" families. Stephen's mistake arose -from the fact of the name Madawc occurring in two sets of triads, one -relating to the "lordly" families of Britain in which the family of Llyr -Llediath also figures, and one to the faithful families. In both triads -the name is probably a mistake for Mabon. (Note communicated by Professor -Rhys.) - -I let the statement in the text stand, to exhort myself and others to that -fear of trusting authorities which in scholarship is the beginning of -wisdom. - -[140] Professor Rhys tells me this passage can only mean "Blessed Bran's -head." - -[141] Mr. Ward endorses Zarncke's contention. According to him there is no -trace of any connection between Joseph and the evangelisation of Britain -which can be said to be older than the romances. The statements of the "De -ant. eccl. Glast." are, he thinks, no guide to the knowledge or opinions -of William of Malmesbury. - -[142] I may here notice a theory to which my attention has only just been -called. It is found cited in a work of great research, _Die Fronica_, by -Professor Karl Pearson, Strassburg, 1887. The author quotes an opinion of -Mr. Jenner, of the British Museum, that the head in the platter of the -Mabinogi may be derived from a Veronica portrait. Professor Pearson -expresses doubt, because such a procession of the Veronica portrait and -the Passion Instruments as the scene in the Mabinogi would, _ex -hypothesi_, imply is not known to him before the fourteenth century, -whereas the Mabinogi must be attributed, at latest, to the middle of the -thirteenth century. Mr. H. L. D. Ward informs me that the suggestion was -his. Noting the connection of the Veronica and Grail legends, testified to -by Borron, it occurred to him that the whole scene at the Wounded King's -might be derived from the former legends. The Wounded King, healed by the -Grail, would thus be a counterpart of the leprous Vespasian healed by the -Veronica portrait, which some wandering "jongleur" turned boldly into an -actual head. But it must be noted that in Borron, our authority for the -connection of the two legends, there is no Wounded King at all; in the -Conte du Graal the Maimed King is not healed by any special talisman, but -by the death of his enemy, the visible sign of which is that enemy's head, -whilst in the "procession" (which Mr. Ward thinks to have been intended as -a vision), the Grail is certainly a vessel, and has no connection whatever -with any head or portrait. The theory thus requires that the version which -gives the oldest form of the hypothetical remodelled Veronica legend -omitted the very feature which was its sole _raison d'être_. - -[143] Mr. Ward thinks the localisation a late one, and that practically -there is no authority for it of an older date than the romances. He points -out in especial that Geoffrey's Vita Merlini, which has so much to say -about the "insula pomorum" in no way connects it with Glastonbury. There -is considerable doubt as the etymology of Glastonbury, but there is -substantial unanimity of opinion among Celtic scholars of the present day -in referring it to a Celtic rather than to a Saxon source. Be this as it -may, the fact remains that at sometime in the course of the twelfth -century the old Christian site of Glastonbury took, as it were, the place -of the Celtic paradise, and it seems far more likely that the -transformation was effected in virtue of some local tradition than wholly -through the medium of foreign romances. - -[144] The pre-Christian Irish annals, which are for the most part -euhemerised mythology, contain also a certain amount of race history; thus -the struggle between the powers of light and darkness typified by the -antagonism between Tuatha de Danann and Fomori, is doubled by that between -the fair invading Celts and the short dark aborigines. But the latter has -only left the barest trace of its existence in the national sagas. Not -until we come to that secondary stage of the Fenian saga, which must have -been shaped in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and which represents -the Fenians as warring against the harrying Northmen, does the foreign -element reappear in Irish tradition. - -[145] The Tochmarc Emer, or the Wooing of Emer by Cuchullain, has been -translated by Professor Kuno Meyer in the Archæological Review, Nos. 1-4 -(London, 1888). The original text is found partly in the Leabhar na -h-Uidhre, partly in later MSS. - -[146] The fate of the Sons of Usnech is known to us in two main -redactions, one found in the Book of Leinster (compiled in the middle of -the twelfth century from older MS.) printed by Windisch, Irische Texte -(first series) pp. 67-82, and translated by M. Poinsignon, Revue des -Traditions Populaires, III, pp. 201-207. A text printed and translated by -J. O'Flanagan (Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, 1808, pp. -146-177), agrees substantially with this. The second redaction has only -been found in later MSS. Mr. Whitley Stokes has given text and translation -from a fifteenth century MS. (Irische Texte, II. 2, pp. 109-178), and -O'Flanagan has edited a very similar version (_loc. cit._ pp. 16-135). -This second version is fuller and more romantic; in it alone is to be -found Deirdre's lament on leaving Scotland, one of the earliest instances -in post-classic literature of personal sympathy with Nature. - -But the earlier version, though it bear like so much else in the oldest -Irish MS. obvious traces of abridgment and euhemerism, is also full of the -most delicate romantic touches. Part of Deirdre's lament over the slain -Noisi may be paraphrased thus:--"Fair one, loved one, flower of beauty; -beloved, upright and strong; beloved, noble and modest warrior. When we -wandered through the woods of Ireland, sweet with thee was the night's -sleep! Fair one, blue-eyed, beloved of thy wife, lovely to me at the -trysting place came thy clear voice through the woods. I cannot sleep; -half the night my spirit wanders far among throngs of men. I cannot eat or -smile. Break not to-day my heart; soon enough shall I lie within my grave. -Strong are the waves of the sea, but stronger is sorrow, Conchobor." - -[147] M. Renan's article "De la Poésie des Races Celtiques" (Revue des -Deux Mondes, 1854, pp. 473-506) only came into my hands after the bulk of -this chapter was printed, or I should hardly have dared to state in my own -words those conclusions in which we agree. It may be useful to indicate -those points in which I think this suggestive essay no longer represents -the present state of knowledge. When M. Renan wrote, the nature of popular -tradition had been little investigated in France--hence a tendency to -attribute solely to the Celtic genius what is common to all popular -tradition. Little or nothing was then known in France of early Irish -history or literature--hence the wild, primitive character of Celtic -civilization is ignored. The "bardic" literature of Wales was still -assigned wholesale to the age of its alleged authors--hence a false -estimate of the relations between the profane and ecclesiastical writings -of the Welsh. Finally the three Mabinogion (The Lady of the Fountain, -Geraint, Peredur), which correspond to poems of Chrestien's, are -unhesitatingly accepted as their originals. The influence of Welsh fiction -in determining the courtly and refined nature of mediæval romance is, in -consequence, greatly exaggerated. It is much to be wished that M. Renan -would give us another review of Celtic literature based on the work of the -last thirty years. His lucid and sympathetic criticism would be most -welcome in a department of study which has been rather too exclusively -left to the specialist. - -[148] Malory is a wonderful example of the power of style. He is a most -unintelligent compiler. He frequently chooses out of the many versions of -the legend, the longest, most wearisome, and least beautiful; his own -contributions to the story are beneath contempt as a rule. But his -language is exactly what it ought to be, and his has remained in -consequence the classic English version of the Arthur story. - -[149] See p. 112 for a brief summary of Borron's conception; Sin the cause -of want among the people; the separation of the pure from the impure by -means of the fish (symbol of Christ); punishment of the self-willed false -disciple; reward of Brons by charge of the Grail; symbolising of the -Trinity by the three tables and three Grail Keepers. - -[150] The greater delicacy of the Welsh tale has already been noted. "To -make him such a offer before I am wooed by him, that, truly, can I not -do," says the counterpart of Blanchefleur in the Mabinogi. "Go my sister -and sleep," answers Peredur, "nor will I depart from thee until I do that -which thou requirest." I cannot help looking upon the prominence which the -Welsh story-teller has given to this scene as his protest against the -strange and to him repulsive ways of knightly love. The older, mythic -nature of Peredur's beloved, who might woo without forfeiting womanly -modesty, in virtue of her goddesshood, had died away in the narrator's -mind, the new ideal of courtly passion had not won acceptance from him. - -[151] The perplexities which beset the modern reader of the Queste are -reflected in the Laureate's retelling of the legend. Nowhere else in the -Idylls has he departed so widely from his model. Much of the incident is -due to him, and replaces with advantage the nauseous disquisitions upon -chastity which occupy so large a space in the Queste. The artist's -instinct, rather than the scholar's respect for the oldest form of the -story, led him to practically restore Perceval to his rightful place as -hero of the quest. _His_ fortunes we can follow with an interest that -passing shadow, Galahad, wholly fails to evoke. Nor, as may easily be -seen, is the fundamental conception of the twelfth century romance to the -Laureate's taste. Arthur is his ideal of manhood, and Arthur's energies -are practical and human in aim and in execution. What the "blameless king" -speaks when he first learns of the quest represents, we may guess, the -author's real attitude towards the whole fantastic business. - -It is much to be regretted by all lovers of English poetry that Hawker's -Quest of the Sangraal was never completed. The first and only chant is a -magnificent fragment; with the exception of the Laureate's Sir Galahad, -the finest piece of pure literature in the cycle. Hawker, alone, perhaps -of moderns, could have kept the mediæval tone and spirit, and yet brought -the Quest into contact with the needs and ideas of to-day. - -[152] _Cf._ Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, II, 811, and his references. - -[153] The ideas held by many peoples in a primitive stage of culture -respecting virginity are worthy careful study. Some physiological basis -may be found for them in the phenomena of hysteria, which must necessarily -have appeared to such peoples evidences of divine or demoniac possession, -and at that stage are hardly likely to have been met with save among -unmarried women. In the French witch trials these phenomena are often -presented by nuns, in whose case they were probably the outcome of a life -at once celibate and inactive. On the other hand the persons accused of -witchcraft were as a rule of the most abandoned character, and it is a, -morally speaking, degraded class which has furnished Professor Charcot and -his pupils with the subjects in whom they have identified all the -phenomena that confront the student of witch trials. - -[154] Domanig, Parzival-Studien, I, II, 1878-80. - -[155] San-Marte, Parzival-Studien, I-III, 1861-63. - -[156] Some readers may be anxious to read Wolfram's work to whom -twelfth-century German would offer great difficulties. A few words on the -translation into modern German may, therefore, not be out of place. -San-Marte's original translation (1839-41) is full of gross blunders and -mistranslations, and, what is worse, of passages foisted into the text to -support the translator's own interpretation of the poem as a whole. -Simrock's, which followed, is extremely close, but difficult and -unpleasing. San Marte's second edition, corrected from Simrock, is a great -advance upon the first; but even here the translator has too often allowed -his own gloss to replace Wolfram's statement. A thoroughly faithful yet -pleasing rendering is a desideratum. - -[157] J. Van Santen, Zur Beurtheilung Wolfram von Eschenbach, Wesel, 1882, -has attacked Wolfram for his acceptance of the morality of the day, and -has, on that ground, denied him any ethical or philosophic merit. The -pamphlet is useful for its references, but otherwise worthless. The fact -that Wolfram does accept _Minnedienst_ only gives greater value to his -picture of a nobler and purer ideal of love, whilst to refuse recognition -of his other qualities on this account is much as who should deny Dante's -claim to be regarded as a teacher and thinker because of his acceptance of -the hideous mediæval hell. - -[158] In the Geheimnisse Goethe shows some slight trace of the Parzival -legend, and the words in which the teaching of the poem are summed up: -"Von der Gewalt, die alle Wesen bindet, Befreit _der_ Mensch sich der sich -überwindet," may be looked upon as an eighteenth century rendering of -Wolfram's conception. - -[159] We may here note an admirable example of the inevitable, spontaneous -character of the growth of certain conceptions, especially of such as have -been partly shaped by the folk-mind. There is nothing in Wolfram or in the -French romances to show that the fortunes of the loathly damsel (Wagner's -Kundry) are in any way bound up with the success of the Quest. But we have -seen that the Celtic folk-tales represent the loathly damsel as the real -protagonist of the story. She cannot be freed unless the hero do his task. -Precisely the same situation as in Wagner, who was thus led back to the -primitive _donnée_, although he can only have known intermediary stages in -which its signification had been quite lost. - -[160] _Cf._ the reproaches addressed to Potter Thompson (_supra_, p. 198). -That the visitor to the Bespelled Castle should be reproached, at once, -for his failure to do as he ought, seems to be a feature of the earliest -forms of the story. _Cf._ Campbell's Three Soldiers (_supra_, p. 196). If -Wolfram had another source than Chrestien it was one which partook more of -the unspelling than of the feud quest formula. Hence the presence of the -feature here. - -[161] In Wolfram's work there is a much closer connection between the -Gawain quest and the remainder of the poem than in Chrestien. -Orgueilleuse, to win whose love Gawain accomplishes his feats, is a former -love of Amfortas, the Grail King, who won for her a rich treasure and was -wounded in her service. Klinschor, too, the lord of the Magic Castle, is -brought into contact with Orgueilleuse, whom he helps against Gramoflanz. -It is difficult to say whether this testifies to an earlier or later stage -of growth of the legend. The winning of Orgueilleuse as the consequence of -accomplishing the feat of the Ford Perillous and plucking the branch is -strongly insisted upon by Wolfram and not mentioned by Chrestien, though -it is possible he might have intended to wed the two had he finished his -poem. In this respect, however, and taking these two works as they stand, -Wolfram's account seems decidedly the earlier. In another point, too, he -seems to have preserved the older form. Besides his Kundrie la Sorcière -(the loathly damsel) he has a Kundrie la Belle, whom I take to be the -loathly damsel released from the transforming spell. - - - - -Transcriber's Notes: - -Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. - -Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=. - -Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}. - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, by -Alfred Nutt - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDIES ON LEGEND OF HOLY GRAIL *** - -***** This file should be named 42205-8.txt or 42205-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/2/0/42205/ - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you -do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the -rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose -such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and -research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do -practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is -subject to the trademark license, especially commercial -redistribution. - - - -*** START: FULL LICENSE *** - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at - www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy -all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. -If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" -or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the -collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from -copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative -works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg -are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project -Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by -freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of -this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with -the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by -keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project -Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate -access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently -whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, -copied or distributed: - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived -from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is -posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied -and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees -or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work -with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the -work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 -through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional -terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked -to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the -permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), -you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a -copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon -request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other -form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided -that - -- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is - owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he - has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments - must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you - prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax - returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and - sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to - the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." - -- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or - destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium - and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of - Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any - money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days - of receipt of the work. - -- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set -forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from -both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm -collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain -"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or -corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual -property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a -computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by -your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. -To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 -and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent -permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. -Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 -North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email -contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the -Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To -SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any -particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. -To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/42205-8.zip b/old/42205-8.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 91e7073..0000000 --- a/old/42205-8.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/42205-h.zip b/old/42205-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 1db14ff..0000000 --- a/old/42205-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/42205-h/42205-h.htm b/old/42205-h/42205-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 96fc342..0000000 --- a/old/42205-h/42205-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,13549 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> - -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, by Alfred Nutt—A Project Gutenberg eBook - </title> - - <style type="text/css"> - - p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} - - body {margin-left: 12%; margin-right: 12%;} - - .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;} - - h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; clear: both;} - - hr {width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} - - table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} - .bt {border-top: solid 1px; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;} - .br {border-right: solid 1px; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;} - .btr {border-top: solid 1px; border-right: solid 1px; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;} - .bb {border-bottom: solid 1px; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;} - .bbr {border-bottom: solid 1px; border-right: solid 1px; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;} - .dent {padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;} - - .giant {font-size: 200%} - .huge {font-size: 150%} - .large {font-size: 125%} - - .blockquot {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} - .poem {margin-left: 15%;} - .note {margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%;} - .hang {margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;} - - .right {text-align: right;} - .center {text-align: center;} - - .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} - .smcaplc {text-transform: lowercase; font-variant: small-caps;} - - .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} - - a:link {color:#0000ff; text-decoration:none} - a:visited {color:#6633cc; text-decoration:none} - - .spacer {padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em;} - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -Project Gutenberg's Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, by Alfred Nutt - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail - With Especial Reference to the Hypothesis of Its Celtic Origin - -Author: Alfred Nutt - -Release Date: February 26, 2013 [EBook #42205] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDIES ON LEGEND OF HOLY GRAIL *** - - - - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - - - - - -</pre> - - - -<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" /></p> - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<p class="center"><span class="huge">The Folk-Lore Society,</span></p> -<p class="center"><small>FOR COLLECTING AND PRINTING</small></p> -<p class="center"><span class="large">RELICS OF POPULAR ANTIQUITIES, &c.</span></p> -<p class="center"><small>ESTABLISHED IN</small></p> -<p class="center">THE YEAR MDCCCLXXVIII.</p> -<p> </p> -<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/deco.jpg" alt="" /><br /> -Alter et Idem.</p> -<p> </p> -<p class="center">PUBLICATIONS<br /> -<small>OF</small><br /> -THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.<br /> -1888.<br /> -XXIII.</p> - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<p class="center"><span class="huge">List of Officers of the Society.</span></p> -<p class="center"><span class="huge">1887-1888.</span></p> - -<p> </p> -<p class="center"><b>PRESIDENT.</b></p> -<p class="center">THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF STRAFFORD.</p> - -<p> </p> -<p class="center"><b>VICE-PRESIDENTS.</b></p> -<p class="center">ANDREW LANG, M.A.<br /> -W. R. S. RALSTON, M.A.<br /> -EDWARD B. TYLOR, LL.D., F.R.S.</p> - -<p> </p> -<p class="center"><b>DIRECTOR.</b></p> -<p class="center">G. L. GOMME, F.S.A., 1, Beverley Villas, Barnes Common, S.W.</p> - -<p> </p> -<p class="center"><b>COUNCIL.</b></p> -<p class="center">THE HON. J. ABERCROMBY.<br /> -A. MACHADO Y ALVAREZ.<br /> -THE EARL BEAUCHAMP, F.S.A.<br /> -EDWARD BRABROOK, F.S.A.<br /> -DR. G. B. BRINTON.<br /> -JAMES BRITTEN, F.L.S.<br /> -LOYS BRUEYRE.<br /> -MISS C. S. BURNE.<br /> -EDWARD CLODD.<br /> -PROFESSOR D. COMPARETTI.<br /> -G. LAURENCE GOMME, F.S.A.<br /> -A. GRANGER HUTT, F.S.A.<br /> -SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, <span class="smcap">Bt.</span>, F.R.S.<br /> -REV. DR. RICHARD MORRIS.<br /> -ALFRED NUTT.<br /> -EDWARD PEACOCK, F.S.A.<br /> -Z. D. PEDROSO.<br /> -PROFESSOR A. H. SAYCE, M.A.<br /> -CAPTAIN R. C. TEMPLE.<br /> -HENRY B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A.</p> - - -<p> </p> -<p class="center"><b>AUDITORS.</b></p> -<p class="center">G. L. APPERSON.<br /> -JOHN TOLHURST, F.S.A.</p> - -<p> </p> -<p class="center"><b>LOCAL SECRETARIES.</b></p> -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Ireland</span>: G. H. KINAHAN, R.I.A.<br /> -<span class="smcap">South Scotland</span>: WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK, <span class="smcap">Esq.</span><br /> -<span class="smcap">North Scotland</span>: Rev. WALTER GREGOR.<br /> -<span class="smcap">India</span>: <span class="smcap">Captain</span> R. C. TEMPLE.<br /> -<span class="smcap">China</span>: J. STEWART LOCKHART.</p> - -<p> </p> -<p class="center"><b>HONORARY SECRETARIES.</b></p> -<p class="center">A. GRANGER HUTT, F.S.A., 8, Oxford Road, Kilburn, N.W.<br /> -J. J. FOSTER, 36, Alma Square, St. John’s Wood, N.W.</p> - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<h1><small>STUDIES ON THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL.</small></h1> - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<p class="center"><span class="large"><i>Works by the same Author.</i></span></p> - -<div class="note"> -<p class="hang"><b>The Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula among the Celts.</b>—<i>Folk-Lore -Record</i>, Vol. IV. 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> - -<p class="blockquot">“Interessante étude de mythographie comparée.‗<i>Revue Celtique.</i></p> - -<p class="hang"><b>Mabinogion Studies, I. The Mabinogi of Branwen, daughter of -Llyr.</b>—<i>Folk-Lore Record</i>, Vol. V. 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> - -<p class="blockquot">“Eingehendes und sehr beachtenswerthes Studium.‗Prof. <span class="smcap">Ernst -Windisch</span>, in <i>Ersch und Gruber</i>.</p> - -<p class="blockquot">“These careful and searching studies deserve to be honourably -mentioned.‗Mons. <span class="smcap">Henri Gaidoz</span>, in the <i>Academy</i>.</p></div> - - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<p class="center"><span class="huge">STUDIES</span></p> -<p class="center"><small>ON THE</small></p> -<p class="center"><span class="giant"><span class="smcap">Legend of the Holy Grail</span></span></p> -<p> </p> -<p class="center"><i>WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE HYPOTHESIS</i></p> -<p class="center"><small>OF ITS</small></p> -<p class="center"><span class="large">CELTIC ORIGIN.</span></p> -<p> </p> -<p class="center"><small>BY</small><br /> -<span class="large">ALFRED NUTT.</span></p> -<p> </p> -<p class="note">“Welchem Volke das Märchen (von Parzival’s Jugendgeschichte) angehörte, welches die -schriftliche oder mündliche Ueberlieferung mit der Gralsage in Verbindung brachte, ist schwer -zu bestimmen, doch würde dasjenige Volk den meisten Anspruch darauf haben, bei welchem sich -dies Märchen ausserhalb jenes Zusammenhangs nachweisen liesse.‗<span class="smcap">K. Simrock.</span></p> - -<p class="note">“The Celtic hero who in the twelfth century became Perceval le Chercheur du basin ... in -the end became possessed of that sacred basin le Saint Graal, and the holy lance which, though -Christian in the story, are the same as the talismans which appear so often in Gaelic tales ... -the glittering weapon which destroys, and the sacred medicinal cup which cures.‗<span class="smcap">J. F. Campbell.</span></p> - -<p class="note">“In all the Fenian stories mention is made of Fionn’s healing cup ... it is the same as -the Holy Grail of course.‗<span class="smcap">J. F. Campbell.</span></p> -<p> </p> -<p class="center">London:<br /> -DAVID NUTT, 270-71, STRAND.<br /> -1888.</p> - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<p class="center">HARRISON AND SONS,<br /> -PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY,<br /> -ST. MARTIN’S LANE, LONDON.</p> - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<p class="center">DEDICATION.</p> - -<p class="center"><b>To the Memory</b><br /> -<small>OF</small><br /> -<span class="large">J. F. CAMPBELL</span>,<br /> -<small>FROM WHOM<br /> -I FIRST LEARNT TO LOVE CELTIC TRADITION.</small></p> - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> -<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> - -<table width="85%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></td></tr> -<tr><td>Description of the leading forms of the Romance: Conte del Graal—Joseph d’Arimathie—Didot-Perceval—Queste del Saint -Graal—Grand Saint Graal—Parzival—Perceval le Gallois—Mabinogi of Peredur—Sir Perceval—Diu Crône—Information -respecting date and authorship of these works in the MSS.</td> - <td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_1">page 1</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></td></tr> -<tr><td>Summaries—Conte du Graal: Pseudo-Chrestien, Chrestien, Gautier de Doulens, Manessier, Gerbert—Wolfram—Heinrich von dem -Türlin—Didot-Perceval—Mabinogi of Peredur—Thornton MS. Sir Perceval—Queste del Saint Graal—Grand Saint Graal—Robert -de Borron’s poem, Joseph of Arimathea</td> - <td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_8">page 8</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></td></tr> -<tr><td>The legend formed of two portions: Early History of Grail, Quest—Two forms of each portion distinguished—Grouping of the various -versions—Alternative hypotheses of development—Their bearing upon the alleged Celtic origin of the Grail—Closer examination of the -various accounts of the Grail: The first use made of it and its first possessor; its solace of Joseph; its properties and the effect produced by it; -its name; its arrival in England; the Grail-keeper and his relationship to the Promised Knight—Three different stages in the development of the -Queste—The work and the qualification of the Promised Knight—Conclusions: Priority over Early History of Quest—Chronological arrangement -of the versions</td> - <td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_65">page 65</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></td></tr> -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><small>SKETCH OF THE LITERATURE CONNECTED WITH THE GRAIL CYCLE.</small></td></tr> -<tr><td>Villemarqué—Halliwell—San Marte (A. Schulz)—Simrock—Rochat—Furnivall’s reprint of the Grand St. Graal and of -Borron—J. F. Campbell—Furnivall’s <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span>Queste—Paulin Paris—Potvin’s -Conte du Graal—Bergmann—Skeat’s Joseph of Arimathea—Hucher: Grail Celtic, date of Borron—Zarncke, Zur Geschichte der Gralsage; Grail -belongs to Christian legend—Birch-Hirschfeld develops Zarncke’s views: Grand St. Graal younger than Queste, both presuppose Chrestien and an earlier Queste, -the Didot-Perceval, which forms integral part of Borron’s trilogy; Mabinogi later than Chrestien; various members of the cycle dated—Martin combats -Birch-Hirschfeld: Borron later than Chrestien, whose poem represents oldest stage of the romance, which has its roots in Celtic tradition—Hertz—Criticism -of Birch-Hirschfeld</td> - <td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_97">page 97</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></td></tr> -<tr><td>Relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du Graal—The former not the source of the latter—Relationship of the Conte du Graal -and the Mabinogi—Instances in which the Mabinogi has copied Chrestien—Examples of its independence—The incident of the blood drops in -the snow—Differences between the two works—The machinery of the Mabinogi and the traces of it in the Conte du Graal—The stag hunt—The -Mabinogi and Manessier—The sources of the Conte du Graal and the relation of the various parts to a common original—Sir Perceval—Steinbach’s -theory—Objections to it—The counsels in the Conte du Graal—Wolfram and the Mabinogi—Absence of the Grail from the apparently oldest Celtic form</td> - <td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_127">page 127</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></td></tr> -<tr><td>The Lay of the Great Fool—Summary of the Prose Opening—The Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula—Comparison with the Mabinogi, Sir -Perceval, and the Conte du Graal—Comparison with various Gaelic märchen, the Knight of the Red Shield, the Rider of Grianaig—Originality -of the Highland tale—Comparison with the Fionn legend—Summary of the Lay of the Great Fool—Comparison with the stag hunt incident in the -Conte du Graal and the Mabinogi—The folk-tale of the twin brethren—The fight against the witch who brings the dead to life in Gerbert and -the similar incident in the folk-tale of the Knight of the Red Shield—Comparison with the original form of the Mabinogi—Originality of Gerbert</td> - <td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_152">page 152</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></td></tr> -<tr><td>The various forms of the visit to the Grail Castle in the romances—Conte du Graal: Chrestien; Gautier-Manessier; -Gautier-Gerbert—Didot-Perceval—Mabinogi—Conte du Graal; Gawain’s visit to the Grail Castle—Heinrich -von dem Türlin—Conte du Graal: Perceval’s visit to the Castle of Maidens—Inconsistency -of these varying accounts; their testimony to stories of different nature and origin being embodied in the romances—Two main -types: feud quest and unspelling quest—Reasons for the confusion of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span>two -types—Evidence of the confusion in older Celtic literature—The Grail in Celtic literature: the gear of the Tuatha de Danann; the cauldron in -the Ultonian cycle; the Mabinogi of Branwen; vessel of balsam and glaive of light in the contemporary folk-tale—The sword in Celtic literature: -Tethra; Fionn; Manus—Parallels to the Bespelled Castle; the Brug of Oengus, the Brug of Lug, the Brug of Manannan Mac Lir, Bran’s visit to -the Island of Women, Cormac Mac Art, and the Fairy Branch; Diarmaid and the Daughter of King Under the Waves—Unspelling stories: The -Three Soldiers; the waiting of Arthur; Arthur in Etna; the Kyffhäuser Legend, objections to Martin’s views concerning it—Gawain’s visit to the -Magic Castle and Celtic parallels; The Son of Bad Counsel; Fionn in Giant Land; Fionn in the House of Cuana; Fionn and the Yellow Face—The -Vanishing of the Bespelled Castle—Comparison with the Sleeping Beauty cycle—The “Haunted Castle†form and its influence on Heinrich’s -version—The Loathly Grail Messenger</td> - <td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_170">page 170</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></td></tr> -<tr><td>The Fisher King in the Conte du Graal, in the Queste, and in Borron and the Grand St. Graal—The accounts of latter complete each other—The Fish is -the Salmon of Wisdom—Parallel with the Fionn Saga—The nature of the Unspelling Quest—The Mabinogi of Taliesin and its mythological -affinities—Brons, Bran, Cernunnos—Perceval’s silence: Conte du Graal explanation late; explanation from the Fionn Saga—Comparison of -incident with <i>geasa</i>; nature of latter; references to it in Celtic folk-tales and in old Irish literature, Book of Rights, Diarmaid, Cuchulainn—<i>Geasa</i> -and <i>taboo</i></td> - <td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_207">page 207</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></td></tr> -<tr><td>Summing up of the elements of the older portion of the cycle—Parallelism with Celtic tradition—The Christian element in the cycle: the two forms of the -Early History; Brons form older—Brons and Bran—The Bran conversion legend—The Joseph conversion legend, Joseph in apocryphal literature, -the Evangelium Nicodemi—The Bran legend the starting point of the Christian transformation of the legend—Substitution of Joseph for Bran—Objection -to this hypothesis—Hypothetical sketch of the growth of the legend</td> - <td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_215">page 215</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></td></tr> -<tr><td>The Moral and Spiritual import of the Grail-Legend universally recognised—Popularity of the Arthurian Romance—Reasons for that -Popularity—Affinities of the Mediæval Romances with early Celtic Literature; Importance of the Individual Hero; Knighthood; the <i>rôle</i> of -Woman; the Celtic Fairy and the Mediæval Lady; the Supernatural—M. Renan’s views—The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> -Quest in English Literature, Malory—The earliest form of the Legend, Chrestien, his continuators—The Queste and its Ideal—The Sex-Relations -in the Middle Ages—Criticism of Mr. Furnivall’s estimate of the moral import of the Queste—The Merits of the Queste—The Chastity Ideal in the -later versions—Modern English Treatments: Tennyson, Hawker—Possible Source of the Chastity Ideal in Popular Tradition—The Perceval Quest -in Wolfram; his Moral Conception; the Question; Parzival and Conduiramur—The Parzival Quest and Faust—Wagner’s Parsifal—The Christian -element in the Legend—Ethical Ideas in the folk-tale originals of the Grail Romances: the Great Fool; the Sleeping Beauty—Conclusion</td> - <td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_228">page 228</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td><a href="#APPENDIX_A"><span class="smcap">Appendix A.</span></a>: The Relationship of Wolfram to Chrestien</td> - <td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_261">page 261</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td><a href="#APPENDIX_B"><span class="smcap">Appendix B.</span></a>: The Grand St. Graal Prologue and the Brandan Legend</td> - <td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_264">page 264</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td><a href="#INDEX_I"><span class="smcap">Index I.</span></a> The Dramatis Personæ of the Legend</td> - <td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_266">page 266</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td><a href="#INDEX_II"><span class="smcap">Index II.</span></a></td> - <td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_275">page 275</a></td></tr></table> - - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p> -<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2> - - -<p>The present work is, as its title states, a collection of “Studies.†It -does not profess to give an exhaustive or orderly account of the Grail -romance cycle; it deals with particular aspects of the legend, and makes -no pretence of exhausting even these.</p> - -<p>It may be urged that as this is the case the basis of the work is too -broad for the superstructure, and that there was no need to give full -summaries of the leading forms of the legend, or to discuss at such length -their relation one to another, when it was only intended to follow up one -of the many problems which this romance cycle presents. Had there existed -any work in English which did in any measure what the writer has here -attempted to do, he would only too gladly have given more space and more -time to the elaboration of the special subject of these studies. But the -only work of the kind is in German, <i>Birch-Hirschfeld’s Die Gralsage</i>. -Many interested in the Arthurian romances do not know German; and some who -profess an interest in them, and who do know German, are not, to judge by -their writings, acquainted with Birch-Hirschfeld’s work. It seemed worth -while, therefore, to present the facts about the cycle with greater -fulness than would have been necessary had those facts been generally -accessible. The writer felt, too, that whatever judgment might be passed -upon his own speculations, his statements of fact might give his book some -value in the eyes of students. He also wished to give all who felt an -interest in the line of investigation he opened up the opportunity of -pursuing it further, or the means of checking his assertions and -conjectures.</p> - -<p>The writer has taken his texts as he found them. He has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span> studied the -subject matter of the romances, not the words in which they have been -handed down. Those who seek for philological disquisitions are, therefore, -warned that they will find nothing to interest them; and those scholars -who are well acquainted with the printed texts, but who are on the search -for fresh MS. evidence, must not look here for such. On the other hand, as -the printed texts are for the most of such rarity and price as to be -practically inaccessible to anyone not within reach of a large library, -the writer trusts that his abstract of them will be welcome to many. He -has striven to take note of all works of real value bearing upon the -subject. He endeavoured, though unsuccessfully, to obtain a copy of M. -Gaston Paris’ account of the Arthurian romances which, though it has been -for some months in print, is not yet published.</p> - -<p>The writer has done his best to separate the certain from the conjectural. -Like M. Renan, in a similar case, he begs the reader to supply the -“perhaps†and the “possibly’s†that may sometimes have dropt out. The -whole subject is fraught with difficulty, and there are special reasons -why all results must for some time to come be looked upon as conjectural. -These are glanced at here and there in the course of these studies, but it -may be well to put them together in this place. Firstly, whatever opinions -be held as to which are the older forms of the legend, it is certain that -in no one case do we possess a primary form. All the versions that have -come down to us presuppose, even where they do not actually testify to, a -model. Two of the forms which there is substantial agreement in reckoning -among the oldest, the poems of Chrestien de Troyes and Robert de Borron, -were never finished by the authors; sequels exist to both, of a later date -and obviously affected by other forms of the legend. A reconstruction of -the original story is under these circumstances a task of great -uncertainty. So much for the difficulty inherent in the nature of the -evidence, a difficulty which it is to be feared will always beset the -student of this literature, as no new texts are likely to be found. -Secondly, this evidence, such as it is, is not accessible in a form of -which the most can be made. The most important member of the group, the -Conte du Graal, only exists in one text, and that from a late and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span> poor -MS. It is certain that a critical edition, based upon a survey of the -entire MS. evidence, will throw great light upon all the questions here -treated of. The Mabinogi of Peredur has not yet been critically edited, -nor have the MSS. of the other romances yielded up all that can be learnt -from them. Thirdly, whatever opinion be held respecting the connection of -the North French romances and Celtic tradition, connection of some kind -must be admitted. Now the study of Celtic tradition is only beginning to -be placed upon a firm basis, and the stores of Celtic myth and legend are -only beginning to be thrown open to the non-Celtic scholar. Were there in -existence a Celtic parallel to Grimm’s great work on German Mythology, the -views for which the writer contends would have been, in all likelihood, -admitted ere now, and there would have been no necessity for this work at -all.</p> - -<p>Whilst some of the reasons which render the study of the Grail legends so -fascinating, because so problematic, will probably always remain in force, -others will vanish before the increase of knowledge. When the diplomatic -evidence is accessible in a trustworthy form; when the romances have -received all the light that can be shed upon them from Celtic history, -philology, and mythology, the future student will have a comparatively -easy task. One of the writer’s chief objects has been to excite an -interest in these romances among those who are able to examine the Celtic -elements in them far more efficiently than he could do. Welsh philologists -can do much to explain the <i>Onomasticon Arthurianum</i>; Cymric history -generally may elucidate the subject matter. But as a whole Welsh -literature is late, meagre, and has kept little that is archaic. The study -of Irish promises far better results. Of all the races of modern Europe -the Irish have the most considerable and the most archaic mass of -pre-Christian traditions. By the side of their heroic traditional -literature that of Cymry or Teuton (High and Low), or Slav is recent, -scanty, and unoriginal.</p> - -<p>A few words must be said in defence of the free use made of conjecture in -the course of these studies. This is well nigh unavoidable from the way in -which the texts we have to deal with have come down to us. What M. Renan -has said about the Hebrew historical scriptures is excellently exemplified -in the Grail<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span> romances. There was no fixed text, no definite or rounded -sequence of incidents, of which scribes respected the integrity. On the -contrary, each successive transcriber was only anxious to add some fresh -adventure to the interminable tale, and those MSS. were most thought of -which contained the greatest number of lines. The earlier MSS. have, -therefore, almost entirely disappeared, and we are dealing with works -which we know to have been composed in the twelfth century, but of which -we have only thirteenth or fourteenth century transcripts. Inconsistencies -in the conduct of the story are the inevitable consequence in most cases, -but sometimes the latest arranger had an eye for unity of effect, and -attained this by the simple process of altering the old account so as to -make it fit with the new. In dealing with the text of an <i>individual</i> -author, whether ancient or modern, it would be in the last degree -uncritical to explain difficulties by such hypotheses as the loss of an -earlier draft, or the foisting into the work of later and incongruous -incidents and conceptions. Not so in the case of the romances; this method -of explanation is natural and legitimate, but none the less is it largely -conjectural.</p> - -<p>The writer may be blamed for not having presented his subject in a more -engaging and more lucid form. He would plead in excuse the circumstances -under which his work has been carried on. When the only hours of study are -those which remain after the claims, neither few nor light, of business -and other duties have been met, it is hard to give an appearance of unity -to a number of minute detail studies, and to weld them together into one -harmonious whole. The fact that the work has been written, and printed, at -considerable intervals of time may, it is hoped, be accepted as some -excuse for inconsistency in the terminology.</p> - -<p>The writer has many acknowledgments to make. First and chief to Dr. -Birch-Hirschfeld, but for whose labours, covering well nigh the whole -field of the Grail cycle, he would not have been able to take in hand his -work at all; then to Dr. Furnivall, to whose enthusiasm and spirit the -publication of some of the most important texts are due. In these two -cases the writer acknowledges his gratitude with the more readiness that -he has felt compelled to come to an opposite conclusion from that arrived -at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span> by Dr. Birch-Hirschfeld respecting the genesis and growth of the -legend, and because he has had to differ from Dr. Furnivall’s estimate of -the moral value of the Galahad romances. To M. Hucher, to Mons. Ch. -Potvin, the editor, single-handed, of the Conte du Graal, to M. d’Arbois -de Jubainville, to Professor Ernst Martin, to the veteran San-Marte, to -Herr Otto Küpp, and to Herr Paul Steinbach, these studies owe much. -Professor Rhys’ Hibbert Lectures came into the writer’s hands as he was -preparing the latter portion of the book for the press; they were of great -service to him, and he was especially gratified to find opinions at which -he had arrived confirmed on altogether independent grounds by Professor -Rhys’ high authority. The writer is also indebted to him, to Mr. H. L. D. -Ward, of the British Museum, and to his friend Mr. Egerton Phillimore for -help given while the sheets were passing through the press. Lastly, the -writer desires to pay an especial tribute of gratitude and respect to that -admirable scholar, J. F. Campbell. Of all the masters in folk-lore, Jacob -Grimm not excepted, none had a keener eye or surer, more instinctively -right judgment.</p> - -<p>Although the writer admits, nay, insists upon the conjectural character of -his results, he believes he is on the right track, and that if the Grail -romances be worked out from any other point of view than the one here -taken, the same goal will be reached. It should be said that some of the -conclusions, which he can claim as his own by right of first mention, were -stated by him in a paper he read before the Folk-Lore Society in 1880 -(afterwards reprinted, Celtic Magazine, 1887, August-October); and in a -paper he read before the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, in 1884.</p> - -<p>These studies have been a delight and a solace to the writer; had it been -otherwise, he would still feel himself amply repaid for his work by the -thought that he had made a contribution, however slight, to the criticism -of the Legend of the Holy Grail.</p> - - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span></p> -<h2>ERRATA.</h2> - - -<p>[The reader is kindly begged to mark in these corrections before using the -book.]</p> - -<p> -Page 22, line 12, <i>for</i> Corbièrc <i>read</i> Corbière.<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: .75em;">25, line 37, <i>insert</i> Passion <i>before</i> Week.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: .75em;">30, 7 lines from bottom, <i>for</i> Avallon <i>read</i> Avalon.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: .75em;">85, line 24, <i>for</i> Percival <i>read</i> Perceval.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: .75em;">86, line 12, <i>for</i> Percival <i>read</i> Perceval.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: .75em;">90, 5 lines from bottom, <i>for</i> Pelleur <i>read</i> Pelleans.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" 102, line 22, <i>for</i> seems <i>read</i> seem.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" 120, line 3, <i>for</i> 1180 <i>read</i> 1189.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" 124, line 29, <i>for</i> Bron <i>read</i> Brons.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" 156, line 11, <i>insert</i> comma <i>after</i> specially.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" 159, line 11, <i>for</i> Henessey <i>read</i> Hennessy.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" 163, note, <i>i.e.</i>, <i>for</i> Graal <i>read</i> Gaal.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" 183, line 23, <i>insert</i> comma <i>after</i> more.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" 188, line 5, <i>for</i> euphemerised <i>read</i> euhemerised.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" 188, line 5, <i>for</i> invasion <i>read</i> invasions.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" 188, line 17, <i>for</i> mystic <i>read</i> mythic.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" 189, line 1, <i>for</i> LXXVII <i>read</i> LXXXII.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" 197, note, <i>for</i> Carl the Great <i>read</i> Karl the Great.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" 200, line 12, <i>insert</i> comma <i>after</i> plight; <i>dele</i> comma <i>after</i> love.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" 201, 1 line from bottom, <i>insert</i> late <i>before</i> mediæval.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" 204, note, <i>for</i> Percival <i>read</i> Perceval.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" 217, line 23, <i>for</i> mystic <i>read</i> mythic.</span><br /> -</p> - - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> -<p class="center"><span class="giant">STUDIES ON THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL.</span></p> - - -<p> </p> -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> - -<div class="note"><p class="hang">Description of the leading forms of the Romance: Conte del -Graal—Joseph d’Arimathie—Didot-Perceval—Queste del Saint -Graal—Grand Saint Graal—Parzival—Perceval le Gallois—Mabinogi of -Peredur—Sir Perceval—Diu Crône—Information respecting date and -authorship of these works in the MSS.</p></div> - - -<p>The following are the forms in which the Legend of the Holy Grail has come -down to us:—</p> - -<p>A.—<b>Le Conte del Graal</b>, a poem of over 60,000 verses, the major part of -which (45,379 verses) was printed for the first time by Potvin: Le Conte -del Graal, six volumes, 8vo. (vols. ii.-vi. containing our poem), Mons, -1866-71, from a MS. preserved in the Mons Library.<a name='fna_1' id='fna_1' href='#f_1'><small>[1]</small></a> The portion of the -poem which is not printed in full is summarised by Potvin in the sixth -volume of his edition. The poem, so far as at present known, is the work -of four men:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang"><span class="smcaplc">A</span> I. Chrestien de Troyes, who carried the work down to verse 10,601.</p> - -<p class="hang"><span class="smcaplc">A</span> II. Gautier de Doulens, who continued it to verse 34,934.</p> - -<p class="hang"><span class="smcaplc">A</span> III. Manessier, who finished it in 45,379 verses.</p> - -<p class="hang"><span class="smcaplc">A</span> IV. Gerbert, to whom are due over 15,000 verses, mostly found -interpolated between Gautier de Doulens and Manessier.</p></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>A MS. preserved in the Library of -Montpellier<a name='fna_2' id='fna_2' href='#f_2'><small>[2]</small></a> differs in important -respects from the Mons one as far as Gautier de Doulens and Manessier are -concerned. It intercalates 228 verses between verses 20,294 and 20,296 of -the Mons MS., and gives a different redaction of verses 34,996-35,128 in -agreement with the aforesaid intercalation. It likewise mentions two -visits of Gawain to the Grail Castle. The intercalation in Gautier may be -called <span class="smcaplc">A</span> II<i>a</i>, and the variant in Manessier <span class="smcaplc">A</span> III<i>a</i>.</p> - -<p>B.—<b>Joseph d’Arimathie, Merlin</b>, exists in two forms: (1) a fragmentary -metrical version entitled in the sole existing MS. (Bibliothèque -Nationale, No. 20,047. Fonds St. Germain, No. 1,987) Li R(o)manz de l’est -(o)ire dou Graal, and consisting of 4,018 verses, 3,514 for the Joseph, -the remainder, for about one-fifth of the Merlin. First printed by -Francisque Michel: Le Roman du St. Graal. Bordeaux, 1841. Secondly by -Furnivall: Seynt Graal or the Sank Ryal. Printed for the Roxburghe Club, -two volumes, 4to., London, 1861-63, where it is found in an appendix at -the end of vol i. (2) A prose version of which several MSS. exist, all of -which are fully described by E. Hucher: Le Saint-Graal, ou le Joseph -d’Arimathie, three volumes, 12mo., Le Mans, 1875-78, vol. i., pp. 1-28. -The chief are: the Cangé MS. (<i>circa</i> 1250) of which Hucher prints the -Joseph, vol. i., pp. 209-276, and the Didot MS., written in 1301, of which -Hucher prints the Joseph, vol. i., pp. 277-333. Hucher likewise gives, -vol. i., pp. 335-365, variants from the Huth MS. (<i>circa</i> 1280).</p> - -<p>These different versions may be numbered as follows:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang"><span class="smcaplc">B</span> I. The metrical version, which I shall always quote as Metr. Jos., -from Furnivall’s edition.</p> - -<p class="hang"><span class="smcaplc">B</span> II. The prose versions: <span class="smcaplc">B</span> II<i>a</i>, Cangé Jos.; -<span class="smcaplc">B</span> II<i>b</i>, Didot Jos.; <span class="smcaplc">B</span> -II<i>c</i>, Huth Jos., all quoted from Hucher, vol. i.</p></div> - -<p>C.—<b>Perceval</b>, prose romance found in the already-mentioned Didot MS. at -the end of the Merlin, printed by Hucher, vol. i., pp. 415-505, from which -it will be quoted as Didot-Perceval.</p> - -<p>D.—<b>Queste del Saint Graal</b>, prose romance commonly found in the MSS. in -combination with Lancelot and the Mort Artur.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> Edited by Furnivall: La -Queste del St. Graal. Printed for the Roxburghe Club, 4to., London, 1864. -The introduction contains a full account of the existing MSS. A different -redaction from that of any of the known French MSS. is preserved in a -Welsh translation, printed, with a modern English version by the editor, -from a fifteenth century Hengwrt MS., by the Rev. Robert Williams: Y Seint -Graal, London, 8vo., 1876. I shall quote—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang"><span class="smcaplc">D</span> I. Queste, from Furnivall’s edition.</p> - -<p class="hang"><span class="smcaplc">D</span> II. Welsh Quest, from Williams’ edition.</p></div> - -<p>E.—The so-called <b>Grand Saint Graal</b>, prose romance found in the MSS., both -preceding the Merlin and the Queste, and preceding the Queste and the Mort -Artur. Printed by Furnivall from Cambridge and Brit. Mus. MSS., together -with a metrical English adaptation by Henry Lonelich, of about the time of -Henry the VIth, in the already-mentioned Seynt Graal; and by Hucher, vols. -ii. and iii., from a Le Mans MS.; will be quoted as Grand St. Graal, from -Furnivall’s edition.</p> - -<p>F.—<b>Parzival</b>, by Wolfram von Eschenbach, German metrical romance, -critically edited from the MSS. by Karl Lachmann, Wolfram von Eschenbach, -Vierte Ausgabe, 8vo., Berlin, 1879, from which it will be quoted as -Wolfram.</p> - -<p>G.—<b>Perceval le Gallois</b>, prose romance, first printed by Potvin, vol. i. -of his Conte del Graal, from a Mons MS., with variants from a fragmentary -Berne MS. (as to both of which see pp. 353, etc.). A Welsh translation, -with modern English version by the editor, made from a MS. closely allied -to the Berne fragments, and representing a superior text to that printed -by Potvin, in Williams’ already-mentioned Y Seint Graal.</p> - -<p>Besides these works there exist two versions of the Perceval legend in -which the Holy Grail, as such, does not appear. These are:—</p> - -<p>H.—<b>The Mabinogi of Peredur, the son of Evrawc</b>, Welsh prose romance found -in the Red Book of Hergest, a MS. of the end of the fourteenth century, -and in MSS. a hundred years older. I shall quote it as Peredur, from Lady -Guest’s English translation of the Mabinogion, 8vo., London, 1877.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>I.—<b>Sir Perceval of Galles</b>, English metrical romance, printed for the -first time from the Thornton MS., of <i>circa</i> 1440, by Halliwell: The -Thornton Romances, printed for the Camden Society, small 4to., London, -1884; from which I shall quote it as Sir Perceval.</p> - -<p>Finally there exists an independent German version of certain adventures, -the hero of which in the Conte du Graal, in Wolfram, and in the Mabinogi, -is Gawain. This is—</p> - -<p>K.—<b>Heinrich von dem Türlin.</b> Diu Crône. Edited by G. H. F. Scholl. -Bibliothek des Litterarischen Vereins, vol. xxvii., Stuttgart, 1852.</p> - -<p>The positive information which the different MSS. of the above mentioned -works afford respecting their authors, date of composition, sources, etc., -is as follows:—In the prologue to his poem, Chrestien (Potvin i., pp. -307-308) dedicates his work to “Li quens Felippes de Flandres,†who as he -states (verse 67), “li bailla le livre,†which served him as model, and -whom he praises at great length as surpassing Alexander. We know that -Count Philip of Flanders took the cross in 1188, set out for the Holy Land -in 1190, and died on the 1st of June, 1191, before Akkon.<a name='fna_3' id='fna_3' href='#f_3'><small>[3]</small></a> As Chrestien -says not a word about the crusading intentions of Philip, it may be -inferred that he wrote his prologue before 1188, and began the poem in -1189 at the latest. Gautier de Doulens (probably of that ilk, in Picardy, -some miles from Amiens)<a name='fna_4' id='fna_4' href='#f_4'><small>[4]</small></a> has only left his name, verse 33,755, Gautiers -de Dons qui l’estore, etc. Manessier the next continuator has been more -explicit; he describes himself as completing the work at the command -of ...</p> - -<p class="poem">Jehanne la Comtesse<br /> -Qu’est de Flandre dame et mestresse.<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 10em;">(Potvin, vi., p. 157.)</span></p> - -<p>This Joan, daughter of Baldwin the VIth, ruled Flanders <i>alone</i> during the -imprisonment of her husband after the battle of Bouvines (1214-1227), and -Manessier’s words can only apply to her during this period, so that his -continuation must have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> written between 1214-1227.<a name='fna_5' id='fna_5' href='#f_5'><small>[5]</small></a> The third -continuator, Gerbers, only mentions his name (Potvin, vi., p. 212).</p> - -<p>The author of version B, names himself, <span class="smcaplc">B</span> I, verse 3,461, Messires Roberz -de Beron; verses 3,488-94 state that no mortal man had told the story, -until he had it from</p> - -<p class="poem">Mon seigneur Gautier en peis<br /> -Qui de Mont Belyal estoit.</p> - -<p>Verse 3,155 gives the name somewhat differently, Meistres Robers dist de -Bouron. The prose versions follow the poem with additions, thus Cangé Jos. -(p. 275); Messires Roberz de Borron lou restrait à mon seigneur Gautier, -lou preu conte de Mobéliart.</p> - -<p>Walter of Montbeliard, brother to Count Richard of Montbeliard, went to -the Holy Land in 1199, became Constable of Jerusalem, Regent of Cyprus, -and died in 1212. The date of his birth is uncertain, but as his elder -brother died in 1237, Walter could hardly have been born before 1150. His -father, Amadeus, died in 1183, in which year he received the countship of -Montfaucon. It may only have been after he thus became independent that -Robert entered his service. In any case Robert could not have spoken of -him as “mon seigneur,†before 1170. That year may, therefore, be taken as -a <i>terminus a quo</i>, and the year 1212 as a <i>terminus ad quem</i> for dating -these versions.</p> - -<p>The Grand St. Graal is likewise ascribed in the MSS. to Robert de Borron, -and it is further stated that he translated from Latin into French—Et -ensi le temoigne me sires robiers de borron qui a translatee de latin en -franchois cheste estoire (ii. p. 78).</p> - -<p>The Queste ascribed in the MSS. to Walter Mapes, is said to have been -compiled by him for the love of his lord, King Henry—maistre Gautiers Map -les extrait pour l’amor del roy Henri son seignor, qui fist l’estore -translater du latin en francois<a name='fna_6' id='fna_6' href='#f_6'><small>[6]</small></a>—Walter Mapes, born before 1143 (he -presided at the assizes of Gloucester in 1173), died in 1210. If we may -believe the MSS., the Queste<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> would probably fall within the last -twenty-five years of the twelfth century.</p> - -<p>The author of Perceval le Gallois describes himself (Potvin, i., 348) as -writing the book for the “Seignor de Neele,†whose Christian name, -“Johan,†is given four lines lower down, at the command of the “Seingnor -de Cambresis,†<i>i.e.</i>, the Bishop of Cambray. This John of Nesle is -probably the one who in the year 1225 sold the lordship of Bruges to -Countess Joan of Flanders.<a name='fna_7' id='fna_7' href='#f_7'><small>[7]</small></a></p> - -<p>Wolfram von Eschenbach, of that ilk, in North Bavaria, born in the last -thirty years of the twelfth century, died about 1220. He knew Chrestien’s -poem well, and repeatedly refers to it, but with great contempt, as being -the wrong version of the story, whereas he holds the true version from -Kyot, the singer, a “Provenzal,†who found the tale of Parzival written in -heathen tongue at Dôlet (Toledo), by Flegetanis, a heathen who first -taught concerning the Grail, put it into French, and after searching the -chronicles of Britain, France, and Ireland in vain, at length found -information in the chronicles of Anjou (pp. 202 and 219).</p> - -<p>Nothing is stated in the works themselves respecting the authors of the -Mabinogi and the Thornton Sir Perceval.</p> - -<p>Heinrich von dem Türlin frequently quotes Chrestien as his authority, -<i>e.g.</i>, verses 16,941, 23,046, 23,982.</p> - -<p>If these various statements are to be accepted, it follows that in the -course of fifty years (1170-1220) a great body of romance came into -existence, partly in France, Chrestien, his continuators, and Robert de -Borron; partly in England, Walter Mapes; and partly in Germany, Wolfram -von Eschenbach, and Heinrich von dem Türlin. Of this body of romance only -a portion has come down to us, the work of Kyot and the Latin originals of -the Queste and the Grand St. Graal having disappeared. Furthermore, it is -only possible to date with any accuracy three or four of the works, viz., -Chrestien, Manessier, Wolfram (whose poem falls certainly within the first -ten years of the thirteenth century), though it may also be taken as -certain that R. de Borron wrote after 1170, and the anonymous author of -Perceval le Gallois before 1225. Of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> dated works Chrestien’s is the -oldest, 1188-90, and it postulates the existence of previous versions.</p> - -<p>The object of the present investigation being to determine, as far as -possible, the age and relationship to one another of the different -versions which have come down to us, to exhibit the oldest form of the -story as we have it, and to connect it with Celtic traditional belief and -literature, it will be well, before proceeding to further discuss the -various points left doubtful by the evidence gathered from the MSS., to -give clear and detailed summaries of the most important versions.</p> - - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> - -<div class="note"><p class="hang">Summaries—Conte du Graal: Pseudo-Chrestien, Chrestien, Gautier de -Doulens, Manessier, Gerbert—Wolfram—Heinrich von dem -Türlin—Didot-Perceval—Mabinogi of Peredur—Thornton MS. Sir -Perceval—Queste del Saint Graal—Grand Saint Graal—Robert de -Borron’s poem, Joseph of Arimathea.</p></div> - - -<p><b>The Conte du Graal.</b>—<span class="smcap">Pseudo-Chrestien.</span><a name='fna_8' id='fna_8' href='#f_8'><small>[8]</small></a>—The story tells of the “Graal,†-whose mysteries, if Master Blihis lie not, none may reveal; it falls into -seven parts, and shows how the rich land of Logres was destroyed. (1) In -the wells and springs of that land harboured damsels who fed the wayfarer -with meat and pasties and bread. But King Amangons did wrong to one and -carried off her golden cup, so that never more came damsels out of the -springs to comfort the wanderer. And the men of King Amangons followed his -evil example. Thereafter the springs dried up, and the grass withered, and -the land became waste, and no more might be found the court of the Rich -Fisher, which had filled the land with plenty and splendour. (2) The -Knights of the Table Round, learning the ill done to the damsels, set -forth to protect them; they found them not, but fair damsels wandering in -the woods, each with her knight; with the latter they strove, and when -they overcame them sent them to Arthur. Thus came Blihos Bliheris to -Arthur’s court conquered by Gauvain; he knew goodly tales and he told how -the wandering damsels were sprung from those ravished by King Amangons. So -long would they wander till God gave them to find the court, whence joy -and splendour would come to the land. (3) Arthur’s knights resolved to -seek the court of the Rich Fisher—much knew he of black art, more than an -hundred times changed he his semblance, that no man seeing him again -recognised him. Gauvain found it, and had great joy therefrom; but before -him a young knight, small of age, but none bolder of courage—Percevaus li -Galois was he—he asked whereto the Grail served, but nought of the lance -why it dripped blood, nor of the sword one half of which was away whilst -the other lay in the bier. But he asked surely concerning the rich cross -of silver. Now in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> room three times there arose such great sorrow that -no man who heard it, so bold he might be but feared. Afterwards the room -filled and the king came in, full richly dressed, so that he might hardly -be known of them that had seen him the day before, fishing. And when all -were sat down the Grail came in, and without serjeant nor seneschal served -all present, and ’twas wonder what food it gave them. And then came the -great marvel which has not its like. But Perceval will tell of this, so I -must say no more; it is a great shame to tell beforehand what is in a good -tale. When the good knight shall come who found the court three times you -shall hear me tell of Grail and lance, and of him who lay in the bier, of -the sword, of the grief and swooning of all beholders. (4) Now the court -was found seven times, and each time shall have a fresh tale:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">The seventh (the most pleasing) tells of the lance wherewith Longis -pierced the side of the King of holy Majesty;</p> - -<p class="hang">The sixth of warlike feats;</p> - -<p class="hang">The fifth of the anger and loss of Huden; The fourth of heaven, for he -was no coward, the knight Mors del Calan, who first came to Glamorgan;</p> - -<p class="hang">The third of the hawk whereof Castrars had such fear—Pecorins, the -son of Amangons, bore all his days the wound on his forehead;</p> - -<p class="hang">The second has not yet been told; it tells of the great sorrows -Lancelot of the Lake had there where he lost his virtue;</p> - -<p class="hang">And the last is the adventure of the shield, never a better one was -there.</p></div> - -<p>(5) After this adventure the land was repeopled; court and grail were -found; the streams ran again; the meadows were green, the forests thick -and leafy; so that all folk marvelled. But there came back a folk, the -same that came out of the springs (save they were not cooks), a caitiff -set, and built for their damsels the rich Maidens’ Castel, and the Bridge -Perillous, and Castel Orguellous, and warred against the Table Round. In -the castle were 376, each sire of 20 knights. And not till after four -years did Arthur overcome them and was there peace.</p> - -<p class="center"><i>(Here beginneth the Story of the Grail.)</i></p> - -<p>(6) There were in the land of Wales twelve knights, of whom Bliocadrans -alone survived, so eager were they in seeking tournament and combats. -After living for two years with his wife, childless, Bliocadrans set forth -to a tournament given by the King of Wales and Cornwall against them of -the Waste Fountain. At first successful, he is at length slain. A few days -after his departure his wife has borne a son. When at length she learns -her husband’s death, she takes counsel with her chamberlain, and -pretending a pilgrimage to St. Brandan, in Scotland, withdraws to the -Waste Forest far removed from all men. Here she brings up her son, and -though she allows him to hunt in the forest, warns him against men covered -with iron—they are devils. He promises to follow her counsel, and -thenceforth he goes into the forest alone.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span><b>The Conte du Graal.</b>—(<i>a</i>) -<span class="smcap">Chrestien.</span>—(1) When as trees and meadows deck -themselves with green, and birds sing, the son of the widow lady goes out -into the wood. He meets five knights, and, as their weapons shine in the -sun, takes them for angels, after having first thought them to be the -devils his mother had warned him against. He prays to them as his mother -has taught him. One of the knights asks if he has seen five knights and -three maidens who had passed that way, but he can but reply with questions -concerning the arms and trappings of the knights. He learns of Arthur the -King who makes knights, and when he returns to his mother tells her he has -beheld a more beautiful thing than God and His angels, knights namely, and -he too will become one. In vain his mother tells him of his father’s and -his two elder brothers’ fates, slain in battle. Nothing will serve, so the -mother makes him a dress of coarse linen and leather, and before he leaves -counsels him as follows: If dame or damsel seek his aid he is to give it, -he is to do naught displeasing to them, but to kiss the maiden who is -willing, and to take ring and girdle of her if he can; to go for long with -no fellow-traveller whose name he knows not, to speak with and consort -with worthy men, to pray to our Lord when he comes to church or convent. -She then tells him of Jesus Christ, the Holy Prophet. He departs clad and -armed in Welsh fashion, and his mother swoons as though dead. (2) Perceval -comes to a tent in the wood, and, taking it for a convent, goes in and -finds sleeping on a bed a damsel, whom the neighing of his horse wakes. In -pursuance of his mother’s counsel he kisses her more than twenty times, -takes her ring from her, and eats and drinks of her provisions. Thereafter -he rides forth, and her lover returning and hearing what has taken place, -swears to avenge himself upon the intruder, and until such time the -damsel, whose tale he disbelieves, is to follow him barefoot and not to -change her raiment. (3) Perceval learns the way to Carduel from a -charcoal-burner; arrived there, he sees a knight coming forth from the -castle and bearing a golden cup in his hand, clad in red armour, who -complains of Arthur as having robbed him of his land. Perceval rides into -the castle hall and finds the court at meat. Arthur, lost in thought, pays -no attention to the first two salutations of Perceval, who then turns his -horse to depart, and in so doing knocks off the King’s hat. Arthur then -tells him how the Red Knight has carried off his cup, spilling its -contents over the Queen. Perceval cares not a rap for all this, but asks -to be made knight, whereat all laugh. Perceval insists, and claims the Red -Knight’s armour. Kex bids him fetch them, whereat the King is displeased. -Perceval greets a damsel, who laughs and foretells he shall be the best -knight in the world. For this saying Kex strikes her, and kicks into the -fire a fool who had been wont to repeat that the damsel would not laugh -till she beheld the best of knights. (4) Perceval tarries no longer, but -follows the Red Knight, and bids him give up his arms and armour. They -fight, and Perceval slays his adversary with a cast of his dart. Yonès, -who has followed him, finds him put to it to remove the knight’s -armour—he will burn him out of it if need be—and shows him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> how to -disarm the dead man and to arm himself. Perceval then mounts the knight’s -steed and rides off, leaving the cup to Yonés to be given to the King, -with this message: he, Perceval, would come back to avenge the damsel of -the blow Kex struck her. (5) Perceval comes to a castle, in front of which -he finds an old knight, to whom he relates what has befallen him, and of -whom he asks counsel as his mother bade him. The knight, Gonemans of -Gelbort, takes him into his castle, teaches him the use of arms, and all -knightly practices. In especial he is to avoid over-readiness in speaking -and in asking questions, and to give over his habit of always quoting his -mother’s counsels. He then dubs him knight, and sends him forth to return -to his mother. (6) After a day’s journey Perceval comes to a town defended -by a castle, and, being allowed entrance therein, finds all waste and -deserted, even the very convents. The lady of the castle, a damsel of -surpassing beauty, welcomes him and bids him to table. Mindful of -Gonemans’ counsels he remains silent, and she must speak to him first. She -turns out to be Gonemans’ niece. At night the young stranger is shown to -his chamber, but the damsel cannot sleep for thought. Weeping she comes to -Perceval’s bedside, and in reply to his wondering questions tells him how -the forces of King Clamadex encompass the castle, and how that on the -morrow she must yield, but rather than be Clamadex’s she will slay -herself. He promises to help her, and bids her to him in the bed, which -she does, and they pass the night in each other’s arms, mouth to mouth. On -the morrow he begs for her love in return for his promised aid, which she -half refuses, the more to urge him on. He fights with and overcomes -Aguigrenons, Clamadex’s marshal, and sends him to Arthur’s court. Clamadex -hearing of this tries afresh to starve out the castle, but a storm luckily -throws a passing ship ashore, and thereby reprovisions the besieged ones. -Clamadex then challenges Perceval, is overcome, and sent to Arthur’s -court, where he arrives shortly after his marshal. They relate wonders -concerning the Red Knight, and the King is more than ever displeased with -Kex for having offended such a valiant warrior. After remaining for a -while with Blanchefleur, Perceval takes leave of her, as he longs to see -his mother again. (7) He comes to a river, upon which is a boat, and -therein two men fishing. One of them, in reply to his questions, directs -him for a night’s shelter to his own castle hard by. Perceval starts for -it, and at first unable to find it reproaches the fisher. Suddenly he -perceives the castle before him, enters therein, is disarmed, clad in a -scarlet mantle, and led into a great hall. Therein is a couch upon which -lies an old man; near him is a fire, around which some four hundred men -are sitting. Perceval tells his host he had come from Biau-Repaire. A -squire enters, bearing a sword, and on it is written that it will never -break save in one peril, and that known only to the maker of it. ’Tis a -present from the host’s niece to be bestowed where it will be well -employed. The host gives it to Perceval, “to whom it was adjudged and -destined.†Hereupon enters another squire, bearing in his hand a lance, -from the head of which a drop of blood runs down on the squire’s hand. -Perceval would have asked concerning this wonder, but he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> minds him of -Gonemans’ counsel not to speak or inquire too much. Two more squires -enter, holding each a ten-branched candlestick, and with them a damsel, a - -“graal†in her hands. The graal shines so that it puts out the light of -the candles as the sun does that of the stars. Thereafter follows a damsel -holding a (silver) plate. All defile past between the fire and the couch, -but Perceval does not venture to ask wherefore the graal is used. Supper -follows, and the graal is again brought, and Perceval, knowing not its -use, had fain asked, but always refrains when he thinks of Gonemans, and -finally puts off his questions till the morrow. After supper the guest is -led to his chamber, and on the morrow, awakening, finds the castle -deserted. No one answers his calls. Issuing forth he finds his horse -saddled and the drawbridge down. Thinking to find the castle dwellers in -the forest he rides forth, but the drawbridge closes so suddenly behind -him that had not the horse leapt quickly forward it had gone hard with -steed and rider. In vain Perceval calls: none answer. (8) He pricks on and -comes to an oak, beneath which sits a maid holding a dead knight in her -arms and lamenting over him. She asks him where he has passed the night, -and on learning it tells him the fisher who had directed him to the castle -and his host were one and the same; wounded by a spear thrust through both -thighs his only solace is in fishing, whence he is called the Fisher King. -She asks, had Perceval seen the bleeding lance, the graal, and the silver -dish? had he asked their meaning? No; then what is his name? He does not -know it, but she guesses it: Perceval le Gallois; but it should be -Perceval the Caitiff, for had he asked concerning what he saw, the good -king would have been made whole again, and great good have sprung -therefrom. He has also a heavy sin on his conscience in that his mother -died of grief when he left her. She herself is his cousin. Perceval asks -concerning the dead knight, and learning it is her lover offers to revenge -her upon his slayer. In return she tells him about the sword, how it will -fly in pieces if he have not care of it, and how it may be made whole -again by dipping it in a lake, near which dwells its maker, the smith -Trebucet. (9) Perceval leaves his cousin and meets, riding on a wretched -horse, a scantily and shabbily clad woman of miserable appearance, -lamenting her hard fate and unjust treatment. She is the lady of the tent -whose ring Perceval had carried off. She bids him fly her husband, the -Orgellous de la Lande. The latter appears, challenges Perceval, but is -overcome by him, convinced of his wife’s innocence, compelled to take her -into favour again, and both must go to Arthur’s court, relate the whole -story, and renew Perceval’s promise to the damsel whom Kex had struck, to -avenge her. Arthur, when he hears of the deeds of the young hero, sets -forth with his whole court to seek him. (10) Snow has fallen, and a flock -of wild geese, blinded by the snow, has had one of its number wounded by a -falcon. Three blood drops have fallen on the snow, and Perceval beholding -them falls into deep thought on the red and white in his love’s face. -Arthur and his knights come up with him. Saigremors sees him first, bids -him come, and, when he answers no word, tilts against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> him, but is -overthrown. Kex then trys his luck, but is unhorsed so rudely that arm and -leg are broken. Gauvain declares that love must be mastering the strange -knight’s thoughts, approaches him courteously, tells his own name and -learns Perceval’s, and brings the latter to Arthur, by whom he is received -with all honour. Perceval then learns it is Kex he has overthrown, thus -fulfilling his promise to the damsel whom Kex had smitten, and whose -knight he offers himself to be. (11) Perceval returns on the morrow with -the court to Carlion, and the next day at noon there comes riding on a -yellow mule a damsel more hideous than could be pictured outside hell. She -curses Perceval for having omitted to ask concerning the lance and graal; -had he done so the King would have been healed of his wound and ruled his -land in peace; now maidens will be put to shame, orphans and widows made, -and many knights slain. Turning to the King she tells of the adventures to -be achieved at the Castel Orgellous, where dwell five hundred and seventy -knights, each with his lady love. He, though, who would win the highest -renown must to Montesclaire to free the damsel held captive there. She -then departs. Gauvain will forth to the imprisoned damsel, Giflès to the -Castel Orgellous, and Perceval swears to rest no two nights in the same -place till he have learnt concerning graal and lance. (12) A knight, -Guigambresil, enters and accuses Gauvain of having slain his lord. The -latter sets forth at once to the King of Cavalon to clear himself of this -accusation. (13) On his way he meets the host of Melians, who is preparing -to take part in a tournament to approve himself worthy the love of the -daughter of Tiebaut of Tingaguel, who had hitherto refused his suit. -Gauvain rides on to Tingaguel to help its lord. On arriving at the castle -the eldest daughter jeers at him, whilst the youngest takes his part, -declaring him a better knight than Melians, whereat her sister is very -indignant. On the first day of the tournament Melians shows himself the -best knight, but the younger sister still declares her faith in Gauvain, -and has her ears boxed in consequence. She appeals to Gauvain to be her -knight and avenge the injury done her. He consents, overcomes Melians, -whose horse he sends to his little lady, and all other knights; then, -after telling his name, rides forth. (14) He meets two knights, the -younger of whom offers him hospitality, and sends him to his sister, -bidding her welcome him. She receives him kindly, and when, struck with -her beauty, he asks her favours, grants them at once. They are interrupted -by a steward, who reproaches her with giving her love to her father’s -murderer, and calls upon the castle folk to attack Gauvain. The latter -defends himself until the return of Guigambresil, who reproaches the lord -of the castle for letting Gauvain be attacked, as he had expressed his -readiness to do single combat. Gauvain is then allowed to go, and is -excused the combat if within a year he can bring back the bleeding lance. -He sets off in search of it. (15) The tale returns to Perceval, who has -wandered about for five years without thinking of God, yet performing many -feats. He meets three knights accompanied by ladies, all clad in -penitents’ dress. ’Twas a Good Friday, and the eldest knight rebukes -Perceval for riding fully armed on such a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> day. He must confess him to a -holy hermit who lives hard by. Perceval goes thither, accuses himself of -having forgotten God through his great grief at not learning the use of -the graal. The hermit reveals himself as his uncle, tells Perceval that he -is in sin as having caused his mother’s death, and for that reason he -could not ask concerning lance and graal; but for her prayers he had not -lived till now. Perceval remains two days with his uncle, receives -absolution, and rides forth. (16) The story turns to Gauvain, who, after -Escalavon, finds beneath an oak a damsel lamenting over a wounded knight; -the latter advises Gauvain to push on, which he does, and comes upon a -damsel who receives him discourteously, and when at her bidding he has -fetched her horse from a garden hard by, mocks at him and rides off. He -follows, and culls on the way herbs with which he heals the wounded -knight. A squire rides up very hideous of aspect, mounted on a wretched -hack. Gauvain chastises him for discourteous answers; meanwhile the -wounded knight makes off with Gauvain’s steed, making himself known as -Griogoras, whom Gauvain had once punished for ill-doing, Gauvain has to -follow the damsel upon the squire’s hack, comes to a river, on the other -side of which is a castle, overcomes a knight who attacks him, during -which the damsel vanishes, is ferried across the stream, giving the -vanquished knight to the ferryman as toll; (17) comes on the morrow to the -Magic Castle, wherein damsels are held fast, awaiting a knight full of all -knightly virtues to restore their lands to the ladies, marry the damsels, -and put an end to the enchantments of the palace. Upon entering, Gauvain -sees a magnificent bed, seats himself therein, is assailed by magic art, -overcomes a lion, and is then acclaimed lord of the castle. He would then -leave the castle, but the ferryman says he may not, whereat Gauvain is -moved to anger. On the morrow, looking forth, Gauvain beholds the (18) -damsel who led him to the ford, accompanied by a knight. He hastens forth, -overcomes the knight, seeks again the damsel’s love, but is sent by her to -the Ford Perillous. Here he meets Guiromelant, who loves Gauvain’s sister, -Clarissant, a dweller in the Magic Castle. A combat is arranged to take -place after seven days. Upon his return to the damsel, named Orgellouse de -Logres, he is now well received by her. She hates Guiromelant for having -slain her lover, and has long sought a good knight to avenge her. -Guiromelant on his side hates Gauvain for having, as he says, -treacherously killed his father. Gauvain and Orgellouse return to the -Magic Castle. One of the queens who dwells there is mother to Arthur; the -second one, his daughter, mother to Gauvain. The latter gives his sister -Clarissant a ring Guiromelant had begged him, unknowing who he was, to -bring to her. He then sends a knight to Arthur to bid him and his whole -train come witness the fight ’twixt him and Guiromelant. The messenger -finds Arthur plunged in grief at Gauvain’s absence....</p> - -<hr style="width: 25%;" /> - -<p>Here Chrestien’s share breaks off abruptly in the middle of a sentence, -and the poem is taken up by</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>(<i>b</i>) <span class="smcap">Gautier -de Doulens.</span><a name='fna_9' id='fna_9' href='#f_9'><small>[9]</small></a>—(1) Arthur and his court accept Gauvain’s -invitation and make for the Castle of Wonders, the Queen whereof has -meantime made herself known to Gauvain as Ygène, Arthur’s mother. The duel -between Gauvain and Guiromelant is hindered, and the latter weds Gauvain’s -sister. (Montp. MS. here inserts a first visit of Gawain to Grail Castle, -which is substantially the same as the one it repeats afterwards in the -same place as the Mons MS.) Adventures of Arthur and Gauvain against Brun -de Branlant follow, of Gauvain with a maiden in a tent and her brother -Brandalis, of Carduel of Nantes, whose wife is beloved of the magician -Garahiet, and of their son Carados, and the magic horn (verses -11,000-15,800). (2) (A fresh series of adventures begins) Arthur sets -forth to seek Giflet, son of Dos; Gauvain meets again with Brandalis, -whose sister has meanwhile borne him a son; Castel Orgellous, where Giflet -is imprisoned, is captured; Gauvain’s son by Brandalis’ sister is lost. -(3) An unknown knight comes to Arthur’s court; Keie, who demands his name, -is unhorsed; Gauvain brings the unknown to the court, but the latter is -slain by a javelin cast by invisible hands. Gauvain equips himself in the -unknown’s armour and starts forth to learn the latter’s name. After -praying in a chapel, in which he beholds a light on the altar quenched by -a black hand, he rides through Brittany and Normandy, and comes to a -castle where, owing to his armour, he is at first hailed as lord. In one -of the rooms stands a bier, whereon lies a knight, cross and broken sword -upon his body, his left hand bleeding. A crowned knight enters and goes to -battle with Gauvain; canons and clerks come and perform the Vigil of the -Dead; whilst at table Gauvain sees the rich Grail serving out bread and -wine to the knights. Gauvain remains alone after the meal; he sees a lance -which bleeds into a silver cup. The crowned knight again enters, bearing -in his hand a broken sword which had belonged to the unknown knight, over -whom he mourns. He hands the sword to Gauvain and asks him to put the -pieces together. Gauvain cannot, whereupon the knight declares him unfit -to fulfil the quest (<i>li besoin</i>) on which he came. Later he may try -again. Gauvain asks concerning lance, sword, and bier. The lance, he is -told, is the one wherewith the Son of God was pierced in the side, ’twill -bleed till Doomsday. The tale of the broken sword which brought so much -woe upon the kingdom of Logres will also be told, but here Gauvain falls -fast asleep.<a name='fna_10' id='fna_10' href='#f_10'><small>[10]</small></a> On the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> morrow he wakes, and finds himself on the sea -strand. He rides off, and behold the country has burst into green leaf, -and the reason thereof is his having asked concerning the lance. The -countryfolk both bless and curse him for having so far delivered them and -for not having completed the deliverance by asking concerning the Grail. -(4) He meets a young knight who turns out to be his son. (5) (Adventures -in which Carahiès, Gauvain’s brother, is chief actor.) (6) The story -returns to Perceval, who, after leaving the hermit, rides for three days -and comes to a castle, over the door of which hangs a horn. Perceval blows -therein, overcomes the knight who answers the challenge, and sends him to -Arthur’s court. (7) On his way to the Castle of Mont Orgellous, to the -pillar of which only an accomplished knight might tie his horse, he comes -to the stream on whose banks he had previously met the Fisher King. -Seeking for a bridge he meets a damsel on a mule, who, under pretence of -showing a way across the river, tries to drown him. He then comes to a -castle, which entering he finds untenanted. In the hall stands a -chessboard. Perceval plays, is beaten, seizes the board and makes as if to -throw it in the moat. Hereupon a damsel rises from the water to stay his -hand, and coming into the room reproaches him. Overcome by her beauty he -asks her favours. She will grant them if he bring the head of the stag -which roams in the castle park. Thereto she lends him her hound, bidding -him be sure he return it. The hunt follows; Perceval overtakes the stag, -slays it, and cutting off its head prepares to bring it back, when a maid -of ill-chance (<i>pucelle de malaire</i>) takes and carries it off. Perceval -claiming it is reproached by her for having slain her stag, but told he -may win again the hound if he go to a mound whereon a knight is painted -and say, “Vassal, what doest thou here?†The combat with the Knight of the -Tomb follows, during which hound and stag’s head are carried off by -another knight, whom Perceval can only follow when he has overcome the -Knight of the Tomb and driven him back therein. Now this knight, hight the -Black Knight, had dwelt there summer and winter five years, striving with -all-comers for the sake of his love. Perceval, following up the Robber -Knight, meets the damsel who had carried off the hound, but she only mocks -him for answer to his questions. (8) After an adventure with a -discourteous knight, Perceval meets at length a brother of the Red Knight -whom he had formerly slain,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> who tells him he had seen the daughter of the -Fisher King, and she had told him of a knight who had carried off a hound -and stag’s head belonging to a good knight who had been at her court, and -had omitted to ask concerning the grail, for which reason she had taken -his hound and refused him help to follow the Robber Knight. (9) Perceval -is directed by the Red Knight’s brother to the Fisher King’s castle, but -misses his way, and after an adventure at a castle, where he slays a lion, -overcomes Abrioris and sends him to Arthur; finds a damsel mourning over a -knight slain by a giant, whom he kills, achieves the feat of the Ford -Amorous, meets and fights with Gauvain’s son until they learn who each -other is, and at length comes to Belrepaire. (10) At first unrecognised by -Blanchefleur he makes himself known, stays with her three days, and then -rides off, in spite of her entreaties. (11) He meets Rosette (the loathly -damsel) and Le Biaus Mauvais, laughs at the former, is challenged by the -latter, whom he overcomes and sends to Arthur. (12) He comes to his -mother’s house, enters without making himself known, learns from his -sister that his mother died at his departure ten years before, tells her -who he is, and both set forth to their uncle, the hermit. On the way -Perceval slays a knight who offers violence to his sister. They come to -their uncle, sleep there, and on the morrow Perceval reveals himself, -confesses, is reproved for having slain the knight the day before. -Perceval, after mentioning his desire to learn more concerning lance, -Grail, and sword, and receiving good advice from the hermit, leaves with -his sister, with whom he stays three days and then quits her, despite her -piteous entreaties. (12<i>a</i>) Perceval comes to the Castle of Maidens, where -he falls untimely asleep, and on the morrow finds himself in the forest, -far from any castle. (13) Perceval finds the damsel who had carried off -the hound, fights with her knight, Garalas, overcomes him, learns that the -Knight of the Tomb is his brother, who had lived for ten years with a fay -in a magic invisible castle, and had met no one to overcome him until -Perceval came. Perceval sends both knight and damsel to Arthur. (14) -Perceval meets with a white mule led by a damsel; he joins her, although -she entreats him not to do so. Suddenly struck by a great light in the -forest, he turns to ask his companion what it might mean, but finds her -gone. A violent storm comes on. The morrow he meets the damsel with the -mule, who had felt no storm. She tells him about the great light: it came -from the “Gréaus,†which was given by the King of kings as He hung on the -Cross; the devil may not lead astray any man on the same day he sees it, -therefore the king has it carried about. Perceval asks further, but is -told only a holy man may speak of these mysteries. Perceval relates his -adventure with the lady of the chessboard, and the damsel gives him the -white mule, which will lead to her castle, together with a ring giving the -possessor power over the mule. He is to give both back when he meets her. -(16) The mule brings Perceval across a river, over a glass bridge, on the -other side of which he meets with Brios, who persuades him to join in a -tournament held by Arthur at the Castel Orguellous, as he must win the -prize of knighthood before coming to the castle of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> the Fisher King. -Perceval leaves stag’s head and hound at Brios’ castle, carries off the -prize at the tournament, remaining unknown. (17) Proceeding thence he -frees a knight imprisoned beneath a tombstone, who, in return, shuts him -up in the tomb, but, being unable to make the mule go forward, is obliged -to release him, and returns to his prison, telling Perceval he knows him -for the best knight in the world. (18) Perceval meets the damsel of the -mule, to whom he returns ring and mule, and who asks him if he has been at -the Fisher King’s court; on his saying, No, she hurries off. Perceval -prays God to direct him to the Castle of the Chessboard. A voice tells him -to follow the hound; he does so, reaches the castle, is greeted by the -maiden, to whom he gives stag’s head and hound, and who in return tells -him concerning the chessboard which <i>Morghe la fée</i> had had made at -London, on the Thames, and grants him her favours as she had promised. On -the morrow Perceval rides forth, accompanied awhile by the damsel, who -will show him his onward way. (19) They come to a river, on which is a -boat tied to an oak tree. Perceval is to enter it, cross the river, and on -the other side he will find a road leading to the Fisher King. On his way -Perceval releases a knight whom he finds hanging by his feet from a tree; -’tis Bagommedes whom Keie had treated thus, and who returns to Arthur’s -court, challenges Keie, and is only hindered by Arthur from slaying him. -All Arthur’s knights then start forth for the Mont Dolorous and in search -of Perceval. The adventures of Gauvain alone are related in detail until -the tale returns to Perceval. (20) After freeing Bagommedes, Perceval, -wandering in the woods, comes to a tree, in whose branches sits a child, -who can tell nothing of the Fisher King, but tells Perceval he will come -on the morrow to the Mont Dolorous. This he does, and binds his horse to -the pillar. A damsel on a white mule tells him of Arthur’s birth, and how -Merlin had made castle and pillar to prove who should be the best of -knights. She was Merlin’s daughter. (21) Perceval rides on, and towards -evening sees afar off a tree upon which burn many lights; as he draws near -he finds only a chapel, upon the altar of which lies a dead knight. A -great and sudden light is followed by the appearance of a black hand, -which puts out the candle on the altar. On the morrow he meets first a -huntsman, who tells him he is near the castle, then a damsel, who explains -the child in the tree, the chapel, and the black hand as having connection -with the Holy Grail and the lance. (22) Perceval comes at last to the -castle of the Fisher King, whom he finds on a couch as heretofore. He -tells him his adventures, and asks concerning the child on the tree, the -tree full of lights, and the chapel with the dead knight. Meanwhile a -damsel enters a hall bearing the Grail, another follows with the bleeding -lance, then comes a squire with a sword broken in two. Again Perceval puts -his questions, and will not eat until they are answered. First, he is told -of the child which would not speak to him on account of his many sins, and -which climbed ever upwards to show man’s thoughts should be raised to the -Creator. Before learning aught further Perceval is to try and weld the -broken sword together; none but a true knight<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> lover of God, and of God’s -spouse, Holy Church, may accomplish it. Perceval succeeds, save that a -little crack still remains. The Fisher King embraces him and hails him as -lord of his house.</p> - -<p>Here the section which goes under the name of Gautier ends.</p> - -<p>[A portion of Gautier’s section of the Conte du Graal is found in the -Berne MS., partly edited, partly summarised, by Rochat in his work, <i>Ein -unbekannter Percheval li Gallois</i> (<i>vide infra</i> <a href="#Page_101">p. 101</a>). This version -offers some remarkable peculiarities. It has a short introduction of -thirteen lines; then follows line 21,930 of Gautier in Potvin’s text (Mons -MS.). An incident follows, omitted in the Mons MS., but found in -Montpellier and in Paris, 794: Perceval meets a huntsman who upbraids him -for having been at the Fisher King’s court, and failed to ask about Grail -and bleeding lance. Then follow Incidents 6, 7 (8 is absent so far as one -can judge from Rochat’s summary), 9 to 13 (in which Perceval does not -apparently send Garalas and his love to Arthur), and 14 to end, the -following finish being then tacked on: The Fisher King is father to Alain -le Gros, husband to Enigeus, sister to that Joseph who, when Christ’s body -was taken down from the Cross, had it from Pilate as a reward for his -services. Joseph had the vessel prepared to catch in it the blood from the -body; it was the same Jesus had made the Sacrament in on the Thursday -before. The Fisher King dies on the third day and Perceval reigns in his -stead.]<a name='fna_11' id='fna_11' href='#f_11'><small>[11]</small></a></p> - -<p>The Conte du Graal is continued by—</p> - -<p>(<i>c</i>) <span class="smcap">Manessier.</span>—(1) Perceval, full of joy, sits down to table; after the -meal, lance, Grail, and a goodly silver dish pass before the royal table -away into the next room. Perceval, sighing, asks concerning these objects -and the maidens bearing them. (2) The King tells as follows: the lance is -that wherewith Longis pierced God’s side that day he hung on the Cross -(Montpellier MS.: When Longis withdrew the spear the blood ran down to -feet, so that Joseph of Barimacie turned black from sorrow, and he -collected the blood in the holy vessel). On Perceval’s asking further, the -Grail is the vessel wherein the holy precious blood of our Lord was -received. Then Perceval asks how it came thither; (3) Joseph brought it -when he departed from the prison whence he was freed by Vespasian. He -baptized forty of his friends, and wandered forth with them till they came -to Sarras, where, as the tale tells, they found the King in the Temple of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> -the Sun. Joseph helped the King against his enemies by means of a red -cross which he fixed on the King’s shield. Evelac, such was the King’s -name, won the battle thereby, was baptized, and renamed Noodrans. It went -so likewise with his brother-in-law, Salafrès, renamed Natiien. Joseph -departed thence, ever bearing the Grail with him, till at length he came -hither, converted the land, and I, of his seed, am keeping manor and -Grail, the which shall never dwell elsewhere, God willing. (Montpellier -MS. merely says, how Joseph was put into a dark prison, and kept there -forty years, but the Lord sent him the sweetness of the Grail twice or -thrice a day. Tiberius and Vespasian deliver him and bring him to Rome, -whence he carries away the lance.) (4) To Perceval’s questions concerning -the damsels: the Grail-bearer is of royal blood, and pure maid, or God -might not let her hold it, she is my child; the dish-bearer is also of -high lineage, daughter to King Goon Desert. (5) The King would then go to -sleep, but Perceval would know about the broken sword: In Quiquagrant -dwelt Goon Desert, the King’s brother. Besieged by Espinogre he made a -sally and slew him. Espinogre’s nephew swore revenge; donning the armour -of a knight of Goon Desert, he slew him, but the sword broke when the -traitrous blow was struck. Goon Desert’s body was brought to his brother’s -castle, whither came, too, his daughter with the broken sword, foretelling -that a knight should come, rejoin the pieces, and avenge the foul blow. -The Fisher King taking up the fragments incautiously was pierced through -the thigh, and the wound might not be healed until his brother’s death was -avenged. The murderer’s name is Partiniaus, Lord of the Red Tower. -Perceval vows to avenge this wrong, but first, despite the King’s strong -hints that it is bed-time, must learn (6) about the candles on the trees, -how they are fay trees, and the lights deceiving ones, but they might not -deceive Perceval, he being destined to achieve the wonders of the earth, -and he has put an end to this illusion; (7) how the black hand haunted a -chapel wherein Pinogres had slain his mother, and over four thousand -knights had been slain by it. (8) Perceval starting on the morrow in -search of Partinal meets with Saigremors, and with him delivers a damsel -from ten robber knights. Perceval, wounded, stays a month at the damsel’s -castle, and (9) the story tells for some fifteen hundred verses -(36,100-37,400) of Saigremors; how he pursues the robber knights, comes to -the Castle of Maidens, delivers the dame thereof from a knight, Calides, -who wars upon her, and afterwards delivers another maiden, to whom two -knights were offering violence; (10) then, for over two thousand verses of -Gauvain; how he prepares to set forth again in search of the Fisher King; -how a maiden comes to him whose brother had been slain in his service, -reproaches Gauvain for his conduct at the Fisher King’s castle, and -carries him off; how he saves a maid going to be burnt; how after other -adventures he slays King Margon, returns to Arthur’s court, fights with -Kex to avenge the brother of the damsel, etc. (11) Meanwhile Perceval, -leaving the damsel who has tended him right well, rides forth into a wood, -where he is overtaken by a great storm of thunder and hail, after which he -comes to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> chapel where lies the body of the knight slain by the black -hand. Perceval strives with the devil to whom this belongs, overcomes, and -with the help of a hermit who tells him the tale of all the knights who -had fallen there, buries the body. He then confesses to the hermit, who -warns him not to think of acquiring fame, but rather to save his soul. -(12) Perceval, riding forth on the morrow, is met by the devil, who throws -him from his horse; he finds another, mounts it, but coming to a stream -luckily crosses himself, when it disappears; it was the devil. (13) A -damsel passes by with a bark, wherein Perceval mounts; she minds him of -Blanchefleur, and desire masters him, but again he crosses himself in -time, and ship and damsel vanish. (14) A hermit comes who instructs him -concerning all these things, brings him where he finds a fresh steed, and -to a fair castle. Perceval overcomes a knight who would bar his passing, -delivers the lady love of Dodinel from a felon knight; is appealed to for -help by a damsel of Blanchefleur’s, oppressed by Arides of Cavalon. (15) -Setting off to the succour of his lady love, his horse falls lame, he -comes to a smith who tells him his name is Tribuet, the forger of the -broken sword. Tribuet makes the sword whole, and bids Perceval guard it -well, never had king or conqueror a better one. (16) Perceval reaches Bel -Repaire, overcomes Arides, whom he sends to Arthur’s court, bidding him -announce his own arrival for Whitsuntide. He then quits Blanchefleur, and -(17) meets with the Coward Knight, who will not fight even when he sees -two damsels carried off by ten knights. Perceval attacks the ravishers, -the Coward Knight is drawn into the struggle, and quits himself valiantly. -The rescued damsels bring the knights to their castle, where Perceval, -sore wounded, remains for two months. (18) Meanwhile Saigremors has -announced Perceval’s arrival at Camelot. Whitsuntide passing, all the -knights set forth in search of him, and, amongst others, Boort; he meets -his brother Lyonel led, bound and naked, by six knights, who scourge him, -and at the same moment he hears the plaint of a maid to whom a knight is -doing violence. Her he succours, then hurries after his brother, whom, -meanwhile, Gauvain has rescued. Lyonel bitterly reproaches his brother for -abandoning him, and falls upon him, sword in hand; Boort offers no -defence, and would be slain but for a passing knight, Calogrinant, who -pays for his interference with his life. Finally, heavenly intervention -appeases Lyonel. Calogrinant is buried by a hermit. (19) Perceval, healed, -leaves the castle together with the Coward Knight, is present with him at -a tournament, at which he distinguishes himself above all others, leaves -his companion, to whom he gives the name Le Hardis, and (20) meets Hector, -who challenges him. The two fight, and well-nigh kill each other. To them, -lying on the field of combat, appears an angel with the Grail, and makes -them whole. (21) Perceval rides on to Partinal’s castle, before which -stands a fir tree whereon hangs a shield. Perceval throws this down, -whereupon Partinal appears and a desperate combat ensues, ended by the -overthrow of Partinal, and, as he will submit to no conditions, his death. -Perceval cuts off his head and makes for the Grail Castle, but only after -a summer’s seeking,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> lights upon it chancewise. (22) As he nears the -castle, the warders come to the King, telling him a knight is coming with -a head hanging at his saddle-bow; hereupon the King leaps to his feet and -is straightway made whole. Partinal’s head is stuck on a pike on the -highest tower of the castle. After supper, at which the same mystic -procession of talismans takes place as heretofore, the King learns -Perceval’s name, and thereby finds that he is his own sister’s son. He -would hand him his crown, but Perceval has vowed not to take it, his uncle -living. (23) He returns to Arthur’s court, overcoming on the way seven -knights, and tells his adventures, which Arthur has written down and kept -in a box at Salisbury. The Grail damsel appears and tells Perceval his -uncle is dead. Perceval goes to Corbière accompanied by all the court, who -assist at his crowning and remain with him a month, during which time the -Grail feeds all with the costliest foods. He marries his cousins, the two -Grail-bearers, to two valiant kings, and reigns in peace for seven years. -(24) After which time he follows a hermit into the wilderness, accompanied -by Grail, lance, and holy dish. He serves the Lord for ten years, and, -when he dies, Grail, lance, and dish were doubtless carried up to heaven, -for since that day no man saw them.</p> - -<p>(<i>d</i>) <span class="smcap">Gerbert.</span>—(According to Birch Hirschfeld interpolated between -Gautier and Manessier, and joining on therefore to the last incident in -Gautier.)<a name='fna_12' id='fna_12' href='#f_12'><small>[12]</small></a></p> - -<p>(1) Perceval’s sin in having indirectly caused the death of his mother -disables him from making whole the broken sword, and he must set forth -again in search of the Grail. In the night he dreams a danger threatens -his sister, and on the morrow he wakes up in open field, the Grail Castle -having vanished. (2) He comes to a fair castle in the midst of a meadow, -and, finding the door shut, knocks at it with his sword till the latter -breaks. An old man appears, and tells him the broken sword will cost him -seven years more wanderings until he come again to the Grail Castle. All -he can do for Perceval is to give him a letter which heals the wounded and -makes the wearer invincible. (3) Perceval riding thence through country -that the day before was waste and folkless, finds it now well cultivated -and peopled; all press round him and bless him for the change wrought by -his asking concerning the Grail. (4) He comes to a castle wherein is a -forge guarded by two serpents, and on it was a sword forged for a year, -and it might not be broken, save in a certain danger, or mended save at -the same forge. Perceval, after resisting the devil in the shape of a fair -maid, attacks and overcomes the two serpents, and has his sword mended by -the blacksmith, who tells him how he broke it at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> gate of Paradise. -(5) After making whole by his letter two knights of the Round Table who -had lost their wits in Castle Dolorous, Perceval comes to Carlion, to -Arthur’s court, and accomplishes the adventure of the Perillous Seat which -a fairy had sent to Arthur. Only the destined Grail-finder might sit in -it. Six knights who had previously essayed the feat had been swallowed up -by the earth; they reappear when Perceval is successful. (6) Perceval is -called away from the court by a forsaken damsel, whose false lover he -compels to marry her; then, after overcoming fresh temptation in -damsel-shape, he comes to his sister’s castle, overcomes her adversary, -who turns out to be Mordret, and reaches the Castle of Maidens, where he -is healed of his wounds by the lady of the castle, his cousin. She tells -him of his mother, Philosofine, and how the Grail was taken from the ken -of man owing to the sinfulness of the world. Perceval leaves his sister in -this castle where dames are chaste and damsels maids. (7) Returning to -court, whither Mordret had preceded him in sorry plight, Perceval is -mocked at by Kex, whom he overcomes, and afterwards meets Gauvain and -Tristan. (8) Leaving the court, he meets with four knights carrying their -father, mortally wounded, accompanies them to their castle, recognises in -the wounded knight, Gornumant, who had knighted him, swears to avenge him, -tells all that has befallen himself, and learns that the cause of his -successive failures is his forsaking his betrothed, Blanchefleur, whom he -knows to be Gornumant’s niece. He is told that if he listen heedfully to -mass and marry the damsel all will be well, and he will learn the secrets -of lance and Grail. But first Perceval overcomes a hideous hag, who by -night brings to life Gornumant’s enemies slain during the day. She has a -potion, whereof Christ made use in the sepulchre, and with it she quickens -the dead. She recognizes Perceval and acknowledges him as her conqueror, -yet while she lives he shall know nought of the Grail; she works by order -of the King of the Waste City, who hates all Christian folk. Perceval -tries the virtue of the potion on the most valiant of his enemies, with -whom he engages in a fresh and desperate struggle, heals Gornumant with -it, and sets off to marry Blanchefleur, as he is wishful to live cleanly -and fly deadly sin. (9) She is overjoyed at his arrival; preparations are -made for the marriage; the night before, she comes to his bedside in smock -and mantle, and they pass the night side by side, but with the sheet -between them. The wedding follows, and then, fearful of losing the -heavenly joy for sake of carnal longing, they resolve to resist the devil -and live virgin-wise, for virginity surpasseth aught else, even as the -topaz does crystal. Perceval, in a dream, is assured that of his seed -shall be the Swan Knight and the deliverer of the Holy Sepulchre. -Meanwhile he is still to search after lance and Grail. (10) On the morrow -he quits Blanchefleur, “maid she laid her to bed, maid she arose;†frees a -maiden pursued by a brutal knight; (11) comes to a castle where the -wayfarer must first fight against four knights and then against the lord -of the castle; does away with this custom; (12) comes to cross roads, -whereof one is safe and easy, the other adventurous and full of danger; -meets a knight all on fire; sees two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> hermits, one kneeling at a cross, -the other scourging it; then a wonderful beast, a doe followed by fawns, -which assail and devour her; (13) is presented at a hermit’s with a shield -none but the Grail-winner may wear, after which the table heretofore -meanly spread is covered with rich fare, and learns the meaning of the -mystic scenes he has witnessed. (14) He is summoned by a damsel, who tells -him of the Dragon King, lord of a heathen folk dwelling in mid-sea, -possessor of a shield whereon is painted a dragon that belches forth -flame. Perceval sets forth to attack him, resists the devil who dwells in -the dragon head, thanks to his miraculous shield whereon the cross is -painted, and forces him to flee; continues the fight against the Dragon -Knight without his shield, and slays him, but not till he has repented him -of his sins. (15) Meanwhile a thief has made off with the shield, in -pursuing whom Perceval comes to an abbey, where he learns the story of -Joseph of Arimathea. Some forty years after the Crucifixion lived a -heathen king, Evelac, in Sarras, wherefrom the Saracens have their name, -sore pressed by Tholomes, King of Syria. But Joseph of Barimaschie, who -had been five years in Pilate’s service, comes to him, and with him his -brother-in-law, Seraphe; he promised the King victory if he would let -himself be baptized. The King consented, and received the name of -Mordrach. Joseph then came to this land, and with him sixty folk and two -fair ladies, whereof the one, Philosophine, bore a plate, the other an -ever-bleeding lance, whilst Joseph had a vessel, never saw man a fairer -one. But King Crudel flung Joseph and his companions into prison, where -they dwelt forty days, but it harmed them not, as through the Holy Grail -they were filled with great plenty and had every wish fulfilled. Now, -Mordrains, learning this, brought together a great host, invaded King -Crudel’s lands, attacked and slew him. Mordrains, disarming, was found to -be covered with wounds, none of which he had felt. On the morrow Joseph -put up a table, altar-wise, and thereon laid the Grail, which Mordrains -seeing, pressed near to. But an angel with a fiery sword kept him back, -and a voice assured him he had laid such a burden on his shoulders as he -might not pass away, nor would his wounds be healed until should come the -true knight, loved of Christ, sinless, and in his arms he, Mordrains, -should die. And till then the Host should be his only food. Since then -three hundred years have passed, and the monks have heard that the knight -is in the land who shall ask concerning lance and Grail, and thereby heal -the king. (16) Perceval leaves on the morrow and comes to a castle wherein -is a coffin, brought thereto in a boat drawn by a swan; none save the best -knight in the world may open it. All have tried, even Gauvain, and failed. -Perceval succeeds, and finds in the coffin the body of a knight, former -lord of the castle, and a letter setting forth that he who should open the -coffin was his murderer. Perceval, attacked in consequence by the dead -man’s sons, defends himself by making a buttress of the youngest son’s -body. Afterwards he overcomes the folk of the castle, and delivers -Gauvain, held prisoner therein. (17) Perceval, after confessing his sins -to a hermit, has an adventure with the devil, who comes out of a tomb, -but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> whom he forces back therein. (18) He then succours a maiden whom her -jealous lover has thrown into a fountain; (19) punishes a damsel who -tempts him in traitrous-wise; (20) meets with and is sore pressed by a -giant, whom he overcomes; (21) has a fresh and victorious encounter with -Kex, and, finally, (22) arrives at crossways, is directed by the cross to -the Fisher King’s court, reaches it, asks straightway for the Grail, is -questioned by the King and relates his allegorical adventures. At table -the Grail appears, followed by lance and sword. Perceval pieces together -the sword, and the King, full of joy, embraces him.</p> - -<p><b>Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival.</b>—Gahmuret, Parzival’s father, goes to -the East, takes service with Baruc, wins the love of the heathen queen -Belakane, but after remaining with her a short time forsakes her, -promising to return if she become Christian. She bears a son, and names -him Feirefiz. Gahmuret by his prowess at a tournament wins the love of -Herzeloyde, whom he marries on condition he may go a tourneying every -month. Hearing his old lord Baruc is in danger, he hastens to his aid, and -is slain. Herzeloyde on receipt of the news resolves to withdraw to the -wilderness, and bring up her son in ignorance of knighthood.</p> - -<p>[From this point up to and including the adventure with Orgeuilleuse, -where Chrestien’s share of the Conte du Graal breaks off, Wolfram agrees -very closely with Chrestien. It has been much debated in Germany whether -he really had any other model but Chrestien, and whether his alleged model -Kyot be not a feigned source to justify his departure from the story as -found in the Conte du Graal. A brief outline of the arguments for and -against this view will be found in Appendix A. The chief points of -difference in the portion common to the two poets are: the more important -position in the narrative assigned to Perceval’s cousin, whom Wolfram -names Sigune, who is fed from the Grail by the Grail messenger, the -loathly damsel, and about whose loves with Schianatulander Wolfram has -left fragments of another poem, Titurel. Parzival meets her immediately -after his adventure with the lady of the tent. Parzival’s love is named -Condwiramur. On the first night of their marriage he leaves her maid (as -in Gerbert’s version). But the most important peculiarity of Wolfram’s -poem is his account of the Grail itself, a stone which yields all manner -of food and drink, the power of which is sustained by a dove, which every -week lays a Host upon it, given, after the fall of the rebel angels, in -charge to Titurel and his dynasty, by them preserved in the Grail castle, -Montsalvatch, guarded by a sacred order of knighthood whom it chooses -itself. The knights are vowed to virginity, the king alone being allowed -marriage. The cause of the maimed king’s (Amfortas) hurt is his having -taken up arms in the cause of worldly and unlawful love. When Parzival -leaves the Grail castle after the first visit, he is mocked at by the -inmates for having omitted the question. More stress is laid on the broken -sword, connected with which is a magic spell Parzival must master before -he can become lord of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> Grail castle. The “loathly damsel,†Kundrie, is -also a much more important person with Wolfram than with Chrestien, and -she is brought into contact with Parzival’s cousin, Sigune. Parzival’s -love for his wife is dwelt upon at length, and he is urged by the hermit -rather to rejoin her than to seek the Grail.]</p> - -<p>After the adventure with Orgueilleuse, Wolfram continues as follows:—The -lord of the magic castle, wherein are kept prisoners Arthur’s mother and -the other queens, is Clinschor, nephew of Virgilius of Naples, who took to -magic after his unmanning at the hands of King Ibert, whose wife, Iblis, -he loved. Gawain overcomes the magician, and, both unknowing, fights with -Parzival. The latter, after many lesser adventures, meets his half-brother -Feirefiz, and sustains with him the hardest of all his fights. At length -recognition is brought about, the two embrace, and repair to Arthur’s -court. Cundrie nears once more, tells Parzival he has been chosen Grail -king, that his wife and twin sons, Loherangrin and Kardeiz, have been -summoned to the Grail castle, and that the question will now free Amfortas -and his land. With Cundrie and Feirefiz, Parzival rides to the Grail -castle, meets his wife, together they all behold the talismans, save -Feirefiz, to whom as a heathen the sight of the Grail is denied. But he is -baptised, weds Repanse de Schoie, the Grail damsel, the two return to -India, and from them is born Prester John. Parzival rules over his Grail -kingdom. Of his son Loherangrin it is told how he is led to the aid of the -Duchess of Brabant by a swan, how he marries her on condition she inquire -not as to his origin, and how, on her breaking the command, the swan -carries him away from her.</p> - -<p><b>Heinrich von dem Türlin.</b>—<i>The Gawain Episodes of Diu Crône.</i>—The -parallelism of Heinrich’s poem with those of Wolfram and Chrestien begins -about verse 17,500 with an adventure of Gawain’s corresponding to Inc. 13 -in Chrestien (Tournament for the hand of Tiebaut of Tingaguel’s daughter, -episode of the two sisters, combat with Melians de Lis). In Heinrich the -father is named Leigamar, the eldest daughter Fursensephin, (Fleur sans -epine ?), the youngest Quebelepluz, where Heinrich has taken a French -phrase setting forth the greater fairness of the damsel for a proper name. -Inc. 14 in Chrestien then follows with these differences: the name of the -castle is Karamphi; Gawain and the facile damsel are surprised by the -latter’s brother, and it is her father who, to avenge the wrong done his -house, makes Gawain swear that within a year he will either seek out the -Grail or return as prisoner to Karamphi. Chrestien’s Inc. 15 is of course -missing, the story going straight on to Inc. 16, meeting with the wounded -knight (here Lohenis) and his lady love Emblie, who by treachery deprive -Gawain of his steed; then the arrival at the Castle of Wonders, and the -night passed in the enchanted bed, where the hero is overwhelmed with -crossbolts shot at him by invisible foes. The plucking of the flower from -the enchanted garden at the bidding of a damsel (Orgueilleuse in Chrestien -and Wolfram, here Mancipicelle), and the meeting with and challenge by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> -Giremelanz follow. Arthur’s court comes to the Castle of Wonders to -witness the combat. Gawain and Giremelanz are reconciled, the latter -marries Gawain’s sister, and Gawain himself sets off to search for the -Grail. [Adventures then follow which correspond to nothing in Chrestien or -Wolfram, in which Gawain wins talismans destined to aid him in his -search.] Gawain sets forth on his quest accompanied by Kay, Lancelot, and -Calocreant. They part at crossways. Gawain comes to the sister of the -magician (anonymous in Chrestien, Klinschor in Wolfram, here Gansguoter) -of the Castle of Wonders. She bids him take heed, if he wish to see the -Grail, he be not overcome by sleep, and for this that he drink not -overmuch; as soon as he saw it and its accompanying damsels, he was to ask -about it. If he neglected this, all his past and any future toil would be -useless. On his way to the Grail castle, the hero meets with all sorts of -dangers, and obstacles, and wonders; amongst others, passing the night in -a castle where he is tended by invisible hands. After month-long -wanderings he meets with Lancelot and Calocreant, and learns that Kay, in -a vain attempt to penetrate to the Grail, has been flung into prison. The -three comrades then come to the Grail castle. They are led into a hall -which passes in splendour aught earthly eye ever saw. The floor is strewn -with roses, on a bed lies an old man in gold-embroidered garments, and -watches two youths playing at chess. Towards night the hall fills with -knights and dames, a youth enters bearing a sword which he lays before the -old man. Gawain is pressed to drink; but refuses, not so his two -companions, who straightway fall asleep. Then enter two damsels bearing -lights, followed by two knights with a spear, and two more damsels with a -“toblier†(? tailleor, plate) of gold and jewels. After them comes the -fairest woman ever God created, and with her a maiden weeping. The spear -is laid on the table, by it the “toblier†wherein are three drops of -blood. In the box borne by the fair lady is a piece of bread, one third -part of which she breaks off and gives to the old man. Gawain recognising -in her Gansguoter’s sister, stays no longer, but asks what these wonders -mean. Straightway knights and dames all with mighty shout leap from table, -and great joy arises. The old man says what he has seen is the Grail; none -saw it before save Parzival, and he asked not. By his question Gawain has -delivered from long waiting and suffering both those which are dead and -those which live. The old man himself and his companions are really dead, -though they seem it not, but the lady and her damsels are living; for -their unstained womanhood God has granted them to have the Grail, and -therewith yearly to feed the old man. All Gawain’s adventures latterly -have come from the Grail. Now he has ended all, he is to take as prize of -his knighthood the sword which will help him in every danger. After him no -man shall see the Grail; further concerning it he must not ask, nor may -know more. At daybreak the old man’s tale ends, and he with his whole -court vanish, leaving only the lady with her five damsels. [After -releasing Kay, and undergoing other adventures, Gawain returns to Arthur’s -court.]</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span><b>The Petit Saint Graal or -Didot-Perceval.</b><a name='fna_13' id='fna_13' href='#f_13'><small>[13]</small></a>—<i>Prologue.</i>—After the -choosing of Arthur to be King, Merlin comes to the court, and tells how -Arthur is Uther-Pendragon’s son, brought up by Antor as his son. All -rejoice at this, especially Gauvain, son of Lot. After dinner the barons -bring Merlin to Arthur, and tell him how he was the prophet of -Uther-Pendragon, and had made the Round Table. Arthur promises to honour -Merlin. The latter calls him apart with Gauvain and Key, and tells him -how, in the time of Uther-Pendragon, the Round Table was made after the -pattern of one Joseph constructed when he separated the good from the -evil. Two Kings of Britain before had been Kings of France, and conquered -Rome; Queen Sibyl and Solomon had prophesied Arthur should be third, and -he, Merlin, was the third to assure him of it. But this could only be if -Arthur established the Round Table as Merlin directed. Now the Grail had -been given Joseph by our Lord himself, and at His command Joseph led a -great folk into the desert. And when evil befell them Joseph, at our -Lord’s command, made a table; whereat one place was left empty in -remembrance of Judas. But Moyses, a false disciple, sat therein, but sank -into the abyss, whereout he shall not come until the time of Antichrist. -Our Lord made the first table; Joseph, the second; he, Merlin, the third. -The Grail was given into the keeping of the rich Fisher King; but he was -old, full of sickness, and should not win health till a knight came, -having sat at the Round Table, true man of God and of Holy Church, and the -best knight in the world for feats of arms. He must ask the rich fisher of -what use is the Grail; then the King would be cured of his infirmity, the -enchantments of Britain would cease, and the prophecy be fulfilled. Should -Arthur do this, great good would come of it; he, Merlin, must go, as he -could not often show himself to the people. Whereupon he departs to -Ortoberland, to Blaise, his master, who writes down these things, and by -his writings we know them. The son of Alein le Gros is a child named -Percevaux, and as Alein is dying he hears the voice of the Holy Ghost -saying, Know thou art near thy end, and wilt soon come into the fellowship -of Jesus Christ. Brons, thy father, dwells in these isles of Ireland, and -with him is the Grail. And he may not die until thy son finds him, to whom -he shall commend the grace of the vessel, and teach the secret words -Joseph taught him, then shall he be cured of his infirmities. And I -command thy son that he go to the court of Arthur, where he shall be -taught how he may find the house of his grandfather. Alein dies, and -Percevaux mounts his horse and comes to Arthur’s court, and asks arms from -him, and stays there and is much loved.</p> - -<p>(1) Arthur proposes holding a tournament at Easter, the greatest the world -had seen, to honour the Round Table. Perceval at first takes no part<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> in -the tournament; but afterwards, for love of Aleine, niece of Gauvain, who -incites him thereto, and sends him a suit of red armour, he enters the -lists unknown, and overbears all opponents, so that all say he should fill -the empty place at the Round Table. Perceval claims the empty place from -the King, and when refused threatens to return to his land and never visit -the court again. Arthur yields, and Perceval seats himself. Then the rocks -and the earth groan dolorously, and a voice reproaches Arthur with having -disobeyed Merlin’s command. Were it not the goodness of Alein le Gros -Perceval had died the death of Moys. Now should Arthur know the vessel our -Lord gave Joseph was in the keeping of the rich fisher, and he was ill and -infirm, and until the best knight in the world should come might not die. -And when that knight should come to the rich fisher and ask concerning the -vessel, then should he be cured, but die within three days after giving -the vessel to that knight, and teaching him the secret words handed down -by Joseph. Thus the enchantments of Britain should cease. (2) Perceval -swears not to lie one night where he had lain the night before till he -find the rich fisher. Gauvain, Sagremors, Beduers, Hurgains, and Erec -swear the same. The knights set forth amid general lamentation. They part -at a chapel, and the story follows Perceval. (3) He comes, after two days, -upon a damsel weeping over a knight, Hurganet, one of the Round Table, who -had gone forth on the Grail Quest. He had delivered her from a giant, and -ridden with her into a tent where they found knights and ladies, who -warned them not to await the owner, the “Orgoillos Delandes,†who would -kill him. And whilst speaking a dwarf entered, scourge in hand, who threw -down the tent. The Lord of the Tent then appeared, clad in red armour, and -slew Hurganet. Perceval determines to avenge his death; rides to the tent -with the damsel; is warned of its inmates; is surprised by the dwarf, who -smites the damsel with his scourge, whereupon Perceval fells him to the -ground. The Knight of the Tent appears; after a desperate struggle -Perceval overcomes him and sends him with the damsel to Arthur’s court. -She had fain stayed with him, but he thought of other things. (4) Perceval -comes to the finest castle in the world, enters, and finds no inhabitant. -Only a chessboard he finds. He begins to move the pieces, and they play -against him, and he is checkmated three times running. Full of anger he -prepares to throw the chessmen into the castle moat—suddenly a damsel -shows herself and reproaches him. He will abstain if she comes to him. She -consents, and after her squires and maidens have disarmed Perceval he -joins her. Overcome by her beauty he requests her love. She will grant it -him if he capture the white stag of the wood. She lends him her hound, and -recommends him to take the utmost care of it. Perceval chases the stag, -captures it, and, having cut off its head, starts back. But meanwhile an -old woman has carried off the hound. She will only give it up if Perceval -will go to a grave whereunder is a knight painted, and say: “Felon, he -that put you there.†Perceval complies; whereupon appears a knight on a -black horse armed in black. They strive, and Perceval overcomes him. But -meantime a second knight<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> has carried off both the stag’s head and the -hound from the old woman. Perceval’s adversary flees to the tomb, which -closes upon him, and Perceval follows the second knight after a vain -attempt to get help from the old woman. (5) Him he found not; but after -feats longer than I can tell, comes to his father’s house, where he was -born. He only finds his sister and a niece. The former tells him -concerning her brother, who went to Arthur’s court; whereupon their mother -died of grief. Perceval reveals himself, and is amazed at what she relates -concerning the Grail and its guardian, and asks if he may come to behold -it. She answers, Yes; whereupon he vows not to rest till he have found it. -She attempts to dissuade him, but he remains firm. She then urges him to -go to their uncle, who is a hermit, to whom he may confess the sin of his -mother’s death, and who will advise him concerning the Quest. (6) Both -proceed thither. He rejoices to see them, and asks if Perceval has been to -the house of his father, guardian of the vessel named Grail, and, on -hearing that he has not, tells him how at the table which Joseph and -himself had made, the voice of the Holy Ghost had come to them, telling -them to go westward, and ordering the rich fisher, his father, to come to -that land where the sun goes down (<i>avaloit</i>), telling him he should not -die till the son of Alein had become the best knight in the world. -Perceval had been chosen to do his Lord’s service; he is to slay no knight -nor to lie with any woman, that being luxurious sin. His sins have -prevented his reaching Brons. He is to be careful to keep himself from sin -and felony, being of a race our Lord so loved that He committed His blood -to their keeping. Much else he says, and on the morrow Perceval and his -sister ride forth. (7) They meet a knight who challenges them. Perceval, -thinking of the damsel who had given him the hound, at first pays no -attention, but then overcomes and slays him. Perceval is much grieved at -having so soon broken his uncle’s injunction. On the morrow he leaves his -sister, promising to return so soon as he may. (8) He meets a knight, -accompanied by a damsel the most wonderfully ugly nature ever made, -whereat he signs himself and laughs. The knight, indignant, challenges -him, but is overcome and sent with the damsel to Arthur’s court. Kay makes -mock of them; but Arthur reproves him and receives them courteously. They -remain at the court, and know that she was the most beautiful woman in the -world! (9) Perceval comes to a ford and is challenged by its guardian, -whom he overcomes. His name is Urban of the Black Thorn; his lady had set -him to guard the ford. Her castle vanishes with a great noise, and she -comes to her lover’s aid with her maidens in shape of birds. Perceval -slays one who becomes a woman, and is carried off by the others to -Avallon. (10) Perceval comes to a tree at the crossing of four roads, -among its branches he sees two naked children of seven years old. They -speak to him concerning the Grail, and direct him to take the road to the -right. They vanish, and a voice tells him to heed their counsel. (11) -Perceval comes to a river whereon are three men in a boat, and the master -of the boat bids him go down the stream till he should come to his house. -Perceval rides a whole day without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> finding it, and curses the fisher. At -last he comes to a castle with lowered drawbridge, enters, and is robed in -scarlet by two squires. Meanwhile four attendants have carried the Fisher -King, father of Alein, and grandfather of Perceval, into the hall. The -King wished to do Perceval what honour he might. They eat, and whilst at -table a squire comes out of a chamber, and brings in both hands a lance, -whence flows a drop of blood. Him follows a damsel bearing two silver -plates and clothes; then a squire with a vessel in which was our Lord’s -blood. All bow as he passes, and Perceval had fain asked, but he fears to -displease the King, minding him of the worthy man to whom he had -confessed, and who forbade his speaking too much and enquiring -overmuch—for a man of idle words is displeasing to our Lord. All night -Perceval thinks of the lance and of the Grail, and in the morning, on -waking, finds neither man nor woman. He sets forth to seek some one, but -in vain, and is greatly distressed. (12) He finds a damsel weeping -bitterly, who, seeing him, cries out: “Percevaux le Gallois, be accursed, -unhappier art thou than ever, having been in the house of the rich Fisher -King, and not having asked concerning the Grail. Thy Lord hates thee; and -’tis wonder the earth do not open beneath thee.†Had he not seen Grail and -lance pass? Had he asked what one did with them, the King, cured of his -infirmity, would have returned to his youth; our Lord’s prophecy to Joseph -been fulfilled, and the enchantments of Britain undone. But Perceval is -neither wise, valiant, nor true man enough to have charge of the blood. -But he shall come again and ask concerning the Grail, and his grandfather -shall be cured. (13) The damsel departs, and Perceval, unable to find his -grandfather’s house, rides on and comes to a tree under which a damsel is -sitting, and in whose branches the stag’s head, which had been carried off -from him, is hanging. Perceval takes it, and when his hound following a -stag comes up, takes possession of it likewise. But the knight who had -taken them appears. Perceval fights with and overcomes him; learns that he -is the brother of the Knight of the Tomb, who lives therein with his love, -sister of the damsel for whose sake Perceval had hunted the stag. To her -Perceval now returns, gives her hound and stag’s head, and then departs -refusing the offer of her love, even to stop one night with her. (14) -Perceval wanders for seven years achieving many feats, and sending more -than one hundred knights prisoners to Arthur; but, not being able to find -his grandfather’s house, he falls into such melancholy as to lose his -memory, so that he minds him no more of God, and never enters Church. One -Good Friday, fully armed, he meets a knight and ladies in penitents’ -dress, who reproach him for going armed on a day that our Lord was -crucified. Perceval repents; returns to his uncle, the hermit; learns that -his sister is dead, and does penitence. The songmen, in their pleasing -rhymes, say nothing of this; but we tell you of it as we find it in the -tale Merlin made Blaise write down. (15) Perceval rides forth and meets -seven squires of Melianz de Liz, who is going to a tournament at the White -Castle, the damsel of which is to be the victor’s prize. All the knights -of the Round Table will be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> there, having returned that Whitsuntide from -the Quest of the Grail without achieving aught. Perceval leaves the -squires and come to a castle where he puts up. His host urges him to take -part in the tournament. The morrow they ride forth and look on; Melianz -wears the scarf of the lady of the castle; he and Gauvain prove themselves -the best knights, the onlooking ladies know not to whom to award the -prize. The next day, Perceval, having resolved upon taking part, accepts -the scarf of his host’s daughter, overcomes all adversaries, and sends -steeds to the lady in return for her scarf. Being asked by his host if he -will not woo the damsel of the White Castle, Perceval answers he may not -take wife. Then appears an old man who reproaches Perceval for going to a -tournament, and with forgetting his vow to sleep no two nights in the same -house till the Quest be accomplished. He is Merlin, come from Hortoblande, -to say that owing to the prayers of Perceval’s uncle, our Lord wills that -the latter may have his blood to keep. He is to go to his grandfather. -Perceval asks when he shall get there. “Before a year,†is the answer. -“’Tis a long time.†“Not so,†says Merlin, who leaves him, and tells all -to Blaise, from whose writing we know of it. (16) That same night Perceval -comes to his grandfather’s house, is received by the Fisher King, and as -they sit at table the Grail appears, and the relics with it, and when -Perceval sees it he asks to what use is the vessel put? Forthwith the King -is cured, and his being changed. Perceval must say first who he is before -learning such holy things. Upon learning it is his grandson before him, -the King leads him to the Grail, and tells him with this lance Longis -pierced the side of Jesus Christ, whom he knew in the flesh. In this -vessel is the blood, Joseph caught as it ran to the ground. It is called -Grail because it is agreeable to worthy men; none may sin in its presence. -Then Brons, kneeling, prays, and the voice of the Holy Ghost tells him the -prophecy will be fulfilled; and he is to teach Perceval the secret words -our Lord on the cross told Joseph, and Joseph told him. He does, but I -cannot and may not say what these words were. Then angels carry him off; -and Perceval remains, and the enchantments of Britain and of the whole -world cease. And that same day Arthur and his knights sitting at the Round -Table are aware of a great noise, and the seat is made whole again which -had broken under Perceval. Merlin appears to Blaise, tells him his work is -ended, and takes him to Perceval, who was right glad of his company.</p> - -<p><i>Epilogue.</i>—Merlin comes to Arthur’s court and relates all that had taken -place. The knights, finding the Quest of the Grail is over, and mindful of -Merlin’s former words, urge Arthur to invade the continent. He does so, -overcomes Frollo, King of France; refuses tribute to the Emperor of Rome, -overcomes him, but is recalled to England on learning Mordret’s treachery. -The latter is slain; but Arthur, wounded mortally, is carried to Avallon -to be healed of Morguen, his sister. Lastly, Merlin tells Perceval how he -will withdraw from the world, and be no more seen of men. And the tale -says no more of Merlin and the Grail.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span><b>The Mabinogi of Peredur ab Evrawc.</b>—Evrawc, Earl of the North, has seven -sons, six of whom, like himself, fall in tournaments and combats. His wife -carries off her youngest son, Peredur, to the desert, and forbids horses -or arms being shown to him. He grows up strong and active, and can outrun -his mother’s goats and hinds. (1) One day he sees three knights -passing—Gwalchmai, the son of Gwyar, and Geneir Gwystyl, and Owain, the -son of Urien. His mother declares them to be angels; whereupon he -determines to join them. He questions Owain concerning his accoutrements -and the use of his weapons. His mother swoons away at the thought of his -leaving her; but he picks out a horse and saddles it. Before leaving, his -mother counsels him to repeat his paternoster wherever he sees a church; -to take food and drink if none offer them; to aid when any outcry is, -especially a woman’s; if he sees a fair jewel to take it and give it to -another; to pay his court to fair women whether they will or no. (2) After -two days and nights Peredur comes to a tent, where he finds a damsel. Half -of the food and drink she has he takes, half leaves to her; asks her for -her ring at leaving, which she gives him. Her lord returning, is jealous, -and sets forth to avenge his supposed wrong. (3) Peredur journeys on to -Arthur’s court. A knight has been there before him, and grievously -insulted Gwenhwyvar by dashing a goblet of wine in her face, and carrying -the goblet out, and has dared any to avenge the insult; but all hang their -heads. Peredur enters the hall and demands knighthood. On Kai’s protesting -he is too meanly equipped, a dwarf, who, with his female companion has -been a year at Arthur’s court without speaking, salutes him as the flower -of knighthood. Kai strikes him for this, and kicks the female dwarf, who -repeats the salutation. Kai bids Peredur seek the knight and win back the -goblet, then shall he have knighthood. Peredur does so, and slays the -knight. Owain, who has followed, shows him how to undo the armour and to -clad himself in it, and bids him back to Arthur. But Peredur refuses, he -will not come back to the court till he have avenged the injury done by -Kai to the dwarf and dwarfess. (4) Peredur overcomes sixteen knights and -sends them to Arthur with the same message. (5) Peredur comes to a castle -by a lake, and sees a venerable man sitting by the lake and his attendant -fishing, and the old man is lame. And Peredur enters the castle, and is -practised in the use of weapons, and learns courtesy and noble bearing; -and the old man is his uncle—his mother’s brother. He is to leave his -mother’s habits and discourse, and if he sees aught to wonder at, not to -ask the meaning of it. (6) Peredur leaves his uncle and comes to a castle -where dwells a second uncle of his—brother likewise of his mother. His -strength is tested by his having to cut through an iron staple with a -sword. Twice he does it and the broken pieces re-unite, but the third time -neither would unite as before. He has arrived at two-thirds of his -strength, and when he attains his full power none will be able to contend -with him. Whilst talking, two youths enter the hall bearing a mighty spear -with three streams of blood flowing from the point to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> ground. All -wail and lament; but as Peredur is not vouchsafed the meaning of what he -sees he forbears to ask concerning it. Then enter two maidens with a -salver in which a man’s head swims in blood. The outcry redoubles. Peredur -retires to sleep. (7) On the morrow, with his uncle’s permission, he rides -forth, finds a beautiful woman lamenting over the corpse of a knight. She -reveals herself as his foster-sister; calls him accursed for causing his -mother’s death by leaving her; and tells him it is her husband she mourns -for, slain by the Knight of the Glade. Peredur meets the latter, overcomes -him, and makes him take his foster-sister in marriage. (8) Peredur comes -to a castle where are eighteen youths and five maidens, and he had never -seen one of so fair an aspect as the chief of the maidens. A flask of wine -and six loaves are brought by two nuns, and that must suffice for all. The -youths press the maiden to offer herself to Peredur as his wife or lady -love. She refuses; but consents when they threaten leaving her to her -enemies. She comes weeping to Peredur and relates how she is besieged by -an earl who seeks her hand. She implores his aid, and offers to place -herself in his hands. Peredur bids her go sleep, he will assist her, The -next day he overthrows the master of the household of the earl. To save -his life the latter must deliver up one-third of the besieged maiden’s -lands. The second day it fares the same with the earl’s steward; the third -with the earl himself. Peredur thus wins back all his hostess’ lands, and -tarries with her three weeks; but for her love he would not have stayed so -long. (9) Peredur next meets the Lady of the Tent, ill-entreated of her -husband concerning him. Him he overcomes, compels to acknowledge her -innocence, and sends both to Arthur. (10) Peredur comes to the castle of a -tall and stately lady, who bids him escape from the sorceresses of -Gloucester, who will attack the castle that night; but he resolves to -remain, and defends one of the watch when overtaken by a sorceress. The -latter hails him by his name. She foreknows she is to suffer harm from -him. If he will go with her he shall learn chivalry and the use of arms. -Peredur consents on her promising to refrain from injuring the countess, -and stays with her three weeks. (11) Peredur comes to a hermit’s cell. In -the morning it has snowed. A hawk has killed a fowl in front of the cell, -but is scared away by Peredur’s horse; a raven has alighted on the bird. -Peredur likens the blackness of the raven and the whiteness of the snow -and the redness of the blood to the hair and the skin and the two red -spots on the cheeks of the lady he loves best. Whilst thus lost in -thought, Arthur and his household come up with him, but fail to recognise -him. A youth accosts him, but receives no answer; whereupon he thrusts at -Peredur but is struck to the ground. Twenty-four youths essay the same, -and are repulsed in like manner. Kai then comes and speaks angrily, but -Peredur breaks his arms for him. Gwalchmai then approaches him -courteously, learns his name, and brings him to Arthur, who does him -honour. Thus all return to Caerlleon. (12) Peredur solicits the love of -Angharad Law Eurawc, and when she denies him, vows to speak to no -Christian till she loves him. (13) Peredur comes to the castle of a huge -grey man, a heathen,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> after slaying a lion, his porter. The grey man’s -daughter warns him of her father, and at his request brings his horse and -arms to his lodging. Peredur overcomes the vassals, and slays the sons of -the grey man, and sends the whole household to Arthur to be baptized. (14) -Peredur slays a serpent lying upon a gold ring, and wins the ring. For a -long time he speaks to no Christian, and loses colour and aspect through -longing for Arthur and his lady love. He returns to Arthur’s court, but -none know him, and he suffers Kai to thrust him through the thigh without -his saying a word. He overcomes many knights, and at length Angharad Law -Eurawc confesses her love for him. He remains at Arthur’s court. (15) -Peredur comes to the castle of a huge, black, one-eyed man. The latter’s -daughter warns him against her father. But Peredur stays, overcomes the -latter, and learns how he lost his eye. On the Mound of Mourning is a -cairn, in the cairn a serpent with a stone in its tail, the virtue whereof -is to give as much gold to the possessor as he may desire. In fighting the -serpent he had lost his eye. He directs Peredur to the serpent, and is -slain by him. Peredur refuses the love of the maidens of the castle, and -rides forth. (16) He comes to the palace of the son of the King of the -Tortures. Every day the Addanc of the Lake slays them. Whilst at discourse -a charger enters the hall with a corpse in the saddle. They anoint the -corpse with warm water and balsam, and it comes to life. The same happens -with two other youths. The morrow they ride forth anew against the Addanc, -refusing Peredur, who would go with them; but he follows and finds seated -on a mound the fairest lady, who, if he will pledge her his love, will -give him a stone by which he may see the Addanc and be unseen of it. He -promises, and she gives him the stone, telling him to seek her in India. -Peredur passes through a valley wherein is a flock of white sheep, and one -of black, and when they cross the river flowing through the valley they -change colour. He learns of their shepherd the way to the Addanc’s cave, -slays it, meets his three companions of the night before, who tell him it -was predicted that he should slay the monster, offers them its head, -refuses their sister whom they proffer him in marriage; accepts the -services of a youth, Etlym Gleddyv Coch, who wishes to become his -attendant, and rides forth. (17) He comes to the court of the Countess of -Achievements, overthrows her three hundred knights; but learning she loves -Etlym resigns her to him. (18) Peredur, accompanied by Etlym, comes to the -Mound of Mourning, slays two out of the three hundred knights he finds -guarding the serpent, slays the latter, repays the remaining hundred -knights all they have spent, gives Etlym the stone and sends him back to -his love. (19) Peredur comes to a valley wherein are many coloured tents, -lodges with a miller, from whom he borrows food and lodging, and learns -that a tournament is forward. He overcomes all the knights present, and -sends their horses and arms to the miller as repayment. The Empress of the -Tournament sends for him, he repels her messengers thrice, the fourth time -he yields. She reveals herself as the lady who had helped him against the -Addanc, and she entertains him for fourteen years. (20) Arthur<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> is at -Caerlleon-upon-Usk, with him his knights, and among them Peredur. There -enters, riding upon a yellow mule, a maiden of hideous aspect. She greets -all save Peredur, to whom she reproaches his silence at the court of the -Lame King; had he asked the meaning of the streaming spear and of the -other wonders the King would have regained health and the dominions -peace—all his misfortunes are due to Peredur. She then tells of a castle -where are five hundred and seventy knights, each with the lady he loves -best—there may fame be acquired; and of a castle on a lofty mountain -where a maiden is detained prisoner, whoso should deliver her should -attain the summit of the fame of the world. Gwalchmai sets forth to -release the imprisoned maiden, Peredur to enquire the meaning of the -bleeding lance. Before they leave a knight enters and defies Gwalchmai to -single combat, for that he had slain his lord by treachery. (21) Gwalchmai -meets a knight who directs him to his own castle, where he is welcomed by -his sister. The steward of the castle accuses him to the knight of being -the slayer of his, the knight’s, father. Gwalchmai demands a year to -acknowledge or deny the accusation. (22) Peredur, who, seeking tidings of -the black maiden, but finding none, has wandered over the whole island, -meets a priest who chides him for being in armour on Good Friday. Peredur -dismounts, asks the priest’s blessing, and learns of a castle where he may -gain tidings of the Castle of Wonders. (23) Peredur proceeds thither, and -meets the King of the castle, who commends him to his daughter, by whom he -is well received. A little yellow page accuses him to the King of winning -his daughter’s love, and advises that he should be thrown into prison. But -the damsel befriends him, and assists him to take part in a tournament, -where, for three days, he overthrows all opponents. The King at last -recognises him, and offers him his daughter; but he refuses and sets forth -for the Castle of Wonders. (24) On arriving there he finds the door open, -and in the hall a chessboard and chessmen playing by themselves. He -favours one side which loses, whereupon he casts the chessboard in the -lake. The black maiden comes in and reproaches him—he may find the -chessboard again at the Castle of Ysbidinongyl, where a black man lays -waste the dominions of the Empress. Him Peredur overcomes, but spares his -life; this the black maiden chides him for, and he slays him; but the -black maiden still refuses him access to the Empress unless he can slay a -stag, swift as the swiftest bird, with one sharp horn in his forehead. She -gives him a little dog belonging to the Empress which will rouse the stag. -With its aid he slays the latter, but a lady, riding by, carries off the -dog, and chides him for slaying the stag. He can only win her friendship -by going to a cromlech which is in a grove, and challenging to fight three -times a man who dwells there. Peredur complies, and fights with a black -man clad in rusty armour; but when he dismounts his adversary disappears. -(25) Peredur, riding on, comes to a castle where sits a lame grey-headed -man, and Gwalchmai by him. A youth enters the hall and beseeches Peredur’s -friendship—he had been the black maiden who came to Arthur’s court, and -who had chid Peredur concerning the chessboard;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> he was the youth who came -with the bloody head in the salver, and the head was that of Peredur’s -cousin slain by the sorceresses of Gloucester, who also lamed Peredur’s -uncle, and he, the speaker, was Peredur’s cousin. Peredur seeks aid of -Arthur, and they start against the sorceresses. One of the latter slays -three of Arthur’s men; whereupon Peredur smites her, and she flees, -exclaiming this was Peredur, who had learnt chivalry of them, their -destined slayer. She and all her companions are slain. Thus is it related -concerning the Castle of Wonders.</p> - -<p><b>The Thornton MS. Sir Perceval.</b>—(1) <span class="smcap">Percyvelle</span> is son of Percyvelle and -Acheflour, Arthur’s sister. His father is slain in a tournament by the Red -Knight whom he had previously overcome in a former tournament. His mother -takes to the woods, brings up her son without instruction till he is -fifteen years, when she teaches him to pray to God. (2) He then meets with -three knights of Arthur’s court—Ewayne, Gawayne, and Kay. He takes them -for gods. Learning that they are knights, he determines to go to Arthur’s -court and become a knight himself, catches a wild horse, and, returning to -his mother, announces his attention. She counsels him to be always of -measure, to salute knights when he meets them, and at his departure gives -him a ring for token. (3) He sets forth, and finding on his way a house -makes himself free of it, eats, drinks, and finding a lady sleeping on a -bed takes from her her ring, leaving his mother’s in its place. (4) Coming -to Arthur’s hall he rides into it and up to the King so that his mare -kisses Arthur’s forehead. He demands knighthood at Arthur’s hands, -threatening to slay him if refused. Arthur sees the likeness to his -father, laments over the latter’s untimely fate, and recalls that books -say the son should avenge the father’s bane. Percyvelle bids him let be -his jangling and dub him knight. Whilst sitting down to table the Red -Knight comes in, carries off Arthur’s cup (five years long had he done so) -none daring to hinder him. At the King’s lament Percyvelle engages to slay -the Red Knight, and bring the cup back if knighthood be granted him. The -King promises, Percyvelle follows the ravisher, who scorns him, but is -slain by a dart flung at him. He captures the knight’s steed, and not -being able otherwise to remove his armour, and recalling his mother’s -injunction “out of the iron burn the tree†kindles a fire to burn the -body. Gawayne, who has followed him, shows him how to unlace the armour; -when that is removed Percyvelle casts the body into the fire to roast. He -refuses to return to Arthur, looking upon himself as great a lord as the -King, but sends the cup back through Gawayne and rides on. (5) He meets an -old witch, mother to the Red Knight, who addresses him as her son; her he -spears and casts into the fire. (6) He meets ten knights, who flee, taking -him for the Red Knight, but on his raising his vizor the oldest knight, -reassured, relates how the Red Knight bore him and his sons enmity, and -how, fifteen years before, he had slain his brother. Learning that -Percyvelle had burnt his enemy, he invites him to his castle. (7) Whilst -at meat a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> messenger comes in from the Maiden-land begging help from the -Lady Lufamour against a “Sowdane,†who would have her to wife. Percyvelle -starts forth with three of the old knight’s sons, whom, however, he sends -back each after a mile. Meanwhile, the King at Carebedd, mourning for -Percyvelle, receives Lufamour’s messages, gains from him tidings of -Percyvelle, and sets forth with his court to follow him. Percyvelle, -coming to the Sowdane’s camp, is set upon by the guard, but slays them -all, and then lays him down to rest under the castle wall. In the morning -Lufamour’s men make her aware of the slaughter wrought upon her enemies. -She perceives Percyvelle and sends her chamberlain, Hatlayne, to bid him -to her chamber. Whilst at table together tidings are brought that the -enemy have nearly taken the town. Percyvelle sallies forth alone and soon -leaves not one alive. He is then ware of four knights—Arthur, Ewayne, -Gawayne, Kay. He pricks against them and Gawayne receives his onslaught. -They recognise each other, and all proceed to Lufamour’s castle. The next -day the Sowdane challenges all comers; Percyvelle, dubbed knight by -Arthur, slays him, and thereafter weds Lufamour. (8) After a year he -thinks on his mother’s loneliness, and sets forth to seek her. Hearing a -damsel lamenting in the wood, he finds her bound to a tree, for that a -year before, while sleeping, a stranger had robbed her of a ring leaving -his own in its stead. Now her ring was of a stone of such virtue that -neither death nor hurt could come to the wearer. He releases her, -overcomes the Black Knight who had bound her, reconciles them and claims -his own ring for the ring he had taken. But the Black Knight has given it -to the lord of the land—a giant. (9) Percyvelle slays the giant, and -claims the ring of the porter. The latter tells him how his master, loving -a fair lady, had offered her that same ring, but she, exclaiming that he -had killed her son, rushed into the forest and was since then bereft of -her senses. Percyvelle puts on a goat’s skin, and after nine days search -finds her. A magic drink of the giant’s throws her into a three days’ -sleep, after which, restored to her right mind, she goes home with her -son. He afterwards goes to the Holy Land, and is there slain.</p> - -<p><b>The Queste del Saint Graal.</b>—[<i>Furnivall’s text (F.) has been taken as the -basis of the present summary. Words and passages not found in the Welsh -translation (W) are italicised; words or passages found in the Welsh -translation instead of those in Furnivall are in parentheses. The variants -from Birch-Hirschfeld’s Summary (B. H.) are given in the notes.</i>]</p> - -<p>(1) On Whitsun Eve the companions of the Round Table being assembled at -Camelot, a <i>damsel</i> (youth) comes in great haste, asks for Lancelot and -bids him <i>from King Pelles</i> (for the sake of whatever he loved most) -accompany her to the forest. Notwithstanding Guinevere’s opposition he -does so, and comes to a nunnery where he finds his two cousins, Boort and -Lionel. Three nuns then bring Galahad, a child the like of whom might -scarce be found in the world; one asks Lancelot to knight him, he -consents, and on the morrow Lancelot and his companions return to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> -Camelot; his cousins think the child must be Lancelot’s son, but Lancelot -answers no word. (2) At the Round Table the seat of each knight is marked, -but on the Seat Perillous it is written that <i>four hundred and fifty-four</i> -(four hundred and fifty) years have passed since the Lord’s Passion, and -that on this Whitsun Day the seat shall find its master. Lancelot covers -these words, and, whilst at Kay’s reminding, the court awaits an adventure -before sitting down to meat, a youth tells them of a stone floating on the -water. It is a block of red marble, in which sticks a sword, and upon it -written that none may draw the sword save the best knight in the world. -Lancelot declares that the wonders of the Holy Grail are about to begin, -and refuses to essay the adventure; Gawain, Perceval, and others try, but -fail; they then sit down to table served by twelve kings; an old man -enters, leading a knight in vermeil armour, whom he proclaims the desired -knight, of the seed of David and kin of Joseph of Arimathea, who shall -achieve the adventures of the Holy Grail. He draws near the Seat -Perillous, on which is now written, “This is Galahad’s seat,†sits himself -therein, dismisses the old man, <i>and bids him greet</i>, “<i>My uncle, King -Pelles, and my grandfather, the rich fisher</i>.â€<a name='fna_14' id='fna_14' href='#f_14'><small>[14]</small></a> (3) Great honour is -done to the new knight, whom Lancelot recognises as his son, and Bors and -Lionel as the youth begot by Lancelot upon the daughter <i>of the Fisher -King</i> (King Pelles). The Queen is told that the knight is come, and her -ladies say he <i>shall end the wonders of Great Britain, and through him the -Maimed King shall be healed</i>. Galahad is then urged by Arthur to essay the -adventure of the sword, consents, easily draws out the sword, and asks for -a shield. (4) A damsel appears, weeps for Lancelot as having lost his -place as the best knight in the world, and tells the King from Nasciens, -the hermit, that on that day he would send the Holy Grail to feed the -companions of the Round Table. A tournament is ordered, in which Galahad -is held the best, as he overthrows all save Lancelot and Perceval. After -vespers the court sits down to table, a clap of thunder is heard, followed -by the brightest of sunbeams, so that all are as if lighted by the Holy -Ghost. None know whence the light comes, and none has power to say a word. -The Holy Grail enters, covered with white samite, but none may see who -carries it; the hall is filled with sweet odours, and as the Grail passes -along the tables each seat is filled with such meat as each one longs for. -Then it departs, none may say how, and those can now speak who before -could say no word. (5) All return thanks to God for the grace vouchsafed -them, and Gawain tells them that heretofore no man had been served with -whatever he might desire save <i>at the Maimed King’s</i> (at the court of King -Peleur). But they could not behold the Grail openly, and Gawain declares -he will go on quest of it for a year and a day. The knights of the Round -Table make a like vow. Arthur is much distressed, as he knows many will -die on the quest. The Queen and her ladies weep likewise, and propose to -join their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> knights, but an old priest tells them from Nasciens, the -hermit, that no knight entering on the quest of the Holy Grail is to have -with him his lady or damsel—the quest is no earthly one. On the morrow, -at King Bandamagus’ suggestion, all the questers, Galahad first, swear to -maintain the quest for a year and a day and longer if need be. After the -Queen has taken leave of Lancelot, and Arthur has vainly tried to force a -shield on Galahad, the questers set off together and pass the first night -at Vagan’s Castle. On the morrow they ride forth and separate. (6) After -five days Galahad comes to an abbey where he finds King Bandamagus and -Ywain “li aoutres.†The abbey contains a shield which no knight save the -destined one may take and go unslain or unhurt. King Bandamagus would take -it, but is overthrown by a White Knight; Galahad then takes it, and his -right to do so is admitted by the White Knight, who tells him as follows -concerning it:—Forty-three years after our Lord’s Passion, Joseph of -Arimathea, who took our Lord’s body down from the Cross,<a name='fna_15' id='fna_15' href='#f_15'><small>[15]</small></a> came to the -city Sarras, where dwelt King Evelac, then a Saracen, who was at war with -his neighbour, Tholomes. Josephes, Joseph’s son, warned Evelac against -going forth to battle unprepared, and, in answer to the King’s questions -what he should do, told him of the new law and Gospel truth and the -Saviour’s death, and fixed on his shield a cross of sandal. He was to -uncover this on the fourth day’s fighting, and to call on the Lord. When -he did so he beheld a bleeding, crucified figure. He won the battle, and -on his telling the story his brother-in-law, Nasciens, received baptism. -The shield then restored to a man his lost hand. Evelac was baptized, and -guarded the shield in lordly fashion. Josephes came with his father to -Great Britain, where King Crudel threw them with many other Christians -into prison. Mordrains<a name='fna_16' id='fna_16' href='#f_16'><small>[16]</small></a> and Nasciens then invaded Great Britain, -released Josephes and remained with him in the land. When Josephes was on -his deathbed, and Evelac asked him for a remembrance, then he bade King -Mordrains bring his shield, and with the blood streaming from his nose -marked on it a cross; this would always remain red, and no knight should -with impunity unhang the shield till Galahad should come, last of -Nasciens’ line. Where Nasciens lay buried, there the shield was to be -kept. (7) Galahad draws near a tomb in the abbey graveyard, whence issues -a voice telling him not to approach and drive it out. But he does so, and -a smoke in man’s form comes out; on opening the tomb a dead knight’s body -is found lying therein, this is cast out. These things are a symbol: the -hard tombstone signifies the <i>hard-heartedness of the world</i> (the hardship -which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> Jesus Christ had in this world);<a name='fna_17' id='fna_17' href='#f_17'><small>[17]</small></a> the dead body those dead in -sin, and as in Christ’s time when they slew Him and were harried out of -their land by Vespasian as a punishment; the smoke was a devil who fled -from Galahad because he was a virgin. (8) On the morrow Galahad rides -forth accompanied by Melians, a youth who had begged to be allowed to -serve him, and whom he had knighted. They separate at a cross road, -Melians takes the left hand road in spite of warning, comes to a tent -where hangs a golden crown, seizes it, meets a strange knight who -overthrows and had slain him but for Galahad coming to the rescue and -overcoming first one, then a second assailant. Melians is taken to an -abbey to be tended, and learns that the two knights who almost overpowered -him were his pride in taking the left hand path, his covetousness in -carrying off the crown of gold. (9) Galahad enters a hermitage to pray -there, and hears a voice bidding him proceed to the Castle of Maidens and -rid it of its bad customs. He encounters on the way seven knights whom he -must overcome, such was the custom of the castle. He forces them to -flight, and an old priest brings him the keys of the castle. He finds -therein numberless maidens, and learns that the former lord of the castle -had been, with his son, slain by the seven knights, who had striven -beforehand to carry off his daughter. She foretold that as they had gained -the castle for a maiden’s sake, they would lose it through a maiden, and -be overcome by a single knight, whereupon they determined to make prisoner -every maiden passing that way. Galahad delivers the captives, and puts a -daughter of the former duke in possession of the castle. He learns then -that the seven brothers have been slain by Gawain, Gheriot, and Ywain. -(10) The story now returns to Gawain. He passes by the abbey where Galahad -found the shield, then that where Melians lay ill, is reproached by a -friar with being too sinful to be with Galahad, meets Gheheries, his -brother, meets Ywain on the morrow, meets the seven brothers who attack -them and are slain; then Gawain comes alone to a hermitage, confesses for -the first time since fourteen years, is admonished by the hermit, learns -that the Castle of Maidens signifies hell, the captives the good souls -wrongfully therein confined before Christ’s coming, the seven knights the -seven sins. Gawain is pressed, but vainly, to make penitence. (11) The -story returns to Galahad. After wandering for awhile without adventures he -meets Lancelot and Perceval. They do not recognise him, not knowing his -<i>arms</i> (shield),<a name='fna_18' id='fna_18' href='#f_18'><small>[18]</small></a> and attack him. He overcomes them, but learning from -the words of a recluse, who sees the combat, that she really knows him, -and, fearing recognition, he hurries off.<a name='fna_19' id='fna_19' href='#f_19'><small>[19]</small></a> (12) Perceval stays with the -recluse, and Lancelot starts in pursuit of the Unknown Knight.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> He comes -in the night to a stone cross near which stands (an old)<a name='fna_20' id='fna_20' href='#f_20'><small>[20]</small></a> chapel. He -dismounts and enters, but an iron rail hinders his progress; through it he -sees an altar whereon <i>burn seven candles</i> (a silver candlestick, a wax -taper).<a name='fna_21' id='fna_21' href='#f_21'><small>[21]</small></a> He leaves the chapel, unsaddles his horse, and lies down to -sleep by the cross. Then comes a sick knight on a bier drawn by two -horses, dolourously lamenting. He looks at Lancelot, but says no word, -thinking him asleep, nor does Lancelot say aught, but remains half asleep. -And the sick knight laments, “<i>When may I have solace from the holy vessel -for the pain I suffer for such a small fault</i> (was ever so much pain as is -upon me who have done no evil at all)?â€<a name='fna_22' id='fna_22' href='#f_22'><small>[22]</small></a> But Lancelot says no word, nor -when the candlestick comes towards the cross and the Holy Grail approaches -the sick knight, who prays he may be made whole to join likewise the -quest. Then crawling to the table whereon the vessel stands, and <i>touching -his eyes with</i> (kissing) it, feels relief and slumbers. The Grail -disappears and Lancelot still says never a word, for which aftertimes much -mischance was his. The sick knight arises well, a squire appears and -<i>arms</i> him (with Lancelot’s sword and helm),<a name='fna_23' id='fna_23' href='#f_23'><small>[23]</small></a> and brings him Lancelot’s -steed, and the knight swears never to rest till he knows why the Holy -Grail appears in so many places of the Kingdom of Logres, and by whom it -was brought to England. So he departs, and <i>his squire carries off -Lancelot’s armour</i>. Lancelot awakes wondering whether what he has seen be -dream or truth. And he hears a voice saying—harder than stone, bitterer -than wood, more despised than the fig tree—he must away, not pollute the -spot where is the Holy Grail. He wanders forth weeping, comes to a hermit, -confesses his great sin, his love for Guinevere, is admonished to tear it -from his heart, when there may still be hope for him. Lancelot promises, -and has the adventure at the chapel explained to him, and stays with the -hermit for penance and instruction. (13) The story now returns to -Perceval. The recluse orders he be well taken care of, she loves him well, -he is her nephew. She dissuades him from fighting Galahad as he wishes, -does he wish to die and be killed as his brothers <i>for their outrages</i> (in -their combats and tournaments)? He and Galahad and Bors will achieve the -Quest. She is his aunt, formerly Queen of the Waste Land. <i>He asks about -his mother whom he fears he has badly treated, and learns she died when he -went to Arthur’s court.</i><a name='fna_24' id='fna_24' href='#f_24'><small>[24]</small></a> He asks further concerning the knight with -the red arms, and is told as follows:—Since Christ’s coming were three -chief tables; first, the table at which Christ often ate with his -Apostles; second, the table of the Holy Grail, established in semblance -and remembrance of the first, by which so many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> miracles were wrought in -this land in the time of Joseph of Arimathea, in the beginning when -Christianity was brought to this country. He came with four thousand poor -companions. One day, wandering in a forest, they had nothing to eat, but -an old woman brought <i>twelve</i> (ten) loaves, these they bought and they -were wroth with one another when they came to divide them. Joseph angry, -took the twelve loaves, made the people sit, and by virtue of the Holy -Grail multiplied the loaves to their need. At that table was a seat where -Josephes, son of Joseph, might sit, but none other, for, as the history -tells, the place was blessed by our Lord himself. Now two brothers, -relatives of Josephes, envied him his leadership, saying they were of as -good seed as he, and one sat in Josephes’ seat, and was straightway -swallowed up by the earth, whence the seat was called the Dreaded Seat. -Last came the Round Table, made by Merlin’s counsel, to show the roundness -of the world and of the firmament. And Merlin foretold that by companions -of this table should the truth of the Grail be known, and that three -should achieve it, two virgins and one chaste, and the one should surpass -his father as man surpasses wolf, and he should be master, and for him -Merlin made a great and wonderful seat, wherein none might sit unharmed -save he, and it was known as the Seat Perillous. And as at Whitsuntide the -Holy Spirit came to the Apostles in guise of fire, so at Whitsuntide -Galahad came clad in red armour. And on the day he came the questing for -the Grail began, which might not cease till the truth concerning it <i>and -the lance</i> was known. To find Galahad, Perceval must first try Castle -<i>Gher</i> (Goth) where dwells a cousin of Galahad, <i>and then Castle Corbenic -where dwells the Maimed King</i>. (14) His aunt then tells how after that her -husband fell in war against King Laban she withdrew into that wild place. -And her son went to serve King Pelles, their relative, and since two years -she only knows of him that he is following tournaments throughout Great -Britain. (15) On the morrow Perceval comes to a monastery, and seeing mass -being performed would enter but cannot, and sees a sick bed with a man or -woman lying on it, whom, as he rises when the body of our Lord is raised, -he sees to be an old man crowned, with his body full of wounds and crying -out, “Father, forget me not.†He seems as if he were over <i>four hundred</i> -(one hundred and four) years old. Perceval asks concerning these wonders, -and is told as follows:—When Joseph of Arimathea came to this land, the -Saracen, King Crudel, hearing of the Grail by which he lived, threw him -and his son Josephes and some hundred others into prison for forty days, -and forbade food to be given them. But they had the holy vessel with them. -When Mordrains and his brother-in-law, Seraphe, heard these things, they -assembled their host, landed in Britain, overcame Crudel, and freed -Joseph. On the morrow Evelac, as he was called before he became Christian, -desired to see the Holy Grail plainly, and though warned to desist pressed -forward to do so, and was struck blind and helpless. He accepted his -punishment submissively, but only prayed to Christ that he might survive -till <i>the good knight should come, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> -best</i><a name='fna_25' id='fna_25' href='#f_25'><small>[25]</small></a> <i>of his seed</i> (the knight -who is to achieve the adventures of the Holy Grail). A voice answered his -prayer should be granted, and then he should receive the light of his eyes -and his wounds should be made whole. This happened <i>four hundred</i> (one -hundred and four) years before, and it was that King Evelac whom Perceval -had seen, and during that while he had fed on nought else save the Lord’s -body. (16) Perceval riding forth on the morrow is attacked by twenty -knights, sore pressed, and only rescued by the Red Knight’s help, who then -disappears. (17) Perceval, having lost his horse, asks one vainly from a -passing squire, from whom it is shortly afterwards carried off by another -knight, whom Perceval, mounted on the squire’s cob, attacks but is -overthrown. (18) At night a woman appears and offers him a horse if he -will do her will—she is, in truth, the enemy. He agrees, she mounts him, -he comes to a river, and, before essaying to ford it, makes the sign of -the cross, whereupon the horse rushes howling into the water. (19) -Perceval, rescued from this peril, finds himself on a wild island -mountain, full of savage beasts; he helps a lion against a snake and wins -its service. He is ill at ease on his island, but he trusts God, and is -not like those men of Wales where sons pull their fathers out of bed and -kill them to save the disgrace of their dying in bed. (20) That night, -sleeping by the lion’s side, Perceval dreams of two women visiting him, -one mounted on a lion, the second on a serpent; this one reproaches him -for killing the serpent. On the morrow an old man comes ship-borne, -comforts Perceval with good counsel, and interprets his dream: the dame on -the lion was Christ’s new law, she on the serpent the old law. (21) A -damsel then appears, warns Perceval against the old man, prepares for him -a rich banquet with good wine, not British, as in Great Britain they only -drink cervoise and other home-made drinks, and excites his passion. He is -on the point of yielding, but seeing the cross-handled pommel of his sword -crosses himself, and the damsel disappears in flames. Perceval pierces his -thigh with his sword in his contrition. The old man reappears, exhorts, -explains the various features of his temptation, and finally takes him -away with him in his ship. (22) The story now returns to Lancelot. After -three exhortations from the hermit he sets forth, and first meets a -servant, who assails him bitterly as an unfaithful traitorous knight, in -that having openly seen the Holy Grail doing its wonders before him, he -yet moved not from his seat. (23) He comes to a hermit’s hut and finds the -hermit lamenting over the dead body of his companion, who, at his nephew, -Agaran’s, request, had left the hermitage to aid him against his enemies, -and had been treacherously slain by the latter. These things are told by a -devil, which had entered into the dead hermit’s body. Lancelot is -admonished at great length, receives stripes, puts on the dead hermit’s -hair shirt, and finally leaves with the advice that he should confess -every week. (24) He meets a damsel who encourages him, but tells him he -will find no lodging for the night.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> <i>He dismounts at the foot of a cross -at the cross-ways, and has a vision of a man surrounded with stars, -crowned and accompanied by seven Kings and two knights, who pray to be -taken to heaven; a man descending from heaven orders one of the knights -away, whilst to the other he gives the shape of a winged lion, so that he -flies up to heaven and is admitted.</i><a name='fna_26' id='fna_26' href='#f_26'><small>[26]</small></a> (25) Lancelot meets the knight -who had carried off his arms, and who attacks, but is overthrown by him. -(26) <i>He comes to a hermitage, confesses, tells his vision, and learns -that it has a great meaning in respect of his lineage, which must be -expounded at much length: forty-two years after the Passion of Christ, -Joseph of Arimathea left Jerusalem, came to Sarras, helped Evelac, who -received baptism at the hands of Josephes, together with his -brother-in-law, Seraphe (who took the name Nasciens), and who became a -pillar of the holy faith, so that the great secrets of the Holy Grail were -opened to him, which none but Joseph had beheld before, and no knight -after save in dream. Now Evelac dreamed that out of his nephew, son of -Nasciens, came forth a great lake, whence issued nine streams, eight of -the same size, and the last greater than all the rest put together; our -Lord came and washed in the lake which King Mordrains thus saw flowing -from Celidoine’s belly. This Celidoine was the man surrounded by stars in -Lancelot’s vision, and this because he knew the course of the stars and -the manner of the planets, and he was first King of Scotland, and the nine -streams were his nine descendants, of whom seven Kings and two -knights:—first, Warpus; second, Chrestiens;</i><a name='fna_27' id='fna_27' href='#f_27'><small>[27]</small></a> <i>third, Alain li Gros; -fourth, Helyas; fifth, Jonaans, who went to Wales and there took to wife -King Moroneus’ daughter; sixth, Lancelot, who had the King of Ireland’s -daughter to wife; seventh, Bans. These were the seven Kings who appeared -to Lancelot. The eighth stream was Lancelot himself, the elder of the -knights of the vision. The ninth stream was Galahad, begot by Lancelot -upon the Fisher King’s daughter, lion-like in power, deepest of all the -streams.</i><a name='fna_28' id='fna_28' href='#f_28'><small>[28]</small></a> (27) Lancelot comes to a castle with a meadow before it, -whereon a throng of black armoured knights is tourneying against knights -in white armour. Lancelot goes to the help of the former,<a name='fna_29' id='fna_29' href='#f_29'><small>[29]</small></a> but is -captured, and on being released rides off lamenting. At night, as he -sleeps, a man comes from heaven and reproaches him with his ill faith. A -hermitess expounds the allegorical meaning of the adventure. The white -knights are those of Eliezer, son of King Pelles, the black those of -Argastes, son of King Helain; this symbolised the Quest, which was a -tournament between the heavenly knights and the earthly ones, and in that -Quest none might enter who was black with sin; and Lancelot though sinful, -having entered thereon had joined the black knights, and his capture by -the others was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> his overthrow by Galahad, and his lamentation his return -to sin, and it was our Lord who reproached him in his vision; let him not -depart from truth. (28) Lancelot comes to Lake Marchoise, is attacked by a -knight in black armour, who kills his horse and rides off; he lays down on -the shore and awaits trustfully God’s help. (29) The story returns to -Gawain. After journeying many days adventureless, he meets Hector de -Mares. Neither has heard aught of Lancelot, Galahad, or Bohors. Travelling -together they come to a deserted chapel, where, passing the night, Gawain -dreams he sees in a meadow one hundred and fifty bulls all spotted, save -three, one being dingy, the two others being pure white. Of the one -hundred and forty-seven who set off to find better pasture many die and -some return, of the three one returns, but two remain between whom strife -arises and they separate. Hector dreams that he and Lancelot, being -companions, are attacked by a man who knocks Lancelot off his horse and -sits him on an ass, after which Lancelot, coming to a fair fountain, would -drink of it, but it vanishes; he, Hector, keeping his horse comes to a -castle, the lord of which refuses him admission for that he is too high -mounted. Whilst telling one another their dreams, a hand with a taper -appears and vanishes, and a voice tells them that, poor of belief as they -are, they cannot attain the Holy Grail. On their way to find a hermit who -may explain these wonders, Gawain is attacked by and kills a knight, -Ywains the Adulterer, son of King Urien. They then come to the hermit, -Nasciens, who explains the bulls as the companions of the Round Table, the -spotted ones those stained by sin, the three unspotted ones are the -achievers, two white, virgins—Galahad and Perceval—one dingy, having -once sinned carnally, Bors. The last part of the dream may not be -explained, as evil might come of it. In Hector’s dream the two horses are -Pride and Ostentation. Lancelot’s being seated on an ass signifies the -putting off of pride, the fountain is the Holy Grail. Both knights are too -full of sin to continue in the quest of the Grail. They ride forth and -meet with no adventure worth notice. (30) The story returns to Bors. After -first coming to a hermit, who exhorts him to abandon the Quest if he do -not feel himself free from sin, to whom he confesses, from whom he -receives absolution, and to whom he vows to eat nought save bread and -water till the Quest be achieved, he comes to a castle whose mistress is -sore oppressed by her sister, against whose champion, Priadam the Black, -she has vainly sought a defender. Bors promises to come to help. He passes -the night at the castle and will not sleep in the rich bed she offers him, -though in the morning he tumbles it as if he had lain in it. He overcomes -Priadam, and reinstates the lady in her lordship. (31) On the morrow he -meets his brother, naked, bound on a hack, being beaten with thorns by two -knights. At the same moment passes a very fair maiden being carried off by -a knight, and she cries to him for help. He is in anguish, but goes to the -maiden’s help, wounds her would-be ravisher, and restores her to her -friends. (32) He then hurries after his brother, but meets a seeming monk -who makes him believe his brother is dead, and gives him an explanation of -dreams he has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> had. He then comes to a tower and is welcomed by its -inmates. A damsel offers him her love, and when he refuses threatens with -twelve other damsels to throw herself from the tower. Bors is full of -pity, but thinks they had better lose their souls than he his. They fall -from the tower, Bors crosses himself, and the whole vanishes, being a -deceit of the devil. His brother’s corpse that had been shown him is also -gone. (33) On the morrow he comes to an abbey, where he learns that his -brother lives, and where all his dreams and adventures are allegorically -explained. He then meets Lionel, his brother, who reproaches him bitterly -for his conduct, and falls upon him with intent to kill. First a hermit, -then a passing knight, Calogrenant, would stop him, but he slays both. -Bors is at length, in spite of prayers and entreaties, compelled to draw -in self defence, but a voice tells him to flee, and a fiery brand comes -from heaven between them. Bors follows the command of the voice directing -him towards the sea, where Perceval awaits him. He comes to a ship covered -with white samite, and finds therein Perceval, who at first does not know -him again, and who tells him all that he has passed through. (34) The -story returns to Galahad. After countless adventures he finds himself one -day opposed to Gawain and Hector de Mares in a tournament; he deals the -former such a blow as knocks him out of his saddle. (35) He is brought to -the ship wherein are Perceval and Bors by a damsel, who accompanies them -until, fourteen days’ sail from Logres, they come to a desert isle off -which is another ship, on which is written<a name='fna_30' id='fna_30' href='#f_30'><small>[30]</small></a> that those who would enter -should see they were full of faith. The damsel then tells Perceval she is -his sister, <i>daughter of King Pellehem</i>. They enter the ship and find a -rich bed with a crown at its head, and at its foot a sword six inches out -of the scabbard, its tip a stone of all the colours in the world, its -handle of the bones of two beasts, the serpent Papagast, the fish -Orteniaus; it is covered with a cloth whereon is written that only the -first of his line would grasp the sword. Perceval and Bors both essay -vainly. Galahad, on being asked, sees written on the blade that he only -should draw who could strike better than others. The damsel tells the -story of the sword as follows:—When the ship came to the Kingdom of -Logres there was war between King Lambar, father to the Maimed King, and -King Urlain, heretofore Saracen, but newly baptised. Once Urlain, -discomfited, fled to the ship, and, finding therein the sword, drew it and -slew King Laban<a name='fna_31' id='fna_31' href='#f_31'><small>[31]</small></a> with it, and that was the first blow struck with the -sword in the Kingdom of Logres, and there came from it such pestilence and -destruction in the land of the two kingdoms that it was afterwards called -the Waste Land. When Urlain re-entered the ship he fell down dead. (36) -Galahad, further examining the sword, finds the scabbard of serpent’s -skin, but the hangings of poor stuff. On the scabbard is written that the -wearer must surpass his fellows, and the hangings be changed only by a -King’s daughter and she a maid; on turning the sword<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> over, the other side -is found black as pitch, and bearing words that he who should praise it -most should blame it most in his greatest need. Perceval’s sister explains -this as follows: Forty years after our Lord’s Passion, Nasciens, -Mordrains’ brother-in-law, came to the Turning Isle, and found this ship, -and therein bed and sword, this last he coveted, but had not the hardihood -to draw it, though he stayed eight days food and drinkless longing for it; -on the ninth day a tempest drove him to another island, where, assailed by -a giant, he drew the sword, and though it snapped in two and thus -fulfilled the inscription, yet he overcame the giant. He afterwards met -Mordrains and told him of these wonders; Mordrains reunited the fragments, -then, in obedience to a voice, they left the ship, but in going Nasciens -was wounded for having dared to draw a sword of which he was not worthy, -thus he who praised it most had most reason to blame it. As for the other -words, <i>King Pelles,</i><a name='fna_32' id='fna_32' href='#f_32'><small>[32]</small></a> <i>called the Maimed King</i> (a lame King who was my, -<i>i.e.</i>, the damsel’s, uncle) once came to this ship on the shore of the -sea over against Ireland, and entering it found the sword, drew but was -wounded through the thighs by a lance, <i>and might not be healed till -Galahad come</i>.<a name='fna_33' id='fna_33' href='#f_33'><small>[33]</small></a> (37) They then examine the bed and find it has three -spindles; that in front, snow white; that behind, blood red; that above, -emerald green, and lest this be thought a lie the story turns from its -straight path to explain about these spindles. After Eve, yielding to the -devil’s advice, had caused Adam to sin, and both knew themselves carnal -and were ashamed, and were driven forth from Paradise, Eve kept the branch -of the Tree of Life which she had plucked, and planted it and it grew to a -tree with branches and leaves white in token that Eve was a virgin when -she planted it. Sitting one day beneath the tree, God commanded them to -know one another carnally, and when they were ashamed to set about such -foul work sent darkness over them. Abel was thus begotten, and the Tree of -Life turned green. Afterwards Cain slew Abel underneath that same tree and -it turned red. At the Deluge it remained unharmed and lasted till -Solomon’s time. Whilst the wise King was pondering over the malice of his -wife and of all women, a voice told him a woman of his line should bring -men more joy than her sex had caused sorrow, and that a virgin knight -should be the last of his lineage. His wife, whom he consults as to how he -shall let this knight know he had foreknowledge of his coming, advised the -building of the ship, and the taking of David’s sword to be fitted with a -new hilt of precious stones, and a new pommel and scabbard, and placed in -the ship together with Solomon’s crown on a rich bed; she furthermore had -three spindles made from the Tree of Life and from trees grown from it. -And when all was ready Solomon saw in dreams angels coming from heaven and -putting the different inscriptions on the sword and ship. (38) The story -speaks now of other things. New hangings had not been put on the sword, -this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> was to be done by a damsel. Perceval’s sister supplies hangings made -of her own hair, and names the sword “The Sword of Strange Hangings,†and -the scabbard “Memory of Blood,†and Galahad girds on the sword. (39) On -the morrow they set sail and come to Castle Carchelois, in the March of -Scotland, the inmates whereof attack them but are all slain. Galahad is -sorry for those he has killed, but a priest tells him they are heathens, -and he has done the best work in the world, as the three knights who held -the castle had ravished their own sister and wounded their father, Count -Ernous, to death. Before the latter dies he urges Galahad <i>to go to the -assistance of the Maimed King</i> (to undertake other adventures).<a name='fna_34' id='fna_34' href='#f_34'><small>[34]</small></a> (40) -On the morrow they meet a white stag led by four lions; these come to a -hermitage, hear mass, the stag becomes a man and sits on the altar, the -lions a man, an eagle, a lion, and an ox, all winged. (41) On the morrow -Perceval takes Galahad’s sword, which he will wear from henceforth. They -come to a castle, the inmates of which demand that Perceval’s sister -should pay the custom of the castle, which is to give a dishful of blood -from her right arm. The three companions protect Perceval’s sister against -overwhelming odds till nightfall, when, learning that the blood is asked -to heal the Lady of the Castle suffering from leprosy, Perceval’s sister -sacrifices herself. Before dying she gives directions that her body is to -be put in a ship and buried in the Palace Spiritual in Sarras. Bors then -leaves his two companions to succour a wounded knight pursued by a knight -and a dwarf;<a name='fna_35' id='fna_35' href='#f_35'><small>[35]</small></a> and Perceval and Galahad, after seeing the castle they -had thus left destroyed by fire from heaven in vengeance of the blood of -the good maidens which had there been shed, likewise separate. (42) The -story returns to Lancelot. He is at the Water of Marcoise, surrounded by -the forest and high rocks, but he does not lose faith in God; in obedience -to a voice he goes on board a passing ship and finds therein Perceval’s -sister, whose story he learns from the letter at her head. After a month’s -journeying a knight joins them who proves to be Galahad, and they pass -together half a year achieving marvellous adventures. After Easter, at the -new time when the birds sing their sweet and varied songs, they come to -land, and a knight in white arms bids Galahad leave his father, which he -does. (43) After a month’s further wandering on the sea, Lancelot comes to -a castle guarded by two lions,<a name='fna_36' id='fna_36' href='#f_36'><small>[36]</small></a> against whom he would at first defend -himself, but is reproved for trusting his strength rather than his -Creator. Entering, he comes to a room wherein are the Holy Vessel, and a -priest celebrating mass; Lancelot is warned not to enter, but when he sees -that the priest about to raise the body of God has a man put into his -hands, he cannot refrain from pressing forward to his aid, but is struck -down by a fiery wind and remains fourteen days dumb,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> food- and drinkless. -He finds he is in Castle Corbenic, and a damsel tells him his quest is -ended. King Pelles rejoices to see him, at dinner the Holy Grail fills the -tables so that living man could not think of greater plenty; whilst at -dinner Hector de Mares comes to the castle door, but is ashamed to enter, -hearing that Lancelot is within, and rides off pursued by the reproaches -and taunts of those of the castle. Lancelot returns to Arthur’s court, -passing on the way the tomb of Bandamagus, whom Gawain had slain. (44) The -story returns to Galahad. He comes to an abbey wherein is King Mordrains, -who knows his approach, and asks that he may die in his arms; Galahad -takes him on his breast, Mordrains dies and all his wounds are found -healed. (45) Galahad cools the boiling fountain by putting his hand in it. -(46) Galahad delivers from the tomb where he had been burning three -hundred and fifty-four years his relative, Symeu, who thus expiated his -sin against Joseph of Arimathea. (47) Galahad rides five years before he -comes to the <i>house of the Maimed King</i> (the court of King Peleur), and -during all the five years Perceval bears him company, and within that time -they <i>achieve the great adventures of the Kingdom of Logres</i> (cast out the -evil adventures of the Island of Britain). (48) One day they met Bors, who -in the five years had not been in bed four times. The three come to -<i>Castle Corbenic</i><a name='fna_37' id='fna_37' href='#f_37'><small>[37]</small></a> (the court of King Peleur) <i>where they are greeted -by King Pelles, and where Eliezer, King Pelles’ son, brings the broken -sword with which Joseph had been pierced through the thighs; Bors cannot -rejoin the pieces, Perceval can only adjust them together, Galahad alone -can make the sword whole, and it is then given to Bors</i>. (50) At -vesper-time a hot wind strikes the palace, and a voice orders all unfit to -sit at Christ’s table to depart, as the true knights were to be fed with -Heaven’s food. All leave save <i>King Pelles, Eliezer, his son, and his -niece, the most religious maid on the earth</i> (a young maiden); to them -enter nine knights<a name='fna_38' id='fna_38' href='#f_38'><small>[38]</small></a> and salute Galahad: three are from <i>Gaul</i> (Wales), -three from Ireland, three from Denmark. <i>Then four damsels bring in on a -wooden bed a man, crowned, in evil plight, who greets Galahad as his -long-expected deliverer.</i> A voice orders out of the room him who has not -been a companion of the Quest, and straightway <i>King Pelles and Eliezer -and</i> the damsel depart. From heaven comes a man clad like a Bishop and -borne in a chair by four<a name='fna_39' id='fna_39' href='#f_39'><small>[39]</small></a> angels, who place him before the table upon -which stands the Holy Grail. Upon his forehead is written that he was -<i>Joseph</i> (son of Joseph of Arimathea) first Bishop of Christendom, whereat -they wonder, as they know that man lived three hundred years before. He -kneels before the altar and opens the door of the <i>ark</i> (chamber), and -four angels<a href='#f_39'><small>[39]</small></a> issue, <i>two bearing burning lights, the third a cloth of -red samite, the fourth a lance bleeding so hard that the drops<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> run into a -box he holds in his other hand</i> (two with torches, the third with the -lance, the fourth holding the box into which the blood drops); the candles -are placed on the table, the cloth is placed on the holy vessel so that -the blood fell into it. Joseph then celebrates the Sacrament, and on his -raising the wafer, as it were a child descends from heaven and strikes -itself into the wafer, so that it takes man’s form. Joseph then kisses -Galahad and bids him be fed by the Saviour’s own hand, and vanishes. But -there comes out of the holy vessel, a man with hands bleeding and feet and -body, and says He will reveal His secrets, and give the high food so long -desired and toiled for. He gives the Sacrament to Galahad and his -companions, and explains that the Grail is the dish of the Last Supper, -and Galahad shall see it more fully in the City of Sarras, whither it is -going, Britain being unworthy of it, and whither he is to follow it with -Perceval and Bors; <i>but as he must not leave the land without healing the -Maimed King he is to take some of the blood of the lance and therewith -anoint his legs</i>.<a name='fna_40' id='fna_40' href='#f_40'><small>[40]</small></a> Galahad asks why all may not come with him; but -Christ says they are twelve who have eaten as the Apostles were twelve, -and they must separate as the Apostles separated. <i>Galahad then heals the -Maimed King, who goes into an abbey of white monks.</i> (51) The three -companions, after sending messages to Arthur’s court <i>through Estrois de -Gariles and Claudius, son of King Claudas</i>,<a name='fna_41' id='fna_41' href='#f_41'><small>[41]</small></a> coming to Solomon’s ship, -herein they find the Holy Grail, set sail; on landing bury Perceval’s -sister, heal a cripple to help them carry the Grail-table, are cast in -prison by King <i>Escorant</i> for a year, are fed by the Holy Grail; at -<i>Escorant’s</i> death Galahad is made King, fashions a tree of gold and -precious stones over the Grail and prays before it every morning as do his -companions. (52) On the anniversary of Galahad’s crowning the three see -before the holy vessel a man clad like a Bishop, who begins mass and calls -Galahad to see what he has so longed to see, and at the sight Galahad -trembles very greatly, and he thanks God for letting him see that which -tongue may not describe nor heart think, and he begs that he may pass away -from this earthly life to the heavenly one. The Bishop then gives him the -body of God, and reveals himself as Josephus, son of Joseph of Arimathea. -Galahad kisses Perceval and Bors, and sends greetings to Lancelot through -Bors, his soul then leaves his body and angels take it away. A hand from -heaven then comes to the vessel and takes it and the lance, and bears it -heavenwards, so that since there was no man bold enough to say he has seen -the Holy Grail (except Gwalchmai once). (52) <i>Galahad’s body is buried. -Perceval goes into a hermitage, where Bors stays with him for a year and -two months; Perceval dies, and is buried by Bors in Galahad’s tomb; Bors -left alone in a place as strange as Babylon, sets sail for Britain, and -comes to Camelot, when all are greatly joyed to see him; he tells the -adventures of the Holy Grail; they are written down and kept in the Abbey -of Salisbury, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> from these Master Walter Map drew to make his book of -the Holy Grail for the love of King Henry his lord, who had the story -translated from Latin into French. The story now is silent and tells no -more concerning the adventures of the Holy Grail.</i><a name='fna_42' id='fna_42' href='#f_42'><small>[42]</small></a></p> - -<p><b>Grand St. Graal.</b>—(1) The writer salutes all who have faith in the Holy -Trinity. He does not name himself for three reasons: lest his declaration -that he received the story from God Himself be a stumbling block; lest his -friends pay less honour to the book if they know the author; lest if he -have made any blunder all the blame fall upon him.</p> - -<p>(2) In the year 717 after the Passion of Christ, as the writer lies in his -hut in one of the wildest parts of White Britain, on Good Friday Eve and -doubts of the Trinity, Christ appears to him and gives him a little book -not larger than a man’s palm, and this book will resolve all his doubts; -He Himself has written it, and only he who is purified by confession and -fasting may read it. On the morrow the writer opens it and finds therein -four sections, headed each as follows: This is the book of thy lineage; -here begins the book of the Holy Grail; here is the beginning of the -terrors; here begin the marvels. As he reads lightning and thunder come -and other wonders. On Good Friday, as he is celebrating the service, an -angel raises him in spirit to the third heaven, and his doubts concerning -the Trinity are set at rest. When his spirit returns to his body he locks -up the book; but on Easter Sunday, when he would read further, finds it -gone; a voice says he must suffer to have the book back again, must go to -the plains of Walescog, follow a wonderful beast to Norway, and there find -what he seeks. He obeys, the beast leads him first to a hermit’s, then -past the pine of adventures to a knight’s castle, on the third day to the -queen’s lake and a nunnery. After exorcising a hermit possessed of the -devil, he finds the book, and on his return Christ commands him to make a -fair copy before Ascension Day. He sets to work at once, on the fifteenth -day after Easter.<a name='fna_43' id='fna_43' href='#f_43'><small>[43]</small></a> The book begins as follows: Few believe on Christ -at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> His crucifixion, among whom is Joseph of Arimathea, as the Holy -Scripture of the Grail testifies. He is in all things a good man. He lives -in Jerusalem with his wife and a son, Josephes (not the same Josephes who -so often quotes the Scripture, but not less learned than he), he it was -who passed his father’s kin across sea to White Britain, since called -England, without rudder or sail, but in the fold of this shirt. Joseph, -having much loved the Lord, longs after His death to possess somewhat -having belonged to Him; goes to the house of the Last Supper, and carries -off the dish wherein He had eaten. Having been a knight of Pilate’s for -seven years, he craves a boon of him, which is Christ’s body. Pilate -grants it; Joseph descends the body from the Cross, places it in a -sepulchre, and, fetching the dish from his house, collects in it the blood -flowing from the body,<a name='fna_44' id='fna_44' href='#f_44'><small>[44]</small></a> and finishes laying the body in the tomb. The -Jews hear of this, are angered, seize Joseph, throw him into prison in the -most hideous and dirtiest dungeon ever seen, feed him at first on bread -and water, but when Christ is found to have arisen, Caiaphas, Joseph’s -jailor, lets him starve. But Christ brings the holy dish that Joseph had -sent back to his house with all the blood in it. Joseph is overjoyed. -Christ comforts him, and assures him he shall live and carry His name to -foreign parts. Joseph thus remains in prison. Meanwhile his wife, though -often pressed to marry, refuses until she shall have had sure tidings of -her husband; as for his son he will only marry Holy Church. (3) Forty -years go by; after Christ’s death Tiberius Cæsar reigned ten years, then -Caius, one year; then Claudius, fourteen years; then Noirons, in whose -reign S.S. Peter and Paul were crucified, fourteen years; then Titus, and -Vespasian, his son, a leper. The freeing of Joseph befalls in the third -year of Titus’ reign and in this wise: Titus has vainly sought a leech to -heal Vespasian. At last a strange knight from Capernaum promises his help -and tells how he in his youth had been healed of the leprosy by a prophet. -The Emperor on hearing this sent to Judea to seek out that prophet; his -messenger comes to Felix, and orders him to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> have proclamation made for -aught Christ has touched; hereupon an old woman, Marie la Venissienne, -brings the cloth upon which the Saviour’s likeness had painted itself when -she wiped His face. The messenger returns to Rome with this cloth and the -mere sight of it heals Vespasian, who straightway resolves to avenge -Christ’s death. He goes to Jerusalem, Joseph’s wife appears before him, -accuses the Jews of having made away with her husband; none of the Jews -know where he is save Caiaphas, who reveals the secret on condition that -he is to be neither burnt or slain. Vespasian himself goes down into the -prison and finds it as light as though one hundred candles had burnt in -it. He tells Joseph who he is, whereat the latter wondered, not thinking -he had been longer than from Friday to Sunday, not once had it been dark. -A voice tells Joseph not to fear, and that he will find the Holy Vessel at -his home. Joseph returns to Jerusalem with Vespasian, and points out to -him the abettors of Christ’s death, whom Vespasian has burnt. Caiaphas is -set adrift in a boat. (4) The night before Vespasian returns to Rome, -Christ appears to Joseph and commands him to go forth and fill foreign -lands with his seed; he must be baptised, and must go forth without money -or aught but the dish; all heart can want or wish he shall have, all who -accompany him must be baptised likewise. Joseph is baptised by St. Philip, -then Bishop of Jerusalem, as is also Vespasian, concerning whom the story -is now silent. (5) Joseph preaches to his friends and relatives and -converts seventy-five of them. They leave Jerusalem and come to Bethany, -where the Lord appears to Joseph, promises him aid as once to the Jews in -the wilderness, commands him to make a wooden ark for the dish, which he -is to open when he wants to speak to Him, but no one is to touch it save -Joseph and his son Josephes; Joseph does as commanded, his troop is -miraculously fed, and on the eleventh day they come to the town of Sarras, -between Babilone and Salavandre, whence the Saracens have their name, and -not from Sara. (6) Joseph and his seventy-five companions enter the city -and go to the Temple of the Sun, to the seat of judgment, where the -Saracens are assembled with their lord, Evalach the Unknown: he had been a -man of prowess in his youth, but was now old; seven days before, the -Egyptians had beaten his army, and the council is now devising how -vengeance may be taken therefor. Joseph is greatly joyed at these events, -and when the council advises peace assures the King of victory, but he -must destroy his images and believe on Him who died on the Cross. Evalach -asks how one who could not save himself could save another. Joseph, in -answer, tells of Christ’s birth, life, death, descent into hell, -resurrection, ascension, and of the sending of the Holy Ghost. Evalach -cannot understand either the Incarnation or the Trinity, and although -Joseph explains that the Virgin conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy -Ghost through her ear, and that her virginity was no more hurt than is -water when a sunbeam enters it, remains stubborn and calls his learned men -to his aid, but Joseph confounds these, and Evalach lodges the Christians -for the night and gives them good beds. (7) Evalach dreams of a tree-stock -whence spring three<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> equal trunks and though three yet are truly one, also -of a room with a secret door of marble, through which a child passes -without opening it; a voice tells him this is a type of the miraculous -conception of Christ. (8) Meanwhile, Joseph, unable to sleep, prays for -comfort and adjures the Lord by all His mercies to help Evalach; he is -told by a voice he shall be sent for to explain the King’s dream. Joseph -then goes to sleep with his wife, Helyab, but not as lustful folk do, for -there was nothing between them till the Lord commanded the begetting of -Galahad, and then, so full of love to the Saviour were they that they had -no desire. From Galahad came the high race which honoured the land of -White Britain, now called England. (9) The morrow morning Joseph and his -company worship before the ark (now the place wherein they were had been -called the Spiritual Palace by Daniel) when a soft sweet wind comes and -the Holy Ghost descends and Christ speaks and urges all to love Him; He -tells Josephes to draw near and take charge of His flesh and blood; -Josephes opens the door of the ark and sees a man all in red, and with him -five angels, each six winged, all in red, each with a bloody sword in his -left, and in their rights severally, a cross, nails, lance, sponge, and -scourge; Josephes sees Christ nailed to the Cross, and the blood running -down from His side and feet into the dish; he would enter the ark but -angels restrain him. Joseph, wondering at his son’s state, kneels before -the ark and sees therein an altar covered with white cloths, under which -is a red samite one, covering three nails, a lance head all bloody, and -the dish he had brought, and in the middle of the altar an exceeding rich -vessel of gold and precious stones; seven angels issue from the ark with -water and watering pot (2), gold basins and towels (2), and gold censers -(3), an eighth carrying the holy dish, a ninth a head so rich and -beautiful as never mortal eye saw, a tenth a sword, three more with -tapers, lastly Jesus. The company of angels go over the house sprinkling -it with holy water, because it had heretofore been dwelt in by devils. -Christ tells Josephes he is to receive the sacrament of His flesh and -blood, and be made sovran shepherd over His new sheep; bishop’s vestments -are brought out of the ark. Josephes is seated in a chair, which -afterwards made a Saracen King’s eyes fly out of his head, is consecrated, -an angel keeps the holy oil wherewith all Kings of Britain were anointed -till the time of Uther Pendragon, of whom none of the many that have told -his history have rightly known why he was so called; the meaning of the -episcopal vestments is explained to Josephes, and his duties set forth. -(10) Josephes then goes into the ark and celebrates the sacrament using -Christ’s words only, whereat bread and wine become flesh and blood, and in -place of the bread a child, which, though as bidden, he divides into three -parts yet is eaten as one whole; an angel puts patina and chalice into the -dish; Joseph and his company receive the sacrament in the form of a child; -Christ bids Josephes celebrate the sacrament daily; tells him that he and -Joseph are to go with Evalach’s messengers now nigh at hand. Leucans, -Josephes’ cousin, is appointed guardian of the ark. (11) Joseph and his -son go before the King and overcome all the heathen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> clerk’s objections; -Josephes tells Evalach he will be given over to his enemies for three -days, and shall only escape by believing on Christ; the heathen idols are -smashed by a devil at the compelling of Josephes’ two angels. A messenger -brings the news that King Tholomes has entered and is capturing the land, -and he will not rest till he be crowned at Sarras. Josephes tells the King -this ill-hap is to mind him of his lowly origin, he is son of a shoemaker -in an old city of France, Meaux, and was one of a tribute of one hundred -youths and one hundred maidens claimed by Augustus Cæsar from France, as -here dwelt a prouder folk than elsewhere, and the two daughters of the -Count of the Town, Sevain, were among the tribute, and Evalach was among -their servants. When Felix was named Governor of Syria by Tiberius he had -taken Evalach with him, and held him in high honour until one day, angry -with Felix’s son, Evalach slew him and had to fly, after which he entered -the service of Tholome Cerastre, King of Babylon, who had given him the -land he now ruled. Josephes further explains the King’s dreams, and when -the latter declares himself willing to believe, asks for his shield, upon -which he fixes a red cross and tells him to look on it in his need and -pray to God and he shall be saved. (12) Evalach marches with his army -against Tholomes, is joined by his brother-in-law, Seraphe (whom he -thought hated him most of any man in the world) at the Queen’s entreaty; -numerous combats ensue between the two armies; Seraphe performs prodigies -of valour; Evalach is taken prisoner, and in his need looks on the shield, -sees thereon Christ crucified, prays to God for help, a White Knight -appears, overcomes Tholomes, who is taken prisoner, and Evalach’s army is -victorous. (13) Meanwhile Josephes, remaining in Sarras, has been -counselling Queen Sarraquite, secretly a Christian, since her mother was -cured of a bloody flux, and since Christ appeared to her when she was -afraid of the hermit her mother had led her to for baptism because he had -such a long beard; she dares not avow her faith for fear of her husband. -Josephes tells her of the battle which has taken place and of the White -Knight. (14) Evalach and Seraphe return; the King asks at once after the -Christians, and learns that he owes his victory to the Lord to whom also -Seraphe owed his strength in battle; the shield is uncovered, a man with a -wounded arm is healed by it, and then the cross vanishes; Seraphe turns -Christian, is baptised and receives the name Nasciens, he is straightway -healed of his wounds, exhorts Evalach to believe, and tells of Tholomes’ -death. Evalach is baptised, and re-christened Mordrains, or -Slow-of-Belief. After baptising the town and destroying all images, -Josephes leaves three of his companions in charge of the Grail Ark, and -goes with the rest to Orcanz, turns out of an image a devil who had slain -Tholomes, and converts more of the heathen folk. (15) Meanwhile Mordrains -has ordered his people to be baptised or to leave his land; many take the -latter course and are met outside the town by a devil who wounds them -grievously, whereupon Josephes hurries to their aid, but is met by an -angel with a lance and smitten through the thigh for having left his -baptising work to trouble himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> about contemners of God’s law, and the -mark of the wound should stay with him all his life, and the iron spear -head remain in the wound so that ever after he limped, and he had later to -smart for it, as the tale will show in due season. Many more people are -converted, Bishops are left in the land and holy relics at Sarras. (16) -Josephes brings Mordrains, Sarraquite, and Nasciens to the holy shrine, -and shows them the vessel wherein is Christ’s blood. Nasciens thinks he -has never seen aught to match it, and he gives it a name that since it has -never lost. For, says he, nothing he had seen before but somewhat -displeased him (li degraast), but this pleases him (li grée) entirely; he -further tells how once when a young man, hunting, as he stood deep in -thought a voice made itself heard, saying “Thou shall’t never accomplish -what thou thinkest on until the wonders of the Grail are disclosed,†and -he knows now this must be the Grail as every wish of his heart is -accomplished. And he draws nearer and lifts the vessel’s lid and looks -therein, but straightway falls to trembling, feeling he can no longer see. -And he knew that the blindness was to punish his curiosity, and turning to -Josephes tells him that the iron shall not be drawn out of that wound -inflicted by the angel at Orcanz, nor he himself recover his sight until -Josephes, wounded, himself comes to draw out the iron.</p> - -<p>So they stand lost in thought, till a voice is heard, “After my vengeance -my healing†and an angel appears, touches Josephes’ thigh with the lance -shaft, whereupon the head comes out, and from it drop great drops of blood -which the angel collects in a vessel, and wherewith he anoints Josephes’ -wound, making it whole, and Nasciens’ eyes, restoring to him his sight. -And the angel tells them that the meaning of the lance is that of the -beginning of the wonderful adventures which shall befall in lands whither -God purposes leading them; when the true knights should be separated from -the false ones, and the earthly knighthood become a heavenly one. And at -the beginning of those adventures the lance would drop blood as then, but -beforehand none; and then wonders would happen all over the world where -the lance was, great and terrible wonders, in recognition of the Holy -Grail and of the lance; and the marvels of the Grail should never be seen -save by one man alone; and by the lance wherewith Josephes was struck -should but one other man be struck, and he a King of Josephes’ kin, and -the last of the good men; he should be struck through the two thighs, and -only healed when the Grail wonders were disclosed to the Good Knight, and -that one should be last of Nasciens’ kin. Thus, as Nasciens was the first -to behold the wonders of the Grail, that one should be the last; so saith -the true crucified one, adding, “Upon the first and last of My new -ministers will I spend the vengeance of the adventurous lance in token of -Myself having received the lance stroke whilst on the Cross.†And so many -days as Josephes had born the lance head in his wound so many days should -the marvellous adventures last. Now these days (<i>years</i>)<a name='fna_45' id='fna_45' href='#f_45'><small>[45]</small></a> were -twenty-two. (17) Josephes explains<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> Mordrains’ vision, and makes him -destroy the image of a woman he had kept in a secret chamber, known, so he -thought, only to himself. (18) Josephes and his company go forth from -Sarras, but the tale tells nothing of them in this place, but keeps -straight on. On the following night Mordrains dreams that, sitting in -Sarras at table, of a sudden a thunderbolt strikes crown from his head and -the first mouthful from his lips; a great wind carries him up into a far -land where he is fed by a lion and lioness, and after a while an eagle -carries off Nasciens’ son to a land whereof the inhabitants bow down -before him, and out of this nephew’s belly comes a great lake giving rise -to nine streams, eight of equal breadth and depth, the ninth as wide and -deep as the remainder put together, and rushing and turbulent, and at -first foul and muddy, but afterwards clear and pure as a precious stone; -then comes down from heaven a man in likeness of one crucified, who bathes -hands and feet in the lake and eight streams, but in the ninth his whole -body. (19) Mordrains tells his vision to Nasciens and confesses to former -treacherous and jealous feelings he had against him; they seek counsel of -the priests, but none can expound the vision, and as they sit together a -great tumult is heard and the sound of a horn announcing “the beginning of -dread,†and they fall senseless to the ground; but Mordrains is caught up -by the Holy Ghost and borne off. (20) Meanwhile Nasciens is accused by -Kalafier, a Christian-hater, of having made away with Mordrains, and is -cast into prison with Kalafier for gaoler. (21) Meanwhile Mordrains has -been carried off by the Holy Ghost to an island lying between Babylon, -Scotland, and Ireland, a high land from which the western sea can be -looked over as far as Spain; it was once a pirates’ lair, but Pompey drove -them thence. To Mordrains comes a noble man who gives his name as -Tout-entour, comforts him, and exhorts him to steadfastness in the faith; -when he leaves a fair woman appears and tempts the King, who luckily does -not pay heed to her, and well for him, as he learns from the noble man -that she is Lucifer in disguise. He is assailed by many temptations; -storm, thunder, and lightning affright him; the wonderful bird PhÅ“nix -attacks him and snatches the bread from his lips; Lucifer again visits him -and shows him Nasciens’ dead body, but it is only an invention; finally, -all these trials withstood, the noble man comes again and expounds the -dream of the nine streams: the lake is a son of Nasciens, from whom -descend nine Kings, all good men and true, but the ninth surpassing all in -every virtue; he is the knight to whom the wonders of the Grail shall be -shown, and Christ shall bathe Himself wholly in him. (22) Meanwhile -Nasciens has been kept in prison together with his son, Celidoine -(Heaven-given) by Kalafier. But a miraculous hand appearing from out a -cloud strikes off Nasciens’ fetters, and carries him out of the dungeon; -Kalafier pursues but is struck down by the hand; on his death bed he -orders that Celidoine be cast from the battlements, but nine hands bear -him up in mid air, whilst Kalafier, slain by fire from heaven, goes to -eternal death. Sarraquite, overjoyed to hear of her brother’s escape, - -sends out messengers to meet them. Meanwhile Nasciens’ wife, Flegentyne, -has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> set out in search of her husband accompanied by the old knight, -Corsapias, and his son, Helicoras. (23) Now Nasciens has been carried -fourteen days journey off to the Turning Isle (concerning which many -wonders are told); all of these things are true, as Christ Himself has -written the book of the Holy Grail, and He never wrote aught else save the -Lord’s Prayer for the disciples and the judgment upon the woman taken in -adultery. And no man is bold enough to say that since the Resurrection -Christ wrote aught else save this “haute escripture del S. Graal.†(24) A -ship comes to Nasciens’ isle which he would enter but for words warning -him against it unless he be full of faith. However, crossing himself he -enters [and finds therein the same wonders as those described in Queste, -Inc. 35, 36, 37, viz.:—the sword and the three spindles, precisely the -same story about which is told as in the Queste]. (25) Nasciens deeming -there must be magic in this, the ship splits in twain, and had well nigh -drowned him, but he regains the isle swimming, and on the morrow an old -man comes in a ship and gives him an allegorical explanation of what has -befallen him. (26) Meanwhile Celidoine, carried off by the hands to the -land of the heathen King Label, wins his favour by expounding a dream, -converts him, but at his death is cast adrift by the heathen barons in a -boat with a lion, and after three days comes to Nasciens’ island. (27) The -two rejoice on their meeting, and leave the island together in Solomon’s -ship, come after four days to another island, where Nasciens, attacked by -a giant, seizes Solomon’s sword but it breaks in his hand, nevertheless, -with another sword he overcomes the giant. He chides Solomon’s sword, but -Celidoine says it is some sin of his made it break. Thereafter they see a -ship approaching wherein is Mordrains. There is rejoicing between the -three, and much telling of past adventures. Nasciens shows the broken -sword to Mordrains, who, taking it in his hands, joins it together, -whereupon a voice bids them leave the ship; Nasciens, not obeying fast -enough, is wounded in the shoulder by a fiery sword in punishment of his -having drawn Solomon’s sword. (28) The messengers sent out by Sarraquite -in search of Nasciens have, meantime, had many adventures, have come -across the daughter of King Label, suffered shipwreck, and been thrown -upon a desert isle formerly the home of the great physician, Ypocras (of -whom a long story is told how he was tricked by a Roman lady), been -tempted in divers fashions, but at last they are led to Mordrains, -Nasciens, and Celidoine. (29) On the third night a priest clad in white -comes walking on the sea, heals Nasciens’ wound, and sends off Celidoine -in another ship. The remainder come to land, Mordrains and Sarraquite are -reunited; Nasciens’ wife, Flegentyne, is sent for; and Label’s daughter is -christened by Petrone, a holy man and kinsman of Joseph. She was after -Celidoine’s wife, as my lord Robert of Borron testifies, who translated -this history from Latin into French after the holy hermit to whom our Lord -first gave it. (30) Nasciens sets forth in search of his son, his knights -follow on his track, and two are struck dead for their sins. Nasciens -comes again to Solomon’s ship, is tempted by the devil in the shape of a -fair damsel, goes on board the ship and dreams as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> follows:—Celidoine is -in the promised land with all those who had left Sarras; he, Nasciens, -shall go thence likewise and never depart thence, nor shall the ship until -it take back the last of his line to Sarras, together with the Holy Grail, -and that shall be after three hundred years; and thereafter Celidoine -leads before him nine persons, all in guise of Kings, save the eighth who -was like a dog, and the ninth turns into a lion, and at his death the -whole world mourns over him. And the names of these, Nasciens’ -descendants, are: Celidoine, Marpus, Nasciens, Alains li Gros, Ysaies, -Jonans, Lancelot, Bans, Lancelot, like unto a dog until his end, Galahad, -foul at the source, but afterwards clear, in whom Christ shall bathe -Himself wholly, and who shall end all the adventures. On the morrow it is -explained to Nasciens that the eighth of his descendants likens a dog on -account of his sins, and the ninth is foul at the beginning as engendered -in fornication and not as Holy Church wills. (31) The story, after -touching on Flegentyne, who retires to her own land, returns to Joseph, -who, with his son, Josephes, and his companions, has been wandering about. -Joseph is ordered by a voice from heaven to beget a son, whose name shall -be Galaad. At length the company comes to the sea shore and laments that -it has no ships; Joseph rebukes them, and says those may pass who have -kept chaste, whereupon four hundred and sixty come forward to confess -their lechery. Josephes is told to put forward the Grail-bearers, to take -the shirt off his back, and having spread it on the water, all the pure -companions shall find place on it. This happens, and all find place save -Symeu and his son, who are not as they should be, and who sink and are -well nigh drowned. The chosen company arrive on the morrow in Great -Britain, then full of Saracens and infidels. Josephes then prays for the -remainder of the company; a heavenly voice says they shall come in good -time, and that this is the promised land in which they shall multiply and -become the worthiest race anywhere. (32) Meantime Nasciens has been led in -Solomon’s ship to those of Joseph’s followers who had been left behind, as -the history of the Holy Grail testifies. After being warned against fresh -falling into sin they are brought over to Joseph, and are fed with as much -meat as they could want. But the fifth day the company, not having eaten -for a day, come to the tent of a poor woman, wherein are twelve loaves -about which they dispute. Josephes, referred to, breaks each loaf in -three, and having placed the Holy Grail at the head of the table by its -power the bread suffices for more than five hundred people. (33) Hereafter -the company comes to Castle Galafort, where Celidoine is found disputing -with the Saracen wise men. The Christians are well received by Ganort, and -shortly afterwards he and his people are baptised, one hundred and fifty -who refuse being drowned. Over their bodies a tower is built, the Tower of -Marvels, and thereafter, it is prophesied, a King named Arthur should -reign, and from one blow of a sword adventures should arise, lasting -twelve years, until the last descendant of Nasciens should end them, and -till that time no knight of Arthur’s house should enter the tower without -having to fight as good a man as himself; thus should it be till<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> he who -was to end the adventures appeared. So they build the tower, and it lasts -until Lancelot destroys it, as the “Tale of Arthur’s Death†relates. (34) -Joseph’s wife bears a son, who receives the name of Galahad, of the Castle -of Galafort. (35) The King of Northumberland, hearing of Ganort’s -conversion, summons him to the court, and on his refusal attacks him, but -is defeated and slain by the Christians. (36) Josephes, his father, and -one hundred and fifty of the Christians, leaving Galafort, come to -Norgales, and are thrown into prison by King Crudel, who says, “Let them -be for forty days, and see if their vessel will feed them.†Our Lord comes -to comfort them, and bids them be of good cheer, He will send an avenger -to slay these dogs. (37) Our Lord, in the likeness of one crucified, then -appears to Mordrains, bids him set forth with wife and children and King -Label’s daughter and Nasciens’ wife and go to Great Britain, there to -avenge him on King Crudel. Mordrains hearkens, and shortly after sets -forth with all his household, leaving his land in charge of Duke Ganor. On -the way a devil carries off the captain of the ship, who had lusted after -Queen Flegentyne. They arrive in Britain and rejoin their friends; great -is the joy; Nasciens’ queen is like to have died of joy, and swoons twelve -times. (38) Mordrains sends word to Crudel to set the Christians free, and -on his refusal marches against, overthrows, and slays him, but is -grievously wounded, though he suffers no pain. Josephes and his companions -are freed, and thanksgivings are made before the Grail. On the morrow, as -Josephes is officiating before the holy vessel, Mordains presses near to -see it, in spite of a warning voice; he loses his sight and the power of -his body; he confesses his folly, but prays he may not die till the Good -Knight’s coming, the ninth of Nasciens’ descendants. A voice promises him -this, and that when the Good Knight comes he shall recover his sight and -his wounds be healed; but three hear this promise beside Mordrains -himself, Joseph, Josephes, and Nasciens. (39) Mordrains is brought to -Galafort, where Celidoine marries King Label’s daughter and begets a son, -Nasciens. Mordrains then, after giving his wife and shield into Nasciens’ -keeping, retires to a hermitage, and builds a monastery of the White -Monks, and stays there till Perceval sees him and Galahad, too, as the -“Tale of the Holy Grail†tells. (40) Josephes leaves Galafort, and, coming -to Camelot, converts many of the people, whereat King Agrestes, being -grieved, is baptised with false intent, and after Josephes’ departure -persecutes the Christians, and is punished by madness and death. Josephes -returning, buries the martyrs, whose blood had blackened a cross, which -keeps the name of the “Black Cross,†till the Good Knight, Lancelot of the -Lake’s son comes. (41) Josephes comes to a hill called Hill of the Giant; -’tis a Friday, and Brons is sitting next him at the Grail-table, but -between the two is space for a man to sit, and Brons, Josephes’ kinsman, -asks him why he does not invite some one to fill it. Josephes answers, -only he who is a holier man than any present can fill that place, as it -typifies Christ’s seat at the Last Supper, and is empty waiting His -coming, or whom He shall send. Such of the company as are in mortal sin -take this saying as presumption and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> fable, and Moys declares his -willingness to sit in it if his companions will ask Josephes’ leave. They -do so, and though Josephes minds them how Moys might hardly come to -Britain, and though he solemnly warns Moys himself, he gives his leave. -Moys takes the seat, and at once seven flaming bands from heaven seize -upon him and carry him off to a far place burning like a dry bush. The -people repent, and, in answer to their enquiries, Josephes tells them the -day shall come when they shall know where Moys is. (42) After the meal -Josephes, at Brons’ request, has the latter’s twelve sons up before him, -and asks them whether they will be wedded or not. Eleven choose wedding, -but the twelfth virginity and the service of the Holy Grail. Josephes, -overjoyed, having married the other eleven, appoints him guardian of the -Grail at his death, and he might leave the guardianship afterwards to whom -he would. (43) Josephes and his companions pass through Britain converting -the heathen. Now the Grail only gives food to such as are not in sin, and -once as the troop is encamped by a lake, Peter, a kinsman of Josephes’, -bears it through the ranks, and all are fed with the best food, save the -sinners; these complain, and beg Josephes to pray for them, whereupon he -bids Brons’ youngest son, the same he had chosen as Grail-keeper, Alains -le Gros (not that Alains, Celidoine’s son, <i>he</i> was king and wore a crown, -but this one never) take the net from the Grail-table and fish with it in -the pond. Alains does so and catches one fish, a big one, but say they, -’Twill not be enough; however, Alains, having shared it in three, and -having prayed it might suffice, all are fed. Alains is called in -consequence the Rich Fisher, and all the Grail-keepers after him bear this -name, but they were more blessed than he, being crowned Kings whereas he -never wore crown. (44) Joseph, leaving his companions, comes into the -Forest of Broceliande, meets a Saracen who would lead him to his sick -brother, but is himself slain by a lion. Joseph is thrown in prison and -wounded in the thigh by the men of the sick knight’s castle, but, -obtaining leave to visit the sick knight, heals him, and brings back to -life the Saracen slain by the lion; both brothers are baptised; a fragment -of the sword remaining in the wound, Joseph draws it out, and laying it -with the remainder of the sword prophecies it shall not be made whole till -he come who shall achieve the adventures of the Holy Grail. (45) Joseph, -returning to his companions, finds them in doubt as to how they shall -cross a great water, they pray for guidance, and a white hart appears, -followed by four stags, and leads them across, all save Chanaan, who -crosses later in a fisherman’s boat. Josephes, in answer to Alain and -Pierron, explains the hart and lions as Christ and the Evangelists, and -Christ would appear in that wise afterwards to Arthur, Mordred, and -Lancelot. (46) The Christians come to a house where burns a great fire, -out of which is heard a lamentable voice; it is that of Moys; at Josephes’ -prayer rain falls from heaven and quenches half the flames, but he may not -be wholly delivered until the Good Knight, Galahad, come. (47) The -Christians come into the land of King Escos, whence Scotland has its name. -The Holy Grail refuses meat to Chanaan and to Symeu, Moys’ father, whereat -enraged,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> Symeu attacks Pierre and wounds him, and Chanaan slays his -twelve brethren. Symeu is carried off by devils, whilst Chanaan’s grave -bursts out in flames, which may not quench till Lancelot come. (48) -Meanwhile Pierre’s wound having become worse, he is left behind with a -priest, who leads him to the sea shore, and, at his request, places him in -a boat; this carries him to the isle of the heathen king, Orcanz, whose -daughter finding him on the sea shore dying, has pity on him and tends him -secretly till he is healed. Her father requires a champion, Pierre offers -himself, conquers, converts, and baptises Orcanz, who takes the name -Lamer, and marries his daughter, and King Luces comes to the wedding and -is overjoyed. From him came Gauvain, son of King Lot of Orcanie. Mordred -was no true son of Lot’s, but of Arthur’s. Gauvain is thus of the seed of -Joseph of Arimathea. (49) Josephes after fifteen years’ wanderings comes -back to Galafort, and finds his brother Galahad grown up; by Josephes’ -advice the men of Hocelice take Galahad for their king, and he became the -ancestor of Ywain, son of Urien. Once whilst riding he comes to Symeu’s -fiery grave, which may not be quenched till Galahad, the Good Knight, -comes. At Galahad’s death he is buried in an abbey he founds to allay -Symeu’s pains, and the tombstone of his grave may not be lifted until by -Lancelot. (50) Joseph dies shortly after Galahad’s crowning, and Josephes, -feeling death near, pays a last visit to Mordrains, who begs for a token -from him. Josephes asks for the king’s shield, and with blood gushing from -his nose marks on it a red cross, gives it to Mordrains, and says no one -shall hang it on his neck without rue till Galahad do so; the shield is -placed on Nasciens’ tomb. On the morrow Josephes dies; his body is carried -afterwards into Scotland to still a famine, and is buried in the Abbey of -Glays. (51) Before his death he has confided the Grail to Alain. The -latter comes with his brethren, one of whom, Josue, is unmarried, to the -Terre Foraine, converts the King and people, and marries Josue to his -daughter. Here is the resting-place of the Holy Grail; a lordly castle is -built for it, hight Corbenic, which is Chaldee, and signifies “holy -vessel.†At Josue’s wedding, such is the power of the Holy Grail, that all -present are as filled as if they had eaten the finest meats they could -think of. And that night the King, baptized Alfasem, sleeping in the -castle, beholds the holy vessel covered with crimson samite, and a man all -flaming tells him no mortal may sleep where the Holy Grail rests, and -wounds him through both thighs, and bids others beware of sleeping in the -Palace Adventurous. And afterwards many a knight essayed the adventure, -but lost his life, till Gauvain came, and he, though he kept his life, had -such shame and mischance as he had not had for the Kingdom of Logres’ -sake. (58) Alain and Alfasem die; Josue becomes King and Grail-keeper, and -after him Aminadap, Catheloys, Manaal, Lambor, all Kings and known as the -Fisher, and Lambor fighting with his enemy, Bruillant, pursues him to the -sea shore, and Bruillant finds there Solomon’s ship and enters it, and -finds the sword with which he slays Lambor, and this was the first blow -struck with that sword in Great Britain, and such great woes sprang -therefrom that no labourers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> worked, nor wheat grew, nor fruit trees bore, -nor fish was found in the waters, so that the land was known as the Waste -Land. But Bruillant falls dead for drawing the sword. After Lambor, -Pelleans, wounded in the two thighs in a battle of Rome, whence he was -always called the Maimed King, and he might not heal till Galahad the Good -Knight come; and from him descends Pelles, and on his daughter does -Lancelot of the Lake beget Galahad. (59) Nasciens, Flegentyne, and -Sarraquite die on the self-same day. Celidoine reigns, and is followed by -Marpus, he by Nasciens, Alain li Gros, Ysaies, Jonas, Lancelot, Bans, -Lancelot of the Lake. Here the story ends of all the seed of Celidoine, -and returns to speak of Merlin, which my lord Robert of Borron thus -begins.<a name='fna_46' id='fna_46' href='#f_46'><small>[46]</small></a></p> - -<p> </p> -<p class="note">In making up the slips, the summary of Borron’s poem dropped out. In -order not to disturb the page form, which was fixed before the -omission was noticed, it has been inserted after the Grand St. Graal -with a subpagination.</p> - -<p> </p> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64a" id="Page_64a">[Pg 64<small>A</small>]</a></span><b>Robert de Borron’s Poem: Joseph of Arimathea.</b>—(1) Before Christ’s coming -all folk went to Hell, but He came born of a Virgin that He might bring -them out of Hell. He took flesh what time Judæa was under Rome and Pilate -governed it. Now a soldier of Pilate’s loved Christ but dared not show it. -Of Christ’s few disciples one was bad, his chamberlain, and he betrayed -Him to the Jews. (2) On Thursday Jesus gathers His disciples; Judas’ -question, the washing of the feet, the kiss of betrayal follow. When the -Jews carry off Jesus, one of them takes the very fair vessel wherein He -made His sacrament, and gave it to Pilate, who keeps it till he learns -Jesus’ death. (3) Joseph is angry hereat, and claims pay for his and his -five knights five years’ free service, and his pay is Christ’s body. -Pilate grants it him, and Joseph hastens to the Cross, but the guards deny -him, whereon he complains to Pilate, who sends Nicodemus to see he obtain -it, and also gives Joseph the vessel. (4) Joseph and Nicodemus descend the -body, and wash it, which makes the blood flow afresh. Joseph puts the -blood in the vessel, wraps the body in a fine cloth and entombs it. The -descent into Hell and the Resurrection follow. (5) The Jews are incensed -against Joseph and Nicodemus; the latter escapes, but Joseph is thrust -into a horrible and dark prison. To him Christ appears with His vessel, in -a great light, and instructs Joseph, telling him for his love to Him he -shall have the symbol of His death and give it to keep to whom he would; -He then gives Joseph the great, precious vessel wherein is His holiest -blood. Joseph wonders, having hidden it in his house. Joseph is to yield -the vessel to three persons only, who are to take it in the name of the -Trinity. No Sacrament shall ever be celebrated but Joseph shall be -remembered. But Joseph must be taught concerning the Sacrament; the bread -and wine are Christ’s flesh and blood, the tomb is the Altar; the -grave-cloth the Corporal, the vessel wherein the blood was put shall be -called Chalice, the cup-platten signifies the tombstone. All who see -Joseph’s vessel shall be of Christ’s company, have fulfilment of their -heart’s wish and joy eternal. (<i>The author adds</i>: I dare not, nor could -not, tell this but that I had the great book wherein the histories are -written by the great clerks, therein are the great secrets written which -are called the Graal.) Christ leaves Joseph, who remains in prison, no man -heeding him (6) until, when Vespasian, the Emperor’s son, was a leper, a -pilgrim comes to Rome and tells of Christ’s cures, and lays his head -Vespasian could be cured could anything of Christ’s be brought to Rome. -The Emperor sends messengers, who hear Pilate’s story of the Crucifixion -and about Joseph. The Jews are called together, and one tells of Verrine, -who is brought before the messengers, and she relates how she wiped -Christ’s face and thus got the likeness of Him. They take her to Rome, -Vespasian is healed, and sets forth to revenge Christ’s death. He kills -many Jews, burning some. One Jew offers to find Joseph, and tells the -story of his imprisonment. Vespasian is let down into the prison and finds -Joseph alive, who, to his amazement, welcomes him by name, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64b" id="Page_64b">[Pg 64<small>B</small>]</a></span> reads him -a lecture on Biblical history and Christian Faith. Vespasian is converted, -and sells the Jews at the rate of thirty for a penny. (7) Joseph exhorts -his kin, among them his sister, Enygeus, and brother-in-law, Hebron. They -agree to believe, and to follow him. He sets off with them and they dwell -for long in far-off lands. For awhile things go well, but then all the -host does turns to naught; ’tis on account of carnal sin. The host -complains to Hebron that they and their children die of hunger. (8) Hebron -reports this to Joseph, who goes weeping and kneels before the vessel and -asks why his followers suffer? A voice from the Holy Ghost answers he is -not in fault, but he is to set the vessel before the people, and to mind -him how He, Christ, had eaten with His disciples, and how the false -disciple was detected. In the name of that table whereat Christ last ate, -Joseph is to prepare another, and then to call his brother-in-law, Brons, -and make him go into the water to catch a fish, and the first he catches -Joseph is to put it on the table, and then to take the vessel, put it on -the table, cover it with a towel, and then place Hebron’s fish opposite -it. The people are then to be called, who will soon see wherein they have -sinned. And Joseph is to sit where Christ sat at the Last Sacrament, with -Brons at his right. And Brons is to draw back one seat, to signify the -seat of Judas, and the seat thus left empty is not to be filled until -Enygeus have a child by Brons, her husband, and when that child is born -there shall be his seat. The people is then to be bidden sit down to the -grace of our Lord. Joseph does all this; part of the people sit, part do -not, the sitters are filled with sweetness and the desire of their heart, -the others feel nought. One of the sitters, named Petrus, asks if they -feel nothing, and tells them it is because they are defiled with sin. The -sinners then depart, but Joseph bids them come back day by day. Thus -Joseph detects the sinners, and thus is the vessel first proved. (9) -Joseph tells the sinners it severs them from the others, as it holds no -company with nor has love towards any sinner. The sinners ask the name of -the vessel: it is called <i>Graal</i>, as it is agreeable to all who see it. -Now all this is verity, hence we call this the Story of the Grail, and it -shall be henceforth known as the Grail. (10) One sinner remains, Moyses, a -hypocrite (here a gap which can be filled up from the prose versions: -Moyses seats himself in the empty seat, whereupon the earth opens and -swallows him). (11) Joseph prays to Christ that as He came to him in -prison, and promised He would come to his aid when in trouble, so now He -would show him what has become of Moyses. The voice tells Joseph again -about the empty seat, and how that the one at Joseph’s table was not to be -filled until the third man come, whom Hebron should beget and Enygeus -bear, and <i>his</i> son should fill the seat. Moyses had stayed behind only to -deceive, he had his deserts, no more should be heard of him in fable or -song until <i>he</i> come who should fill the empty seat. (12) In course of -time Brons and Enygeus have twelve sons and are greatly bothered with -them, and ask Joseph what is to be done with them. Joseph prays before the -vessel;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64c" id="Page_64c">[Pg 64<small>C</small>]</a></span> eleven will marry, one remain single; this one is Alain. Joseph -is told by the voice when he consults the vessel about this nephew, to -relate all about Christ’s death and about the vessel, to tell Alain that -from him shall issue an heir who is to keep the vessel; Alain is to take -charge of his brethren and sisters and go westwards. An angel will bring a -letter for Petrus to read, telling him to go whither he lists; he will -say: the vale of Avaron; thither shall he go and wait for the son of -Alain, and shall not pass away until that one come, and to him shall -Petrus teach the power of the vessel, and say what has become of Moyses, -and then may he die. (13) All happens as foretold by the voice; the letter -comes for Petrus, who declares his intention of departing for the vale of -Avaron, bidding the host pray God he may never go against His will. Alain -leaves with his brethren, and, as Joseph taught him, preaches the name of -Jesus Christ. (14) Petrus stays one day more; it is, says an angel, the -Lord sends to Joseph, that he may see and hear the things of the vessel. -The angel continues: The Lord knows Brons for a worthy man, and ’twas, -therefore His will he should go fishing; he is to keep the vessel after -Joseph, who must instruct him properly especially concerning the holy -words which God spake to Joseph in the prison, which are properly called -the Secrets of the Grail; Brons is to be called the Rich Fisher from the -fish he caught; all the people are to go westwards; Brons is to wait for -the son of his son, and to give him the vessel, then shall the meaning of -the blessed Trinity be made known; after the vessel has been given to -Brons, Petrus is to go, as he may then truly say he has seen Hebron, the -Rich Fisher, put in possession of the vessel; when all this is done, -Joseph is to go to perfect joy and life pardurable. (15) On the morrow -Joseph tells them the angel’s message, save the words of Christ in the -prison, which he tells to the Rich Fisher alone. The latter is then put in -possession of Grail and headship; Joseph stays three days with him, then -the Good Fisher goes away—in the land where he was born—and Joseph -remains.<a name='fna_47' id='fna_47' href='#f_47'><small>[47]</small></a></p> - -<p>Master Robert de Borron should doubtless tell where Alain went, Hebron’s -son, and what became of him; what life Petrus led, and what became of him; -what became of the long-lost Moyses; where the Rich Fisher went, and where -he stayed. It were well to assemble these four things, but this no man -could do save he had first heard tell the greatest history of the Grail, -which is all true; and in this time I tell it to my Lord Walter, never had -the great history of the Grail been told by mortal man. If God gives me -strength I will assemble these four parts if I can find them in a book, -meanwhile I must go on to the fifth and forget the four. (Then follows the -Merlin).</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64d" id="Page_64d">[Pg 64<small>D</small>]</a></span><b>Robert de Borron’s Poem: Merlin.</b>—(In order to give all the materials for -the discussion of Birch-Hirschfeld’s theory of the Grail legend in the -next chapter, a brief summary of the Merlin is added. A full one may be -found in Birch-Hirschfeld, pp. 166, <i>et seq.</i>)</p> - -<p>The devil, incensed at Christ’s victory over him, in revenge begets by -fraudful malice upon a virgin, a son, who is to be the wisest of mankind, -and to oppose Christ’s teaching. This is Merlin, who at eighteen months is -able to save his mother, threatened with the doom of unchastity. -Afterwards he is brought to King Vortigern, to whom he expounds the -mystery of the unfinished tower. Vortigern is driven from his throne by -Pendragon, with whom Merlin stands in high honour; equally so with his -successor, Uter Pendragon, for whom he builds the Round Table, leaving one -place empty to be filled in the time of Uter’s successor. He then helps -the King to satisfy his passion for Yguerne, and takes charge of Arthur, -their son. When the latter grows up to be a youth he fulfils the adventure -of the sword in the anvil, and is proclaimed King. “And I, Robert of -Borron, writer of this book, may not speak longer of Arthur till I have -told of Alain, son of Brons, and how the woes of Britain were caused; and -as the book tells so must I what man Alain was, and what life he led, and -of his seed and their life. And when I have spoken of these things I will -tell again of Arthur.â€</p> - -<p>(Then follows in one solitary MS., the Didot-Perceval summarised above, <a href="#Page_28">p. 28</a>. -As will be seen, it does not tell what man Alain was, nor does it -refer to him at all save in the most passing way).</p> - - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> - -<div class="note"><p class="hang">The legend formed of two portions: Early History of Grail, Quest—Two -forms of each portion distinguished—Grouping of the various -versions—Alternative hypotheses of development—Their bearing upon -the alleged Celtic origin of the Grail—Closer examination of the -various accounts of the Grail: The first use made of it and its first -possessor; its solace of Joseph; its properties and the effect -produced by it; its name; its arrival in England; the Grail-keeper and -his relationship to the Promised Knight—Three different stages in the -development of the Queste—The work and the qualification of the -Promised Knight—Conclusions: Priority over Early History of -Quest—Chronological arrangement of the versions.</p></div> - - -<p>The information afforded by the summaries enables us to take a general -view of the legend as a whole, and to attempt a more accurate -chronological classification of its varying forms. It will have been seen -that the legend is formed of two distinct portions: the one dealing with -the origin and wanderings (Early History) of the Grail, the other with its -Quest. The two portions are found combined in the Joseph and -Didot-Perceval and in the Grand St. Graal and Queste considered each as -one organic whole. Versions A, Chrestien and his continuators; C, -Didot-Perceval taken by itself; D, Queste; F, Wolfram, and G, Perceval le -Gallois, treat only of the Quest. Versions B, Metrical Joseph, and E, -Grand St. Graal, only of the Early History. But in nearly all the -versions, no matter of which portion, references are to be found to the -other, and when the versions are carefully examined, it is found that of -each portion there exist two entirely different forms. Taking the Early -History first, versions A, B, C, D, E, and G, in so far as they deal with -it at all, relate much as follows: the Grail is the vessel which our Lord -used at the Last Supper, which, given by Pilate to Joseph, served the -latter to receive the blood flowing from the body of the dead Christ, -sustained him miraculously<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> during his captivity, was, after his release, -used by him to test the faith of his followers, and was brought to England -by Joseph (A, D, E), by Brons (B, C), and was finally confided by Joseph -to his brother-in-law, Brons, to be kept until the coming of the latter’s -grandson (versions B and C), or was left in charge of Alain, son of Brons, -from whom it passed to his brother Josue, in whose line it remained until -the Good Knight should come (version E). But F, Wolfram makes the Grail a -vessel of “lapsit exillit†(<i>i.e.</i>, lapis herilis, or lapsus ex coelis, or -lapis electrix), which, after the fall of the rebel angels, was given in -charge to Titurel and his dynasty, and by them preserved in the Grail -Castle, Montsalvatch, guarded by a sacred order of Knighthood whom it -chooses itself. So far, therefore, as the Early History is concerned all -the versions, save one, are in the main of the same class, the differences -between them being, apparently, ones of development and not of origin.</p> - -<p>Turning now to the Quest, two classes are likewise to be distinguished: in -the first the hero is Perceval, in the second there are three heroes, -Galahad, Perceval, and Bors, chief of whom is Galahad. To the first class -belong versions A, Chrestien, etc., C, Didot-Perceval; F, Wolfram; and G, -Perceval le Gallois; whilst D, Queste, alone of the versions which recount -the Quest only, belongs to the other class. It is followed, however, by E, -Grand St. Graal, in so far as the latter has any reference to the Quest. -In the other Early History version, namely B, Metrical Joseph, the name of -the hero who is to achieve the Quest is not mentioned, but the indications -concerning him agree more closely with the march of the story in C, -Didot-Perceval, than with those of D, Queste; it must therefore be ranged -in the first class. The main incident in the versions of this class is the -hero’s visit to the castle of a sick king, his beholding there the Grail -in company with other relics, his neglect on the first visit to ask the -meaning of what he sees, his punishment, second visit to the Grail Castle, -and attainment of his end, whether healing of the Sick King or winning of -the Grail kingship. The two versions, H, Peredur, and I, Sir Perceval, -which belong to the Grail cycle, though they do not mention the Grail, and -although I, Sir Perceval, does not contain the above-mentioned incident, -must likewise be placed in this class, as must also the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> Gawain episodes -of Diu Crone. In the second class this main incident is missing, though -several of its less important features are present in altogether different -connection. The story in D, Queste, is largely made up of adventures -tallying often detail for detail with those in the Early History version, -E, Grand St. Graal, with which it shares similarity in the Quest form.</p> - -<p>Whilst each portion of the legend exists in two forms, the great majority -of versions in both cases belong to one form. Looking for the moment upon -D and E as one whole, there is in both cases only one minority-version, -viz., for the Early History, F, Wolfram, for the Quest D-E, Queste, Grand -St. Graal. And each of these is only in a minority as far as one portion -of the legend is concerned, D-E, agreeing with the majority in the Early -History, and F in the Quest. Taking the average of all the versions there -results what may be called the <i>Joseph of Arimathea form</i> as the type of -the Early History; the <i>Perceval form</i> as the type of the Quest. As a -rule, it may be confidently assumed that the larger number of versions -represent an older form, an assumption strengthened so far as the Early -History is concerned by the fact that the minority version, F, Wolfram, -can historically be proved to be one of the latest in date of all the -versions, and, so far as the Quest is concerned, by the following -considerations:—The minority version, D-E, has three heroes, of whom -Perceval is second in importance only to the chief hero, Galahad, indeed -he occupies as large a space in the narrative. This position can be due -only to his being the original achiever of the Quest. It is obviously -inadmissible that seven or eight versions should have conspired to pick -out one only, and that one the second, of the three heroes of the Queste, -and should have made him the sole hero, whilst it is easy to understand -that the author of D, Queste, dissatisfied for certain reasons with the -older forms of the story, yet not daring to alter it so far as to entirely -burke the original hero, should have taken the course he did.</p> - -<p>Two alternative hypotheses now naturally suggest themselves. The two parts -of the legend may really form one organic whole, although more frequently -found asunder than combined, or the one part may be an explanatory and -supplementary after-thought.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> If the first hypothesis be accepted, it is -natural to look upon the Metrical Joseph and the Didot-Perceval as the -first and last parts of a trilogy, which, as presenting the legend in its -fullest and most orderly shape, has a claim to being the oldest form of -the story, and the main, if not the only, source of all other versions. -If, on the other hand, the second hypothesis be exact, if one part of the -legend be later than the other, and has been artificially welded into one -with it, that version in which this fusion is most perfect, instead of -being the earliest is, with greater likelihood, one of the latest forms. -How do these alternative hypotheses affect the special object of these -studies—the investigation of the alleged Celtic element in the Grail -romances? In this way. If the Early History be an integral part of the -romance, the probabilities in favour of a purely Christian legendary -origin for the Grail itself are immensely increased, and the utmost the -Celtic partisan could hope to show was that a Christian legend had somehow -or other been strongly influenced by Celtic popular traditions. But if the -reverse be true the probabilities are at once in favour of the Christian -legendary element being the intruding one, and the chief aim of the Celtic -partisan will be to disengage the present versions of the Quest from the -traces left upon them by the Early History, and to accumulate as many -parallels as possible between the residuum and admittedly genuine Celtic -tradition. It by no means follows, however, that the acceptance of the -second hypothesis involves the acceptance of the Celtic origin of the -Grail. The romance as we have it—Quest, Early History—may be the fusion -of two elements, one of which, the Christian legendary, may claim <i>all</i> -that is connected with the mystic vessel. Were it otherwise our task would -be greatly simplified. For the mere fact that what may be called the -non-Grail members of the cycle, <i>i.e.</i>, H, Peredur, and I, Sir Perceval, -know nothing of the Early History, gives no uncertain hint as to which -portion of the romance is the original, and which the accretion. Two -points have then to be investigated—the relationship one to the other of -Early History and Quest; and, if the Quest is found to be the older -portion, whether the Grail really belongs to it, or whether its presence -in the various forms of the story as we now have them may not be due to -the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> Early History. An examination of the various passages in which the -Grail is mentioned will furnish material towards settling the first point. -Such an examination may profitably omit all reference to Wolfram, to the -prose Perceval le Gallois, from which little is apparently to be gained -respecting the oldest forms of the legend, and to Heinrich von dem -Türlin’s version of the Gawain episodes. It must also neglect for the -nonce the two non-Grail members of the cycle (the Mabinogi and Sir -Perceval) as their testimony is either of little or of the highest value -according as the Quest is or is not found to be the oldest portion of the -romance. With these exceptions all the versions furnish elements of -comparison, though little is to be got, as far as the point under -discussion is concerned, from what is apparently the latest section of the -Conte du Graal, Gerbert’s poem.</p> - -<p>The consideration of the second point will necessitate comparison of the -various Quest forms among themselves, and the examination of numerous -Celtic stories which present analogies with them.</p> - - -<p> </p> -<p class="center"><i>The Grail: the first use made of it and its first Possessor.</i></p> - -<p>We learn nothing from Chrestien respecting the early history of the Grail, -nor is Gautier more communicative if the Mons MS. version be followed. The -intercalation, <span class="smcap">A IIa</span>, however, and Manessier give full details. According -to the former:</p> - -<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">... c’est icel Graal por voir</span><br /> -Que nostre Sires tant ama<br /> -Que de son saint sanc l’anora<br /> -Au jor que il fu en croix mis. (16-19)</p> - -<p>According to the latter:</p> - -<p class="poem">C’est li vassiaus, ce saciés-vous,<br /> -Ù ens li sains sans présious<br /> -Nostre Segnor fu recéus<br /> -Quant de la lance fu férus. (35,017-20)</p> - -<p>We learn from the former that “Josep le fist fère†(v. 22), and that he -used it to collect the blood that flowed from each foot of our Lord as He -hung on the Cross (verses 30-39), whilst the latter leaves it uncertain -who the first possessor was, and who held the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> Grail to receive our Lord’s -blood. The information given in versions B, is as might be expected, much -fuller. B I, Metr. Jos., which calls it “un veissel mout gent,†tells how -Christ used it, He “feisoit son sacrement†in it; how it was found by a -Jew, who delivered it up to Pilate, by whom it was given to Joseph, and by -him used to receive the blood which bursts forth again from Christ’s -wounds when the body has been taken down from the Cross.—C, -Didot-Perceval: Brons, after relating how Longis pierced the Lord’s body -as it hung on the Cross, says of the Grail, “en cest vessel gist le sanc -que Joseph recueilli qui decoroit par terre†(p. 483).—E, Grand St. -Graal: Joseph himself finds the vessel out of which Christ had eaten, -takes it home, and when he has received the body from Pilate, fetches the -vessel and collects in it all the blood flowing from the wound he can (I, -pp. 23, 24). Curiously enough, the very MS. which gives this version has -an illustration of Joseph sitting under the Cross and collecting the blood -as it drops from the wounds in side and feet. Three different accounts of -how the Grail came into Joseph’s possession and to what use he put it thus -exist:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(1) The Grail is the vessel in which Christ’s blood was received as He -hung upon the Cross (Pseudo-Gautier, Manessier, Didot-Perceval, and an -illustration in a MS. of the Grand St. Graal); Joseph had had it made -(Pseudo-Gautier).</p> - -<p class="hang">(2) The Grail is the vessel which had been used by Christ at the Last -Supper. It is used as a receptacle for the blood of Christ after His -body has been taken down from the Cross (Metr. Jos.).</p> - -<p class="hang">(3) Same as No. 2, with minor alterations, such as that it was Joseph -who found the holy vessel himself (Grand St. Graal).</p></div> - -<p> </p> -<p class="center"><i>The Grail: its Solace of Joseph.</i></p> - -<p>Chrestien and Gautier are again silent, but from <span class="smcap">A IIa</span>, Pseudo-Gautier, we -learn that Joseph was wont to pray before the Grail, that he was, in -consequence, imprisoned in a high tower by the Jews, delivered thence by -the Lord, whereupon the Jews resolve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> to exile him with Nicodemus, and -that sister of his who had a likeness of Christ (verses 60-110). -Manessier, in the Mons MS. version, passes this over, but <span class="smcap">A IIIa</span>, has the -following important passage:—</p> - -<p class="poem">En une charte orrible et lède<br /> -Fu mis Joseph sanz nul arreste;<br /> -<b><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span></b><br /> -XL ans ilecques estut<br /> -C’onques ne menja ne ne but;<br /> -Mais Damediex li envoioit<br /> -Le Saint Graal que il véoit<br /> -II foiées ou III le jor; (V. pp. 153-4.)</p> - -<p>In the B versions this episode is one of capital importance. B I., Joseph -is put into prison, because the Jews suspect him of having stolen away -Christ’s body. To him in the dungeon, “qui estoit horrible et obscure†(v. -703), appears Christ, who hands him the Grail, whereat he is surprised, as -he had hidden it in a house where none knew of it (v. 860), and addresses -him as follows:—</p> - -<p class="poem">En ten povoir l’enseigne aras<br /> -De ma mort et la garderas<br /> -Et cil l’averunt à garder<br /> -A cui tu la voudras donner. (847-50)</p> - -<p>These will be three—</p> - -<p class="poem">Joseph, bien ce saras garder,<br /> -Que tu ne le doiz commander<br /> -Qu’a trois persones qui l’arunt.<br /> -Ou non dou Père le penrunt<br /> -Et dou Fil et dou Saint-Esprit (871-75)</p> - -<p>The offices Joseph rendered to Christ’s body were symbolical of the -Sacrament: the sepulchre is the altar; the sheet in which the body was -wrapped the corporal; the vessel in which the blood was received shall be -called chalice; and by the patina upon which it rests is signified the -tombstone (v. 901-912). Finally Christ promises Joseph that:—</p> - -<p class="poem">Tout cil qui ten veissel verrunt,<br /> -En ma compeignie serunt;<br /> -De cuer arunt emplissement<br /> -Et joie pardurablement. (917-20)</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>The prose versions repeat this account in the main, but with some -important additions, thus: B II, Cangé MS., adds after Christ’s last -words, “Lors li aprant Jhésu Christ tex paroles que jà nus conter ne -retraire ne porroit,†etc. (I, 227); when Christ hands the vessel to -Joseph, “Tu tiens lou sanc as trois personnes en une déité, qui degota des -plaies de la char au fil,†etc. (I, 225-26); after the description of the -Grail, “lou Graal c’est à dire sor lou caalice.â€... In C, Didot-Perceval, -the Holy Ghost, speaking to Brons, commands him to reveal to Perceval, -“icelles paroles segroies qu’il (<i>i.e.</i>, Christ) aprist à Joseph en la -prison,†which, adds the narrator, “je ne vous puis dire ne ne doi†(I, -483). E, Grand St. Graal: The Jews, angry at Joseph’s having taken -Christ’s body down from the Cross, throw him into “la plu hideuse chartre -qui onques fust veue†and when they hear of the Lord’s resurrection -propose to starve him; but Christ comes to him, brings him for comfort “la -sainte esceuele que ostoie en sa maison a tot le sanc qu’il Auoit -requelli,†and comforted him much, and assured him that he should not die -in prison but come out safe and sound, and his name be glorified. And -Joseph “fu en la prison ... tant qu’il demoura xlii ans†(pp. 25-26).<a name='fna_48' id='fna_48' href='#f_48'><small>[48]</small></a> -Here again are three distinct accounts:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(1) That of Pseudo-Gautier, which merely mentions Joseph’s devotions -to the Grail, and does not connect that devotion with any solace -during his captivity.</p> - -<p class="hang">(2) That of the B versions, in which Christ Himself brings the holy -vessel to the captive, and connects it with certain promises and -recommendations which He makes to him; the vessel shall remain with -his seed, but it is to be in charge of three persons, a symbol of the -Trinity. The services rendered by Joseph to Christ’s body are -connected with the Mass. The late (prose) drafts of this version -insist still more upon the sacramental nature of the Grail.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> - -<p class="hang">(3) The Grand St. Graal and Pseudo-Manessier introduce a fresh -element—the Grail is the material means by which Joseph is sustained -(forty years according to the one, forty-two years according to the -other version) without food or drink.</p></div> - -<p>The great importance of the incident in the B versions is most remarkable -when contrasted with the comparative indifference displayed by the other -versions, and notably by the Grand St. Graal, which, at the first blush, -looks so like a mere amplification of B, still more remarkable the -agreement between the prose versions of B, with C, Didot-Perceval, -respecting Christ’s words to Joseph against B I, Metr. Jos. It is -difficult to decide which of the two versions is the older; B I, after -Christ’s words, has the following important passage:—</p> - -<p class="poem">Ge n’ose conter ne retreire,<br /> -Ne je ne le pourroie feire,<br /> -Neis, se je feire le voloie,<br /> -Se je le grant livre n’avoie<br /> -Où les estoires sunt escrites,<br /> -Par les granz clers feites et dites:<br /> -Lá sunt li grant secré escrit<br /> -Qu’en numme le Graal et dit.</p> - -<p>which may either have been the reason why the prose versions, followed by -the Didot-Perceval, speak as they do about the secret words, or may be the -versifier’s excuse for giving those secret words themselves, <i>i.e.</i>, the -explanation of the mysteries of the Grail in its relation to the -Sacrament, in which case the verse would be later than the prose -forms.<a name='fna_49' id='fna_49' href='#f_49'><small>[49]</small></a> Finally, it would seem that Pseudo-Manessier, <span class="smcap">A IIIa</span>, and the -Grand St. Graal drew their information one from the other or from a common -source.</p> - - -<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p> -<p class="center"><i>Properties and Effect of the Grail.</i></p> - -<p>In Chrestien these seem to be of a purely physical nature; the Grail is -borne uncovered through the hall at every meal (4,470-79), it feeds the -Fisher King’s father—</p> - -<p class="poem">D’une seule oiste li sains hom<br /> -Quant en ce Greal li aporte<br /> -Sa vie sostient et conforte<br /> -Tant sainte cose est li Graaus. (7,796-99)</p> - -<p>the most direct testimony in Chrestien to its sacred nature. In Gautier, -likewise, the physical properties are insisted upon in the following -passages:—</p> - -<p class="poem">Lors vit parmi la sale aler<br /> -La rice Gréail ki servoit<br /> -Et mist le pain a grant esploit. (20,114-16)<br /> -<br /> -Moult mangièrent à grant loisir;<br /> -Adonques véissiés servir<br /> -Le Gréail moult honestement. (20,142-43)</p> - -<p>but in verses 28,078-81 a remarkable spiritual effect is attributed to -it—</p> - -<p class="poem">Car li diables ne deçoit<br /> -Nul homme ki le jor le voie,<br /> -Ne ne le met en male voie<br /> -Por faire pécié creminal.</p> - -<p>In <span class="smcap">A IIa</span>, Pseudo-Gautier, the physical side alone is insisted upon—</p> - -<p class="poem">Et de quanqu’il lor ert mestiers<br /> -Les fornissoit à tel plenté<br /> -Com s’il n’eust néant cousté; (12-14)<br /> -<br /> -Et li Graaux par tot aloit<br /> -Et pain et vin par tot portoit<br /> -Et autres mès a grant planté. (171-74)</p> - -<p>Manessier makes no special reference to the properties of the Grail.</p> - -<p>In the B versions it is the spiritual power of the Grail which is dwelt -upon. Christ’s words to Joseph have already been quoted (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_71">p. 71</a>), -and the use which the latter puts the Grail to, and which is specially -indicated to Joseph by the Holy Ghost, is in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> accordance with them. The -Grail is to serve him as a touchstone to distinguish the sinners of his -company—</p> - -<p class="poem">Car il n’a à nul pecheour<br /> -Ne compaignie ne amour; (2,629-30)</p> - -<p>whereas to those who have not defiled themselves with sin it brings</p> - -<p class="poem">La douceur, l’accomplissement<br /> -De leur cueurs tout entièrement; (2,565-67)</p> - -<p>so that according to them—</p> - -<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">... Cuers ne pourroit,</span><br /> -A pourpenser ne soufiroit<br /> -Le grant delit que nous avuns<br /> -Ne la grant joie en quoi nous suns. (2,609-12)</p> - -<p>This testing power of the Grail is especially brought into play when the -vessel is placed on the table in connection with the fish which Brons -caught, and which won him the name of the Rich Fisher.</p> - -<p>C, Didot-Perceval, has only one reference, “ne il ne covient mie en sa -compagnie pechier†(I, 483), agreeing with B and with Gautier’s lines -28,079-80.</p> - -<p>In D, Queste, we revert to the physical gifts of the Grail. “And as soon -as it entered the door of the hall the whole court was filled with -perfumes ... and it proceeded to every place in the hall. And as it came -before the tables it filled them with every kind of meat that a man would -wish to have.†When it comes in, “Every one looked at each other, and -there was not one that could say a single word;†when it goes out, “Every -one recovered his speech†(D II, pp. 442-43). There is no allusion to a -gathering at which the Grail is used to test the state of grace of its -devotees. E, Grand St. Graal, shows a curious mixture of the two ideas; -the Grail feeds its worshippers, but only those who are “de sainte vie,†-to them it bring “toutes le boines viandes ke cuers d’omme pourroit -penser,†but “li pecheour n’auoient ke mangier.†This version shows itself -here, as in so many other passages, one of the latest in date, embodying -and reconciling as it does the conceptions of the older -versions—conceptions which it is difficult to derive, either from a -common source or from one another. If it were not for the solitary phrase -of Gautier’s, lines 28,079, etc. (a passage which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> affords the strongest -proof against the homogeneity of that part of the Conte du Graal which -goes under Gautier’s name), there would be an unbroken chain of testimony -as to the food-giving power of the Grail on the part of the earlier A -versions, supported by the Queste in opposition to the spiritual gifts -insisted on by the B and E, Grand St. Graal, forms. It is in any case -difficult to believe that if the writer of the Queste, with his strong -tendency to mystic allegory, had had before him the highly spiritual -presentment of the Grail-power found in B, he would have neglected it in -favour of the materialistic description he uses. In one point this version -differs from all others, the dumbness with which the Grail strikes those -to whom it appears.<a name='fna_50' id='fna_50' href='#f_50'><small>[50]</small></a></p> - -<p> </p> -<p class="center"><i>Name of Grail.</i></p> - -<p>Whilst the majority of versions afford no explanation of the name of the -Grail, B and C attach a curious punning meaning to it, thus B I, Metr. -Jos.:</p> - -<p class="poem">Par droit Graal l’apelera;<br /> -Car nus le Graal ne verra,<br /> -Ce croi-je, qu’il ne li agrée; (2,659-61)</p> - -<p>and C, Didot-Perceval, “Et por ce l’anpelon-nos Graal, qu’il agrée as -prodes homes†(p. 483). E, Grand St. Graal, seems to follow these versions -in Nasciens’ words, “Car tout mi pense sont accompli, puis ke ie voi chou -qui en toutes choses me plaist et m’agrée†(I, 212). Is such a punning -explanation more consonant with the earliness or the lateness of the -versions in which it is found? If the meaning of “Gréal†as cup or vessel -was a perfectly well-established one, it is difficult to see why in the -first treatment of the subject it should have been necessary to explain -the word at all.</p> - - -<p> </p> -<p class="center"><i>Arrival of the Grail in England.</i></p> - -<p>Neither A I, Chrestien, nor A II, Gautier, give any indication how the -Grail came to England; not until we come to <span class="smcap">A IIa</span>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> Pseudo-Gautier, do we -learn anything on the subject. It is there related (v. 139-48) how Joseph -and his companions take ship and sail till they come to the land promised -Joseph by God—the White Isle, namely, a part of England; and how (v. -161-66) Joseph, finding that “sa vitaille li falloit,†prays God to lend -him that Grail in which he had collected the holy blood. The prayer is -granted and the Grail appears and feeds the company. A III, Manessier, -simply says that Joseph, after leaving Sarras, carried the Grail about -with him, then in a singularly enigmatic passage (the Fisher King is -speaking):—</p> - -<p class="poem">Et, quant il furent départis,<br /> -Il s’en ala en son païs,<br /> -Et tout partout ù il aloit<br /> -La loi Jhésucrist essauçoit.<br /> -Puis vint en cest païs manoir,<br /> -Od lui le saint Gréal, por voir.<br /> -Josep qui en Dieu se fia<br /> -Icest païs édéfia. (35,123-30)</p> - -<p>The B versions account is much more elaborate, and demands the most -careful analysis. In B I, Metr. Jos., the first mention of the West is -found in Christ’s words to Joseph concerning his nephew, Alain, who is to -keep the Grail, to take charge of his brothers and sisters, and</p> - -<p class="poem">Puis s’en ira vers occident<br /> -Es plus loiteins lius que pourra; (3,100-01)</p> - -<p>further that Petrus is likewise to go “ès vaus d’Avaron†(3,123), it being -added that—</p> - -<p class="poem">Ces terres trestout vraiement<br /> -Se treient devers occident. (3,125-26)</p> - -<p>Effectively we learn (v. 3,262, etc.) that Alain leads his brothers into -strange lands. But the Grail remains behind, and in v. 3,353, etc., an -angel declares it necessary that all the people should go to the West, -that Brons should have the vessel, that he should go straight to the West, -and that Petrus, after seeing the Grail safe in Brons’ keeping, is to go -likewise. Joseph follows the angel’s command, and three days after he has -committed the Grail to Brons’ hands.</p> - -<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> -Ainsi Joseph se demoura.<br /> -Li boens Pescherres s’en ala<br /> -(Dont furent puis meintes paroles<br /> -Contées, ki ne sunt pas foles)<br /> -En la terre lau il fu nez,<br /> -Et Joseph si est demourez. (3,455-60)</p> - -<p>A puzzling passage, as it is difficult to be sure whether line 3,459 -refers to the Fisher or to Joseph, a point of obvious importance, as in -the latter case it would indicate that Joseph in this version does not go -West. On turning to the prose versions, some remarkable variations are -found in the corresponding passages; thus B II, Cangé MS. (I, 265) after -relating how Brons finds wives for his children, adds, “Mais ancor estoit -la crestientez moult tenue et moult novele en ce païs que l’an apeloit la -bloe Bretaigne que Joseph avoit novellement convertie à la créance de -Jhésu-Christ,†words which would seem to indicate that the writer imagined -Joseph and his company <i>already</i> in England. The corresponding passage to -v. 3,445-60 runs thus: Ensinc se departirent, si s’en ala li riches -peschierres dont maintes paroles furent puis, en la grant Bretaigne et -ensinc remest Joseph et fina en la terre et ou païs où il fu envoiez de -par Jhésu-Crist (275). B III, Didot MS, accentuates the punning reference -to Avalon in the angel’s message to Joseph, “Come li monde ... va en -avalant covient-il que toute ceste gent se retraie en occident†(p. 330). -The final passage runs thus: “Eynsi se despartirent Joseph et Bron: et -Joseph s’en ala en la terre et el pais où il fust nez et ampris la terre†-(p. 332). Thus the testimony of these versions favours the application of -v, 2,459 in Metr. Jos. to Joseph. From C, Didot-Perceval, we obtain an -account similar in parts to that of the B versions, the most direct -reference being in the speech of the hermit, Perceval’s uncle, “Biaus -niès, sachès que à la table là où Joseph fist et je meismes oïmes la voiz -de saint esperit qui nos comenda venir en loingteines terres en occident, -et comenda le riche péchéor mon père que il venist en cestes parties, là -ou li soleil avaloit†(449-50), where the punning reference to Avalon is -again prominent, and where, apparently, the passage of Joseph himself to -England is not indicated. An entirely different form of the legend is -found in D and E. In the former (D II, 450)<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> it is briefly stated, “And -afterwards it happened to Joseph, and Joseph his father, and a number of -his family with them, to set out from the city of Sarras, and they came as -far as Great Britainâ€; again, p. 467, Perceval’s aunt relates how when -Joseph of Arimathea came, and his son Joseph with him, to Great Britain, -there came with them about 4,000 people, all of whom are fed by ten -loaves, placed on the table, on the head of which is the Grail. E, Grand -St. Graal, dwells specially upon Josephe; he is referred to in I, p. 22, -as having passed “le lignage ioseph son père outre mer iusqu’en la bloie -bertaigne qui ore a nom engleterre,†and II, 123, etc., gives a full -account of how the passage is effected; how the Grail-bearers are sent -first, and supported through the water by its power; how, when Josephe -takes off his shirt, and his father Joseph puts his foot upon it, it -swells until it holds 250 persons. These two accounts agree better with -that of <span class="smcap">A IIa</span>, Pseudo-Gautier, than with any of the others; indeed, a -passage in the latter (v. 125-29), which tells how Joseph committed the -portrait of our Lord, made by Verrine, to the mercy of the sea, may have -given the hint for the miraculous shirt story of the Grand St. Graal. In -this version, too, as in D, Queste, we first hear of the passage to -England, and then the Grail appears at the miraculous feeding of the -travellers. The versions thus fall into two clearly-defined groups, Joseph -being the Grail-bearer in the one, Brons in the latter. The latter class -is represented by the Metrical Joseph and the Didot-Perceval alone, if we -except the Berne MS. form of a portion of the Conte du Graal, which, in -its finish, has obviously copied the Metrical Joseph. To the former class -belong all the other versions. Nay, more, one of the prose forms of -Borron’s poems is interpolated, so as to countenance the Joseph-account of -the bringing of the Grail to England. Moreover, Borron’s account of the -whole transaction is ambiguous and obscure; at first Alain is the destined -hero, long passages being devoted to him, and the keeping of the mystic -vessel being expressly reserved to him. Yet he leaves, quite quietly, -nothing more being heard of him, and the same machinery of angelic -messages is set in motion for Brons, to whom, henceforth, the chief <i>rôle</i> -is assigned. Does not this show that there were from the outset two -accounts of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> evangelisation of Britain, one, attributing it to Joseph, -of wider popularity, and followed solely by the majority of the romances, -whilst Borron, who gave greater prominence to the other account, has -maladroitly tried to fuse the two into one? In any case it would be -remarkable were the legend of purely Christian origin, and were the -Metrical Joseph its earliest form, and source of the other forms, that its -testimony on such an important point should be contradicted by nearly -every other version.</p> - -<p>Do the foregoing facts throw any light upon the question whether the two -sections of the romance are originally independent, and which is the -earlier? It is the later forms of the Quest alone which mention Joseph. -But if he be really the older of the two personages to whom, in the Early -History, the evangelisation of Britain is attributed, this would of itself -go a long way to proving that the two portions of the romance only came -into contact at a late stage of their development, and that the Quest is -the older. It is otherwise if Brons be looked upon as the original -Grail-bringer; the same causes which led to his exclusion from the other -versions of the Early History might have kept him out of most versions of -the Quest, and his presence in one Quest version could be claimed as a -proof of the homogeneity of the romance. For the present, it is sufficient -to mark the fact that what may be called the Brons form of the Early -History is in a minority.</p> - - -<p> </p> -<p class="center"><i>The Grail-Keeper and his relationship to the Promised Knight.</i></p> - -<p>In the A versions the Grail-keeper is the Fisher King, uncle to the hero -of the Quest, Perceval. The relationship is first plainly put in -Chrestien, where the hermit, speaking to Perceval of the Grail, says—</p> - -<p class="poem">Cil qui l’en sert, il est mes frere<br /> -Ma sÅ“ur et soie fu ta mère,<br /> -Et del rice Pescéour croi<br /> -Que il est fius à celui roi<br /> -Qui del Graal servir se fait. (7,789-94)</p> - -<p>The origin of his name is fully explained in the passage (v. 4,685-98), -which tells of his being wounded in battle by a lance-thrust through his -two thighs, of his sufferings, and of his only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> solace being fishing from -a boat. How the Grail came into his possession C does not say. Gautier has -no occasion to mention these facts, but from Manessier we learn that -Joseph, having converted the land, died therein; that the Fisher King is -of his seed, and that if God wills the Grail will never have its dwelling -elsewhere than with him (35,130-36); that he, the Fisher King, had a -brother, Goon Desert, treacherously slain by Partinal, who broke his sword -in the murderous act. Goon’s body and the fragments of the sword being -brought by his niece to the Fisher King, he wounds himself with them, -“parmi les gambes en traviers,†and may not be healed until a knight -should come to weld the fragments together and avenge his brother’s death.</p> - -<p>Pseudo-Gautier tells how Joseph, dying, prays that the Grail may remain -with his descendants—</p> - -<p class="poem">Si fist il, c’est verité fine,<br /> -Qu’ après sa mort n’en ot sésine<br /> -Nus hom, tant fust de son lignage<br /> -Se il ne fu del haut parage.<br /> -Li riches Peschéor, por voir,<br /> -En fu estret et tuit si oir<br /> -Et des suens fu Greloguevaus<br /> -Ausi en réfu Percevaus. (183-90)</p> - -<p>Manessier disagrees, it will have been noticed, with Chrestien respecting -the cause of the Fisher King’s wound, and neither he nor the other -continuators of Chrestien make any mention of that enigmatic personage the -Fisher King’s father, so casually alluded to by Chrestien (v. 7,791-99). -Perceval according to them is a direct descendant of Joseph, Brons being -as entirely ignored here as in the transport of the Grail to England.</p> - -<p>In the B versions the Grail-keeper is Brons, and the Promised Knight is -his son or grandson, for a close examination again shows that two varying -accounts have been embodied in one narrative. In the passage where the -Holy Ghost, speaking to Joseph, tells him of the empty place to be left at -the table he is to make, the following lines occur:—</p> - -<p class="poem">Cil lius estre empliz ne pourra<br /> -Devant qu’ Enygeus avera<br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>Un enfant de Bron sen mari,<br /> -Que tu et ta suer amez si;<br /> -Et quant li enfès sera nez,<br /> -La sera ses lius assenez; (2,531-37)</p> - -<p>followed closely by the prose versions: B II, Cangé MSS., “ne icil leux ne -pourra estre ampliz tant que le filz Bron et Anysgeus ne l’accomplisse†-(I, 254); B III, Didot MS., “Cist leus ne porra mie estre ampliz devant ce -que li fist Bron l’ampleisse†(I, 316). But afterwards a fresh account -appears; in the second message of the Holy Ghost, Joseph is told:</p> - -<p class="poem">Que cist luis empliz ne sera<br /> -Devant que li tierz hons venra<br /> -Qui descendra de ten lignage<br /> -Et istera de ten parage,<br /> -Et Hebruns le doit engenrer<br /> -Et Enygeus ta sueur porter;<br /> -Et cil qui de sen fil istra,<br /> -Cest liu méismes emplira. (2,789-96)</p> - -<p>In the corresponding passages both B II and III have the following -significant addition, “et I. autre (<i>i.e.</i>, place) avoc cestui qui el nom -de cestui sera fondé†(I, 261), “raemplira ce leu et I. autre qui en leu -decestu isera fondez†(I, 322), which effectually disposes of M. Hucher’s -attempt (I, 254, note) to harmonise the two accounts by the remark that in -the first one “il ne s’agit pas de la Table ronde où c’est Perceval qui -remplit le lieu vide.†Henceforth the legend follows the second account. -To Alain, son of Brons, is revealed that</p> - -<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">... de lui doit oissir</span><br /> -Un oir malle, qui doit venir. (3,091-92)</p> - -<p>Petrus is to wait for “le fil Alein,†Brons is to wait for “le fil sen -fil,†and when he is come to give him the vessel and Grail (3,363-67). B -II, Cangé MS., again makes a characteristic addition to the promise to -Alain “et si li di que de lui doit issir un oirs masles, à cui la grace de -mon veissel doit repairier†(I, 267).</p> - -<p>C, Didot-Perceval, follows the second account of B. Perceval is son to -Alain li Gros, grandson to Brons, the rich Fisher King, “et cil rois -péchéors est en grant enfermetez, quar il est vieil<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> home et plains de -maladies†(I, 418), and nephew to the hermit, “un des fiz Bron et frère -Alein†(I, 448), though curiously enough when he tells Brons that he knows -him to be father of his father, the latter addresses him as “bieaux niès†-(I, 483). In any case whether B and C do or do not afford proof of a -nearer relationship than that of grandson and grandfather between the -Grail-keeper and the achiever of the Quest, the chronology which bridges -over 400 years in two generations is equally fantastic.</p> - -<p>In D, Queste, no less than three different accounts are to be -distinguished, corresponding certainly to three stages in the development -of this version due to the influence of other versions of the legend. The -earliest is that preserved in D II, the Welsh translation of a now lost -French original. The Promised Knight is Galahad, son of Lancelot, -grandson, on the mother’s side, of King Pelles (ch. iv). The Grail is kept -at the court of King Peleur (ch. lxvii), the name of which is apparently -Corbenic (ch. lxiv). The Lame King is mentioned by Perceval’s sister (ch. -xlix), as a son of King Lambar, who fought with King Urlain and slew him, -and in consequence of that blow the country was wasted; afterwards (ch. -l.) his lameness is set down to his folly in attempting to draw the magic -sword, for which, though there was not in Christendom a better man than -he, he was wounded with a spear through the thigh. She also speaks of him -here as her uncle. The Grail quest is not connected in any way with the -healing of this Lame King. In the text printed by Furnivall, Galahad is -first introduced as Lancelot’s son and Pelles’ grandson, but when he comes -to Arthur’s court he bids his returning companion, “salues moi tous chiaus -del saint hostel et mon <i>oncle le roi pelles</i> et mon <i>aioul le riche -peschéour</i>.†Guinevere’s ladies, according to this version, prophesy that -Galahad will heal the Lame King. A long account, missing in D I, is given -by the hermit to Lancelot of his ancestry as follows (p. 120):—Celidoine, -son of Nasciens, had nine descendants, Warpus, Crestiens, Alain li Gros, -Helyas, Jonaans, Lancelot, Ban, Lancelot himself, Galahad, in whom Christ -will bathe himself entirely. Perceval is son of a King Pellehem (p. 182). -The Lame King is Pelles, “que l’on apièle lo roi mehaignié†(p. 188); he -is at Corbenic when Lancelot comes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> there. When Galahad and his companions -arrive at his court a sick man wearing a crown is brought in, who blesses -Galahad as his deliverer. After the appearance of the Grail, Galahad heals -him by touching his wound with the spear. The third account, from the -version of the Queste printed with the Lancelot and the Mort Artur in -1488, at Rouen, by Gaillard le Bourgeois,<a name='fna_51' id='fna_51' href='#f_51'><small>[51]</small></a> makes Galahad send greetings -to the Fisher King and to his <i>grandfather, King Pelles</i>; it adds to -Perceval’s sister’s account of how Pelles was wounded, the words, “he was -Galahad’s grandfather;â€<a name='fna_52' id='fna_52' href='#f_52'><small>[52]</small></a> it adds to the account of Lancelot’s visit to -the Grail Castle, the words, “this was Castle Corbenic, where the Holy -Grail was kept.†Before discussing these differences it is advisable to -see what the Grand St. Graal says on these points. Here Alain, the Fisher -King, son of Brons, is a virgin, and when Josephe commits the Grail to his -care he empowers him to leave it to whom he likes (II, 360—<small>39</small>.) In -accordance with this Alain leaves the Grail to his brother Josue, with the -title of Fisher King. Josue’s descendants are Aminadap, Catheloys, Manaal, -Lambor (who was wounded by Bruillans with Solomon’s sword, whence arose -such a fierce war that the whole land was laid desert).<a name='fna_53' id='fna_53' href='#f_53'><small>[53]</small></a> Pelleans, -wounded in battle in the ankle, whence he had the name Lame King, Pelles, -upon whose daughter Lancelot begets Galahad, who is thus, on the mother’s -side, ninth in descent from Brons, brother to Joseph. Galahad’s descent is -likewise given from Celidoine, son of Nasciens, as follows: Marpus, -Nasciens, Alains li Gros, Ysaies, Jonans, Lancelot, Bans, Lancelot, -Galahad, who in thus counting Celidoine is tenth in descent from Nasciens, -Joseph’s companion, (vol. ii, ch. xxxix.) So far the story is fairly -consistent, although there is a difference of one generation between -father’s and mother’s genealogy. But ch. 17, in a very important passage,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> -introduces a different account. The angel is expounding to Josephe and -Nasciens the marvels of the lance; to Josephe he says, “de cheste lance -dont tu as este ferus; ne sera iamis ferus ke vns seus hom. Et chil sera -rois, et descendra de ton lignaige, si serra li daerrains des boins. Chil -en sera ferus parmi les cuisses ambedeus,†and will not be healed till the -Good Knight come, “et chil ... serra li daerrains hom del lignaige -nascien. Et tout ausi com nasciens a este li premiers hom qui les -meruelles du graal a veues; autresi sera chil li daerrains qui les -verra.<a name='fna_54' id='fna_54' href='#f_54'><small>[54]</small></a> Car che dist li urais crucefis. ‘Au premier home du precieus -lignaige, et au daerrain, ai iou deuise à demonstrer mes meruelles.’ Et si -dist enchore après. ‘Sour le premier et sour le daerrain de mes menistres -nouuiaus qui sont enoint et sacre a mon plaisir, espanderai iou la -venianche de la lanche auentureuse’†(I, 216-17), <i>i.e.</i>, the last of -Josephe’s line shall be the only man wounded by the lance, the last of -Nasciens’ line shall be the deliverer. But according to Galahad’s -genealogy, given above, it is <i>not</i> the last of Josephe’s line -(represented by his cousin Josue) who is the Wounded King, for Galahad -himself is as much the last in descent from Josephe as from Nasciens, and -even if we take the words to apply only to the direct male descendants of -Josue, there is still a discrepancy, as not Pelles, but Pelleant, his -father, is the “roi mehaigniés.†If the Wounded King were really the last -of Josephe’s line, <i>i.e.</i>, Pelles, Galahad would be his grandson, as -Percival is to Brons. Taking the two versions D. and E. together, some -idea may be gathered from them of the way in which the legend has grown, -and of the shifts to which the later harmonisers were put in their -attempts to reconcile divergent accounts. In the first draft of the -Queste, Galahad has nothing to do with the Lame King, the latter remains -Perceval’s uncle, the very relationship obtaining in Chrestien. Galahad -has supplanted Perceval, but has not stepped into the place entirely. The -second draft of the Queste endeavours to remedy this by clumsily -introducing the Lame King and his healing, missing in the first draft, -into the great Grail scene at the end, an idea foreign<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> to the original -author of the Queste, who, having broken with Perceval as chief hero, also -broke with the distinctive Quest incident as far as the chief hero is -concerned. But a strange blunder is committed; the second draft, anxious -to make Galahad’s grandfather both Fisher and Lame King, actually speaks -of Pelles as Galahad’s uncle, in direct contradiction to its own -indication. The third draft corrects this mistake, and tries by different -explanatory interpolations to confirm the relationship of Galahad to the -Lame King, and the identity of his castle with the Grail Castle. The -author of the Grand St. Graal now appears on the scene, appropriates the -story about King Lambar, father to the Lame King, Percival’s uncle, makes -him an ancestor of Galahad, and gives a name to his son, Pelleant (which -name creeps back into the second draft of the Queste as that of Perceval’s -father), and thus derives Galahad on the mother’s side from Brons, -although it escapes him that he thus gives the lie to the prophecy which -he puts in the angel’s mouth, that it is the last of Josephe’s seed who is -to be lamed by the lance, and that he has not given his Lambor fictitious -ancestors enough to equalize the genealogies.</p> - -<p>We are thus led back to the relationship of uncle and nephew as the -earliest subsisting between the Grail King and the achiever of the Quest, -and we find in those versions which supplant Perceval by Galahad a story -told of the former’s great uncle, King Lambar, by no means unlike that -told of his uncle in the A versions, and that there, as here, the cause of -the woe brought upon the hero’s family is one of the magic talismans which -the hero is in quest of and by means of which he is to achieve his quest. -We further notice that in so far as the Early History influences the Quest -forms, it is the later versions in which its influence is apparent, and it -is the Joseph, not the Brons form, which exercises this influence. Not -until we come to the Grand St. Graal, an obvious and bold attempt to -embody previous versions in one harmonious whole, does the Brons form make -itself felt.</p> - - -<p> </p> -<p class="center"><i>Work of the Promised Knight.</i></p> - -<p>In Chrestien we can only guess at what the results of the successful -achievement of the Quest would have been by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> reproaches addressed to -the hero upon the failure of his first visits to the Grail Castle; he -would have mended all things, and—</p> - -<p class="poem">Le bon roi ki est mehaigniés;<br /> -Que tous eust regaengniés<br /> -Ses membres, et tière tenist,<br /> -Et si grans bien en avenist; (4,763-67)</p> - -<p>many evils will flow from his failure, and the cause of it is the sin he -has committed in leaving his mother, who thereupon died of grief -(4,768-71); again the Loathly Damsel reproaches him that the Rich King -would have been healed of his wound, he would have kept in peace his land, -which he never may again, for now</p> - -<p class="poem">Dames en perdront lor maris<br /> -Tières en seront essilies,<br /> -Et pucièles deconsellies;<br /> -Orfenes, veves en remanront<br /> -Et maint Chevalier en morront. (6,056-60)</p> - -<p>Gautier de Doulens gives a vivid description of the effect of Gawain’s -partially successful visit to the Grail King; the character of the -landscape changes at once—</p> - -<p class="poem">N’estoit pas plus que mienuis,<br /> -Le soir devant, que Dex avoit<br /> -Rendu issi com il devoit<br /> -As aiges lor cors el païs;<br /> -Et tout li bos, ce m’est avis,<br /> -Refurent en verdor trové,<br /> -Si tos com il ot demandé<br /> -Por coi si sainnoit en l’anstier<br /> -La lance; si devoit puplier<br /> -Li règnes; mais plus ne pupla<br /> -Por tant que plus ne demanda. (20,344-55)</p> - -<p>All the country folk both bless and curse Gawain.</p> - -<p class="poem">Sire, mors nous as et garis,<br /> -Tu dois estre liés et maris;<br /> -Car grant aise nos as doné,<br /> -S’en devons tout mercier Dé;<br /> -Et si te devons moult hair<br /> -Pour con que nel vosis öir<br /> -Le Greail, por coi il servoit,<br /> -Ne de la joie ki devoit<br /> -Là venir ne poroit nus dire,<br /> -Si en doit avoir duel et ire. (20,357-66)</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>In Manessier, when Perceval has finally accomplished the Quest by the -slaying of Partinal, and has come for the third time to the Grail Castle -(though even then he only reaches it after long wanderings and lights upon -it by chance), news whereof is brought to the King;—</p> - -<p class="poem">Li rois, à grant joie et grant feste<br /> -Est maintenant salis en piés<br /> -Et se senti sain et haitiés. (44,622-24)</p> - -<p>Perceval is crowned King after his uncle’s death, and reigns for seven -years.</p> - -<p>Thus, in the A versions, the healing of the Maimed King, and the -consequent restoration to fertility and prosperity of his land, such are -the tasks to be achieved by the hero of the Quest. In the B versions an -entirely different series of conceptions is met with. Brons, the Fisher -King, is to wait for his grandson, and to hand him the vessel which he -received from Joseph. When this is done the meaning of the Trinity is to -be known—<a name='fna_55' id='fna_55' href='#f_55'><small>[55]</small></a></p> - -<p class="poem">Lors sera la senefiance<br /> -Accomplie et la demonstrance<br /> -De la benoite Trinité,<br /> -Qu’avons en trois parz devisée. (3,371-74)</p> - -<p>Besides this, the Promised Knight is to visit Petrus, who may not pass -away till he comes, and from whom he is to learn the power of the vessel, -and the fate of Moys (v. 3,127-36). Finally, when he comes he is to fill -the empty seat, and to find Moys, of whom it is said—</p> - -<p class="poem">De lui plus ne pallera-on<br /> -Ne en fable ne en chançon,<br /> -Devant que cil revenra<br /> -Qui li liu vuit raemplira:<br /> -Cil-méismes le doit trouver. (2,815-19)</p> - -<p>Here the only indication which can possibly be tortured into a hint of the -waiting of a sick king for his deliverer is the reference to Petrus. It is -not a little remarkable that when the latter is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> leaving for England, he -asks for the prayers of the company that he may not fall into sin, and -lose the love of God (v. 3320-35) Does this presuppose a version in which -he <i>does</i> sin, and is consequently punished by disease, from which only -the Promised Knight may heal him?</p> - -<p>On turning to C, a totally distinct account of what the Quest achiever is -to do presents itself. He seats himself, it is true, in the empty seat, -but it goes nigh with him that he suffers the fate of Moys, from which he -is only preserved by the great goodness of his father, Alain (p. 427). He -does not find Moys; Petrus is not once mentioned by name, nor does -Perceval visit anyone who may not die till he come, and from whom he -learns the power of the vessel, saving always the Fisher King, for the -references to whom see <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_83">p. 83</a>. This Fisher King is “veil home et -plains de maladies, ne il n’aura james santé devant un chevalier que yà à -la Table ronde aserra, sera prodons vers Deu et vers sainte eglise et ait -fait tant d’armes que il soit le plus alosez del monde. Et lors vendra à -la maison au riche roi péchéor et quant il aura demandé de quoi li Graus -sert, tantost sera li roi gariz de de sa’nfermeté et cherront li -enchentement de Bretaigne et sera la prophétic accomplie†(p. 419). Again, -p. 427 “li riches rois péchéors est chéuz en grant maladie et en grant -enfermeté, ne il peust morir devant que uns de XXX chevalier, qui ci sunt -asis, ait tant fait d’armes et de chevalerie qu’il soit li mieudres -chevalier del monde.†Again, p. 427, “Et quant il (<i>i.e.</i>, the Fisher -King) sera gariz, si ira, dedanz li III jorz, de vie à mort, et baillera à -celui chevalier, le vesseau et li aprendra le segroites paroles qui li -aprist Joseph; et lors ampliz de la grace du Sainct Esprit et cherront li -enchentement de la Bretaigne et les afaires.†Again, when Perceval has -come for the second time to the Fisher King’s, and has asked the question -and learnt the secret words, he remained there “et moult fust prodons et -chéirent les enchentement de la terre de Bretaigne et par tout le monde.†-Here, then, are the Sick King, the mysterious question, the healing, and -the effect upon the land (note how the enchantments of Britain are -insisted upon), as in the A versions. The only points of contact with B -are that Brons is like Petrus in not being able to die till Perceval come, -and that his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> infirmity seems to be ascribed mainly to his age, and not to -a wound, which at first sight seems to agree better with the vague -indications of B than with the positive statement of A.</p> - -<p>Two accounts, each fairly definite and consistent, are thus forthcoming -respecting the object of the Quest, the one represented by A and C, the -other by B. What light is thrown upon the matter by the remaining -versions, and which of these two accounts do they support? Neither from -the Queste, D, nor from the Grand St. Graal, E, can any clear conception -of the Quest be gathered. Both have a great deal to say about the -adventures and the wonders of the Grail, but absolutely nothing comes of -the achievement so far as the Grail itself, or as Galahad and his two -companions are concerned. It goes to the East, they with it, they become -hermits and die. But in proportion as the main object of the Quest becomes -less definite, the number of secondary objects increases. In D, Queste, -Galahad is to achieve the adventure of the Seat Perillous (ch. iii, iv); -he is to wear the shield left by Joseph to Mordrains (ch. x); he is to -release from life Mordrains himself, struck with blindness for approaching -too near the Grail (ch. xxiii); he (according to the second draft of the -Queste), is to release King Pelles (his grandfather, according to draft -3), wounded through both ankles for trying to draw the sword; he is to -release Simei, burning in a fiery grave for that he once sinned against -Joseph of Arimathea (ch. lxvi). To this sufficiently long list the Grand -St. Graal adds the resoldering of the sword broken by Joseph—“Ha espée, -iamais ne sera resaudée deuant ke chil te tenra qui les hautes auentures -del Saint Graal devra asoumir†(II, 264); the delivery of Moys from out -the furnace where he burns, not for always “ains trouuera enchore merchi -et pardon. Mais che qu’il a mesfait, espanira il en tel manière qu’il en -sera en fu iusc’ a tant ke li boines chiualiers uenra†(II, 277). Moys -likewise speaks of Galahad as one who “achieura les auentures de la grant -bertaigne†(II, 279-80). Finally, Pelleur wounded (mehaigniés de ii -cuisses) “en vne bataille de rome†is to be released, “il ne peut garir de -la plaie deuant ke galaad, li tres boins chiualers, le vint visiter. Mais -lors sans faille gari il†(II, p. 373).</p> - -<p>The Queste knows nothing of Petrus, but in the Grand St. Graal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> he turns -up at the end in the same casual way as Brons, and converts King Luces -(II, 3356-3), <i>i.e.</i> is thus brought into connection with Geoffrey of -Monmouth’s form of the conversion of Britain legend.</p> - -<p>The foregoing statement confirms all that has previously been urged as to -the lateness of both Queste and Grand St. Graal. The author of the former -again shows himself a daring, but not over skilful, adapter of older -legends, the author of the latter an unintelligent compiler, whose sole -aim it is to lengthen out his story by the introduction of every incident -he can lay his hands upon. But although late, they may nevertheless throw -light upon the question which, of the two strongly differentiated accounts -of the object of the Grail quest which have been noted, has the better -claim to be looked upon as the older one. The Conte du Graal and the -Didot-Perceval agree, as has been seen, against the Metrical Joseph, in -making the main object of the Grail-seeker the healing of a maimed or the -release from life of a supernaturally old King. This <i>motif</i>, it is not -too much to say, is the pivot upon which in the Conte du Graal all turns; -in the Metrical Joseph it is barely hinted at.</p> - -<p>The Queste, if looked at closely, is found to bear witness to the Conte du -Graal form. As is seen from the summary (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_41">p. 41</a>, Inc. 12) it has -the very incident upon which so much stress is laid in Chrestien’s poem, -the visit to the Sick King, the omitted question, the consequent -misfortune. True, all this has been transferred from the original hero, -Perceval, to the father of the new hero Galahad, and, true, the final -object which the Queste proposes, in so far as it proposes any definite -object, to its Grail-seeker is of a different character. But the fact that -this object is not stated in the same way as in the Metrical Joseph, -whilst that found in the Conte du Graal <i>is</i> embodied though in a -different connexion, points unmistakably to what may be called the healing -<i>motif</i> as the older one. Here, again, the Metrical Joseph is in a -minority, and it is not even followed by that very version, the -Didot-Perceval, which has been ascribed to the same author, and claimed as -an integral portion of the same trilogy.<a name='fna_56' id='fna_56' href='#f_56'><small>[56]</small></a></p> - - -<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> -<p class="center"><i>Qualifications of the Promised Knight.</i></p> - -<p>Neither Chrestien, Gautier, nor Manessier lay any stress upon special -qualifications in the quest-hero for the achievement of his task. In -Chrestien, as already stated, (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_87">p. 87</a>), it is exclusively the sin -of which Perceval has been guilty in leaving his mother which prevents his -achieving the Quest at his first visit to the Grail Castle (v. 4,768-71 -and 7,766-74), whilst the continuator makes no attempt at any explanation -of the hero’s repeated failures. Not until Gerbert does a fresh <i>motif</i> -show itself in the poem, but then it is a remarkable one; if Perceval has -been hitherto unable to attain the goal he has so long striven for, it is -because he has been unfaithful to his first love, Blanchefleur (VI, p. -182); he must return and wed her before he is fit to learn the full secret -of the Grail.<a name='fna_57' id='fna_57' href='#f_57'><small>[57]</small></a></p> - -<p>The other Quest versions are on this point in striking contrast to -Chrestien. The words of C, Didot-Perceval, have already been noted, -(<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_89">p. 89</a>). Again the damsel, reproaching the hero after his first -failure, addresses him thus:—“Mès je sai bien por quoi tu l’ ás perdu, -por ceque tu ni es pas si sage ne si vaillant, ne n’as pas fet tant -d’armes; ne n’ies si prodons que tu doies avoir le sanc nostre (sire) en -guarde†(p. 467).</p> - -<p>It is significant to note in this connection that it is only after -Perceval has overcome all the best knights of the Round Table, including -Gawain (the companion hero, as will be shown later, of the oldest form of -the story), and thereby approved himself the best knight of the world, -that Merlin appears and directs him to the Grail Castle.<a name='fna_58' id='fna_58' href='#f_58'><small>[58]</small></a> The talk -about Holy Church would seem to be an addition, and the original ideal a -purely physical one.</p> - -<p>In the Queste the qualification of the hero has become the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> main feature -of the legend, the pivot upon which everything turns. The one thing -necessary is that the hero should be a virgin, and the story is one long -glorification of the supreme virtue of chastity. Yet even here the warlike -deeds of Galahad are dwelt upon in a way that points to a different ideal. -Traces, though slight ones, may be found in C, Didot-Perceval, of the -importance attached to the chastity of the hero; thus his hermit uncle -admonishes him, “ne vous chaille de gésir aveuc fame, quar cest un peché -luxurious et bien sachiez, que la pichié que vous avez fait, vous ont neu -à trover la maison Bron,†and in the adventure with the damsel of the -hound, although he had (p. 440) solicited her favours, and she had -promised them if he brought her the head of the white stag, yet (p. 470) -when he returns to her and she offers herself to him, he pleads his quest -as a reason for not even passing one night with her. In Gautier de -Doulens, on the contrary, everything passes in accordance with the -orthodox custom of the day—when knights were as punctual in demanding as -ladies scrupulous in granting the fulfilment of such bargains. But here, -again, references to chastity seem to be additions, and rather unskilful -ones, whilst in the Queste they are the vital spirit of the story.</p> - -<p>What results from the foregoing is much as follows:—</p> - -<p>The Perceval form of the Quest is certainly the older of the two, and -underlies in reality the Galahad form. When cleared from the admixture of -Christian mystic elements it appears as a coherent and straightforward -story, in which nothing necessarily presupposes the Early History. The -influence of the latter is, however, distinctly traceable. As far as -Chrestien himself is concerned, nothing can be asserted with certainty as -to the origin, extent, and nature of that influence; in the case of his -continuators it can be definitely referred to that form of the Early -History which is represented by the Queste and the Grand St. Graal (save -in the solitary instance of the Berne fragment of Gautier de Doulens). The -later in date the sections of the Conte du Graal, the more strongly marked -is the influence of the Early History, and <i>pari passu</i> the increasing -prominence given to the Christian mystic side of the Grail.</p> - -<p>Of the Early History two forms can be distinguished. In the one, Joseph -and the group of persons whom he converts in the East<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> are made the means -of bringing Christianity to Britain. The Grail is dwelt upon almost solely -in its most material aspect. This form is closely connected with the -Galahad Quest, and its chronology has been elaborately framed to correctly -bridge over the difference in time between the Apostolic and Arthurian -ages. It has also affected, as remarked above, the later versions of the -Perceval Quest. The second or Brons form knows nothing of the companions -of Joseph, who is only indirectly the means of the conversion of Britain, -the real evangelists being kinsmen of his who bear decided Celtic names. -These kinsmen are related as grandfather and father (or simply father or -uncle), to a hero whose exploits are to be dealt with in a sequel. There -is strong insistence upon the spiritual character of the Grail, which is -obviously intended to play an important part in the promised sequel. No -traces of this form are to be found in any version (saving always the -above-mentioned fragment of Gautier), until we come to the Grand St. -Graal, with which such portions as do not conflict with the Joseph form -are embodied.</p> - -<p>The Didot-Perceval, although formally in contact with the Brons Early -History, is not really the sequel announced in that work. It differs -profoundly from it in the most essential feature of the story, the nature -of the task laid upon the hero. Upon examination this appears to be of the -same nature as that of the Conte du Graal, with a seasoning of the -Christian mystic element. It was, however, <i>intended</i> for a sequel to the -Metrical Joseph, a fact which may be taken as a proof that Borron never -completed his plan of a Joseph-Merlin-Grail trilogy of which we possess -the first two parts.</p> - -<p>The first of the two points marked for investigation at the outset of this -chapter may thus be considered settled. The Quest is originally -independent of and older than the Early History. And although in no -instance can the versions of the former be said to be entirely free from -the influence of the latter, yet in the older forms the traces are such as -to be easily separated from the primitive elements of the story.</p> - -<p>The versions which have been examined may now be arranged in the following -order:—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(1) Chrestien’s portion of the Conte du Graal. The oldest form of the -Perceval Quest, but presupposing an Early History.</p> - -<p class="hang">(2) Gautier de Doulens followed Chrestien, in all probability, almost -immediately. Even less can be gathered from him than from Chrestien -respecting the earliest form of the Early History, but this is -probably represented by</p> - -<p class="hang">(3) Pseudo-Gautier, which in all likelihood gives the outline of the -work made use of by Queste and Grand St. Graal. Pseudo-Gautier is -almost certainly some years later than Gautier, as the Berne MS. -scribe found it necessary to seek for information in</p> - -<p class="hang">(4) Borron’s poem, probably written towards the end of the twelfth -century, but which for some reason remained unknown for a time, -although it afterwards, as evidenced by the number of MSS., became -popular. There is every reason to believe that Borron knew nothing of -any other Early History. His work, as we have it, is abridged and -arranged. Meanwhile</p> - -<p class="hang">(5) Queste had appeared. The author probably used the same Early -History as Pseudo-Gautier. He knew the Conte du Graal, and wrote in -opposition to it with a view to edification. He certainly knew nothing -of Borron’s poem, or he could not have failed, with his strong -mystical tendencies, to dwell upon the spiritual and symbolic -character of the Grail.</p> - -<p class="hang">(6) The Grand St. Graal, an earlier draft of the work, now known under -that title. Probably an enlarged version of the hypothetical original -Early History; wanting all the latter portions relating to Brons and -his group, which were added to it when Borron’s poem became known. -This work must have appeared before 1204 (in which year it is referred -to by Helinandus), and, as Chrestien wrote his poem about 1189-90, it -follows that at least half-a-dozen works belonging to the Grail cycle -came out in the last twelve years of the twelfth century.</p> - -<p class="hang">(7) Manessier and</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> - -<p class="hang">(8) Gerbert brought out independent endings to the Conte du Graal from -1216 to 1225. It was probably shortly after this time that Borron’s -poem became known, and that it was incorporated with the Grand St. -Graal, which assumed the shape under which it has come down to us.</p> - -<p class="hang">(9) The Didot-Perceval is probably the latest in date of all the -members of the cycle.</p></div> - -<p>Before proceeding to examine our second point, which is whether the Grail -itself really belongs to the original form of the Quest, or has been -introduced into the Quest versions from the Early History, it will be -advisable to summarise the opinions and researches of previous -investigators. Light will thus be thrown upon many points of interest -which have not received special examination in these pages. A theory of -the origin and development of the cycle, which is in many respects -directly opposed to the conclusions we have reached, will also be fully -set forth, and an opportunity will thus be given for testing by adverse -criticism the soundness of our method of investigation, and of the results -to which it has led us.</p> - - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> -<p class="center"><small>SKETCH OF THE LITERATURE CONNECTED WITH THE GRAIL CYCLE.</small></p> - -<div class="note"><p class="hang">Villemarqué—Halliwell—San Marte (A. -Schulz)—Simrock—Rochat—Furnivall’s reprint of the Grand St. Graal -and of Borron—J. F. Campbell—Furnivall’s Queste—Paulin -Paris—Potvin’s Conte du Graal—Bergmann—Skeat’s Joseph of -Arimathea—Hucher: Grail Celtic, date of Borron—Zarncke, Zur -Geschichte der Gralsage; Grail belongs to Christian -legend—Birch-Hirschfeld develops Zarncke’s views: Grand St. Graal -younger than Queste, both presuppose Chrestien and an earlier Queste, -the Didot-Perceval, which forms integral part of Borron’s trilogy; -Mabinogi later than Chrestien; various members of the cycle -dated—Martin combats Birch-Hirschfeld: Borron later than Chrestien, -whose poem represents oldest stage of the romance, which has its roots -in Celtic tradition—Hertz—Criticism of Birch-Hirschfeld.</p></div> - - -<p>Monsieur Th. de la Villemarqué’s researches form a convenient starting -point, both on account of the influence they exercised upon later -investigation, and because he was the first to state with fulness and -method the arguments for the Celtic origin of the legend. They appeared -originally in the volume entitled “Contes populaires des anciens Bretons -précédés d’un essai sur l’origine des épopées chevaleresques de la Table -Ronde†(Paris, 1842), and comprising a French translation of the -Mabinogion of Geraint and Peredur, with introductory essays and detailed -explanatory notes. The translation of Peredur is preceded by a study of -Chrestien’s poem, in which the following conclusions are stated: The Grail -is Celtic in origin, the French term being equivalent to the Welsh <i>per</i>, -and having a like meaning, basin. It is the Druidic basin alluded to by -Taliessin, the same which figures in the Mabinogi of Branwen, which -appears in the oldest folk-tales of Brittany, and which is sought for in -the twelfth century Mabinogi by Peredur, <i>i.e.</i>, the Basin-Seeker. The -original occult character of the Druidic basin, and of the lance, the -bardic symbol of undying hatred to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> the Saxon, disappears in the Mabinogi, -the tone and character of which are purely romantic. Composed among a -people comparatively unused to the chivalrous ideal, it breathes, however, -a rude and harsh spirit. But such as it is, it forms the groundwork of -Chrestien’s poem. Comparison between the two demonstrates the simple -character of the Welsh romance, and shows how the French poet sought to -transform it by an infusion of feudal courtliness and religious mysticism. -In its last stage of development the story reverts to its pristine, -occult, and mystic character.</p> - -<p>Much of what M. de la Villemarqué says is sound and telling; but, -unfortunately, although well aware that the French poem is the work of -three men and not of one, he yet treats it as an organic whole, and thus -deprives the larger part of his comparison of all value. Moreover, he -supports his thesis by arguments based upon a Breton poem (the story of -which is similar to that of Perceval’s youth), ascribed without the shadow -of evidence to the end of the tenth century.</p> - -<p>In 1861 M. de la Villemarqué reprinted his work with extensive additions, -under the title of “Les Romans de la Table Ronde et les Contes des Anciens -Bretons.†The section summarised above remained substantially unaltered, -but considerable extension was given to the author’s views concerning the -mode of development of the romances. The points chiefly insisted upon are: -the similarity of metre between the Welsh poem and the French metrical -romances; the delight of the Plantagenet kings in the Welsh traditions and -the favour showed them; and the early popularity of the Welsh and Breton -singers. Villemarqué’s last word upon the subject is that the Welsh -storytellers received from the ancient bards a pagan tradition, which, -changed in character and confounded with the Mystery of the Sacrament, -they handed on to the romance writers of Northern France and Germany, who -gave it a fresh and undying life.</p> - -<p>Villemarqué’s views were worked up by Mr. Baring Gould in his essay on the -Sangreal (“Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,†1867) and in this form or in -their original presentment won wide acceptance as the authoritative -exposition of the Celtic origin of the cycle.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>In England, Mr. Halliwell, when editing, in 1844, the Thornton Sir -Perceval, derived it from Chrestien and his continuators, in spite of the -omission of Lance and Grail, on account of the sequence of incidents being -the same. The Mabinogi is alluded to as an adaptation of Chrestien. The -supposition that Perceval’s nick-name, “le Gallois,†implies the Welsh -origin of the story is rejected as absurd.</p> - -<p>In Germany the Grail-cycle formed the subject of careful investigation on -the part of San Marte (A. Schulz) for some years prior to 1840. From 1836 -to 1842 he brought out a modern German translation of Wolfram von -Eschenbach’s Parzival, accompanied by an elaborate essay on the genesis of -the legend, and in 1841, “Die Arthur-Sage und die Mährchen des rothen -Buchs von Hergest.†In the latter work a careful analysis of the Mabinogi -leads to the following conclusions:—Locale and persons are purely Welsh; -tone and character are older than the age of the Crusades and Knighthood; -it may be looked upon with confidence as the oldest known source of the -Perceval <i>sage</i>. In comparing the Mabinogi with Kiot’s (<i>i.e.</i>, Wolfram’s) -version, stress is laid upon the task imposed upon Peredur, which is held -to be different in character and independent in origin from the Grail -Quest in Kiot. The Thornton Sir Perceval is claimed as the representative -of an early Breton <i>jongleur</i> poem which knew nothing of the Grail story. -In the former work Wolfram von Eschenbach’s poem is accepted, so far as -its framework is concerned, as a faithful echo of Kiot’s, the Provencal -origin of which is proved by its Oriental and Southern allusions. The -Provencals may have obtained the Peredur <i>sage</i> direct from Brittany, they -at any rate fused it with the Grail legend. Their version is an artistic -whole, whereas the North French one is a confused string of adventures. -Chrestien’s share in the latter is rightly distinguished from that of his -continuators, and these are dated with fair accuracy. Robert de Borron is -mentioned, but as a thirteenth century adapter of earlier prose versions; -the Grand St. Graal is placed towards the middle of the thirteenth -century. In analysing the Joseph of Arimathea form of the legend, the -silence of the earlier British historians concerning Joseph’s -evangelisation of Britain is noted, and 1140 is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> given as the earliest -date of this part of the legend. The captivity of Joseph arises probably -from a confusion between him and Josephus. There is no real connection -between the Joseph legend and that of the Grail. Wolfram’s Templeisen -agree closely with the Templars, one of the main charges against whom was -their alleged worship of a head from which they expected riches and -victuals, and to which they ascribed the power of making trees and flowers -to bloom.<a name='fna_59' id='fna_59' href='#f_59'><small>[59]</small></a></p> - -<p>San Marte’s translation of Wolfram was immediately (1842) followed by -Simrock’s, whose notes are mainly directed against his predecessor’s views -on the origin and development of the Grail legend. The existence of Kiot -is contested; the <i>differentia</i> between Wolfram and Chrestien are unknown -to Provençal, but familiar to German, poetry. The Grail myth in its oldest -form is connected with John the Baptist. Thus in the Mabinogi the Grail is -represented by a head in a platter; the head the Templars were accused of -worshipping has probably the same origin; the Genoese preserved the Sacro -Catino, identified by them with the Grail, in the chapel of St. John the -Baptist; Chrestien mentions with especial significance, St. John’s Eve -(Midsummer Eve). The head of St. John the Baptist, found, according to the -legend, in the fourth century, was carried later to Constantinople, where -in the eleventh century it is apparently used to keep an emperor from -dying (even as of the Grail, it is told, no one could die the day he saw -it). If Wolfram cuts out the references to the Baptist, <i>en revanche</i> he -brings Prester John into the story. The essential element in the Grail is -the blood in the bowl, symbol of creative power as is the Baptist’s head, -both being referable to the summer equinox. Associated with John the -Baptist is Herodias, who takes the place of an old Germanic goddess, -Abundia, as John does of Odin or Baldur.<a name='fna_60' id='fna_60' href='#f_60'><small>[60]</small></a> The essence of the myth is -the reproductive power of the blood of the slain god (Odin-Hackelberend, -Baldur,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> Adonis, Osiris). As the Grail may only be seen by those to whom -God’s grace is granted, so in the German folk-tale the entrance to the -hollow mounds wherein lies treasure or live elves is only visible to -Sunday children or pure youths. Thus, too, no man may find the grave of -Hackelberg (Odin). Such caves, when entered, close upon the outgoing -mortal as the Grail Castle portcullis closes upon Parzival. Many of -Gauvain’s adventures appear in German folk-tradition. As to Parzival’s -youth “it cannot be doubted that we have here a variation of the Great -Fool folk-tale (Dummling’s Märchen) found among all people. It is hard to -say what people possessing this tale brought it into contact, either by -tradition or in writing, with the Grail story, but that people would have -the first claim among whom it is found in an independent form.†The -Mabinogi explanation of the Grail incident is unacceptable, and the -Mabinogi itself is later than Chrestien, as is shown by its foolish -invention of the witches of Gloucester, and by its misrendering the -incident of the dwarves greeting Peredur. In the original folk-tale the -ungainly hero was <i>laughed at</i>, not greeted. The Thornton Sir Perceval may -possibly contain an older version of Perceval’s youth than any found -elsewhere. Wolfram’s poem represents, however, the oldest and purest form -of the Grail myth, which, originally pagan, only became fully -Christianised in the hands of the later North French poets.</p> - -<p>Simrock’s speculations, though marred by his standing tendency to claim -over much for German tradition, are full of his usual acute and ingenious, -if somewhat fanciful, learning. His ignorance of Celtic tradition -unfortunately prevented his following up the hint given in the passage -quoted above which I have adopted as one of the mottoes of the present -work.</p> - -<p>In 1855 Rochat published (“Ueber einen bisher unbekannten Percheval li -Gallois,†Zurich) selections from a Berne MS. containing part of Gautier -de Doulens’ continuation of Chrestien (v. 21,930 to end, with thirteen -introductory and fifty-six concluding original lines, <i>cf.</i> p. 19), and -entered at some length into the question of the origin and development of -the Grail legend. The Mabinogi, contrary to San Marte’s opinion, is placed -after Chrestien. Villemarqué’s ballad of Morvan le Breiz is the oldest -form of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> Perceval <i>sage</i>, then comes the Thornton Sir Perceval, a -genuine popular production derived probably from a Welsh original. In -spite of what San Marte says, the Grail incident is found in the Mabinogi, -and it might seem as if Chrestien had simply amplified the latter. On San -Marte’s theory of the (Southern) origin of the Grail myth, this, however, -is impossible, and the fact that the Mabinogi contains this incident is a -proof of its lateness.</p> - -<p>Up to 1861 all writers upon the Grail legend were under this disadvantage, -that they had no complete text of any part of the cycle before them,<a name='fna_61' id='fna_61' href='#f_61'><small>[61]</small></a> -and were obliged to trust largely to extracts and to more or less -carefully compiled summaries. In that year Mr. Furnivall, by the issue for -the Roxburghe Club of the Grand St. Graal, together with a reprint of -Robert de Borron’s poem (first edited in 1841 by M. Franc. Michel), -provided students with materials of first-rate importance. His -introductory words are strongly against the Celtic origin of the story, -and are backed up by a quotation from Mr. D. W. Nash, in which that -“authority who really knows his subject†gives the measure of his critical -acumen by the statement that the Mabinogi of Peredur can have nothing to -do with the earliest form of the legend, because “in Sir T. Malory, -Perceval occupies the second place to Galahad.†In fact, neither the -editor nor Mr. Nash seems to have tried to place the different versions, -and their assertions are thus of little value, though they contributed, -nevertheless, to discredit the Celtic hypothesis. San Marte, in an essay -prefixed to the first volume, repeated his well-known views respecting the -source of Wolfram’s poems, and, incidentally, protested against the idea -that the Mabinogi is but a Welshified French romance.</p> - -<p>In 1862 the accomplished editor of the “Popular Tales of the West -Highlands,†Mr. J. F. Campbell, published in his second volume (p. 152) -some remarks on the Story of the Lay of the Great Fool, which ended thus, -“I am inclined ... to consider this ‘Lay’ as one episode in the adventures -of a Celtic hero, who, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> the twelfth century became Perceval le -chercheur du basin. He too, was poor, and the son of a widow, and half -starved, and kept in ignorance by his mother, but, nevertheless ... in the -end he became possessed of that sacred basin, le Saint Graal, and the holy -lance, which, though Christian in the story, are manifestly the same as -the Gaelic talismans which appear so often in Gaelic tales, and which have -relations in all popular lore—the glittering weapon which destroys, and -the sacred medicinal cup which cures.†I have taken these words as a motto -for my studies, which are, indeed, but an amplification of Mr. Campbell’s -statement. Had the latter received the attention it deserved, had it, for -instance, fallen into the hands of a scholar to whom Simrock’s words -quoted on <a href="#Page_101">p. 101</a> were familiar, there would, in all probability, have been -no occasion for the present work.</p> - -<p>The publication of texts was continued by Mr. Furnivall’s issue, in 1864, -for the Roxburghe Club, of the Quête del Saint Graal from a British Museum -MS. The opening of twelve MSS. from the Bibliothèque Nationale is likewise -given, and shows substantial unity between them and Mr. Furnivall’s text. -In 1868 Mons. Paulin Paris published, in the first volume of his “Romans -de la Table Ronde,†a general introduction to the Round Table cycle, and a -special study upon the Metrical Joseph and the Grand St. Graal. A large -share of influence is assigned to Celtic traditions through the medium of -Breton <i>lais</i>. The Early History of the Grail is a British legend, and -embodies the national and schismatic aspirations of the British Church. -The date given in the prologue to the Grand St. Graal, and repeated by -Helinandus, is accepted as the genuine date of a redaction of the legend -substantially the same as that found later in the Grand St. Graal. The -word “Grail†is connected with the Latin <i>gradale</i>, modern gradual, and -designated the book in which the tradition was first written down. The -Grand St. Graal is anterior to Chrestien’s poem, and Robert de Borron’s -poem in the first draft preceded the Grand St. Graal, and was written -between 1160 and 1170, but he subsequently revised it towards 1214, as is -shown by his alluding, l. 3,490, “O mon seigneur, Gauter <i>en peis</i>†(where -the underlined words are equivalent to the Latin <i>in pace</i>) to Gautier of -Montbeliard in the past tense. From<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> 1868 to 1870 M. Potvin brought out -his edition of the Conte du Graal, and of the prose Perceval le Gallois -from Mons MSS. In the after-words priority is claimed for the latter -romance over all other members of the cycle, and three stages are -distinguished in the development of the legend—Welsh national—militant -Christian—knightly—the prose romance belonging to the second stage, and -dating substantially from the eleventh century. The lance and basin are -originally pagan British symbols, and between the lines of the Grail -legend may be read a long struggle between heretic Britain and orthodox -Rome. The Perceval form of the Quest is older than the Galahad one. The -Joseph of Arimathea forms are the latest, and among these the Grand St. -Graal the earliest.</p> - -<p>Conclusions as paradoxical as some of these appear in Dr. Bergmann’s “The -San Grëal, an Enquiry into the Origin and Signification of the Romance of -the S. G.,†Edinburgh, 1870. The idea of the Grail is due entirely to -Guyot, as also its connection with the Arthurian cycle. Chrestien followed -Guyot, but alters the character of the work, for which he is reproved by -Wolfram, who may be looked upon as a faithful representative of the -earlier poet. Chrestien’s alterations are intended to render the poem more -acceptable in knightly circles. On the other hand Walter Map found Guyot -too secular and heretical, and wrote from a purely ecclesiastical -standpoint the Latin version of the legend in which the Grail is -associated with Joseph of Arimathea. This version forms the basis of -Robert de Borron, author of the Grand St. Graal and of the continuators of -Chrestien. Although Bergmann denies the Celtic origin of the Grail itself, -he incidentally accepts the authenticity of the Mabinogi of Peredur, and -admits that the whole framework of the story is Celtic.</p> - -<p>In the endeavour to prove the paradox that one of the latest, most highly -developed, and most mystic of all the versions of the legend (viz., -Wolfram’s) really represents the common source of them all, Bergmann is -compelled to make the most gratuitous assumptions, as a specimen of which -may be quoted the statement that the <i>roi-pecheur</i> is originally the -<i>sinner</i> king, and that it is by mistake that the North French <i>trouvères</i> -represent him as a <i>fisher</i>.</p> - -<p>Bergmann’s views passed comparatively unnoticed. They are,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> indeed, -alluded to with approval in Professor Skeat’s edition of Joseph of -Arimathea, a fourteenth century alliterative abridgement of the Grand St. -Graal (E. E. Text Soc., 1871). In the editor’s preface the Glastonbury -traditions concerning the evangelisation of Britain by Joseph are taken as -a starting point, two parts being distinguished in them, the one -<i>legendary</i>, tallying with William of Malmesbury’s account, and, perhaps, -of considerable antiquity, the other <i>fabulous</i>, introducing the -personages and incidents of the romances and undoubtedly derived from -them. Some twenty years after the publication of the “Historia Britonum†-Walter Map probably wrote a Latin poem, from which Robert de Borron, the -Grand St. Graal, and, perhaps, the other works of the cycle were derived. -“Grail†is a bowl or dish. Chrestien may have borrowed his Conte du Graal -from Map; the “Quest†is probably an after-thought of the romance writers.</p> - -<p>Speculations such as these were little calculated to further the true -criticism of the Grail cycle. Some few years later, in 1875, the then -existing texts were supplemented by M. Hucher’s work, so often quoted in -these pages. In an introduction and notes displaying great research and -ingenuity, the following propositions are laid down:—The Grail is Celtic -in origin, and may be seen figured upon pre-Christian Gaulish coins. -Robert de Borron’s poem may be called the Petit St. Graal, and its author -was a lord of like-named territory near Fontainebleau, who between 1147 -and 1164 made large gifts to the Abbey of Barbeaux, which gifts are -confirmed in 1169 by Simon, son of said Robert. About 1169 Robert came to -England, met Walter Map, and was initiated by him into the knowledge of -the Arthurian romance, and of the legend of the Holy Grail. Between 1170 -and 1199 he entered the service of Walter of Montbeliard and wrote (in -prose) the Joseph of Arimathea and the Merlin. At a later period he -returned to England, and wrote, in conjunction with Map, the Grand St. -Graal. This is shown by MS. 2,455 Bibl. Nat. (of the Grand St. Graal): “Or -dist li contes qui est estrais de toutes les ystoires, sî come Robers de -Borons le translatait de latin en romans, à l’ayde de maistre Gautier -Map.†But Hélie de Borron, author of the Tristan and of Guiron le -Courtois, calls Robert his friend and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> kinsman. Hélie has been placed -under Henry III, who has been assumed to be the Henry to whom he dedicates -his work; if so can he be the friend of Robert, who wrote some fifty years -earlier? Hélie should, however, be placed really under Henry II. Robert -wrote originally in prose; the poem contains later etymological and -grammatical forms, though it has occasionally preserved older ones; -besides in v. 2,817 etc. (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_83">p. 83</a>) it refers to the deliverance of -Moys by the Promised Knight, and thus implies knowledge of the Grand St. -Graal; this passage is omitted by most of the prose versions, thus -obviously older. Then the poem is silent as to the Christianising of -Britain mentioned by one prose version (C.). We may accept Borron’s -statement as to his having dealt later with the histories of Moys and -Petrus, and as to his drawing his information from a Latin original. -Merlin is the pivot of Borron’s conception. In comparing the third part of -his trilogy (Joseph of Arimathea, Merlin, Perceval) with Chrestien it must -be born in mind that Chrestien reproduces rather the English -(Joseph—Galahad), than the French (Brons—Perceval) form of the Quest, -and this, although the framework of Chrestien and Robert’s Perceval is -substantially the same. Chrestien’s work was probably preceded by one in -which the Peredur story as found in the Mabinogi was already adapted to -the Christianised Grail legend. There are frequent verbal resemblances -between Robert and Chrestien (<i>i.e.</i>, Gautier, Hucher never distinguishing -between Chrestien and his continuators) which show a common original for -both. It is remarkable that Chrestien should never mention Brons, and that -there should be such a difference in the stories of the Ford Perillous and -the Ford Amorous. It is also remarkable that Robert, in his Perceval, -should complain that the <i>trouvères</i> had not spoken of the Good Friday -incident which is to be found in Chrestien.</p> - -<p>M. Hucher failed in many cases to see the full significance of the facts -he brought to light, owing to his incorrect conception of the development -of the cycle as a whole, and of the relation of its component parts one to -the other. He made, however, an accurate survey of the cycle possible. The -merit of first essaying such a survey belongs to Zarncke in his admittedly -rough sketch, “Zur Geschichte<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> der Gralsage,†published in the third -volume (1876) of Paul and Braune’s Beitraege.—The various forms may be -grouped as follows: (1) Borron’s poem, (2) Grand St. Graal, (3) Quête, (4) -Chrestien, (5 and 6) Chrestien’s continuators, (7) Didot MS. Perceval, (8) -Prose Perceval li Gallois. Neither the Spanish-Provencal nor the Celtic -origin of the legend is admissible; it has its source wholly in the -apocryphal legends of Joseph of Arimathea, in which two stages may be -distinguished; the first represented by the Gesta Pilati and the Narratio -Josephi, which tell how Christ appeared to Joseph in prison and released -him therefrom; the second by the Vindicta Salvatoris, which combines the -legends of the healing of Tiberius with that of Titus or Vespasian. Joseph -being thus brought into contact with Titus, the space of time between the -two is accounted for by the forty years captivity, and the first hint was -given of a miraculous sustaining power of the Grail. Borron’s poem is -still purely legendary in character; the fish caught by the rich fisher is -the symbol of Christ; the incident of the waiting for the Promised Knight -belongs, however, not to the original tradition but to a later style of -Christian mysticism. The Grand St. Graal and the Quête extend and develop -the <i>donnée</i> of the poem, whilst in Chrestien tone, atmosphere, and -framework are profoundly modified, yet there is no reason to postulate for -Chrestien any other sources than Nos. 1-3, the differences being such as -he was quite capable of deliberately introducing. As for No. 7 (the -Didot-Perceval) it is later than Chrestien and his continuators, and has -used both. Wolfram von Eschenbach had only Chrestien for his model, Kiot’s -poem being a feigned source. The legend of the conversion of Britain by -Joseph is no genuine British tradition; William of Malmesbury’s account of -Glastonbury is a pamphlet written to order of the Norman Kings, and -incapable of serving as a representative of Celtic tradition. The passages -therein relating to Joseph are late interpolations, disagreeing with the -remainder of his work and disproved by the silence of all contemporary -writers.</p> - -<p>Zarncke’s acute article was a praiseworthy attempt to construct a working -hypothesis of the growth of the cycle. But it is full of grave -misconceptions, as was, perhaps, inevitable in a hasty survey<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> of such an -immense body of literature. The versions are “placed†most incorrectly. -The argumentation is frequently marred by <i>a priori</i> reasoning, such as -that Chrestien, the acknowledged leading poet of the day, could not have -copied Kiot, and by untenable assertions, such as that Bran, in the -Mabinogi of Branwen, the daughter of Llyr, is perhaps a distant echo of -Hebron in Robert de Borron’s poem. He had, however, the great merit of -clearing the ground for his pupil, A. Birch-Hirschfeld, and urging him to -undertake what still remains the most searching and exhaustive survey of -the whole cycle: “Die Sage vom Gral,†etc. As Birch-Hirschfeld’s analysis -is at present the only basis for sound criticism, I shall give his views -fully:—The Grand St. Graal, as the fullest of the versions dealing with -the Early History of the Grail, is the best starting-point for -investigation. From its pronounced religious tone monkish authorship may -be inferred. Its treatment of the subject is not original as is shown by -(1) the repetition <i>ad nauseam</i> of the same motive (<i>e.g.</i>, that of the -lance wound four times), (2) the pedigrees, (3) the allusions to -adventures not dealt with in the book, and in especial to the Promised -Knight. The testimony of Helinand (see <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_52">p. 52</a>), which is of -first-rate importance, does not allow of a later date for the Grand St. -Graal than 1204. On turning to the Queste it is remarkable that though -sometimes found in the MSS. in conjunction with the Grand St. Graal it is -also found with the Lancelot, and, when the hero’s parentage is -considered, it seems more likely that it was written to supplement the -latter than the former work. This supposition is adverse to any claim it -may lay to being held the earliest treatment of the subject, as it is -highly improbable that the Grail legend occupied at the outset such an -important place in the Arthurian romance as is thus accorded to it. Such a -claim is further negatived by the fact that the Queste has three heroes, -the second of whom is obviously the original one of an older version. In -estimating the relationship between the Grand St. Graal and the Queste it -should be borne in mind that the latter, in so far as it deals with the -Early History, mentions only Joseph, Josephe, Evelach (Mordrain) and -Seraphe (Nascien), from whom descends Galahad; that it brings Joseph to -England, and that it does not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> give any explanation of the nature of the -Grail itself. It omits Brons, Alain, the explanation of the name “rich -fisherman,†the name of Moys, although his story is found in substantially -the same shape as in the Grand St. Graal, and is silent as to the origin -of the bleeding lance. If it were younger than and derived from the Grand -St. Graal alone, these points, all more important for the Early History -than the Mordrain episodes would surely have been dwelt upon. But then if -the Grand St. Graal is the younger work, whence does it derive Brons, -Alain, and Petrus, all of whom are introduced in such a casual way? There -was obviously a previous Early History which knew nothing of Josephe or of -Mordrain and his group, the invention of the author of the Queste, whence -they passed into the Grand St. Graal, and were fused in with the older -form of the legend. There is, moreover, a positive reference on the part -of the Grand St. Graal to the Queste (vol. ii., p. 225). The author of the -Queste introduced his new personages for the following reasons: He had -already substituted Galahad for the original hero, and to enhance his -importance gives him a fictitious descent from a companion of Joseph. From -his model he learnt of Joseph’s wanderings in the East, hence the Eastern -origin of the Mordrain group. In the older form the Grail had passed into -the keeping of Joseph’s nephew, in the Queste the Promised Knight descends -from the nephew of Mordrain; Brons, as the ancestor of the original Quest -hero necessarily disappears in the Queste, and his place is in large -measure taken by Josephe. The priority of the Queste over the Grand St. -Graal, and the use of the former by the latter may thus be looked upon as -certain. But if Mordrain is the invention of the Queste, what is the -meaning of his illness, of his waiting for the Promised Knight, of the -bleeding lance, and of the lame king whom it heals? These seem to have no -real connection with the Grail, and are apparently derived from an older -work, namely, Chrestien’s Conte du Graal.</p> - -<p>Chrestien’s work, which ended at v. 10,601, may be dated as having been -begun not later than 1189 (<i>vide supra</i>, <a href="#Page_4">p. 4</a>). Its unfinished state -accounts for its having so little positive information about the Grail, as -Chrestien evidently meant to reserve this information for the end of the -story. But this very freedom with which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> the subject is handled is a proof -that he had before him a work whence he could extract and adapt as he saw -fit; moreover we have (Prologue, v. 475, etc.) his own words to that -effect. With Chrestien’s account of the Grail—a bowl bejewelled, of -wondrous properties, borne by a maiden, preceded by a bleeding lance, -accompanied by a silver plate, guarded by a king wounded through both -ankles (whose only solace is fishing, whence his surname), ministering to -the king’s father, sought for by Perceval, nephew to the fisher king, its -fate bound up with a question which the seeker must put concerning it—may -be compared that of the Queste, in which nothing is known of a question by -which the Grail kingship may be obtained (although it relates the same -incident of Lancelot), which knows not of one wounded king, centre of the -action, but of two, both of secondary importance (though possibly -Chrestien’s Fisher King’s father may have given the hint for Mordrain), in -which the lance is of minor importance instead of being on the same level -as the Grail. Is it not evident that the Queste took over these features -from Chrestien, compelled thereto by the celebrity of the latter’s -presentment? The Queste thus presupposes the following works: a Lancelot, -an Early History, a Quest other than that of Chrestien’s, and finally -Chrestien as the lame king and lance features show. It thus falls between -1189 (Chrestien begun) and 1204 (Grand St. Graal ended).</p> - -<p>With respect to the three continuators of Chrestien it would seem that -Gautier de Doulens’ account of the Grail, as found in the Montpellier MS., -knowing as it does only of Joseph, and making the Fisher King and Perceval -descendants of his, belongs to an older stage of development than that of -Manessier and Gerbert, both of whom are familiar with the Mordrain group, -and follows that of the original version upon which both the Queste and -the Grand St. Graal are based. There is nothing to show that Gautier knew -of the Queste, whilst from Gautier the Queste may have possibly have taken -Perceval’s sister and the broken sword. Gautier would thus seem to have -written immediately after Chrestien, and before the Queste, <i>i.e.</i>, about -1195. As for the date of the other two continuators, the fact of their -having used the Queste is only one proof of the lateness of their -composition (as to the date of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> which see <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_4">p. 4</a>). It must be noted -that whilst in their account of the Grail Chrestien’s continuators are in -substantial accord with the Queste versions, and yet do not contradict -Chrestien himself, they add considerably to his account of the lance. This -is readily explained by the fact that as Chrestien gave no information -respecting the origin of either of the relics, they, the continuators, had -to seek such information elsewhere; they found all they could wish -respecting the Grail, but nothing as to the lance, the latter having been -first introduced by Chrestien, and the Queste versions knowing nothing -respecting it beyond what he told. Thus, thrown upon their own resources, -they hit upon the device of identifying the lance with the spear with -which Jesus was pierced as He hung on the Cross. This idea, a most natural -one, may possibly have been in Chrestien’s intent, and <i>may</i> have been -suggested to him by the story of the discovery of the Holy Lance in -Antioch half a century before. It must, however, be admitted that the -connection of the lance with the Grail legend in its earliest form is very -doubtful, and that Celtic legends may possibly have furnished it to -Chrestien, and indicated the use to which he intended putting it. The -analysis, so far, of the romances has resulted in the presupposition of an -earlier form; this earlier form, the source or basis of all the later -versions of the legend, exists in the so-called Petit St. Graal of Robert -de Borron. Of this work, found in two forms, a prose and a poetic one, the -poetic form, <i>pace</i> Hucher, is obviously the older, Hucher’s proofs of -lateness going merely to show that the sole existing MS. is a recent one, -and has admitted new speech-forms;<a name='fna_62' id='fna_62' href='#f_62'><small>[62]</small></a> moreover the prose versions derive -evidently from one original. The greater simplicity of the poem as -compared with the Grand St. Graal proves its anteriority in that case; -Paulin Paris’ hypothesis that the poem in its present state is a second -draft, composed after the author had made acquaintance with the Grand St. -Graal, is untenable, the poem’s reference (v. 929 etc.) to the “grant -livre†and to the “grant estoire dou Graal,†written by “nul home qui -fust<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> mortal†(v. 3,495-6) not being to the Grand St. Graal, but having, -on the contrary, probably suggested to the writer of the latter his -fiction of Christ’s being the real author of his work. The Grand St. Graal -used the poem conjointly with the Queste, piecing out the one version by -help of the other, and thereby entirely missing the sequence of ideas in -the poem, which is as follows: Sin, the cause of want among the people; -the separation of the pure from the impure by means of the fish (symbol of -Christ) caught by Brons, which fish does not feed the people, but, in -conjunction with the Grail, severs the true from the false disciples; -punishment of the self-willed false disciple; reward of Brons by charge of -the Grail. In the Grand St. Graal, on the contrary, the fish is no symbol, -but actual food, a variation which must be laid to the account of the -Queste. In a similar way the two Alains in the Grand St. Graal may be -accounted for, the one as derived from the poem, the second from the -Queste. As far as conception is concerned, the later work is no advance -upon the earlier one. To return to Borron’s work, which consists of three -sections; there is no reason to doubt his authorship of the second, -Merlin, or of the third, Perceval, although one MS. only of the former -mentions the fact, and it is, moreover, frequently found in connection -with other romances, in especial with the Lancelot; as for Perceval, the -silence of the unique MS. as to Borron is no argument, as it is equally -silent in the Joseph of Arimathea section. All outward circumstances go to -show that Borron divided his work into three parts, Joseph, Merlin, -Perceval. But, if so, the last part must correspond in a fair measure to -the first one; recollect, however, that we are dealing with a poet of but -little invention or power of giving unity to discordant themes, and must -not expect to find a clearly traced plan carried out in every detail. Thus -the author’s promise in Joseph to speak later of Moses and Petrus seems -not to be fulfilled, but this is due to Borron’s timidity in the invention -of new details. What <i>is</i> said of Moses does not disagree with the Joseph, -whereas a later writer would probably follow the Grand St. Graal account; -as for Petrus he is to be recognised in the hermit Perceval’s uncle. There -may be some inconsistency here, but Borron <i>can</i> be inconsistent, as is -shown by his treatment of Alain,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> who at first vows to remain virgin, and -afterwards marries. But a graver argument remains to be met; the lance -occurs in Perceval—now <i>ex hypothesi</i> the first introduction of the lance -is due to Chrestien. The lance, however, only occurs in two passages, both -obviously interpolated. The identity of authorship is evident when the -style and phraseology of the two works are compared; in both the Grail is -always <i>li graaux</i> or else <i>li veissel</i>, not as with the later versions, -<i>li saint graaux</i>; both speak of <i>la grace dou graal</i>; in both the Grail -is <i>bailli</i> to its keeper, who has it <i>en guarde</i>; the empty seat is <i>li -liu vit</i>, not the <i>siège perilleux</i>. The central conception, too, is the -same—the Trinity of Grail-keepers symbolising the Divine Trinity. The -secret words given by Christ with the Grail to Joseph in prison, by him -handed on to Brons, are confided at the end of the Perceval by Brons to -the hero—and there is no trace of the Galahad form of the Quest, as would -inevitably have been the case had the Perceval been posterior in date to -the Queste. As the Perceval is connected with the Joseph, so it is equally -with the Merlin; it is remarkable that neither Merlin nor Blaise play a -prominent part in the Queste versions, but in Borron’s poem Merlin is the -necessary binding link between the Apostolic and Arthurian ages. Again the -whole character of the Perceval speaks for its being one of the earliest -works of the cycle; either it must have used Chrestien and Gautier or they -it; if the former, is it credible that just those adventures which were -necessary to supply the ending to the Joseph could have been picked out? -But it is easy to follow the way in which Chrestien used the Perceval; -having the three-part poem before him he took the third only for his -canvas, left out all that in it related to the first two parts, all, -moreover, that related to the origin and early history of the Grail; the -story of the childhood is half indicated in the Perceval, and Chrestien -may have had Breton lays with which to help himself out; all relating to -the empty seat is left out as reaching back into the Early History; the -visit to Gurnemanz is introduced to supply a motive for the hero’s conduct -at the Grail Castle; the wound of the Fisher King is again only an attempt -of Chrestien’s to supply a more telling motive; as for the sword Chrestien -invented it; as he also did the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> Grail-messenger, whose portrait he copied -from that of Rosette la Blonde. The order of the last episodes is altered -by Chrestien sensibly for the better, as, with him, Perceval’s doubt comes -first, then the Good Friday reproof, then the confession to and absolution -by the hermit; whereas in the Perceval the hero after doubt, reproof, and -absolution rides off again a-tourneying, and requires a second reproof at -Merlin’s hands. It is easy to see here which is the original, which the -copy. Chrestien thus took with clear insight just what he wanted in the -Perceval to fit out his two heroes with adventures.<a name='fna_63' id='fna_63' href='#f_63'><small>[63]</small></a> As for Borron’s -guiding conception, his resolve to have nothing to do with the Early -History made him neglect it entirely; he only cared to produce a knightly -poem, and we find, in consequence, that he has materialised all the -spiritual elements of his model. Gautier de Doulens’ method of proceeding -was much simpler: he took over all those adventures that Chrestien -purposely left out, and they may be found brought together (verses -22,390-27,390) with but few episodes (Perceval’s visit to Blanchefleur, -etc.) entirely foreign to the model amongst them.<a name='fna_64' id='fna_64' href='#f_64'><small>[64]</small></a> The Perceval cannot -be later than Gautier, as otherwise it could not stand in such close -relationship to the Joseph and Merlin; it must, therefore, be the source -of the Conte du Graal, and a necessary part of Borron’s poem, which in its -entirety is the first attempt to bring the Joseph of Arimathea legend into -connection with the Arthur <i>sage</i>. The question as to the origin of the -Grail would thus seem answered, the Christian legendary character of -Borron’s conception being evident; but there still remains the possibility -that that conception is but the Christianised form of an older folk-myth. -Such a one has been sought for in Celtic tradition. The part played by -Merlin in the trilogy might seem to lend colour to such an hypothesis, but -his connection with the legend is a purely artificial one. Nor is the -theory of a Celtic origin strengthened by reference to the Mabinogi of -Peredur. This knows nought of Merlin, and is nearer to Chrestien than to -the Didot-Perceval, and may, indeed, be looked upon as simply a clumsy -retelling of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> Conte du Graal with numerous additions. A knowledge of -the Didot-Perceval on Chrestien’s part must be presupposed, as where could -he have got the Fisher King and Grail Castle save from a poem which dealt -with the Early History of the Grail, a thing the Mabinogi does not do. -But, it may be said, Chrestien used the Mabinogi conjointly with Borron’s -poem. That the Welsh tale is, on the contrary, only a copy is apparent -from the following considerations:—It mixes up Gurnemanz and the Fisher -King; it puts in the mouth of Peredur’s <i>mother</i> an exclamation about the -knights, “Angels they are my son,†obviously misread from Perceval’s -exclamation to the same effect in Chrestien’s poem; <i>Perceval’s</i> -love-trance over the three blood drops in the snow is explained in -Chrestien by the hero’s passion for Blanchefleur, but is quite -inexplicable in the Mabinogi; again, in the Welsh tale, the lance and -basin episode is quite a secondary one, a fact easily explained if it is -looked upon as a vague reminiscence of Chrestien’s unfinished work; -moreover the Mabinogi lays great stress upon the lance, which has already -been shown to belong to a secondary stage in the development of the -legend. Again the word Graal occurs frequently in old Welsh literature, -and invariably in its French form, never translated by any equivalent -Welsh term. As for the name Peredur, it is understandable that the Welsh -storyteller should choose the name of a national hero, instead of the -foreign name Perceval; the etymology Basin-Seeker is untenable. There is -no real analogy between the Grail and the magic cauldron of Celtic fable, -which is essentially one of renovation, whereas the Grail in the second -stage only acquires miraculous feeding, and in the third stage healing -powers. It is of course not impossible that such adventures in the -Mabinogi, as cannot be referred directly to Chrestien, may belong to a -genuine Peredur <i>sage</i>.</p> - -<p>The question then arises—was Robert de Borron a simple copyist, or is the -legend in its present form due to him, <i>i.e.</i>, did <i>he</i> first join the -Joseph of Arimathea and Grail legends, or had he a predecessor? Now the -older Joseph legends know nothing of his wandering in company of a -miraculous vessel, Zarncke having shown the lateness of the one commonly -ascribed to William of Malmesbury. Nor is it likely Borron had before him -a local French<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> legend as Paulin Paris (Romania, vol. i.) had supposed; -would he in that case have brought the Grail to England, and left Joseph’s -fate in uncertainty? The bringing the Grail to England is simply the -logical consequence of his conception of the three Grail-keepers (the -third of British blood), symbolising the Trinity, and of the relation of -the Arthurian group to this central conception; where the third -Grail-keeper and the third of the three wondrous tables were, there the -Grail must also be. What then led Borron to connect the sacramental vessel -with the Joseph legend? In answering this question the later miraculous -properties of the Grail must be forgotten, and it must be remembered that -with Borron it is only a vessel of “grace;†this is shown in the history -of (Moys) the false disciple, which obviously follows in its details the -account of the Last Supper, and of the detection of Judas by means of the -dish into which Jesus dips a sop, bidding the betrayer take and eat. -Borron’s first table being an exact copy of the Last Supper one, <i>his</i> -holy vessel has the property of that used by Christ. In so far Borron was -led to his conception by the story as told in the canonical books; what -help did he get from the Apocrypha? His mention of the Veronica legend and -certain details in his presentment of Vespasian’s vengeance on the Jews -(<i>e.g.</i>, his selling thirty for a penny) show him to have known the -Vindicta Salvatoris, in which Joseph of Arimathea appears telling of his -former captivity from which Christ Himself had delivered him. Thus Borron -knew of Joseph’s living when Vespasian came to Jerusalem. From the Gesta -Pilati he had full information respecting the imprisonment of Joseph; he -combined the accounts of these two apocryphal works, substituting a simple -visit of Christ to Joseph for the deliverance as told in the Gesta Pilati, -and making Vespasian the deliverer, whereto he may have been urged by -Suetonius’ account of the freeing of <i>Josephus</i> by Vespasian (Vesp. ch. -v.). But why should Joseph become the Grail-keeper? Because the fortunes -of the vessel used by the Saviour symbolise those of the Saviour’s body; -as <i>that</i> was present at the Last Supper, was brought to Pilate, handed -over to Joseph, was buried, and after three days arose, so with the Grail. -Compare, too, Christ’s words to Joseph (892, etc.) in which the symbolical -connection of the laying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> in the grave and the mass is fully worked out. -Thus Joseph who laid Christ’s body in the grave is the natural guardian of -the symbol which commemorates that event, thus, too, the Grail is the -natural centre point of all the symbolism of mass and sacrament, and thus -the Grail found its place in the Joseph legend, ultimately becoming its -most important feature. Need Perceval’s question detain us? May it not be -explained by the fact that as Joseph had to apply twice for Christ’s body, -so his representative, the Grail-seeker, had to apply twice for the symbol -of Christ’s body, the Grail? But it is, perhaps, best to consider the -question and the Fisher King’s weakness as inventions of Borron’s, -possibly derived from Breton sources, the ease with which the hero fulfils -a task explained to him beforehand favouring such a view. Borron, it must -be noticed, had no great inventive power; in the Joseph he is all right so -long as he has the legend to follow; in the Merlin and the Perceval he -clings with equal helplessness to the Breton sagas, confining himself to -weaving clumsily the adventures of the Grail into the regular Arthur -legend.</p> - -<p>The question as to the authorship of the Grand St. Graal and the Queste, -the latter so confidently attributed to W. Map, may now profitably be -investigated. Map, who we know flourished 1143-1210 (see <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_5">p. 5</a>), -took part in all the political and social movements of his time. If we -believe the testimony of the MSS. which ascribe to him the authorship of -the following romances: (1) the Lancelot, in three parts; (2) the Queste; -(3) the Mort Artur; (4) the Grand St. Graal, he would seem to have shown a -literary activity quite incompatible with his busy life, when it is -remembered how slow literary composition was in those days. Nor can it be -reconciled with the words of Giraldus Cambrensis,<a name='fna_65' id='fna_65' href='#f_65'><small>[65]</small></a> although Paulin -Paris (Rom. i. 472) has attempted such a reconciliation by the theory that -the words <i>dicere</i> and <i>verba dare</i> referred to composition in the -vernacular, and that Map was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> opposing not his <i>oratorical</i> to Gerald’s -<i>literary</i> activity, but his <i>French</i> to Gerald’s <i>Latin</i> works. Against -this initial improbability and Gerald’s positive testimony must be set, it -is true, the witness of writers of the time and of the MSS. The most -important is that of Hélie de Borron in his prologue to Guiron le -Courtois.<a name='fna_66' id='fna_66' href='#f_66'><small>[66]</small></a> After telling how Luces de Gast was the first to translate -from the Latin book into French, and he did part of the story of Tristan, -he goes on: “Apriés s’en entremist maistre Gautiers Map qui fu clers au -roi Henry et devisa cil l’estoire de monseigneur Lancelot du Lac, que -d’autre chose ne parla il mie gramment en son livre. Messiers Robers de -Borron s’en entremist après. Je Helis de Borron, par la prière monseigneur -de Borron, et pour ce que compaignon d’armes fusmes longement, en -commençai mon livre du Bret.†Again in the epilogue to the Bret,<a name='fna_67' id='fna_67' href='#f_67'><small>[67]</small></a> “Je -croi bien touchier sor les livres que maistres Gautiers Maup fist, qui fit -lou propre livre de monsoingnour Lancelot dou Lac; et des autres granz -livres que messires Robert de Berron fit, voudrai-je prendre aucune flor -de la matière ... en tel meniere que li livres de monsoingnour Luces de -Gant et de maistre Gautier Maapp et ciz de monsoingnour Robert de Berron -qui est mes amis et mes paranz charnex s’acourderont au miens livres—et -je qui sui appelex Helyes de Berron qui fui engendrez dou sanc des gentix -paladins des Barres qui de tous tens ont été commendeour et soingnor -d’Outres en Roménie qui ores est appelée France.†Now Hélie cannot -possibly belong to the reign of Henry II (+ 1189) as asserted by Hucher -(p. 59), as he speaks of Map in the past tense (<i>fu</i> clers), and Map -outlived Henry, moreover the mention of Romenie proves the passage to have -been written after the foundation of the Latin Empire in 1304. Hélie’s -testimony is thus not that of an immediate contemporary, and it only shows -that shortly after Map’s death the Lancelot was ascribed to him. It is, -moreover, in so far tainted, that he speaks with equal assurance -respecting the great Latin book which of course never existed; nor can we -believe him when he says that he was the comrade of Robert de Borron, as -this latter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> wrote before Chrestien, and must have been at least thirty -years older than Hélie, who in the Guiron (written about 1220) calls -himself a young man. How is it with the testimony of the MSS.? Those of -the Lancelot have unfortunately lost their colophon, owing to the Queste -being almost invariably added; those of the Queste show as a rule a -colophon such as the one quoted by Paulin Paris from the Bibl. Nat., MS. -6,963 (MSS. Franç II., p. 361): “Maistre Gautiers Map les estrait pour son -livre faire dou Saint-Graal, pour l’amor del roy Henri son seignor, qui -fist l’estore translater dou latin en françois.†A similar statement -occurs in a MS. of the Mort Artur (Bib. Nat. 6,782.). Both are equally -credible. Now as the King can only be Henry II (+ 1189) and as the Queste -preceded the Mort Artur it must be put about 1185, and Chrestien’s Conte -du Graal about 1180, an improbably early date when it is recollected that -the Conte du Graal is Chrestien’s last work. The form, too, of these -colophons, expressed as they are in the third person, so different from -the garrulous first person complacency with which Luces de Gast and Hélie -de Borron announce their authorship, excites the suspicion that we have -here not the author’s own statement, but that of a copyist following a -traditional ascription. Whether or no Map wrote the Lancelot, it may -safely be assumed that he did not write the Queste, or <i>a fortiori</i> the -Grand St. Graal. The tradition as to his authorship of these romances may -have originated in Geoffrey’s mention of the Gualterus archidiaconus -Oxenfordensis, to whom he owed his MS. of the Historia Regum Britanniae. A -similar instance of traditional ascription on the part of the copyist may -be noted in the MSS. of the Grand St. Graal, the author of which is -declared to be Robert de Borron. The ordinary formulæ (quoted <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_5">p. 5</a>) -should be compared with Borron’s own words in the Joseph (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_5">p. 5</a>) -and the difference in form noted. What proves these passages to be -interpolations is that the author of the Grand St. Graal especially -declares in his prologue that his name must remain a secret. The colophons -in question are simply to be looked upon as taken over from the genuine -ascription of Borron’s poem, and there is no positive evidence as to the -authorship of either the Queste or the Grand St. Graal; both works are -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>probably French in origin, as is shown by the mention of Meaux in the -Grand St. Graal. As for the date of Borron’s poem, a <i>terminus ad quem</i> is -fixed by that of the Conte du Graal (1180); and as the poem is dedicated -to Gautier of Montbeliard, who can hardly have been born before 1150, and -who must have attained a certain age before he could become Robert’s -patron, it must fall between the years 1170 and 1190.</p> - -<p>The results of the investigation may be summed up as follows: the origin -of the Grail romances must be sought for in a Christian legend based -partly upon the canonical, partly upon the uncanonical, writings. This -Christian legend was woven into the Breton sagas by the author of the -oldest Grail romance; the theories of Provençal Spanish, or Celtic origin -are equally untenable, nor is there any need to countenance the fable of a -Latin original. Chronologically, the versions arrange themselves thus:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(1) Between 1170 and 1190 (probably about 1183) Robert de Borron wrote -his trilogy: Joseph of Arimathea—Merlin—Perceval. Sources: Christian -legend (Acta, Pilati, Descensus Christi, Vindicta Salvatoris) and -Breton sagas (Brut?). Here the Grail is simply a vessel of grace.</p> - -<p class="hang">(2) About 1189 Chrestien began his Conte du Graal, the main source of -which was the third part of Borron’s poem. Marvellous food properties -attributed to the Grail; introduction of the bleeding lance, silver -dish, and magic sword.</p> - -<p class="hang">(3) Between 1190 and 1200 Gautier de Doulens continued Chrestien’s -poem. Main sources, third part of (1) and first part of same for Early -History—introduction of broken sword.</p> - -<p class="hang">(4) Between 1190 and 1200 (but after Gautier?) the Queste du St. Graal -written as continuation to the Lancelot. Sources (1) and (2) (for -lance) and perhaps (3). New personages, Mordrain, Nascien, etc., -introduced into Early History.</p> - -<p class="hang">(5) Before 1204 Grand St. Graal written, mainly resting upon (4) but -with use also of first part of (1).</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p> - -<p class="hang">(6) Between 1214 and 1220. Manessier’s continuation of the Conte du -Graal. For the Early History (5) made use of.</p> - -<p class="hang">(7) Before 1225 Gerbert of Montreuil’s additions to Manessier. Both -(4) and (5) used.</p> - -<p class="hang">(8) About 1225 Perceval li Gallois; compiled from all the previous -versions.<a name='fna_68' id='fna_68' href='#f_68'><small>[68]</small></a></p></div> - -<p>That part of Birch-Hirschfeld’s theory which excited the most attention in -Germany bore upon the relationship of Wolfram to Chrestien (see <i>infra</i>, -<a href="#APPENDIX_A">Appendix A</a>). In other respects his theory won very general acceptance. The -commendatory notices were, however, of a slight character, and no new -facts were adduced in support of his thesis. One opponent, however, he -found who did more than rest his opposition upon the view of Wolfram’s -relationship to Chrestien. This was E. Martin, who (“Zeitschrift für d. -Alterthumskunde,†1878, pp. 84 etc.) traversed most of Birch-Hirschfeld’s -conclusions. Whilst accepting the priority of Queste over Grand St. Graal -he did not see the necessity of fixing 1204 as a <i>terminus ad quem</i> for -the latter work as we now have it, as Helinandus’ statement might have -referred to an older version; if the Grand St. Graal could not be dated -neither could the Queste. As for the Didot-Perceval there was nothing to -prove that it was either Borron’s work or the source of Chrestien and -Gautier. Birch-Hirschfeld’s arguments to show the interpolation of the -lance passages were unsound; it was highly improbable either that -Chrestien should have used the Perceval as alleged, or that Borron, the -purely religious writer of the Joseph, should have changed his style so -entirely in the Perceval. Moreover, Birch-Hirschfeld made Borron dedicate -a work to Gautier of Montbeliard before 1183 when the latter must have -been quite a young man, nor was there any reason to discredit Hélie de -Borron’s testimony that he and Robert had been companions in arms, a fact -incredible had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> the one written forty years before the other. The work of -Chrestien and his continuators must be looked upon as the oldest we had of -the Grail cycle. It was likely that older versions had been lost. A Latin -version might well have existed, forms such as Joseph de Barimaschie -(<i>i.e.</i>, ab Arimathea) pointed to it. Martin followed up this attack in -his “Zur Gralsage, Untersuchungen,†Strasburg, 1880. A first section is -devoted to showing that Wolfram must have had other sources than -Chrestien, and that in consequence such portions of his presentment as -differ from Chrestien’s must be taken into account in reconstructing the -original form of the romance. The second and third sections deal with -Heinrich von dem Türlin’s “Die Crone,†and with the earliest form of the -tradition. Gawain’s second visit to the Grail Castle, as told of by -Heinrich (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_26">p. 26</a>) has features in common with the widely-spread -traditions of aged men slumbering in caves or ruined castles, unable to -die until the right word is uttered which breaks their spell. This -conception differs from the one found in all the other versions inasmuch -as in them the wonder-working question releases, not from unnaturally -prolonged life, but from sore disease. Can a parallel be found in Celtic -tradition to this sufferer awaiting deliverance? Does not Arthur, wounded -well nigh to death by his nephew Modred, pass a charmed life in Avalon, -whither Morgan la Fay carried him for his healing, and shall he not return -thence to free his folk? The original conception is mythic—the summer god -banished by the winter powers, but destined to come back again. The <i>sage</i> -of Arthur’s waiting, often in some subterranean castle, is widely spread, -two of the earliest notices (those of Gervasius of Tilbury, in the “Otia -Imperialia,†p. 12 of Liebrecht’s edition, and of Caesarius of -Heisterbach) connect it with Etna—the tradition had followed the Norman -Conquerors of Sicily thither—and from Sicily it would seem to have -penetrated to Germany, being first found in German tradition as told of -Frederick II. Again Gerald (<span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 1188) in the “Itinerarium Cambriae†-(Frankfort, 1603, p. 827, L. 48) tells of a mountain chain in the -South-East of Wales: “quorum principalis Cadair Arthur dicitur i. Cathedra -Arthuri, propter gemina promontorii cacumina in cathedrae modum se -praeferentia. Et quoniam in alto cathedra<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> et in ardua sita est, summo et -maximo Britonum Regi Arthuro vulgari nuncupatione est assignata.†The -Eildon Hills may be noted in the same connection, “in which all the -Arthurian chivalry await, in an enchanted sleep, the bugle blast of the -adventurer who will call them at length to a new life†(Stuart Glennie, -“Arthurian Localities,†p. 60). If the Grail King is Arthur, the bleeding -lance is evidently the weapon wherewith he was so sorely wounded. And the -Grail? this is originally a symbol of plenty, of a joyous and bountiful -life, hence of Avalon, that land of everlasting summer beyond the waves, -wherein, as the Vita Merlini has it, they that visit Arthur find -“planitiem omnibus deliciis plenam.†Of those versions of the romance in -which the Christian conception of the Grail is predominant, Robert de -Borron’s poem (composed about 1200) is the earliest, and in it, <i>maugre</i> -the Christianising of the story, the Celtic basis is apparent: the Grail -host go a questing Avalonwards; the first keepers are Brons and Alain, -purely Celtic names, the former of which may be compared with Bran; the -empty seat calls to mind the <i>Eren stein</i> in Ulrich von Zatzikhoven’s -Lanzelot, whereof (verse 5,178) <i>ist gesaget daz er den man niht vertruoc -an dem was valsch oder haz</i>. Admitting the purely Christian origin of the -Grail leads to this difficulty: the vessel in which Christ’s blood was -received was a bowl, not an open or flat dish like that used in -commemoration of the Last Supper. Evidently the identification of the -Grail with the Last Supper cup is the latest of a series of -transformations. Nor can the Christian origin of the legend be held proved -by the surname of Fisher given to the Grail-keeper. True, neither -Chrestien nor Wolfram explains this surname, whilst in Borron’s poem there -is at least a fish caught. But if the fish had really the symbolic meaning -ascribed to it would not a far greater stress be laid upon it? In any case -this one point is insufficient to prove the priority of Borron, and it is -simpler to believe that the surname of Fisher had in the original Celtic -tradition a significance now lost. Birch-Hirschfeld’s theory supposes, -too, a development contrary to that observed elsewhere in mediæval -tradition. The invariable course is from the racial-heathen to the -Christian legendary stage. Is it likely that in the twelfth century, a -period of such highly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> developed mystic fancy, an originally Christian -legend should lose its mystic character and become a subject for minstrels -to exercise their fancy upon? In the earlier form of the romance there is -an obvious contrast between the task laid upon the Grail quester and that -laid upon Gawain at Castle Marvellous. The first has suffered change by -its association with Christian legend; but the second, even in those -versions influenced by the legend, has retained its primitive Celtic -character. The trials which Gawain has to undergo may be compared with -those imposed on him who seeks to penetrate into the underworld, as -pictured in the Purgatorium S. Patricii, in the Visio Tnugdali, etc. This -agrees well with the presentment of Castle Marvellous, an underworld realm -where dwell four queens long since vanished from Arthur’s court, and -which, according to Chrestien (verse 9,388), Gawain, having once found, -may no longer leave. One of these queens is Arthur’s mother, whom a -magician had carried off, a variant it would seem of the tradition which -makes Arthur’s father, Uther, win Igerne from her husband by Merlin’s -magic aid. Many other reminiscences of Celtic tradition may be found in -the romances—Orgeleuse, whom Gawain finds sitting under a tree by a -spring, is just such a water fairy as may be met with throughout the whole -range of Celtic folk-lore, and differs profoundly from the Germanic -conception of such beings.</p> - -<p>W. Hertz, in his “Sage vom Parzival und dem Gral†(Breslau, 1882) -following, in the main, Birch-Hirschfeld, lays stress upon the two -elements, “<i>legend</i>†and “<i>sage</i>†out of which the romance cycle has -sprung. He does not overlook many of the weak points in Birch-Hirschfeld’s -theory, <i>e.g.</i>, whilst fully accepting the fish caught by Bron as the -symbol of Christ, he notices that the incident as found in Robert de -Borron, whom he accepts as the first in date of the cycle writers, is not -of such importance as to justify the stress laid upon the nickname “rich -fisher,†by all the <i>ex hypothesi</i> later writers. The word “rich†must, he -thinks, have originally referred to the abundant power of conversion of -heathen vouchsafed to the Grail-keeper, but even Robert failed to grasp -the full force of the allusion. Against Birch-Hirschfeld he maintains that -the connection of Joseph with the conversion of Britain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> in all the -versions shows that the legend must have assumed definite shape first on -British soil, and he looks upon the separatist and anti-papal tendencies -of the British Church as supplying the original impulse to such a legend. -The Grail belongs originally wholly to the “Legend;†only in the later -versions and in Wolfram, owing to the latter’s ignorance of its real -nature, does it assume a magic and popular character. The lance, on the -other hand, is partly derived from the Celtic <i>sage</i>. The boyhood of -Perceval is a genuine folk-story, a great-fool tale, and had originally -nothing to do with the Grail, as may plainly be seen by reference to the -Thornton Sir Perceval, the most primitive form of the story remaining, the -Mabinogi, and the modern Breton tale of Peronnik, deriving directly or -indirectly from Chrestien. As for the question, although it presented much -that seemed to refer it to folk-tradition, as for instance in Heinrich von -dem Türlin’s version, where Gawain’s putting the question releases the -lord of the castle and his retainers from the enchantment of -life-in-death, yet the form of the question, “Je vos prie que vous me diez -que l’en sert de cest vessel,†shows its original connection with the -Grail cultus, and necessitates its reference to the “Legend.†Existing -versions fail, however, to give any satisfactory account of the question. -It is a matter of conjecture whether in the earliest form of the legend -(which Hertz assumes to have been lost) it was found in the same shape as -in the Didot-Perceval.</p> - -<p>Birch-Hirschfeld’s theory has already been implicitly criticised in -<a href="#CHAPTER_III">Chapter III</a>. The considerations adduced therein, as well as Martin’s -criticisms and Hertz’s admissions, preclude the necessity of examining it -in further detail. Formally speaking, the theory rests upon the assumption -that we have Borron’s work substantially as he wrote it, an assumption -which, as shown by the difference in <i>motif</i> between the Metrical Joseph -and the Didot-Perceval, is inaccurate. Again, the theory does not account -for the silence of all the other versions respecting Brons and that -special conception of the Grail found in Borron’s poem. Nor does it offer -any satisfactory explanation of the mysterious question which -Birch-Hirschfeld can only conjecture to have been a meaningless invention, -<i>eine harmlose Erfindung</i>, of Borron’s. In fact, only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> such, portions of -the cycle are exhaustively examined as admit of reference to the alleged -originating idea, and a show of rigorous deduction is thus made, the -emptiness of which becomes apparent when the entire legend, and not one -portion only, is taken into account. Despite the learning and acuteness -with which it is urged, Birch-Hirschfeld’s theory must be rejected, if it -were only because, as Martin points out, it postulates a development of -the legend which is the very opposite of the normal one. We cannot admit -that this vast body of romance sprang from a simple but lofty spiritual -conception, the full significance of which, unperceived even by its -author, was totally ignored, not only, were that possible, by Chrestien -and his continuators, but by the theologising mystics who wrote the Grand -St. Graal and the Queste—aye, and even by the latest and in some respects -the most theologically minded of all the writers of the cycle, the author -of the Prose Perceval le Gallois and Gerbert. We must say, with Otto Küpp -(Zacher’s Zeitschrift, XVII, 1, p. 68), “die jetzt versuchte christliche -Motivierung ist ganz unglücklich geraten und kann in keiner Weise -befriedigen.â€</p> - -<p>The field is thus clear for an examination of the Quest with a view to -determining whether the Grail really belongs to it or not. The first step -is to see what relationship exists between the oldest form of the Quest -and what have been called the non-Grail members of the cycle—<i>i.e.</i>, the -Mabinogi of Peredur ab Evrawc and the Thornton MS. Sir Perceval. As -preliminary to this inquiry, an attempt must be made to determine more -closely the relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du -Graal—whether it be wholly derived from the latter, or whether it may -have preserved through other sources traces of a different form of the -story than that found in Chrestien.<a name='fna_69' id='fna_69' href='#f_69'><small>[69]</small></a></p> - - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> - -<div class="note"><p class="hang">Relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du Graal—The former -not the source of the latter—Relationship of the Conte du Graal and -the Mabinogi—Instances in which the Mabinogi has copied -Chrestien—Examples of its independence—The incident of the blood -drops in the snow—Differences between the two works—The machinery of -the Mabinogi and the traces of it in the Conte du Graal—The -stag-hunt—The Mabinogi and Manessier—The sources of the Conte du -Graal and the relation of the various parts to a common original—Sir -Perceval—Steinbach’s theory—Objections to it—The counsels in the -Conte du Graal—Wolfram and the Mabinogi—Absence of the Grail from -the apparently oldest Celtic form.</p></div> - - -<p>In examining the relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du Graal, -the sequence of the incidents is of importance. This is shown in the -subjoined table (where the numbers given are those of the incidents as -summarized, <a href="#CHAPTER_II">Chapter II</a>), in which the Didot-Perceval sequence is taken as -the standard.</p> - -<p> </p> -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> -<tr><td class="btr" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Didot-Perceval.</span></td> - <td class="btr" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Chrestien.</span></td> - <td class="bt" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Gautier de Doulens.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td class="bt">Inc.</td> - <td class="btr"> </td> - <td class="bt">Inc.</td> - <td class="btr"> </td> - <td class="bt">Inc.</td> - <td class="bt"> </td></tr> -<tr><td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">2.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top">Perceval sets forth in quest of<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">the rich fisher.</span></td> - <td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">11.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top">Only after the reproaches of<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">the loathly damsel does</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Perceval first set forth in</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">quest of the Grail.</span></td> - <td class="dent" align="center" colspan="2" valign="top">...<span class="spacer"> </span>...<span class="spacer"> </span>...</td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td colspan="2"> </td></tr> -<tr><td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">3.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top">Finds a damsel weeping over a<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">knight. Adventure with dwarf</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the Orgellos Delande.</span></td> - <td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">8.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top">In so far as finding a damsel<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">weeping over a dead knight,</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">and (9) for overcoming the</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Orgellous de la Lande.</span></td> - <td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">9.</td> - <td class="dent" valign="top">In so far as a damsel is found<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">lamenting over a knight.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td colspan="2"> </td></tr> -<tr><td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">4.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top">Arrival at the Chessboard Castle.<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Adventure of the stag hunt</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">and loss of the hound.</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br" align="center" valign="top">...<span class="spacer"> </span>...<span class="spacer"> </span>...</td> - <td class="dent" valign="top" colspan="2">7 and 8.</td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td colspan="2"> </td></tr> -<tr><td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">5.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top">Meeting with sister; instruction<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">concerning the Grail; vow to</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">seek it.</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br" align="center" valign="top">...<span class="spacer"> </span>...<span class="spacer"> </span>...</td> - <td class="dent" valign="top" align="right">12.</td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td colspan="2"> </td></tr> -<tr><td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">6.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top">Meeting with, confession to, and<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">exhortation from hermit uncle.</span></td> - <td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">15.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top"><i>After</i> the Good Friday incident.</td> - <td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">12.</td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td colspan="2"> </td></tr> -<tr><td class="dent" align="right" valign="top"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>7.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top">Disregard of uncle’s exhortations<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">(slaying a knight), through</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">thinking of damsel of the</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chessboard.</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br" align="center" valign="top">...<span class="spacer"> </span>...<span class="spacer"> </span>...</td> - <td class="dent" valign="top" align="right">12.</td> - <td class="dent" valign="top">In so far as a knight is slain,<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">but <i>before</i> the meeting</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">with the hermit.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td colspan="2"> </td></tr> -<tr><td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">8.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top">Meeting with Rosette and Le<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beau Mauvais (the loathly</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">damsel).</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br" align="center" valign="top">...<span class="spacer"> </span>...<span class="spacer"> </span>...</td> - <td class="dent" valign="top" align="right">11.</td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td colspan="2"> </td></tr> -<tr><td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">9.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top">Adventure at the Ford with<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Urbains.</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br" align="center" valign="top">...<span class="spacer"> </span>...<span class="spacer"> </span>...</td> - <td class="dent" valign="top" align="right">9.</td> - <td class="dent" valign="top">Ford Amorous; <i>entirely</i><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>different adventure</i>.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td colspan="2"> </td></tr> -<tr><td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">10.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top">The two children in the tree.</td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br" align="center" valign="top">...<span class="spacer"> </span>...<span class="spacer"> </span>...</td> - <td class="dent" valign="top" align="right">20.</td> - <td class="dent" valign="top"><i>One</i> child.</td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td colspan="2"> </td></tr> -<tr><td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">11.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top">First arrival at Grail Castle.</td> - <td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">7.</td> - <td class="br" align="center" valign="top">...<span class="spacer"> </span>...<span class="spacer"> </span>...</td> - <td class="dent" align="center" valign="top" colspan="2">...<span class="spacer"> </span>...<span class="spacer"> </span>...</td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td colspan="2"> </td></tr> -<tr><td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">12.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top">Reproaches of the wayside<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">damsel.</span></td> - <td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">8.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top">In so far as in both the hero is<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">reproached by a wayside</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">damsel.</span></td> - <td class="dent" align="center" valign="top" colspan="2">...<span class="spacer"> </span>...<span class="spacer"> </span>...</td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td colspan="2"> </td></tr> -<tr><td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">13.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top">Meeting with the damsel who<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">had carried off the stag’s</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">head and hound, and second</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to Castle of the</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chessboard.</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br" align="center" valign="top">...<span class="spacer"> </span>...<span class="spacer"> </span>...</td> - <td class="dent" valign="top" colspan="2">13 and 18. Many adventures<br /><span style="margin-left: 3em;">being intercalated.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td colspan="2"> </td></tr> -<tr><td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">14.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top">Period (7 years) of despair ended<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">by the Good Friday incident.</span></td> - <td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">15.</td> - <td class="br" align="center" valign="top">...<span class="spacer"> </span>...<span class="spacer"> </span>...</td> - <td class="dent" align="center" valign="top" colspan="2">...<span class="spacer"> </span>...<span class="spacer"> </span>...</td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td colspan="2"> </td></tr> -<tr><td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">15.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top">Tournament at Melianz de Lis.<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Merlin’s reproaches.</span></td> - <td class="dent" align="right" valign="top">13.</td> - <td class="br" valign="top">But told of Gawain not of<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Perceval.</span></td> - <td class="dent" align="center" valign="top" colspan="2">...<span class="spacer"> </span>...<span class="spacer"> </span>...</td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td> </td> - <td class="br"> </td> - <td colspan="2"> </td></tr> -<tr><td class="bb" align="right" valign="top">16.</td> - <td class="bbr" valign="top">Second arrival at Grail Castle.<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Achievement of Quest.</span></td> - <td class="bb"> </td> - <td class="bbr" align="center" valign="top">...<span class="spacer"> </span>...<span class="spacer"> </span>...</td> - <td class="bb" valign="top" align="right">22.</td> - <td class="bb"> </td></tr></table> - -<p> </p> -<p>The different sequence in the Didot-Perceval and Chrestien may be -explained, as Birch-Hirschfeld explains it, by the freedom which Chrestien -allowed himself in re-casting the work; but why should Gautier, who, <i>ex -hypothesi</i>, simply took up from Chrestien’s model such adventures as his -predecessor had omitted, have acted in precisely the same way? If the -theory were correct we should expect to find the non-Chrestien incidents -of the Didot-Perceval brought together in at least fairly the same order -in Gautier. A glance at the table shows that this is not the case. In one -incident, moreover, the Didot-Perceval is obviously right and Gautier -obviously wrong, namely, in his incident 12, where the slaying of the -knight before the hero’s meeting the hermit takes away all point from the -incident. An absolutely decisive proof that that portion of the Conte du -Graal which goes under Gautier’s name (though it is by no means clear that -all of it is of the same age or due to one man), cannot be based upon the -Didot-Perceval as we now possess it, is afforded by the adventure of the -Ford<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> Amorous or Perillous, which in the two versions is quite dissimilar. -This incident stands out pre-eminent in the Didot-Perceval for its wild -and fantastic character. It is a genuine Celtic <i>märchen</i>, with much of -the weird charm still clinging to it that is the birthright of the Celtic -folk-tale. It is inadmissible that Gautier could have substituted for this -fine incident the commonplace one which he gives.</p> - -<p>If, then, it is out of the question that Gautier borrowed directly from -the Didot-Perceval, how are the strong resemblances which exist in part -between the two versions to be accounted for? Some of these resemblances -have already been quoted (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_75">p. 75</a>), the remainder may be usefully -brought together here.<a name='fna_70' id='fna_70' href='#f_70'><small>[70]</small></a></p> - -<p>First arrival at the Castle of the Chessboard—</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> -<tr><td align="center"><span class="smcap">Didot-Perceval.</span></td> - <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> - <td align="center"><span class="smcap">Gautier.</span></td></tr> - - -<tr><td valign="top">Li plus biaux chasteaux del monde et<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">vit le pont abeissié et la porte</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">deffermé (p. 439).</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td valign="top">Le bel castiel que je vos dis<br /> - .<span class="spacer"> </span>.<span class="spacer"> </span>.<span class="spacer"> </span>.<span class="spacer"> </span>.<br /> - Et vit si bièles les entrées<br />Et les grans portes desfremées (22,395, etc.);</td></tr></table> - -<p>The damsel exhorts him not to throw the chessman into the water—</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> -<tr><td valign="top">Votre cors est esmeuz à grant vilainie<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">faire (p. 440).</span></td> - <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> - <td valign="top">Car çou serait grans vilonie (22,503).</td></tr></table> - -<p>Perceval having slain the stag, sees its head carried off—</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> -<tr><td valign="top">Si vint une veille sor un palestoi grant<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">aléure et prist le brachet et s’en</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">ala or tot (p. 442).</span></td> - <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> - <td valign="top">Une pucièle de malaire<br />Vint cevauçant parmi la lande<br />Voit le braket, plus ne demande<br />Par le coler d’orfrois le prist<br /> - .<span class="spacer"> </span>.<span class="spacer"> </span>.<span class="spacer"> </span>.<span class="spacer"> </span>.<span class="spacer"> </span>.<br /> - Si s’en aloit grant aléure (22,604, etc.).</td></tr></table> - -<p>On Perceval threatening to take it away from her by force she answers—</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> -<tr><td valign="top">Sire Chevalier, force n’est mie droit et<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">force me poez bien faire (p. 443).</span></td> - <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> - <td valign="top">Force à faire n’est mie drois<br />Et force me poés vos faire (22,640).</td></tr></table> - -<p>In the subsequent fight with the Knight of the Tomb, he, overcome—</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> -<tr><td valign="top">Se torna vers le tonbel grant aléure et<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Que fuiant vait grant aléure</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">li tombeaux s’enleva contre moult</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">et chevalier s’en feri enz (p. 444).</span></td> - <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> - <td valign="top">Vers l’arket et la sepouture<br />Si est entrés plus tost qu’il pot (22,723, etc.).</td></tr></table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>In the description of Rosette (the loathly damsel)—</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> -<tr><td valign="top">Ele avoit le col et les mains plus<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">noires et le vier, que fer... (p. 453).</span></td> - <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> - <td valign="top">Le col avoit plus noir que fer (25,409).</td></tr></table> - -<p>When the loathly damsel and her knight come to Arthur’s court, Kay jests -as follows:—</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> -<tr><td valign="top">Lors pria (<i>i.e.</i>, Kay) le chevalier<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">par la foi que il devoit, le roi, qui li</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">déist où il l’avoit prise et si en</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">porroit une autre tele avoir, si il</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">l’aloit querre (p. 457).</span></td> - <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> - <td valign="top"><span style="margin-left: 7em;">Biaus sire,</span><br />Dites moi, si Dex le vos mire,<br />Si plus en a en vostre terre,<br /> - Une autèle en iroie querre<br />Si jou le quidoie trover (25,691 etc.).</td></tr></table> - -<p>These similarities are too great to be accidental. It will be noticed, -however, that they bear chiefly upon two adventures: that of the -chessboard and stag hunt, and that of the loathly maiden. As to the -latter, it is only necessary to allude to Birch-Hirschfeld’s idea that -Rosette is the original of the damsel who reproaches Perceval before the -court with his conduct at the Grail Castle, a theory to state which is to -refute it. The former adventure will be closely examined in the following -section. There is no need to suppose direct borrowing on the part of one -or the other versions to account for the parallel in these two incidents; -a common original closely followed at times by both would meet the -requirements of the case. It is difficult to admit that the author of the -Didot-Perceval used Gautier’s continuation and not Chrestien’s original, -especially when the following fact, strangely overlooked by both -Birch-Hirschfeld and Hucher, is taken into account: Perceval on his first -arrival at the Grail Castle keeps silence (as will be seen by a reference -to the summary, <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_31">p. 31</a>), because, “li souvenoit du prodome qui li -avoit deffandu que ne fust trop pallier,†etc. As a matter of fact, the -“prodome†had forbidden nothing of the sort, and this casual sentence is -the first allusion to the motive upon which Chrestien lays so much stress -as explaining his hero’s mysterious conduct at the Grail Castle. Evidently -the Didot-Perceval, which, to whoever considers it impartially, is an -obvious abridgment and piecing together of material from different -sources, found in one of its sources an episode corresponding to that of -Gonemans in Chrestien. But its author, influenced probably by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> Galahad -version of the Quest, substituted for the “childhood†opening of this -hypothetical source the one now found in his version, and the Gonemans -episode went with the remainder of that part of the story. When the hero -comes to the Grail Castle, the author is puzzled; his hero knows -beforehand what he has to do, sets out with the distinct purpose of doing -it, and yet remains silent. To account for this silence the author uses -the motive belonging to a discarded episode, but applies the words to his -hermit, forgetting that he had put no such words into his mouth, and that, -attributed to him, the injunction to keep silence became simply -meaningless. Is the model treated in this way by the Didot-Perceval -Chrestien’s poem? Hardly, for this reason. After the Good Friday incident -occurs the remarkable passage, quoted (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_31">p. 31</a>), as to the silence -of the <i>trouvères</i> respecting it. Chrestien gives the incident in full, -and the author of the Perceval could have had no reason for his stricture, -or could not have ventured it had he been using Chrestien’s work. Two -hypotheses then remain; the unknown source may have been a version akin to -that used by Chrestien and Gautier, or it may have been a summary -abridgment of the Conte du Graal, in which, <i>inter alia</i>, the Good Friday -incident was left out. In either case the presence of the passage in the -Perceval is equally hard of explanation; but the first hypothesis is -favoured by the primitive character of the incident of the Ford Perillous, -and several other features which will be touched upon in their place. The -Didot-Perceval would thus be an attempt to provide an ending for Borron’s -poem by adapting to its central <i>donnée</i> a version of the Perceval <i>sage</i> -akin to that which forms the groundwork of the Conte du Graal, its author -being largely influenced by the Galahad form of the Quest as found in the -<i>Queste</i>. If this view be correct, the testimony of Perceval (wherever not -influenced by Borron’s poem or the <i>Queste</i>) is of value in determining -the original form of the story, the more so from the author’s evident want -of skill in piecing together his materials. It will, therefore, be used in -the following section, which deals with the relationship of the Conte du -Graal and the Mabinogi of Peredur ab Evrawc.</p> - -<p><i>Relationship of the Conte du Graal and the Mabinogi.</i>—As was seen in -<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">Chapter IV</a>, opinion began with Monsieur de Villemarqué<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> by accepting the -Mabinogi as the direct source of the Conte du Graal, and has ended with -Zarncke and Birch-Hirschfeld in looking upon it as a more or less direct -copy. The most competent of living scholars in this matter, M. Gaston -Paris, has expressed himself in favour of this opinion in his recent -article on the Lancelot story (Romania, 1886).<a name='fna_71' id='fna_71' href='#f_71'><small>[71]</small></a> Before dealing with the -question as presented in this form, Simrock’s view, differing as it does -from that of all other investigators, deserves notice. He, too, looks upon -the Mabinogi as derived from Chrestien, and yet bases his interpretation -of the myth underlying the romance upon a feature, the bleeding head in -the dish, found only in it. But if the Mabinogi have really preserved here -the genuine form of the myth, it must represent an older version than -Chrestien’s, and if, on the other hand, Chrestien be its only source, the -feature in question cannot belong to the earliest form of the story. -Simrock’s theory stands then or falls in this respect by the view taken of -the relationship between the two versions, and need not be discussed until -that view has been stated.</p> - -<p>To facilitate comparison, the incidents common to the two stories are -tabulated as under, those of the Mabinogi being taken as the standard:—</p> - -<p> </p> -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Mabinogi.</span></td> - <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> - <td align="center" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Conte du Graal.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td>Inc.</td> - <td> </td> - <td> </td> - <td>Inc.</td> - <td align="center"><i>Chrestien.</i></td></tr> -<tr><td align="right" valign="top">1.</td> - <td valign="top">Encounter with the knights.</td> - <td> </td> - <td align="right" valign="top">1.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right" valign="top">2.</td> - <td valign="top">Adventure with the damsel of the<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">tent.</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td align="right" valign="top">2.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right" valign="top">3.</td> - <td valign="top">Avenging of the insult to Guinevere;<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">incident of the dwarves; departure</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">from Court.</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td colspan="2" valign="top">3 and 4.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right" valign="top">5.</td> - <td valign="top">Arrival at house of first uncle (found<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">fishing); instruction in arms.</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td align="right" valign="top">5.</td> - <td valign="top">Gonemans.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right" valign="top">6.</td> - <td valign="top">Arrival at house of second uncle<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Grail Castle). First sight of the</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">talismans (head in basin and</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">lance).</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td align="right" valign="top">7.</td> - <td valign="top">Uncle found fishing; talismans,<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grail and lance.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td align="right" valign="top"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>7.</td> - <td valign="top">Reproaches of foster-sister whom<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">he finds lamenting over a dead</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">knight.</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td align="right" valign="top">8.</td> - <td valign="top">Reproached by his cousin; also<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">instructed by her about the</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">magic sword.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td align="right" valign="top">8.</td> - <td valign="top">Adventure with the damsel of the<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">besieged castle who offers</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">herself to hero.</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td align="right" valign="top">6.</td> - <td valign="top">Blanchefleur, Gonemant’s niece.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right" valign="top">9.</td> - <td valign="top">Second meeting with the lady of<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">the tent.</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td align="right" valign="top">9.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right" valign="top">10.</td> - <td valign="top">First encounter with the sorceresses<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Gloucester, who are forced</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">to desist from assailing hero’s</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">hostess.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td align="right" valign="top">11.</td> - <td valign="top">Adventure of the drops of blood<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the snow.</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td align="right" valign="top">10.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right" valign="top">20.</td> - <td valign="top">Reproaching of Peredur before<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Court by the loathly damsel.</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td align="right" valign="top">11.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right" valign="top">21.</td> - <td valign="top">Gwalchmai’s adventure with the<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">lady whose father he had slain.</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td align="right" valign="top">14.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right" valign="top">22.</td> - <td valign="top">Peredur’s meeting the knight on<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Good Friday, and confession</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">to priest.</span><br /></td> - <td> </td> - <td align="right" valign="top">15.</td> - <td valign="top">Hermit, hero’s uncle.</td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="3"> </td> - <td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Gautier.</i></td></tr> -<tr><td align="right" valign="top">24.</td> - <td valign="top">Arrival at the Castle of Wonders<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Chessboard Castle); stag hunt;</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">loss of dog; fight with the black</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">man of the cromlech.</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td colspan="2" valign="top">Inc. 7, 8, and partly 13 and 18.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right" valign="top">25.</td> - <td valign="top">Second arrival at the (Grail) castle;<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">achievement of the Quest by</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">destruction of sorceresses of</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gloucester. “Thus it is related</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">concerning the Castle of Wonders.â€</span></td> - <td> </td> - <td align="right" valign="top">22.</td> - <td valign="top">In so far as Gautier ends his part<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">of the story here with the hero’s</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">second arrival at the Grail</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Castle, but no similarity in the</span><br /> - <span style="margin-left: 1em;">incidents.</span></td></tr></table> -<p> </p> - -<p>The sequence is thus exactly the same in the Mabinogi and in Chrestien, -with the single exception of the Blanchefleur incident, which, in the -French poem precedes, in the Welsh tale follows, the first visit to the -Grail Castle. The similarity of order is sufficient of itself to warrant -the surmise of a relation such as that of copy to original. If the -Mabinogi be examined closely, much will be found to strengthen this -surmise. Thus, Birch-Hirschfeld has pointed out that when Peredur first -sees the knights, and on asking his mother what they may be, receives the -answer, “Angels,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> my sonâ€; this can only be a distorted reminiscence of -Perceval’s own exclamation,</p> - -<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">... Ha! sire Dex, Merchi!</span><br /> -Ce sont angle que je voi ci! (1,349-50).</p> - -<p>as the hero’s mother would be the last person to describe thus the knights -whom she has done her best to guard her son from knowledge of. Again, -Simrock has criticised, and with reason, the incident of Peredur’s being -acclaimed by the dwarf on his arrival at Arthur’s court as the chief of -warriors and flower of knighthood. In the corresponding incident in -Chrestien, the hero is told laughingly by a damsel that he should become -the best knight in the world, and she had not laughed for ten years, as a -fool had been wont to declare. This is an earlier form than that of the -Mabinogi, and closer to the folk-tale account. Thus, to take one instance -only, in Mr. Kennedy’s Giolla na Chroicean Gobhar (Fellow with the -Goat-skin) [Fictions of the Irish Celts, p. 23], the hero comes to the -King of Dublin, as Peredur to Arthur, clad in skins and armed with a club. -“Now, the King’s daughter was so melancholy that she didn’t laugh for -seven years, but when she saw Tom of the Goat-skin knock over all her -father’s best champions, then she let a great sweet laugh out of her,†and -of course Tom marries her, but not until he has been through all sorts of -trials, aye, even to Hell itself and back. In Chrestien, the primitive -form is already overlaid; we hear nothing further of the damsel moved to -laughter nor of the prophetic fool; and in the Mabinogi it seems obvious -that the hailing of the hero, added in Chrestien to the older laughter, -has alone subsisted. Birch-Hirschfeld takes exception likewise to the way -in which Peredur’s two uncles are brought upon the scene, the first one, -corresponding to Gonemans in Chrestien, being found fishing instead of the -real Fisher King, the lord of the Castle of the Magic Talismans, whilst at -the latter’s, Peredur has to undergo trials of his strength belonging -properly to his stay at the first uncle’s. Evidently, says -Birch-Hirschfeld, there has been a confusion of the two personages. Again, -when Peredur leaves his second uncle on the morrow of seeing the bleeding -head and spear, it is said, “he rode forth with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> his uncle’s permission.†-Can these words be a reminiscence of Chrestien’s?</p> - -<p class="poem">Et trueve le pont abaiscié,<br /> -Con li avoit ensi laissié<br /> -Por ce que rien nel detenist,<br /> -De quele eure qu’il venist<br /> -Que il ne passat sans arriest (4,565-69).</p> - -<p>We shall see later on that in the most primitive form of the unsuccessful -visit to the Castle of the Talismans the hero finds himself on the morrow -on the bare earth, the castle itself having vanished utterly. The idea of -permission being given to leave is diametrically opposed to this earliest -conception, and its presence in the Mabinogi seems only capable of -explanation by some misunderstanding of the story-teller’s model.</p> - -<p>The Blanchefleur incident shows some verbal parallels, “The maiden -welcomed Peredur and put her arms around his neck.â€</p> - -<p class="poem">Et la damosele le prent<br /> -Par le main débonnairement (3,025-26)<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Et voit celi ajenouillie</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Devant son lit qui le tenoit</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Par le col embraciet estroit (3,166-68).</span></p> - -<p>Can, too, the “two nuns,†who bring in bread and wine, be due to the “Il -Abéies,†which Perceval sees on entering Blanchefleur’s town? It may be -noticed that in this scene the Welsh story-teller is not only more chaste, -but shows much greater delicacy of feeling than the French poet. Peredur’s -conduct is that of a gentleman according to nineteenth century standards. -Chrestien, however, is probably nearer the historical reality, and the -conduct of his pair—</p> - -<p class="poem">S’il l’a sor le covertoir mise<br /> -<b><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span></b><br /> -Ensi giurent tote la nuit.</p> - -<p>is so singularly like that of a Welsh <i>bundling</i> couple, that it seems -admissible to refer the colouring given to this incident to Welsh sources. -Another scene presenting marked similarities in the two works is that in -which the hero is upbraided before the court by the loathly damsel. In the -Mabinogi she enters riding upon a <i>yellow</i> mule with <i>jagged thongs</i>: in -Chrestien—</p> - -<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> -Sor une <i>fauve mule</i> et tint<br /> -En sa main destre une escorgie (5,991-2).</p> - -<p>“Blacker were her face and her two hands than the blackest iron covered -with pitch.â€</p> - -<p class="poem">Ains ne véistes si noir fer<br /> -Come ele ot les mains et le cor (5,998-99).</p> - -<p>“And she greeted Arthur and all his household except Peredur.â€</p> - -<p class="poem">Le roi et ses barons salue<br /> -Tout ensamble comunalment<br /> -Fors ke Perceval seulement (6,020-3).</p> - -<p>In the Mabinogi, Peredur is reproached for not having asked about the -streaming spear; in Chrestien “la lance qui saine†is mentioned first -although the Grail is added. Had Peredur asked the meaning and cause of -the wonders, the “King would have been restored to health, and his -dominions to peace.â€</p> - -<p class="poem">Li rices rois qui moult s’esmaie<br /> -Fust or tos garis de sa plaie<br /> -Et si tenist sa tière en pais (6,049-51).</p> - -<p>Whereas now “his knights will perish, and wives will be widowed, and -maidens will be left portionless‗</p> - -<p class="poem">Dames en perdront lor maris,<br /> -Tières en seront essilies,<br /> -Et pucièles desconsellies;<br /> -Orfenes, veves en remanront<br /> -Et maint chevalier en morront (6,056, etc.).</p> - -<p>In the “Stately Castle†where dwells the loathly damsel, are five hundred -and sixty-six knights, and “the lady whom he loves best with each,†in -“Castle Orguellos†five hundred and seventy, and not one “qui n’ait s’amie -avoeques lui.†“And whoever would acquire fame in arms and encounters and -conflicts, he will gain it there if he desire it.â€</p> - -<p class="poem">Que la ne faut nus ki i alle,<br /> -Qui la ne truist joste u batalle;<br /> -Qui viout faire chevalerie,<br /> -Si là le quiert, n’i faura mie (6,075, etc.).</p> - -<p>“And whoso would reach the summit of fame and honour, I know where he may -find it. There is a castle on a lofty mountain,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> and there is a maiden -therein, and she is detained a prisoner there, and whoever shall set her -free will attain the summit of the fame of the world.â€</p> - -<p class="poem">Mais ki vorroit le pris avoir<br /> -De tout le mont, je quie savoir<br /> -Le liu et la pièce de terre<br /> -U on le porroit mius conquerre;<br /> -<b><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span></b><br /> -A une damoisièle assise;<br /> -Moult grant honor aroit conquise,<br /> -Qui le siège en poroit oster<br /> -Et la pucièle délivrer (6,080, etc.).</p> - -<p>In this last case certainly, in the other cases probably, a direct -influence, to the extent at least of the passages quoted, must be -admitted. But before concluding hastily that the Welsh story-teller is the -copyist, some facts must be mentioned on the other side. Thus the incident -of the blood drops in the snow, which Birch-Hirschfeld sets down as one of -those taken over by the Mabinogi, with the remark that the Welsh story -contains no trace of a passion as strong as Perceval’s for Blanchefleur, -has been dealt with by Professor H. Zimmer in his “Keltische Studien,†-vol. ii, pp. 200. He refers to the awakening of Deirdre’s love to Noisi by -similar means, as found in the Irish saga of the Sons of Usnech (oldest -MS. authority, Book of Leinster, copied before 1164 from older MSS.) as -evidence of the early importance of this <i>motif</i> in Celtic tradition. The -passage runs thus in English: “As her foster-father was busy in winter -time skinning a calf out in the snow, she beheld a raven which drank up -the blood in the snow; and she exclaimed, ‘Such a man could I love, and -him only, having the three colours, his hair like the raven, his cheeks -like the blood, his body like the snow.’â€</p> - -<p>Now the Mabinogi says, almost in the same words—the blackness of the -raven and the whiteness of the snow, and the redness of the blood he -compared to the hair and the skin and the two red spots upon the cheek of -the lady that best he loved. In Chrestien there is no raven, and the whole -stress is laid upon the <i>three</i> drops of blood on the snow, which put the -hero in mind of the red and white of his lady’s face. As Zimmer justly -points out, the version<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> of the Mabinogi is decidedly the more primitive -of the two; and that, moreover, as the incident does not figure at all in -what Birch-Hirschfeld presumes to be Chrestien’s source, the -Didot-Perceval, the following development of this incident must, <i>ex -hypothesi</i>, have taken place. In the Didot-Perceval the hero is once upon -a time lost in thought. To explain this, Chrestien invents the incident of -the three drops of blood in the snow; the Mabinogi, copying Chrestien, -presents the incident in almost as primitive a form as the oldest known -one! Here, then, the Mabinogi has preserved an older form than Chrestien, -alleged to have been its source in all those parts common to both. Nor is -it certain that the fact of Peredur’s undergoing the sword-test in the -Talisman Castle <i>does</i> show, as Birch-Hirschfeld maintains, that the Welsh -story-teller confused the two personages whom he took over from Chrestien, -Gonemans and the Fisher King. The sword incident will be examined later -on; suffice here to say that no explanation is given in the Conte du Graal -of the broken weapon; whereas the Mabinogi does give a simple and natural -one. But these two instances cannot weaken the force of the parallels -adduced above. In determining, however, whether these may not be due to -Chrestien’s being the borrower, the differences between the two versions -are of even more importance than the similarities.</p> - -<p>What are these? The French romances belonging to the Perceval type of the -Grail quest give two versions of the search for the magic talismans, that -of the Conte du Graal and that of the Didot-Perceval. The latter -pre-supposes an early history which, as already shown, cannot be looked -upon as the starting point of the legend without postulating such a -development of the latter as is inadmissible on <i>a priori</i> grounds, and as -runs counter to many well-ascertained facts. The former is not consistent -with itself, Manessier’s finish contradicting Chrestien’s opening on such -an essential point as the cause of the maimed king’s suffering. Still the -following outline of a story, much overlaid by apparently disconnected -adventures, may be gathered from it. A hero has to seek for magic -talismans wherewith to heal an uncle wounded by his brother, and at the -same time to avenge him on that brother. What, on the other hand, is the -story as told in the Mabinogi?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> A hero is minded by talismans to avenge -the death of a cousin (and the harming of an uncle); it is not stated that -the talismans pass into his possession. It is difficult to admit that -either of these forms can have served as direct model to the other. If the -Mabinogi be a simple copy of the Conte du Graal, whence the altered -significance of the talismans? whence also the machinery by means of which -the hero is at last brought to his goal, and which is, briefly, as -follows? The woe which has befallen Peredur’s kindred is caused by -supernatural beings, the sorceresses of Gloucester; his ultimate -achievement of the task is brought about by his cousin, who, to urge him -on, assumes the form (1) of the black and loathly damsel; (2) of the -damsel of the chessboard, who incites him to the Ysbydinongyl adventure, -reproves him for not slaying the black man at once, and then urges him -into the stag hunt; (3) of the lady who carries off the hound and sends -him to fight against the black man of the cromlech; “and the cousin it was -who came in the hall with the bloody head in the salver and the lance -dripping blood.†The whole of the incidents connected with the Castle of -the Chessboard, which appear at such length in both the Conte du Graal and -the Didot-Perceval, but without being in any way connected with the main -thread of the story, thus form in the Mabinogi an integral portion of that -main thread. Would the authors of the Conte du Graal have neglected the -straight-forward version of the Welsh tale had they known it, or could, on -the other hand, the author of the Mabinogi have worked up the disconnected -incidents of his alleged model into an organic whole? Neither hypothesis -is likely. Moreover the Conte du Graal and the Didot-Perceval, if examined -with care, show distinct traces of a machinery similar to that of the -Welsh story. Thus in Chrestien, Perceval, on arriving at the Fisher -King’s, sees a squire bringing into the room a sword of such good steel -that it might break in but one peril, and this the King’s niece (<i>i.e.</i>, -Perceval’s cousin) had sent her uncle to bestow it as he pleased; and the -King gives it to the hero for—</p> - -<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">... biaus frère ceste espée</span><br /> -Vous fu jugie et destineé (4,345-6).</p> - -<p>After Perceval’s first adventure at the Grail Castle it is his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> “germaine -cousine†(4,776) who assails him with her reproaches; she knows all about -the sword (4,835-38) and tells him, how, if it be broken he may have it -mended (4,847-59). So far Chrestien, who furthermore, be it noted, makes -Blanchefleur Perceval’s lady-love, likewise his cousin, she being niece to -Gonemans (3,805-95). A cousin is thus beloved of him, a cousin procures -for him the magic sword, a cousin, as in the Mabinogi, incites him to the -fulfilment of the quest, and gives him advice which we cannot doubt would -have been turned to account by Chrestien had he finished his poem. Turning -now to Gautier, in whose section of the poem are to be found the various -adventures growing out of the chessboard incident, this difference between -the Mabinogi and himself may be noted. In the former, these adventures -caused by Peredur’s cousin serve apparently as tests of the hero’s -strength and courage. The loss of the chessboard is the starting-point of -the task, and the cousin reappears as the black maiden. Nothing of the -sort is found in Gautier. True, the damsel who reproaches Perceval is in -so far supernatural, as she is a kind of water-nix, but it is love for her -which induces the hero to perform the task; she it is, too, who lends him -the dog, and she is not identified with the “pucelle de malaire†who -carries it off (22,604, etc.). But later on Perceval meets a knight who -tells him that a daughter of the Fisher King’s (thus also a cousin of -Perceval) had related to him how a knight had carried off a stag’s head -and hound to anger another good knight who had been at her father’s court, -and had not asked as he should concerning the Grail, for which reason she -had taken his hound and had refused him help to follow the robber knight -(23,163, etc.). This makes the “pucelle de malaire†to be Perceval’s -cousin, and she plays the same <i>rôle</i> as in the Mabinogi. True, when later -on (Incident 13) Perceval finds the damsel, nothing is said as to her -being the Fisher King’s daughter; on the contrary, as will be seen by the -summary, a long story is told about the Knight of the Tomb, brother to her -knight, Garalas, and how he lived ten years with a fay. She is here quite -distinct from the lady of the chessboard to whom Perceval returns later. -The version found in the Didot-Perceval agrees with the Mabinogi as -against Gautier in so far that the hero is in love with the mistress<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> of -the castle, and not with the damsel who reproaches him for throwing away -the chessmen. This reproaching damsel is not in any way identified with -the lady who carries off the hound, who is described as “une vieille,†and -of whom it is afterwards told “elle estoit quand elle voloit une des plus -belles damoiselles du monde. Et est cele meismes que mon frère (the -brother of the Knight of the Tomb, who here, as in Gautier, is the lover -of a fay) amena à la forest,†<i>i.e.</i>, she is the fay herself, sister to -the lady of the Chessboard Castle, who hated her and wished to diminish -her and her knight’s pride (p. 469). Here, again, a connection can be -pieced out between the various personages of the adventure; and it appears -that the hero is driven to his fight against the Knight of the Tomb by a -fair damsel transformed into a mysterious hag.<a name='fna_72' id='fna_72' href='#f_72'><small>[72]</small></a> The Mabinogi thus gives -one consistently worked-out conception—transformed hag = Peredur’s -cousin—which may be recovered partly from that one of the two discordant -versions found in Gautier which makes the pucelle de malaire to be the -Fisher King’s daughter, hence Perceval’s cousin, and connects the stag -hunt with the Grail incident, partly from the Didot-Perceval, which tells -how the same pucelle de malaire is but playing a part, being when she -wills one of the fairest maids of the world. Now we have seen that the -stag hunt is just one of those portions of the story in which are found -the closest verbal similarities between Gautier de Doulens and the -Didot-Perceval. It is, therefore, perplexing to find that there is not -more likeness in the details of the incident. But the similarities pointed -out concern chiefly the first part of the incident, and are less prominent -in the latter part (the hero’s encounter with the Knight of the Tomb). -This, taken together with the difference in the details of the incident -just pointed out, strengthens the opinion expressed above, that the -Didot-Perceval and Gautier<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> are not connected directly but through the -medium of a common source, the influence of which can be seen distinctly -in certain portions of either story, and that when this source fails they -go widely asunder in their accounts. That such an hypothesis is not -unreasonable is shown by the fact that Gautier has two contradictory forms -of this very story, one of which, that which makes the hound-stealing -damsel a daughter of the Fisher King, is on all fours with the Mabinogi, -whilst the other is more akin to, though differing in important respects -from, that of the Didot-Perceval. In this case, at least, Gautier must -have had two sources, and if two why not more?</p> - -<p>It may be urged in explanation of the similarities between Gautier and the -Mabinogi, that the author of the latter used Gautier in the same free way -that he did Chrestien, but that getting tired towards the close of his -work he abridged in a much more summary fashion than at first. If the -comparison of the versions of the stag hunt found in either work be not -sufficient to refute this theory, the following consideration may be -advanced against it: if the Mabinogi derives entirely from the Conte du -Graal, how can the different form given to the Grail episode be accounted -for?—if it only knew Chrestien, where did it get the chessboard adventure -from, and if it knew Gautier as well as Chrestien why did it not finish -the Grail adventure upon the same lines as it began, <i>i.e.</i>, partly in -conformity with its alleged model?</p> - -<p>Is Manessier any nearer than Gautier to the Mabinogi in the later portion -of the tale? The chief points of the story told by him may be -recapitulated thus:—The Grail damsel is daughter of the Fisher King, the -damsel of the salver, daughter of King Goon Desert, his brother (<i>i.e.</i>, -both are cousins to Perceval); Goon Desert, besieged by Espinogre, defeats -him, but is treacherously slain by his nephew Partinal, the latter’s sword -breaking in the blow. Goon’s body is brought to the Fisher King’s castle, -whither the broken sword is likewise brought by Goon’s daughter to be kept -until a knight should come, join together the pieces, and avenge Goon’s -death. In receiving the sword the Fisher King wounds himself through the -thighs, and may not be healed until he be avenged on Partinal. Perceval -asks how he may find the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> murderer, the blood vengeance (faide = O.H.G. -Fehde) being on him. Perceval fights with Partinal, slays him, cuts off -his head as token of his victory, returns to the Fisher King’s castle, -lighting upon it by chance, heals the Fisher King by the mere sight of the -head, which is fixed on a pike on the highest battlements. At the death of -his uncle Perceval succeeds him as King of the Grail Castle. Here, then, -as in the Mabinogi, the story turns definitely upon a blood feud; the same -act which brings about the death of one relative of the hero, also causes, -indirectly, it is true, the laming of another, even as in the Mabinogi the -same supernatural beings kill Peredur’s cousin and lame his uncle; the -cousin reappears again, bringing the magic sword by whose aid alone the -hero can accomplish the vengeance, and uttering the prediction the -fulfilment of which will point out the destined avenger. Finally, if the -Mabinogi seems to lay special stress upon the head of the murdered man, -Manessier lays special stress upon the head of the murderer. Now it is -quite evident that the Mabinogi cannot have copied Manessier. It has been -alleged that the Welsh story-teller, adapting Chrestien to the taste of -his fellow countrymen, substituted a blood feud for the Grail Quest, but -what reason would he have had for thus dealing with Manessier? He had -simply to leave out the Christian legendary details, which in Manessier -are, one can hardly say, adapted to the older form of the story, to find -in that older form a clear and straightforward account with no admixture -of mystical elements. It is impossible to explain the strong general -similarity of outline with the equally marked divergences of detail -(Sorceresses of Gloucester instead of Partinal, etc.,) except by saying -that both, though going back to a common legendary source, are unconnected -one with another.</p> - -<p>The facts thus dealt with may be recapitulated as follows:—There is -marked similarity in general outline between the Mabinogi and the Conte du -Graal in the adventures common to both; in that portion of the Conte du -Graal due to Chrestien there occur, moreover, many and close verbal -parallels, and the corresponding part of the Mabinogi is told at greater -length than the remainder of the incidents common to both works. That -which answers in the Mabinogi to the Grail Quest forms a clear and -straightforward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> whole, the main features of which may be recovered from -the Conte du Graal, but in varying proportions from the various sections -of that work. Thus the indications of this Mabinogi talisman quest, the -central intrigue, as it may be called, of the tale, are in Chrestien of -the slightest nature, being confined to passing hints; in Gautier they are -fuller and more precise, though pointing to a version of the central -intrigue different, not only in details but in conception, from that of -the Mabinogi; in Manessier alone is there agreement of conception, -although the details still vary. Finally, those portions of the Mabinogi -which are in closest verbal agreement with Chrestien contain statements -which cannot easily be reconciled with this central intrigue.</p> - -<p>These facts seem to warrant some such deductions as these. Bearing in mind -that the Mabinogi is an obvious piecing together of all sorts of incidents -relating to its hero, the only connecting link being that of his -personality, its author may be supposed, when compiling his work, to have -stretched out his hand in all directions for material. Now a portion of -the Peredur <i>sage</i> consisted of adventures often found elsewhere in the -folk-tale cycles of the Great Fool and the Avenging Kinsman—cycles which, -in Celtic tradition, at least, cover almost the same ground as the one -described by J. G. von Hahn under the title, “Die Arische Aussetzung und -Rückkehr-Formel.†In the original of the Mabinogi this portion probably -comprised the childhood and forest up-bringing, the visit to Arthur with -the accompanying incidents, the training by the uncle (who <i>may</i> have been -the Fisher King), the arrival at the (bespelled) castle, where the hero is -to be minded of his task by the sight of certain talismans and of his -cousin’s head, the reproaches of the loathly damsel, her subsequent -testing of the hero by the adventures of the chessboard, stag hunt, etc., -the hero’s final accomplishment of the task, vengeance on his kindred’s -enemies, and removal of the spells. There would seem to have been no such -love story as that frequently found in stories of the Great Fool class, -<i>e.g.</i>, in the Irish one (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_134">p. 134</a>). This original was probably -some steps removed from being a genuine popular version; the incidents -were presented in a way at once over-concise and confused, and some which, -as will be seen in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> next chapter, the living folk-tale has preserved -were left out or their significance was not recognized. What more natural -than that the author of the Mabinogi in its present form, knowing -Chrestien, should piece out his bare, bald narrative with shreds and -patches from the Frenchman’s poem? The moment Chrestien fails him, he -falls back into the hurried concision of his original. His adaptation of -Chrestien is done with singularly little skill, and at times he seems to -have misunderstood his model. He confines his borrowing to matters of -detail, not allowing, for instance, Chrestien’s presentment of the Grail -incident to supersede that of his Welsh original. In one point he may, -following Chrestien, have made a vital change. It seems doubtful whether -the Welsh source of the Mabinogi knew of a maimed king, an uncle to be -healed through the hero’s agency; the sole task may have been the avenging -the cousin’s death. True the “lame uncle†appears at the end, but this may -be due to some sudden desire for consistency on the arranger’s part. But -whether or no he was found in the Welsh story preserved in the Mabinogi, -he certainly played no such leading part as in the Conte du Graal. The two -stories deal with the same cycle of adventures, but the object of the hero -is not the same in both, and, consequently, the machinery employed is not -quite the same. The present Mabinogi is an unskilful fusion of these two -variations upon the one theme.<a name='fna_73' id='fna_73' href='#f_73'><small>[73]</small></a></p> - -<p>Light is also thrown by this investigation upon the question of -Chrestien’s relationship to his continuators. Birch-Hirschfeld’s theory -that the Didot-Perceval was the source of Chrestien and Gautier has -already been set aside. Apart from the reasons already adduced, the fact -that it does not explain from whence Manessier got his ending of the story -would alone condemn it. It must now be evident that Chrestien and two of -his continuators drew from one source, and this a poem of no great length -probably, the main outlines of which were nearly the same as those of the -Welsh proto-Mabinogi given above, with this difference, that the story -turned upon the healing of the uncle and not the avenging the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> cousin’s -death. This poem, which seems also to have served, directly or indirectly, -as one of the sources of the Didot-Perceval, had probably departed from -popular lines in many respects, and <i>may</i>, though this would be an -exceedingly difficult question to determine, have begun the incorporation -of the Joseph of Arimathea legend with its consequent wresting to purposes -of Christian symbolisms of the objects and incidents of the old folk-tale.</p> - -<p>Such an incorporation had almost certainly begun before Chrestien’s time, -and was continued by him. There can be little doubt that he dealt with his -model in a free and daring spirit, altering and adding as seemed best to -him. This alone explains how Manessier, slavishly following the common -original, tells differently the cause of the lame king’s wound. Gautier, -who lacked Chrestien’s creative power, though he often equals him in the -grace and vivacity of his narrative, seems to have had no conception of a -plan; the section of Conte du Graal which goes under his name is a mere -disorderly heap of disconnected adventures brought together without care -for consistency. But for this very reason he is of more value in restoring -the original form of the story than Chrestien, who, striving after -consistency, harmony, and artistic development of his tale, alters, adds -to, or retrenches from the older version. Gautier had doubtless other -sources besides the one made use of by Chrestien. This does not seem to be -the case with Manessier, who, for this portion of the story, confined -himself to Chrestien’s original, without taking note of the differences in -<i>motif</i> introduced by his predecessor. What is foreign to it he drew from -sources familiar to us, the Queste and Grand S. Graal, from which more -than two-thirds of his section are derived.</p> - -<p>In working back to the earliest form of the Perceval-<i>sage</i>, Mabinogi and -Conte du Graal are thus of equal value and mutually complementary. Both -are second-hand sources, and their testimony is at times sadly corrupt, -but it is from them chiefly that information must be sought as to the -earlier stages of development of this legendary cycle. They do not by -themselves give any satisfactory explanation of the more mysterious -features of the full-blown legend, but they do present the facts in such a -way as to put out of court the hypothesis of a solely Christian legendary -origin.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> Before proceeding further it will be well to see if the English -Sir Perceval has likewise claims to be considered one of the versions -which yield trustworthy indications as to the older form of the story.</p> - -<p>This poem, described by Halliwell as simply an abridged English version of -the Conte du Graal, has, as may be seen by reference to <a href="#CHAPTER_IV">Ch. IV</a>, been -treated with more respect by other investigators, several of whom, struck -by its archaic look, have pronounced it one of the earliest versions of -the Perceval <i>sage</i>. It has quite lately been the object of elaborate -study by Paul Steinbach in his dissertation: “Uber dem Einfluss des -Crestien de Troies auf die altenglische literatur,†Leipzig, 1885. The -results of his researches may be stated somewhat as follows: the two works -correspond incident for incident down to the death of the Red Knight, the -chief differences being that Perceval is made a nephew of King Arthur, -that the death of his father at the hands of the Red Knight is explained -as an act of revenge on the part of the latter, that Arthur recognizes his -nephew at once, and tells him concerning the Red Knight, and that the -burning of the Red Knight, only hinted at in Chrestien’s lines—</p> - -<p class="poem">Ains auroie par carbonees.<br /> -Trestout escarbellié le mort, etc. (2,328-9).</p> - -<p>is fully told in the English poem. After the Red Knight incident the -parallelism is much less close. The English poem has incidents to itself: -the slaying of the witch, the meeting with the uncle and nine cousins, the -fight with the giant for the ring, the meeting with and restoring to -health the mother. Of the remaining incidents, those connected with -Lufamour are more or less parallel to what Chrestien relates of his hero’s -adventure with Blanchefleur, and that of the Black Knight, with that of -the Orgellous de la Lande in Chrestien. Of the 2,288 verses of the English -poem the greater part may be paralleled from Chrestien, thus:—</p> - -<p> </p> -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> -<tr><td align="center">P. of G.</td> - <td> </td> - <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> - <td> </td> - <td align="center">Cr.</td></tr> -<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1.75em;">1-160</span></td> - <td colspan="3"> </td> - <td><span style="margin-left: .75em;">485-940</span></td></tr> -<tr><td><span style="margin-left: .75em;">161-188</span></td> - <td colspan="3"> </td> - <td><span style="margin-left: .75em;">941-1,206</span></td></tr> -<tr><td><span style="margin-left: .75em;">189-256</span></td> - <td colspan="3"> </td> - <td>1,207-82</td></tr> -<tr><td><span style="margin-left: .75em;">257-320</span></td> - <td colspan="3"> </td> - <td>1,283-1,554</td></tr> -<tr><td><span style="margin-left: .75em;">321-432</span></td> - <td colspan="3"> </td> - <td>1,555-1,828</td></tr> -<tr><td><span style="margin-left: .75em;">433-80</span></td> - <td colspan="3"> </td> - <td>1,829-1,970</td></tr> -<tr><td><span style="margin-left: .75em;">481-600</span></td> - <td colspan="3"> </td> - <td>2,091-2,170</td></tr> -<tr><td rowspan="3"><span style="margin-left: .75em;">601-56</span></td> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - <td rowspan="3"><span class="huge">{<br />{</span></td> - <td>2,055-90</td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="2"> </td> - <td>2,135-59</td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></td> - <td> </td> - <td>2,171-2,225</td></tr> -<tr><td><span style="margin-left: .75em;">657-740</span></td> - <td colspan="3"> </td> - <td>2,268-2,312</td></tr> -<tr><td><span style="margin-left: .75em;">741-820</span></td> - <td colspan="3"> </td> - <td>2,313-2,398</td></tr> -<tr><td>1,061-1,108</td> - <td colspan="3"> </td> - <td>4,000-4,060</td></tr> -<tr><td>1,109-1,124</td> - <td colspan="3"> </td> - <td>5,511-553</td></tr> -<tr><td>1,381-1,540</td> - <td colspan="3"> </td> - <td>5,600-5,891</td></tr> -<tr><td><span style="margin-left: .75em;">953-1,012</span></td> - <td rowspan="3"><span class="huge">}<br />}</span></td></tr> -<tr><td>1,125-1,380</td> - <td> </td> - <td rowspan="2"><span class="huge">{</span></td> - <td>2,900-3,960</td></tr> -<tr><td>1,541-1,760</td> - <td> </td> - <td>4,088-94</td></tr> -<tr><td>1,761-1,808</td> - <td colspan="3"> </td> - <td>4,095-4,150</td></tr> -<tr><td>1,809-1,951</td> - <td colspan="3"> </td> - <td>4,865-5,375</td></tr></table> - -<p>the incidents comprised v. 821-952 and 1,953-2,288, being the only one -entirely unconnected with Chrestien. This general agreement between the -two works shows the dependence of the one on the other. But while -evidently dependent, the English poem, as is shown by the differences -between it and its French original, belongs at once to a less and to a -more highly developed stage of the Perceval <i>sage</i>. The differences are -thus of two kinds, those testifying to the writer’s adherence to older, -probably Breton, popular traditions and those due to himself, and -testifying to the skill with which he has worked up his materials and -fitted portions of Chrestien’s poem into an older framework. Of the first -kind are: the statement that Perceval meets with three knights instead of -five as in Chrestien, the English poem agreeing here with the Mabinogi; -the mention of his riding on a <i>mare</i> and of his being clad in goat-skins, -the English poem again agreeing rather with the Mabinogi than with -Chrestien, and showing likewise points of contact with the Breton ballads -about Morvan lez Breiz, printed by Villemarqué in the Barzaz Breiz. The -combat with the giant may likewise be paralleled from the Lez Breiz cycle -in that hero’s fight with the Moorish giant. These points would seem to -indicate knowledge on the author’s part of popular traditions concerning -Perceval forming a small cycle, of which the departure from, and return to -the mother were the opening and closing incidents respectively. This form -of the story must have been widely spread and popular to induce the author -to leave out as much as he has done of Chrestien’s poem in order to bring -it within the traditional framework. He accomplished his task with much -skill, removing every trace of whatever did not bear directly upon the -march of the story as he told it. In view of this skill differences which -tend to make the story more consequent and logical may fairly be ascribed -to him. Such are: the making Perceval a nephew of Arthur, the mention of a -feud between the Red Knight and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> Perceval’s father, the combat with the -witch arising out of Perceval’s wearing the Red Knight’s armour, and the -other adventures which follow eventually from the same cause, the feature -that the ring taken by Perceval from the lady in the tent is a magic one, -endowing its wearer with supernatural strength, the change made between -this ring and his mother’s which prepares the final recognition, etc. The -original poem probably ended with the reunion of mother and son, the last -verse, briefly mentioning the hero’s death, being a later addition. To sum -up, Sir Perceval may be looked upon as the work of a folk-singer who -fitted into the old Breton framework a series of adventures taken partly -from Chrestien, partly from the same Breton traditions which were -Chrestien’s main source, and with remarkable skill avoided all such -incidents as would not have accorded with the limits he had imposed upon -himself.</p> - -<p>Against this view of Steinbach’s it might be urged that a writer as -skilful as the author of Sir Perceval is assumed to be could easily have -worked Chrestien’s Grail episode into his traditional framework. A more -plausible explanation, assuming the theory to be in the main correct, -might be found in the great popularity in this country of the Galahad form -of the Quest, and the consequent unwillingness on the author’s part to -bring in what may have seemed to him like a rival version. Steinbach has -not noticed one curious bit of testimony to the poem’s being an abridgment -of an older work, more archaic in some respects than Chrestien. When the -hero has slain the Red Knight he knows not how to rid him of his armour, -but he bethinks him—</p> - -<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">... “My moder bad me</span><br /> -Whenne my dart solde brokene be,<br /> -Owte of the irene brenne the tree,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now es me fyre gnede†(749-52).</span></p> - -<p>Now the mother’s counsel, given in verses xxv-vi are solely that he should -be “of mesure,†and be courteous to knights; nothing is said about burning -the tree out of the iron, nor does any such counsel figure either in -Chrestien or in the Mabinogi, which in this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> passage has copied, with -misunderstandings, the French poet.<a name='fna_74' id='fna_74' href='#f_74'><small>[74]</small></a> The use of Chrestien by the author -of Sir Perceval seems, however, uncontestable; and, such being the case, -Steinbach’s views meet the difficulties of the case fairly well. It will -be shown farther on, however, that several of the points in which the -German critic detects a post-Chrestien development, are, on the contrary, -remains of as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> old and popular a form of the story as we can work back to. -Accepting, then, the hypothesis that Sir Perceval, like the Mabinogi, has -been influenced by Chrestien, what is the apparent conclusion to be drawn -from the fact that the former omits the Grail episode altogether, whilst -the latter joins Chrestien’s version to its own, presumably older one, so -clumsily as to betray the join at once? May it not be urged that -Chrestien’s account is obviously at variance with the older story as he -found it? may not the fact be accounted for by the introduction of a -strange element into the thread of the romance? This element would, -according to Birch-Hirschfeld, be the Christian holy-vessel legend, and it -would thus appear that the Grail is really foreign to the Celtic -tradition. Let me recapitulate briefly the reasons already urged against -such a view. The early history of the Grail, that part in which the -Christian element prevails, must certainly be regarded as later than the -Quest, to which it could not have given rise without assuming such a -development of the romance as is well nigh incredible—the Quest versions, -moreover, all hang together in certain respects, and point unmistakably to -Celtic traditions as their source. These traditions must then be examined -further to see if they contain such traces of the mystic vessel as are -wanting in the Mabinogi and the English poem, and as may have given rise -to the episode as found in the French romances. As Perceval is the oldest -hero of the Quest, and as the boyhood of Perceval, forming an integral -part of all the oldest Quest versions presents the strongest analogies -with the folk-tale of the Great Fool, it is this tale which must now be -examined.</p> - - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> - -<div class="note"><p class="hang">The Lay of the Great Fool—Summary of the Prose Opening—The Aryan -Expulsion and Return Formula—Comparison with the Mabinogi, Sir -Perceval, and the Conte du Graal—Originality of the Highland -tale—Comparison with the Fionn legend—Summary of the Lay of the -Great Fool—Comparison with the stag hunt incident in the Conte du -Graal and the Mabinogi—The folk-tale of the twin brethren—The fight -against the witch who brings the dead to life in Gerbert and the -similar incident in the folk-tale of the Knight of the Red -Shield—Comparison with the original form of the Mabinogi—Originality -of Gerbert.</p></div> - - -<p>One of the most popular of the poetic narratives in the old heroic -quatrain measure still surviving in the Highlands is the “Lay of the Great -Fool†(Laoidh an Amadain Mhoir), concerning which, according to Campbell, -vol. iii., p. 150, the following saying is current:—“Each poem to the -poem of the Red; each lay to the Lay of the Great Fool; each history to -the history of Connal†(is to be referred as a standard). This Lay, as -will be shown presently, offers some remarkable similarities with the -central Grail episode of the quest romances, but before it is investigated -a prose opening often found with it must be noticed. This prose opening -may be summarised thus from Campbell, vol. iii., pp. 146, <i>et seq.</i></p> - -<p>There were once two brothers, the one King over Erin, the other a mere -knight. The latter had sons, the former none. Strife broke out between the -two brothers, and the knight and his sons were slain. Word was sent to the -wife, then pregnant, that if she bore a son it must be put to death. It -was a lad she had, and she sent him into the wilderness in charge of a -kitchen wench who had a love son. The two boys grew up together, the -knight’s son strong and wilful. One day they saw three deer coming towards -them; the knight’s son asked what creatures were these—creatures on which -were meat and clothing ’twas answered—it were the better he would catch -them, and he did so, and his foster-mother<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> made him a dress of the deer’s -hide. Afterwards he slew his foster-brother for laughing at him, caught a -wild horse, and came to his father’s brother’s palace. He had never been -called other than “Great fool,†and when asked his name by his cousin, -playing shinty, answered, “Great Fool.†His cousin mocked at him, and was -forthwith slain. On going into the King’s (his uncle’s) presence, he -answered in the same way. His uncle recognised him, and reproaching -himself for his folly in not having slain the mother with the father, went -with him, as did all the people.</p> - -<p>In my article on the Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula among the Celts -(“Folk-Lore Record,†vol. iv.), I have shown that this tale is widely -distributed in the Celtic Heldensage as well as in the Celtic folk-tale. -Before noticing the variants, a word of explanation may be necessary. The -term, Arische Aussetzungs-und Rückkehr-Formel, was first employed by J. G. -v. Hahn in his Sagwissenschaftliche Studien (Jena, 1876), to describe a -tale which figured in the heroic literature of every Aryan race known to -him. He examined fourteen stories, seven belonging to the Hellenic -mythology, Perseus, Herakles, Oedipus, Amphion and Zethos, Pelias and -Neleus, Leukastos and Parrhasius, Theseus; one to Roman mythic history, -Romulus and Remus; two to the Teutonic Heldensage, Wittich-Siegfried, -Wolfdietrich; two to Iranian mythic history, Cyrus, Key Chosrew; two to -the Hindu mythology, Karna, Krishna. I was able to recover from Celtic -literature eight well-defined variants, belonging to the Fenian and -Ultonian cycles of Irish Heldensage (heroes, Fionn and Cu-Chulaind); to -Irish mythic history, Labraidh Maen; to the folk-tale still living in the -Highlands, Conall and the Great Fool; to the Kymric Heldensage, -Peredur-Perceval, Arthur, and Taliesin. An examination of all these tales -resulted in the establishing of the following standard formula, to the -entirety of which it will of course be understood none of the tales -answer:—</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> -<tr><td align="right">I.</td> - <td>Hero born—</td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(<i>a</i>) Out of wedlock.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(<i>b</i>) Posthumously.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(<i>c</i>) Supernaturally.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(<i>d</i>) One of twins.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>II.</td> - <td>Mother, princess residing in her own country.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right">III.</td> - <td>Father—</td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(<i>a</i>) God from afar.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td> - <td><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(<i>b</i>) Hero from afar.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td align="right">IV.</td> - <td>Tokens and warning of hero’s future greatness.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right">V.</td> - <td>He is in consequence driven forth from home.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right">VI.</td> - <td>Is suckled by wild beasts.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right">VII.</td> - <td>Is brought up by a (childless couple), or shepherd, or widow.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right">VIII.</td> - <td>Is of passionate and violent disposition.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right">IX.</td> - <td>Seeks service in foreign lands.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right">IX<span class="smcaplc">A</span>.</td> - <td>Attacks and slays monsters.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right">IX<span class="smcaplc">B</span>.</td> - <td>Acquires supernatural knowledge through eating a fish, or other magic animal.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right">X.</td> - <td>Returns to his own country, retreats, and again returns.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right">XI.</td> - <td>Overcomes his enemies, frees his mother, seats himself on the throne.</td></tr></table> - -<p>I must refer to my article for a full discussion of the various Celtic -forms of this widely-spread tale, and for a tabular comparison with the -remaining Indo-European forms analysed by J. G. von Hahn. Suffice to say -here that the fullest Celtic presentment of the <i>motif</i> is to be found in -the Ossianic Heldensage, the expelled prince being no other than Fionn -himself. The Celtic form most closely related to it is that of the Great -Fool summarised above, the relationship of Peredur-Perceval with which is -evident. In both, the father being slain, the mother withdraws or sends -her son into the wilderness; in both he grows up strong, hardy, ignorant -of the world. Almost the same instances of his surpassing strength and -swiftness are given; in the Mabinogi by celerity and swiftness of foot he -drives the goats and hinds into the goat-house; in the Highland folk-tale -he catches the wild deer, and seeing a horse, and learning it is a beast -upon which sport is done, stretches out after it, catches and mounts it; -in Sir Perceval he sees—</p> - -<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">... A fulle faire stode</span><br /> -Offe coltes and meres gude,<br /> -Bot never one was tame (v. xxi.).</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>and “smertly overrynnes†one.—The Great Fool then comes to his uncle, in -whom he finds the man who has killed his father. Sir Perceval likewise -comes to his uncle, and gets knowledge from him of his father’s slayer; in -Chrestien and the Mabinogi no relationship is stated to exist between -Arthur and the hero. The manner of the coming deserves notice. In the -Conte du Graal, entering the hall the hero salutes the King twice, -receives no answer, and, turning round his horse in dudgeon, knocks off -the King’s cap.</p> - -<p>In the English poem—</p> - -<p class="poem">At his first in comynge,<br /> -His mere withowtenne faylynge,<br /> -Kiste the forehevede of the Kynge,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2em;">So nerehande he rade (v. xxxi.).</span></p> - -<p>He then demands knighthood or—</p> - -<p class="poem">Bot (unless) the Kyng make me knyghte,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I shall him here slaa (v. xxxiii.).</span></p> - -<p>In the Great Fool the horse incident is wanting, but the hero’s address to -his uncle is equally curt: “I am the great fool ... and if need were it is -that I could make a fool of thee also.†The incident then follows of the -insult offered to Arthur by the Red Knight. Here, be it noted, the -Mabinogi version is much the ruder of the three, “the knight dashed the -liquor that was in the goblet upon her (Gwenhwyvar’s) face, and upon her -stomacher, and gave her a violent blow in the face, and said,†&c.; in -Chrestien the incident is not directly presented, but related at -second-hand, and merely that the discourteous knight took away the goblet -so suddenly that he spilt somewhat of its contents upon the queen, and -that she was so filled with grief and anger that well nigh she had not -escaped alive; in Sir Perceval the knight takes up the cup and carries it -off. Now it is a <i>lieu commun</i> of Celtic folk-tales that as a King is -sitting at meat, an enemy comes in mounted, and offers him an insult, the -avenging of which forms the staple of the tale. A good instance may be -found in Campbell’s lii., “The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> Knight of the Red Shield.†As the King is -with his people and his warriors and his nobles and his great gentles, one -of them says, “who now in the four brown quarters of the Universe would -have the heart to put an affront on the King?‗then comes the rider on a -black filly, and, “before there was any more talk between them, he put -over the fist and he struck the King between the mouth and the nose.†It -is noteworthy that this tale shows further likeness to the Mabinogi-Great -Fool series, generally, in so far as it is the despised youngest who out -of the three warriors that set off to avenge the insult succeeds, even as -it is the despised Peredur who slays the Red Knight, and specially in what -may be called the prophecy incident. With the exception of the opening -incidents, this is the one by which the “formula†nature of the Perceval -<i>sage</i> is most clearly shown. In the Mabinogi it is placed immediately -after the hero’s first encounter with the sorceresses of Gloucester: “by -destiny and foreknowledge knew I that I should suffer harm of thee,†says -the worsted witch. The Conte du Graal has only a trace of it in the Fisher -King’s words as he hands the magic sword to Perceval—</p> - -<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">... Biaus frère, ceste espée</span><br /> -Vous fu jugie et destinée (4345-6),</p> - -<p>whilst in Sir Perceval a very archaic turn is given to the incident by -Arthur’s words concerning his unknown nephew—</p> - -<p class="poem">The bokes say that he mone<br /> -Venge his fader bane (v. xxxvi.).</p> - -<p>This comparison is instructive as showing how impossible it is that -Chrestien’s poem can be the only source of the Mabinogi and Sir Perceval. -It cannot be maintained that the meagre hint of the French poet is the -sole origin of the incident as found in the Welsh and English versions, -whilst a glance at my tabulation of the various forms of the Aryan -Expulsion and Return formula (“Folk-Lore Record,†vol. iv.) shows that the -foretelling of the hero’s greatness is an important feature in eight of -the Celtic and five of the non-Celtic versions, <i>i.e.</i>, in more than -one-third of all the stories built up on the lines of the formula. It is -evident that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> here at least Mabinogi and Sir Perceval have preserved a -trait almost effaced in the romance. In the above-mentioned Highland tale -the incident is as follows: the hero finds “a treasure of a woman sitting -on a hill, and a great youth with his head on her knee asleepâ€; he tries -to wake the sleeper, even cuts off his finger, but in vain, until he -learns how it was in the prophecies that none should rouse the sleeping -youth save the Knight of the Red Shield, and he, coming to the island, -should do it by striking a crag of stone upon his breast. This tale, as -already remarked, shows affinity to the Perceval saga in two incidents, -and is also, as I have pointed out (“Folk-Lore Record,†vol. v., -Mabinogion Studies), closely allied to a cycle of German hero and -folk-tales, of which Siegfried is the hero. Now Siegfried is in German -that which Fionn is in Celtic folk-lore, the hero whose story is modelled -most closely upon the lines of the Expulsion and Return formula. We thus -find not only, as might be expected, affinity between the German and -Celtic hero-tales which embody the formula, but the derived or allied -groups of folk-tales present likewise frequent and striking -similarities.<a name='fna_75' id='fna_75' href='#f_75'><small>[75]</small></a></p> - -<p>Another Highland tale (Campbell, lviii., The Rider of Grianaig) furnishes -a fresh example of this fact. Here, also, the deeds to be done of the hero -were prophesied of him. But these deeds he would never accomplish, save he -were incited thereto and aided therein by a raven, who in the end comes -out as a be-spelled youth, and a steed, a maiden under spells, and the -spells will not go off till her head be off. Even so Peredur is urged on -and helped by the bewitched youth. In other respects, there is no likeness -of plan and little of detail<a name='fna_76' id='fna_76' href='#f_76'><small>[76]</small></a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> to the Mabinogi, certainly no trace of -direct influence of the Welsh story upon the Highland one.</p> - -<p>It may, however, be asserted that all of these tales are derived more or -less directly from the French romance. This has been confidently stated of -the Breton ballad cycle of Morvan le Breiz (Barzaz Breiz) and of the -Breton Märchen, Peronik l’idiot (Souvestre, Foyer Breton), and I have -preferred making no use of either. In the matter of the Scotch and Irish -tales a stand must be made. The romance, it is said, may have filtered -down into the Celtic population, through the medium of adaptations such as -the Mabinogi or Sir Perceval. Granted, for argument sake, that these two -works are mere adaptations, it must yet follow that the stories derived -from them will be more or less on the same lines as themselves. Is this -so? Can it be reasonably argued that the folk-tale of the Great Fool is a -weakened copy of certain features of the Mabinogi, which itself is a -weakened copy of certain features of the French poem? Is it not the fact -that the folk-tale omits much that is in the Mabinogi, and on the other -hand preserves details which are wanting not alone in the Welsh tale but -in Chrestien. If other proof of the independent nature of these tales were -needed it would be supplied by the close similarity existing between the -Great Fool opening and the Fionn legend. This is extant in several forms, -one of which, still told in the Highlands (Campbell’s lxxxii.), tells how -Cumhall’s son is reared in the wilderness, how he drowns the youth of a -neighbouring hamlet, how he slays his father’s slayer, and wins the magic -trout the taste of which gives knowledge of past and to come, how he gets -back his father’s sword and regains his father’s lands, all as had been -prophesied of him. Another descendant of the French romance it will be -said. But a very similar tale is found in a fifteenth century Irish MS. -(The Boyish Exploits of Finn Mac Cumhall, translated by Dr. J. O’Donovan -in the Transactions of the Ossianic Society, vol. iv.); Cumhall, slain by -Goll, leaves his wife big with a son, who when born is reared by two -druidesses. He grows up fierce and stalwart, overcomes all his age-mates, -overtakes wild deer he running, slays a boar, and catches the magic salmon -of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> knowledge. An eighteenth century version given by Kennedy (“Legendary -Fictions,†p. 216) makes Cumhall offer violence to Muirrean, daughter of -the druid Tadg, and his death to be chiefly due to the magic arts of the -incensed father. It will hardly be contended that these stories owe their -origin to adaptations of Chrestien’s poem. But in any case no such -contention could apply to the oldest presentment of Fionn as a formula -hero, that found in the great Irish vellum, the Leabhar na h’Uidhre, -written down from older materials at the beginning of the twelfth century. -The tract entitled “The cause of the battle of Cnucha†has been translated -by Mr. Henessey (“Revue Celtique,†vol. ii., pp. 86, <i>et seq.</i>). In it we -find Cumhall and Tadhg, the violence done to the latter’s daughter, the -consequent defeat and death of Cumhall, the lonely rearing of Fionn by his -mother, and the youth’s avenging of his father. I must refer to my paper -in the “Folk-Lore Record†for a detailed argument in favour of the L.n.H. -account being an euhemerised version of the popular tradition, represented -by the Boyish Exploits, and for a comparison of the Fionn <i>sage</i> as a -whole with the Greek, Iranian, Latin, and Germanic hero tales, which like -it are modelled upon the lines of the Expulsion and Return formula. I have -said enough, I trust, to show that the Fionn <i>sage</i> is a variant (a far -richer one) of the theme treated in the boyhood of Perceval, but that it, -and <i>a fortiori</i> the allied folk-tales are quite independent of the French -poem. It then follows that this portion of Chrestien’s poem must itself be -looked upon as one of many treatments of a theme even more popular among -the Celts than among any other Aryan race, and that its ultimate source is -a Breton or Welsh folk-tale.</p> - -<p>The genuine and independent nature of the Great Fool prose opening being -thus established, it is in the highest degree suggestive to find in the -accompanying Lay points of contact with the Grail Legend as given in -Chrestien. Three versions of this Lay have been printed in English, that -edited by Mr. John O’Daly (Transactions of the Ossianic Society, vol. vi., -pp. 161, <i>et seq.</i>); Mr. Campbell’s (West Highland Tales, vol. iii. pp. -154, <i>et seq.</i>) and Mr. Kennedy’s prose version (Bardic Stories of -Ireland, pp. 151, <i>et seq.</i>). O’Daly’s, as the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> most complete and -coherent, forms the staple of the following summary, passages found in it -alone being italicised.<a name='fna_77' id='fna_77' href='#f_77'><small>[77]</small></a></p> - -<p><i>Summary of the Lay of the Great Fool.</i>—(1) There was a great fool who -subdued the world by strength of body; (2) <i>He comes to the King of -Lochlin to win a fair woman, learns she is guarded by seven score heroes, -overthrows them, and carries her off</i>; (C. and K. plunging at once <i>in -medias res</i>, introduce the Great Fool and his lady love out walking); (3) -The two enter a valley, are meet by a “Gruagach†(champion, sorcerer), in -his hand a goblet with drink; (4) The Great Fool thirsts, and though -warned by his lady love drinks deep of the proffered cup; the “Gruagach†-departs and the Great Fool finds himself minus his two legs; (5) The two -go onward, and (“swifter was he at his two knees than six at their -swiftness of foot;†C.) A deer nears them followed by a white hound, the -Great Fool slays the deer and seizes the hound; (6) whose owner coming up -claims but finally yields it, and offers the Great Fool food and drink -during life; (7) The three fare together (the glen they had passed through -had ever been full of glamour) till they come to a fair city filled with -the glitter of gold, dwelt in solely by the owner of the white hound and -his wife, “whiter than very snow her form, gentle her eye, and her teeth -like a flowerâ€; (8) She asks concerning her husband’s guests, and, -learning the Great Fool’s prowess, marvels he should have let himself be -deprived of his legs;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> (9) The host departs, leaving his house, wife, and -store of gold in the Great Fool’s keeping, he is to let no man in, no one -out should any come in, nor is he to sleep; (10) Spite his lady love’s -urgings the Great Fool yields to slumber, when in comes a young champion -and snatches a kiss from the host’s wife, (“She was not ill pleased that -he came,†C.); (11) The Great Fool’s love awakening him reproaches him for -having slept—he arises to guard the door, in vain does the intruder offer -gold, three cauldrons full and seven hundred townlands, he shall not get -out; (12) <i>At the instigation of the host’s wife</i> the intruder restores -the Great Fool’s legs, but not then even will the hero let him go—pay for -the kiss he must when the host returns; threats to deprive him of his legs -are in vain, as are likewise the entreaties of the host’s wife (All this -is developed with great prolixity in O’Daly, but there is nothing -substantial added to the account in C.); (13) Finally the intruder -discloses that he himself is the host, and he was the Gruagach, whose -magic cup deprived the Great Fool of his legs, and he is, “<i>his own gentle -brother long in search of him, now that he has found him he is released -from sorcery</i>.†The two kiss (C. and K. end here). (14) The two brothers -fare forth, encounter a giant with an eye larger than a moon and an iron -club, wherewith he hits the Great Fool a crack that brings him to his -knees, but the latter arising closes with the giant, kills him and takes -his club, the two then attack four other giants, three of whom the Great -Fool slays with his club, and the fourth yields to him. The brothers take -possession of the giant’s castle and all its wealth.</p> - -<p>There are obvious similarities between the Lay and the story found in the -Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal. A stag hunt is prominent in both, and -whilst engaged in it the hero falls under “illusion,†in both too the -incident of the seizure of the hound appears, though in a different -connection. Finally in the Lay, as in the Mabinogi, the mover in the -enchantment is a kinsman whose own release from spells depends upon the -hero’s coming successfully out of the trials to which he exposes him. But -while the general idea is the same, the way in which it is worked out is -so different that it is impossible to conceive of the one story having -been borrowed from the other. What can safely be claimed is that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> the -Great Fool, counterpart of Peredur-Perceval in the adventures of his youth -and up-bringing, is also, to a certain extent, his counterpart in the most -prominent of his later adventures, that of the stag hunt. It is thus -fairly certain that all this part of the Conte du Graal is, like the -<i>Enfances</i>, a working up of Celtic folk-tales. The giant fight which -concludes the Lay may be compared with that in Sir Perceval and in Morvan -le Breiz, and such a comparison makes it extremely likely that the -incident thus preserved by independent and widely differing offshoots from -the same folk-tale stem, belongs to the oldest form of the story.</p> - -<p>The analogies of the Lay with the Perceval <i>sage</i> are not yet exhausted. -In virtue of the relationship between the two chief characters, the Lay -belongs to the “twin-brother cycle.†This group of folk-tales, some -account of which is given below,<a name='fna_78' id='fna_78' href='#f_78'><small>[78]</small></a> is closely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> related on the one hand -to the “dragon slayer†group of <i>märchen</i>, on the other hand to the -Expulsion and Return formula tales. In many versions of the latter (the -most famous being that of Romulus and Remus) the hero is one of twins, -and, after sharing for a while with his brother, strife breaks out between -them. In the folk-tale this strife leads to final reconciliation, or is -indeed a means of unravelling the plot. In the hero-tale on the other hand -the strife mostly ends with the death or defeat of the one brother. It -would seem that when the folk-tale got associated with a definite hero -(generally the founder and patron of a race) and became in brief a -hero-tale, the necessity of exalting the race hero brought about a -modification of the plot. If this is so the folk-tale group of the “two -brothers†must be looked upon as older than the corresponding portion of -the Expulsion and Return hero-tales, and not as a mere weakened echo of -the latter. To return to the twin-brother features. The Peredur-Perceval -<i>sage</i> has a twin-sister, and is parallel herein to the Fionn <i>sage</i> in -one of its forms<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> (“How the Een was set upâ€), though curiously enough not -to the Great Fool folk-tale (otherwise so similar to “How the Een was set -upâ€), which, as in the Lay, has a brother. But beyond this formal -recognition of the incident in the Perceval <i>sage</i>, I am inclined to look -upon the Perceval-Gawain dualism as another form of it. This dualism has -been somewhat obscured by the literary form in which the <i>sage</i> has been -preserved and the tendency to exalt and idealise <i>one</i> hero. In the -present case this tendency has not developed so far as to seriously -diminish the importance of Gawain; <i>his</i> adventures are, however, left in -a much more primitive and <i>märchenhaft</i> shape, and hence, as will be shown -later on, are extremely valuable in any attempt to reach the early form of -the story.<a name='fna_79' id='fna_79' href='#f_79'><small>[79]</small></a></p> - -<p>If Simrock’s words quoted on the title page were indeed conclusive—“If -that race among whom the ‘Great Fool’ folk-tale was found independent of -the Grail story had the best claim to be regarded as having wrought into -one these two elements‗then my task might be considered at an end. I -have shown that this race was that of the Celtic dwellers in these -islands, among whom this tale is found not only in a fuller and more -significant form than elsewhere, but in a form that connects it with the -French Grail romance. But the conclusion that the Conte du Graal is in the -main a working up of Celtic popular traditions, which had clustered round -a hero, whose fortunes bore, in part, a striking resemblance to those of -Fionn, the typical representative of the Expulsion and Return formula -cycle among the Celts, though hardly to be gainsaid, does not seem to help -much towards settling the question of the origin of the Grail itself. The -story would appear to be Celtic except just the central incident upon -which the whole turns. For the English Sir Perceval, which undoubtedly -follows older models, breathes no word of search for any magic talisman, -let alone the Grail, whilst the Mabinogi, which is also older in parts -than the Conte du Graal, gives a different turn<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> to and assigns a -different <i>motif</i> for the hero’s conduct. The avenging of a kinsman’s harm -upon certain supernatural beings, and the consequent release from -enchantment of another kinsman, supply the elements of a clear and -consistent action to which parallels may easily be adduced from -folk-tales, but one quite distinct from the release of a kinsman through -the medium of certain talismans and certain magic formulæ. Numerous as -have been the points of contact hitherto established between Celtic folk -belief and the French romance, the parallel would seem to break down at -its most essential point, and the contention that the Grail is a foreign -element in the Celtic legend would still seem to be justified. Before, -however, this can be asserted, what I have called the central episode of -the romance requires more searching and detailed examination than it has -had, and some accessory features, which, on the hypothesis of the -Christian legendary origin of the Grail, remain impenetrable puzzles must -be commented upon. And another instructive point of contact between -romance and folk-tale must be previously noticed, connected as it is with -stories already dealt with in this chapter.</p> - -<p>In the latest portion of the Conte du Graal, the interpolation of Gerbert, -the following incident occurs:—The hero meets four knights carrying their -wounded father, who turns out to be Gonemans, the same who armed him -knight. He vows vengeance upon Gonemans’ enemies, but his efforts are at -first of no avail. As fast as in the daytime he slays them, at night they -are brought back to life by “Une vieille†who is thus described:—</p> - -<p class="poem">La poitrine ot agüe et sèche;<br /> -Ele arsist ausi come une esche<br /> -Si on boutast en li le fu.<a name='fna_80' id='fna_80' href='#f_80'><small>[80]</small></a><br /> -<b><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span><span class="spacer">·</span></b><br /> -La bouche avoit grant à merveilles<br /> -Et fendue dusqu’as oreilles,<br /> -Qu’ele avoit longues et tendans;<br /> -Lons et lez et gausnes les dans<br /> -Avoit. (Potvin vi., 183, 184.)</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>She carries with her</p> - -<p class="poem">II. barisiax d’ivoire gent;</p> - -<p>containing a “poison,†the same whereof Christ made use in the Sepulchre, -and which serves here to bring the dead back to life and to rejoin heads -cut off from bodies. She goes to work thus:—</p> - -<p class="poem">A la teste maintenant prise,<br /> -Si l’a desor le bu assise;</p> - -<p>then taking the balm</p> - -<p class="poem">Puis en froie celui la bouche<br /> -À cui la teste avoit rajointe;<br /> -Sor celui n’ot vaine ne jointe<br /> -Qui lues ne fust de vie plaine.</p> - -<p>Perceval stops her when she has brought back three of her men to life; she -recognises in him her conqueror:</p> - -<p class="poem">Bien vous connois et bien savoie<br /> -Que de nului garde n’avoie<br /> -Fors que de vous; car, par mon chief<br /> -Nus n’en péust venir à chief<br /> -Se vous non ...</p> - -<p>So long as she lives, Perceval shall be powerless to achieve his Quest. -She wars against Gonemant by order of the King of the Waste City, who ever -strives against all who uphold the Christian faith, and whose chief aim it -is to hinder Perceval from attaining knowledge of the Grail. Perceval gets -possession of somewhat of the wonder-working balm, brings to life the most -valiant of his adversaries, slays him afresh after a hard struggle, in -which he himself is wounded, heals his own hurt, and likewise Gonemant’s, -with the balsam. Compare now Campbell’s above-cited tale, the Knight of -the Red Shield. The hero, left alone upon the island by his two -treacherous companions, sees coming towards him “three youths, heavily, -wearily, tired.†They are his foster-brothers, and from the end of a day -and a year they hold battle against the Son of Darkness, Son of Dimness, -and a hundred of his people, and every one they kill to-day will be alive -to-morrow, and spells are upon them they may not leave this (island) for -ever until they kill<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> them. The hero starts out on the morrow alone -against these enemies, and he did not leave a head on a trunk of theirs, -and he overcame the Son of Darkness himself. But he is so spoilt and torn -he cannot leave the battle-field, and he lays himself down amongst the -dead the length of the day. “There was a great strand under him below; and -what should he hear but the sea coming as a blazing brand of fire, as a -destroying serpent, as a bellowing bull; he looked from him, and what saw -he coming on the shore of the strand, but a great toothy carlin ... there -was the tooth that was longer than a staff in her fist, and the one that -was shorter than a stocking wire in her lap.†She puts her finger in the -mouth of the dead, and brings them alive. She does this to the hero, and -he bites off the finger at the joint, and then slays her. She is the -mother of the Son of Darkness, and she has a vessel of balsam wherewith -the hero’s foster-brothers anoint and make him whole, and her death frees -them from her spells for ever.<a name='fna_81' id='fna_81' href='#f_81'><small>[81]</small></a> This “toothy carlin†is a favourite -figure in Celtic tradition. She re-appears in the ballad of the -Muilearteach (probably Muir Iarteach, <i>i.e.</i>, Western Sea), Campbell, -iii., pp. 122, <i>et seq.</i>, and is there described as “the bald russet one,†-“her face blue black, of the lustre of coal, her bone tufted tooth like -rusted bone, one deep pool-like eye in her head, gnarled brushwood on her -head like the clawed-up wood of the aspen root.†In another version of the -ballad, printed in the Scottish Celtic Review, No. 2, pp. 115, <i>et seq.</i>, -the monster is “bald red, white maned, her face dark grey, of the hue of -coal, the teeth of her jaw slanting red, one flabby eye in her head, her -head bristled dark and grey, like scrubwood before hoar.â€<a name='fna_82' id='fna_82' href='#f_82'><small>[82]</small></a> The editor -of this version, the Rev. J. G. Campbell, interprets the ballad, and -correctly, no doubt, “as an inroad of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> Personified Sea.†There is no -connection, save in the personage of the “toothy carlin,†between the -ballad and the folk-tale.<a name='fna_83' id='fna_83' href='#f_83'><small>[83]</small></a></p> - -<p>It is impossible, I think, to compare Gerbert’s description of the witch -with that of the Highland “Carlin†without coming to the conclusion that -the French poet drew from traditional, popular Celtic sources. The wild -fantasy of the whole is foreign in the extreme to the French temperament, -and is essentially Celtic in tone. But the incident, as well as one -particular feature of it, admits of comparison: the three foster-brothers -of the Highland tale correspond to the four sons of Gonemant, who be it -recollected, represents in the Conte du Graal, Peredur-Perceval’s uncle in -the Mabinogi; in both, the hero goes forth alone to do battle with the -mysterious enemy; the Son of Darkness answers to the King of the Waste -City; the dead men are brought back to life in the same way; the release -of the kinsman, from spells, or from danger of death, follows upon the -witch’s discomfiture. And yet greater value attaches to the incident as -connected with the Mabinogi form of the story; in Gerbert, as in the -Mabinogi, the hero’s uncle is sick to death, his chief enemy is a -monstrous witch (or witches), who foreknows that she must succumb at the -hero’s hands.<a name='fna_84' id='fna_84' href='#f_84'><small>[84]</small></a> Something has obviously dropped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> out from the Mabinogi. -May it not be those very magic talismans, the winning of which is the -chief element of the French romances, and may not one of the talismans -have been the vessel of life-restoring balsam which figures in Gerbert and -the Highland tales?<a name='fna_85' id='fna_85' href='#f_85'><small>[85]</small></a> The study of subsidiary versions and incidents may -thus throw upon the connection of the Grail with the Perceval romance a -light which the main Celtic forms of the latter have not hitherto yielded.</p> - -<p>The Thornton MS. Sir Perceval differs in this incident from both Manessier -and Gerbert. As in Gerbert and the Highland Tale the hero meets his uncle -and cousins; there is the same fight with the mother of the enemy of his -kin, the hideous carlin, but it precedes, as does also the slaying of that -enemy, the meeting of uncle and nephews. There is thus no room for the -healing <i>motif</i> for which the unconscious avenging of the father’s death -is substituted. These differences bear witness both to the popular and -shifting nature of the traditions upon which the romances are based, and -to the fact that the avenging of a blood feud was the leading incident of -its earliest form.</p> - - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p> -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> - -<div class="note"><p class="hang">The various forms of the visit to the Grail Castle in the -romances—Conte du Graal: Chrestien; Gautier-Manessier; -Gautier-Gerbert—Didot-Perceval—Mabinogi—Conte du Graal: Gawain’s -visit to the Grail Castle—Heinrich von dem Türlin—Conte du Graal: -Perceval’s visit to the Castle of Maidens—Inconsistency of these -varying accounts; their testimony to stories of different nature and -origin being embodied in the romances—Two main types: feud quest and -unspelling quest—Reasons for the confusion of the two types—Evidence -of the confusion in older Celtic literature—The Grail in Celtic -literature: the gear of the Tuatha de Danann; the cauldron in the -Ultonian cycle; the Mabinogi of Branwen; vessel of balsam and glaive -of light in the contemporary folk-tale—The sword in Celtic -literature: Tethra; Fionn; Manus—Parallels to the Bespelled Castle; -the Brug of Oengus, the Brug of Lug, the Brug of Manannan Mac Lir, -Bran’s visit to the Island of Women, Cormac Mac Art, and the Fairy -Branch; Diarmaid and the Daughter of King Under the Waves—Unspelling -stories: The Three Soldiers; the waiting of Arthur; Arthur in Etna; -the Kyffhäuser Legend, objections to Martin’s views concerning -it—Gawain’s visit to the Magic Castle and Celtic parallels; The Son -of Bad Counsel; Fionn in Giant Land; Fionn in the House of Cuana; -Fionn and the Yellow Face—The Vanishing of the Bespelled -Castle—Comparison with the Sleeping Beauty cycle—The “Haunted -Castle†form and its influence on Heinrich’s version—The Loathly -Grail Messenger.</p></div> - - -<p>The analysis of the various versions has shown that the Conte du Graal is -the oldest portion of the vast body of French romance which deals with the -Grail, and that it presents the earliest form of the story. The -examination of the theories put forward to explain the genesis and growth -of the legend has shown how untenable is that hypothesis which makes the -Christian legend the starting point of the cycle. The comparison of the -Conte du Graal with Celtic legends and folk-tales has shown that the -former is in the main a North French retelling of tales current then, as -now, among the Celtic peoples of Britain, and probably of Brittany.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> One -thing alone remains unexplained, the mysterious Grail itself. Nor has any -light been thrown from Celtic sources upon the incident of the hero’s -visit to the Castle of Talismans, his silence, and the ensuing misfortune -which overtakes him. Where this incident does appear in a Celtic version, -the Mabinogi, it is not brought in connection with the Grail, and it bears -obvious traces of interpolation. The utmost we have been able to do is to -reconstruct from scattered indications in different Celtic tales a -sequence of incidents similar to that of the French romance. Let us, then, -return to what may be called the central incident of the Grail legend in -its older and purer form. And let us recall the fact that the hypothesis -which finds a Christian origin for the whole legend has no explanation to -offer of this incident. Birch-Hirschfeld can merely suggest that -Perceval’s question upon which all hinges is “eine harmlose Erfindung -Borron’s,†a meaningless invention of Borron’s. It is, indeed, his failure -to account for such an essential element of the story that forms one of -the strongest arguments against his hypothesis.</p> - -<p>In the first place it must be noticed that the incident of a hero’s visit -to a magic castle, of his omission whilst there to do certain things, and -of the loss or suffering thereby caused, occurs not once, but many times; -not in one, but in many forms in the vast body of Grail romance, as is -seen by the following list, which likewise comprises all the occasions on -which one or other of the questers has come near to or succeeded in seeing -the Grail:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(1) <span class="smcap">Chrestien:</span> (Inc. 7). Perceval’s first visit to the Grail Castle. -Question omitted.</p> - -<p class="hang">(2) <span class="smcap">Gautier:</span> (Inc. 22). Perceval’s second visit to the Grail Castle. -Question put—</p> - -<p class="hang"><i>Incident breaks off in middle, and is continued in one version by</i>:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(2<span class="smcaplc">A</span>) <span class="smcap">Manessier</span>, who sends off the hero on a fresh quest, which is -finished in</p> - -<p class="hang">(3) <span class="smcap">Manessier:</span> (Inc. 21). Perceval’s third visit to Grail Castle. The -question is not mentioned. Hero’s final success.</p></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p> - -<p class="hang"><i>In another version by</i>:—</p> - -<p class="hang">(4) <span class="smcap">Gerbert</span>: (Inc. 1-3). Perceval is sent forth anew upon Quest. He has -half put the question and been partially successful.</p> - -<p class="hang">(5) <span class="smcap">Gerbert</span>: (Inc. 21). Perceval’s third visit to Grail Castle. Question -not mentioned. Hero’s success.</p> - -<p class="hang"><i>Besides these forms of the episode in the Conte du Graal of which -Perceval is the hero, we have</i>:—</p> - -<p class="hang">(6) <span class="smcap">Gautier</span>: (Inc. 3). Gauvain’s first visit according to one, second -visit according to another version. Question half put, partial success.</p> - -<p class="hang"><i>And finally a somewhat similar incident of which Perceval is the hero -in</i>:—</p> - -<p class="hang">(7) <span class="smcap">Gautier</span>: (Inc. 12). Visit to the Castle of Maidens. Untimely sleep of -hero.</p> - -<p class="hang">So far the Conte du Graal. Of the versions closely connected with it we -have:</p> - -<p class="hang">(8 & 9) <span class="smcap">Wolfram von Eschenbach</span>: Two visits of Perceval to Grail Castle. -Question omitted at first, put in second, and crowned with success.</p> - -<p class="hang">(10 & 11) <span class="smcap">Mabinogi of Peredur</span>: (Inc. 6-25). Two visits of hero to Grail -Castle. Question omitted at first. Second visit successful. No mention of -question.</p> - -<p class="hang">(12 & 13) <span class="smcap">Didot-Perceval</span>: (Inc. 11-16). Two visits of Perceval to Grail -Castle. Question omitted at first, put at second, and crowned with -success.</p> - -<p class="blockquot">In a German romance, which presents many analogies with that portion of -the Conte du Graal which goes under Gautier’s name:</p> - -<p class="hang">(14) <span class="smcap">Heinrich von dem Türlin</span>: Gawain’s first visit to Grail Castle. -Question put. Success. Allusion to previous unsuccessful visit of -Perceval.</p> - -<p class="hang">Finally in the <span class="smcap">Queste</span> versions we have four variants of the incident—</p> - -<p class="hang">(15) <span class="smcap">Queste</span>: (Inc. 12). Lancelot at the cross-road, omission to ask -concerning the Grail.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p> - -<p class="hang">(15) <span class="smcap">Queste</span>: (Inc. 15). Perceval heals Mordrains.</p> - -<p class="hang"><span style="margin-left: 3.25em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(Inc. 43). Lancelot comes to Grail Castle. Partial fulfilment of his Quest.</span></p> - -<p class="hang"><span style="margin-left: 3.25em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(Inc. 48). The three questers come to the Grail Castle.</span></p></div> - -<p>On looking at the list we notice that the Conte du Graal knows of three -visits on the part of the principal hero to the Castle of Talismans: 1, 2, -3, or 1, 2-4, 5, and of one visit (or two) of the secondary hero; whilst -Wolfram, the Mabinogi, and the Didot-Perceval know of two only. Heinrich -von dem Türlin gives only one visit to <i>his</i> chief hero, though he -mentions a former one by the secondary hero. In Wolfram, and the -Didot-Perceval, the incident may be compared in the Conte du Graal with 1 -and 2; in the Mabinogi with 1 and 5; in Heinrich with 6. The Queste forms -of the incident are obviously dependent upon those of the Conte du Graal, -although they have been strongly modified. As for 7, it would seem to be a -form of the incident which has been entirely unaffected by the Christian -symbolism which has influenced all the others.</p> - -<p>It will be advisable to recapitulate the leading features of the incident -as found in the different versions. Where the summaries in <a href="#CHAPTER_II">Chapter II</a> -afford detailed information about it, the recapitulation will be brief, -but it will be necessary to give at least one version at much greater -length than heretofore.</p> - -<p>In the Conte du Graal (1) the hero finds a King fishing, who directs him -to his castle. Just as he deems the fisher has deceived him the castle -bursts upon his sight. He enters, is led into a square room wherein is a -bed sitting on which is an old man wrapped in sables; before him is a -great fire of dry wood; 400 men might sit in the hall. The King rises to -greet him; as they sit, a squire enters with a sword which had but two -fellows, sent by the King’s niece for the hero to whom it was destined. -The hall is light as it may be. A squire enters holding a lance by the -middle; all can behold the drop of blood which flows from the point upon -the holder’s hand. There follow him two squires with candlesticks, each -with ten candles, in either hand; a damsel holding a Grail, which gives -out a light as greater than that of the candles as the sun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> outshines the -stars; and another damsel with a plate of fine gold. The procession passes -from one into the other room. The hero refrains from asking who is served -by the Grail. After playing at chess with the King they dine, and again -the Grail passes, uncovered, at each dish. The hero would fain ask what -was done with it, and is about to do so, but puts off the question. On the -morrow he sees no one in the castle, the doors of the rooms he had been in -the eve before are shut, no one answers; and, mounting his horse, which he -finds ready saddled, he sets forth over the drawbridge, which closes of -itself behind him, without learning why lance bleeds or whither the Grail -is borne. (2) At the second visit the hero comes into a magnificent room, -ornamented with fine gold and stars of silver, wherein on a vermeil couch -the rich King is sitting. The hero is fain forthwith to ask about Grail -and bleeding lance, but must sit him down by the rich King and tell of his -adventures, about the chapel in which lay the dead Knight, and the black -hand, the child in the tree and the tree full of candles. The King makes -him eat before answering his questions. Whilst at meat a damsel, fairer -than flowers in April, enters with the Holy Grail, another with the lance, -a squire with the broken sword. The hero asks about these talismans. But -first the King answers the questions about the earlier wonders; the -talismans he will tell of after meat. The hero insists to know about the -sword. The King bids him put it together—can he do so he will learn about -the Knight in the Chapel, and after that about the talismans. Save for one -flaw the hero succeeds, whereupon the King says he knows no one in the -world better than he, embraces him, and yields him up all in his house. -The squire who brought the sword returns, wraps it in a cendal, and -carries it off.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> -<tr><td valign="top">2<span class="smcaplc">A</span>. The King bids the hero eat.<br /> -Lance and Grail, and a fair silver<br /> -dish pass before them, the latter<br /> -held by a damsel. The hero sighs<br /> -and begs to learn about these three.<br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>He is told about lance, Grail,<br /> -Grail-bearing damsel, dish-bearing<br /> -damsel, and in answer to further<br /> -questions, learns the history of the<br /> -broken sword, and of the chapel<br /> -haunted by the black hand. After<br /> -sleeping in a splendid bed<a name='fna_87' id='fna_87' href='#f_87'><small>[87]</small></a> he sets<br /> -forth on the morrow on the sword<br /> -quest (the slaying of Partinal).<br /> -<br /> -3. Having accomplished which, and<br /> -lighted chancewise upon the Grail<br /> -Castle, the King, apprised by a<br /> -squire and forthwith healed, meets<br /> -the hero who shows him head and<br /> -shield. At table lance and Grail<br /> -pass, borne by two maidens; delectable<br /> -meats fill the dishes—all<br /> -are filled and satisfied who behold<br /> -the Holy Grail and the lance that<br /> -bleeds. Thereafter enters a squire<br /> -holding a silver dish covered with<br /> -red samite; the talismans pass<br /> -thrice; the King thanks the hero<br /> -for having slain his enemy and<br /> -thereby rid him of great torment.<br /> -Asks his name, learns that he is<br /> -his nephew, and offers him his<br /> -kingdom.</td> - <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> -<td valign="top">4. The hero would hold it sin if he did<br /> -not ask concerning the Grail. The<br /> -King first submits him to the<br /> -sword test.<a name='fna_86' id='fna_86' href='#f_86'><small>[86]</small></a> The existence of the<br /> -flaw is apparently held to constitute<br /> -failure, due to the hero’s sin<br /> -in quitting his mother so abruptly.<br /> -In the night the hero has a vision,<br /> -which warns him to hasten to his<br /> -sister’s aid. On the morrow the<br /> -Grail Castle has vanished. Mounting<br /> -his horse, which stands ready<br /> -saddled, he rides forth. After a<br /> -vain essay to gain entrance to a<br /> -magnificent castle, in which he<br /> -breaks his sword, and thereby<br /> -loads upon himself seven further<br /> -years of adventure, but learns how<br /> -the sword may be made whole<br /> -again, he finds the land which the<br /> -day before was waste fertile and<br /> -peopled. The peasants hail him:<br /> -the townsmen come forth in his<br /> -honour—for through him the folk<br /> -have won back lands and riches.<br /> -A damsel tells him how: at the<br /> -Court of the Fisher King he had<br /> -asked about the Grail. At her<br /> -castle he has his sword mended.<br /> -(Later the hero learns that his<br /> -failure to win the Grail comes<br /> -from his not having wedded his<br /> -lady-love).<br /> -<br /> -5. Hero is directed by a cross to the<br /> -Court of the Fisher King. The<br /> -latter makes him sit by his side<br /> -and tell his adventures, when he<br /> -would fain learn about the Grail.<br /> -The same procession then passes<br /> -as in (2), save that sword instead<br /> -of being broken is simply described<br /> -as not resoldered. The hero says<br /> -he has been twice before with the<br /> -King, and reproaches him for not<br /> -having answered his questions,<br /> -although he had resoldered the<br /> -sword to the King’s great joy.<br /> -The King then bids him shake the<br /> -sword, which he does, and the flaw<br /> -disappears. The King is overjoyed,<br /> -and the hero is now worthy<br /> -of knowing everything.<a name='fna_88' id='fna_88' href='#f_88'><small>[88]</small></a></td></tr></table> - -<p>In comparing with these versions of the incident that found in the -Didot-Perceval, we find that the hero at his first visit is welcomed by -the squires of the castle, clad in a scarlet cloak,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> and placed upon a -rich bed, whilst four sergeants apprise Brons of his arrival, and the -latter is carried into the hall where sits the hero, who rises to greet -him. Brons questions him before they sit down to meat. The mystic -procession is formed by squire with lance bleeding, damsel with silver -dish, squire with the vessel holding our Lord’s blood. On the morrow the -hero sees no one, and finds all the doors open. At his second visit there -is no mention of difficulty in finding the castle. This time the King -rises to greet him; they talk of many things and then sit down to meat. -Grail and worthy relics pass, and the hero asks who is served by the -vessel which the squire holds in his hands. Straightway the King is healed -and changed; overjoyed he first asks the hero who he is, and, on learning -it, tells him concerning lance and Grail, and afterwards, at the bidding -of a heavenly voice, the secret words which Joseph taught him, Brons.</p> - -<p>In the Mabinogi the castle lies on the other side of a meadow. At his -first visit the hero finds the gates open, and in the hall a hoary-headed -man sits, around whom are pages who rise to receive the hero. Host and -guest discourse and eat, seated beside one another. The sword trial -follows, and the hero is declared to have arrived at two-thirds of his -strength. The two youths with the dripping spear enter, amid the -lamentation of the company, are followed by the two maidens with the -salver wherein is a man’s head, and the outcry redoubles. On the morrow -the hero rides forth unmolested.</p> - -<p>At the second visit the castle is described as being in a valley through -which runs a river. The grey-headed man found sitting in the hall with -Gwalchmai is described as lame.</p> - -<p>So far we have recapitulated the leading features of Perceval’s dealings -at the Talismans Castle in the Conte du Graal and in the most closely -allied versions. But Perceval, the chief hero, has, as we have already -seen, an under-study in Gauvain. And the Gauvain form of the incident -deserves as close examination as the Perceval form.</p> - -<p>(6) Gauvain has met a knight, stranger to him, with whom he travels to -Caerleon. Whilst in his company the stranger is slain by a dart cast by -whom no one knows. Before dying he bids<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> Gauvain take his arms and his -horse; he knows not why he has been slain, he never harmed anyone. Gauvain -suspects and accuses Kex, upon whom he vows to prove the murder, and sets -forth to learn the unknown’s name. After affronting the adventure of the -black hand<a name='fna_89' id='fna_89' href='#f_89'><small>[89]</small></a> in the chapel and long wanderings, he finds himself one -evening at the opening of a dark, tree-covered road at whose further end -he spies a light. Tired and fasting he lets his horse go at its will, and -is led to a castle where he is received with great honour as though he -were expected. But when he has changed his dress the castle folk see it is -not he whom they thought. In the hall is a bier whereupon lie cross and -sword and a dead knight. Canons and priests raise a great lamentation over -the body. A crowned knight enters and bids Gauvain sit by his side. Then -the Grail goes through the room, serving out meats in plenty, and acting -the part of a steward, whereat Gauvain is astounded. He next sees a lance -which drips blood into a silver cup. From out the same room whence come -the talismans, the King issues, a sword in his hand, the sword of the dead -knight, over whom he laments—on his account the land languishes. He bids -Gauvain essay to make the sword whole, but Gauvain cannot, and is told his -quest may not be accomplished. After his toils and wanderings Gauvain is -sleepy, but he struggles against sleep, and asks about bleeding lance and -sword and bier. Whilst the King is answering him he goes to sleep. On -awakening he is on the sea shore, arms and steed by his side.<a name='fna_90' id='fna_90' href='#f_90'><small>[90]</small></a> He then -meets<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> with the peasantry, and is told of the changed condition of the -land in a passage already quoted (<a href="#Page_87">p. 87</a>). Had he asked about the Grail -“por coi il servoit,†the land had been wholly freed.</p> - -<p>Heinrich von dem Türlin’s account of Gauvain’s visit to the Grail Castle -differs, as will be seen by the Summary, <a href="#Page_27">p. 27</a>, which it is unnecessary to -repeat, more from that of Gautier than from the Perceval visit of the -Conte de Graal, with which it has the common feature, that the person -benefitted by the transaction is the Lord of the Magic Castle. As will -already have been noticed it stands alone in the conception that the -inmates of the castle are under the enchantment of death-in-life from -which the question frees them.</p> - -<p>There still remains to be noticed (7) the incident of Perceval’s visit to -the Castle of Maidens, so closely analogous in certain details to the -Grail Castle visit, and yet wholly disassociated from it in the conduct of -the story. Perceval, wandering, sees across a river in fair meadow land a -rich castle built of marble, yellow and vermeil. Crossing a bridge he -enters, and the door at once closes behind him. No one is in the hall, in -the centre of which is a table, and hanging to it by a steel chain a -hammer. Searching the castle he still finds no one, and no one answers to -his call. At length he strikes upon the table three blows with the hammer. -A maiden appears, reproaches him, and disappears. Again he waits, and -again he strikes three blows. A second damsel appears, and tells him if he -strike afresh the tower will fall, and he be slain in its fall. But as he -threatens to go on, the damsel offers to open the door and let him forth. -He declares he will stay till morning, whereupon the damsel says she will -call her mistress. The hero bids her haste as he is not minded to wait -long, and warns her that he still holds the hammer. Other damsels then -show themselves, disarm and tend the hero, and lead him through a splendid -hall into a still more splendid one, wherein a hundred fair and courteous -maidens, all of like age and mien, and richly dressed, rise at his -approach and hail him as lord. The hero deems himself in paradise, and -“sooth ’tis to be in paradise to be with dames and maids; so sweet they -are, the devil can make naught of them, and ’tis better to follow them -than to hearken to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> sermons preached in church for money.†The dame of the -castle bids the hero sit him down by her. “White she is as a lily, rosier -than on a May morn a fresh blown rose when the dew has washed it.†She -asks him his name, and on hearing how he had wandered lonely three days -ere meeting with the castle, tells him he might have wandered seven ere -finding where to partake of bread and meat. He is well feasted. In reply -to his questions about the castle, and how is it no man may be seen in it, -he learns he is in the Maidens’ Castle, all the inmates of one kin and -land, of gentle birth; no mason put his hand to the castle, no serf toiled -at it. Four maids built it, and in this wise: Whatever knight passed, and -entering, beheld the door closed, and no man meeting him—if craven he -struck no blow with the hammer, and on the morrow he went forth unheeded; -but if wise and courteous he struck the table, and was richly entertained. -As the lady tells this tale the hero, overcome with much journeying, falls -asleep and is laid to bed by the maidens. On the morrow he wakes beneath a -leafy oak, and never a house in sight.</p> - -<p>It is surely superfluous to point out that the foregoing recapitulation of -the various forms under which this incident has come down to us gives the -last blow to the theory which makes Christian symbolism the starting -point, and the Didot-Perceval the purest representative of the legend. We -should have to admit not only that the later romance writers entirely -misunderstood the sense of their model, but that, whilst anxiously casting -about in every direction for details with which to overlay it, they -neglected one of its most fertile hints—that of the secret words handed -down through Joseph from Christ Himself to the successful Grail quester. -What a mine of adventures would not Gautier, Gerbert, and all the other -unknown versifiers, who added each his quota to the Conte, have found in -those “secret words?†Nay, more, we must admit that so much in love were -they with this incident they misunderstood, that they repeated it in -half-a-dozen varying forms, and finally eliminated from it every trace of -its original element. There are theories which ask too much and which must -be set on one side, even if one has nothing equally ingenious and -symmetrical to set in their place.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>Three things strike one in considering this incident apart from the other -adventures with which it is associated; the want of consistency in those -versions which, formally, are closely related, an inconsistency which we -have already noted in dealing with the legend as a whole; the repetition -of the same incident with almost similar details, but with a different -animating conception; and the fact that some of the secondary forms -testify to that same thread of story which we have already extracted from -the comparison of the Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal in their entirety. -Not only is the conception of the Quest different in Chrestien and -Manessier or Chrestien-Gerbert, but the details are different, the centre -of interest being shifted from the omitted question to the broken sword. -In Manessier the <i>dénoûment</i> is brought about without any reference to the -question, in Gerbert the reference is of the most perfunctory kind. Again -we find the same machinery of Grail, lance, and other talismans, which in -Chrestien-Manessier serves to bring about the hero’s vengeance on his -uncle’s murderer, in Chrestien-Gerbert the re-union of the lovers and the -winning of the Grail Kingship, used in the Gawain quest with the evident -object of compassing vengeance upon the slayer of the unknown knight. And, -thirdly, this secondary form is in close agreement with the -Mabinogi—here, as there, the sword test takes place at the Fisher King’s; -here, as there, it immediately precedes the passing of the talismans; -here, as there, it is only partially successful; here, as there, is a -tangible reminder of the object of the quest, in the dead body of the -unknown knight in the one case, in the head swimming in blood in the -other. And here we may note that of the two forms in which the <i>Queste</i> -reproduces this incident, the one which holds the more prominent position -in the narrative, the one of which Lancelot is the hero, closely resembles -that secondary form in the Conte du Graal which is connected with Gawain. -The wounded knight whom Lancelot beholds at the crossways borne into the -chapel upon a bier, and clamouring for the succour of the Grail, recalls -forcibly the dead knight of the Gawain quest. It is, perhaps, still more -significant that when the Queste does reproduce the Perceval form, it is -only in its externals, and the mystic vessel, which in the older version -is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> obviously a means of achieving the quest, has, in the later one, -become the end of that quest.</p> - -<p>It seems impossible to resist the following conclusions:—The many forms -of the incident found in the Grail romances are not variants of one, and -that an orderly and logical original; they testify to the fact that in the -body of popular tradition which forms the basis of these romances the -incident of the visit to a magic castle was a common one, that it entered -into the thread of stories, somewhat similar in outline and frequently -centered in the same hero, but differing essentially in conception, and -that the forms in the romances which are most likely to keep close to the -traditional model are those secondary ones with which the innovating -spirit, whether due to the genius of the individual artist, or to -intruding Christian symbolism, has least concerned itself. There is -apparently but one case in the Conte du Graal, that of Perceval’s visit to -the Castle of Maidens, which has been modified by neither of these -influences.</p> - -<p>To accept these conclusions is to clear the ground. If we rid our minds of -the idea that there is <i>a Grail legend</i>, a definite fixed sequence of -incidents, we need not be discouraged if we fail to find a prototype for -it in Celtic tradition or elsewhere. We shall be prepared to examine every -incident of which the Grail is a feature upon its own merits, and -satisfied if we can find analogies to this or that one. And by so doing we -are more likely to discover the how and why of the development of the -legends as we find them in the romances.</p> - -<p>Leaving subsidiary details out of account, we may bring all the instances -in which the Grail appears under two formulas: that of the kinsman -avenging a blood feud by the means of the three magic talismans, sword and -lance and vessel; and that of the visit to the Bespelled Castle, the -inmates of which enjoy, thanks to the magic vessel, a supernaturally -prolonged life, from which they are released by the hero’s question -concerning that vessel. The one we may call the feud quest, the other the -unspelling quest. The Proto-Mabinogi belonged, as we have already seen -(<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_139">p. 139</a>), to the first class, and accordingly we find that all -relating to the question is obviously interpolated from Chrestien. -Chrestien’s model<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> belonged, in all probability if not wholly, chiefly to -the first class, and accordingly we find that Manessier, certainly more -faithful than Chrestien to that original, lays no stress upon the -question. But in Chrestien himself there is a mixture of the two formulas; -the question and the food-producing qualities of the magic vessel have -been incorporated in the feud formula. Once started upon this track the -legend continues to mingle the formulas. The mystic procession, which -probably owes its form to Chrestien, is repeated with monotonous sameness -by his continuators; the machinery of the feud quest almost invariably -doubles that of the visit to the Bespelled Castle, and <i>vice versâ</i>. Thus -Heinrich von dem Türlin, along with the most archaic presentment of the -unspelling quest, has that procession of the talismans which properly -belongs to the feud quest; and, to complete his conception, we must turn -to incidents at present set in the framework of the other formula. For the -effect upon the land produced by the hero’s action at the Castle of -Talismans is obviously analagous to, though of directly contrary nature -to, that produced upon the inmates of the Bespelled Castle. They are dead -though they seem quick, the land is full of life though it seems waste. -The question which frees the one from the spell of life-in-death, frees -the other from the spell of death-in-life.<a name='fna_91' id='fna_91' href='#f_91'><small>[91]</small></a> The Didot-Perceval has the -complete conception. Perceval’s question not only releases Brons, who may -not die until then, but it also ends the enchantment of Britain.</p> - -<p>The identity of hero in stories originally dissimilar was one reason for -the confusion between the two formulas; the nature of the Grail was -another. Its attributes were in all probability not very clearly defined -in the immediate models of the French romance writers; these found it -enveloped in mysterious haze, which simple story-tellers, such as Gautier, -did not try to clear up, and which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> gave free play to the mystic -imaginings of those writers who used romance as a vehicle for edification. -The one tangible thing about it in stories of the one class, its food -producing-power, has left its trace upon every one of the romances. But we -shall also find in our survey of Celtic literature that this attribute, as -well as that of healing or restoring to life, is found indifferently in -stories of both the classes, to the fusion of which we refer the Grail -legends in their present form. Another link between the two formulas is -formed by the sword. It is almost invariably found associated with the -healing vessel of balsam in task stories connected with the feud quest of -the Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal; it is also a frequent feature in the -legend of the unsuccessful visit to the Bespelled Castle.<a name='fna_92' id='fna_92' href='#f_92'><small>[92]</small></a> Finally, the -most important reason for running into one the stories derived from these -two formulas, and the one which could hardly fail to lead to the fusion, -is to be found in the identity of the myth which underlies both -conceptions. The castle to which the avenger must penetrate to win the -talismans, and that to which the hero comes with the intent of freeing its -lord, are both symbols of the otherworld.</p> - -<p>Bearing in mind this double origin of the Grail, and reviewing once more -the entire cycle, we note that, whilst it is that presentment of the magic -vessel due to the second formula which is most prominent in the romances, -the feud quest has furnished more and more varied sequences of incident, -and is the staple of the oldest literary Celtic form (the Proto-Mabinogi) -and of those North French forms which are most closely akin to it. Here -the magic vessel is at best one of three equally potent treasures; as a -matter of fact its <i>rôle</i> in this section of the romances is, as we have -seen,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> inferior to that of the sword. Obviously intended to be the -immediate cause of restoration to life or health of the hero’s kinsman, -its functions have been minimised until they have been forgotten. If this -is so already in the Proto-Mabinogi and in the model of the Conte du -Graal, we may expect to find that elsewhere in Celtic tradition the magic -vessel is of less account than sword or lance.</p> - -<p>We should likewise misconceive the character of popular tradition if we -expected to find certain attributes rigidly ascribed to the mystic vessel -in this or that set of stories. The confusion we have noted in the -romances may be itself derived from older traditions. Certain it is that -in what maybe looked upon as the oldest account of the vessel<a name='fna_93' id='fna_93' href='#f_93'><small>[93]</small></a> in -Celtic literature (although the form in which it has reached us is -comparatively modern), there is a vessel of abundance associated with -three other talismans, two of them being sword and lance. The Tuatha de -Danann (the race of fairies and wizards which plays a part in Irish -tradition analogous to that of Gwydion ap Don, Gwynn ap Nudd, and their -kin in Welsh) so runs the tradition preserved by Keating in his History of -Ireland (Book I, ed. by Joyce, Dublin, 1880, p. 117), had four treasures: -The Lia Fail, the stone of Fate or Virtue (“now in the throne upon which -is proclaimed the King of the Saxons,†<i>i.e.</i>, the stone brought by Edward -I., from Scone); the sword that Lug<a name='fna_94' id='fna_94' href='#f_94'><small>[94]</small></a> Lamhfhada (Lug the Longhanded) was -wont to use; the spear the same Lug used in battle; the cauldron of the -Dagda, “<i>a company used not ever go away from it unsatisfied</i>.†Keating -followed old and good sources, and although the passage I have underlined -is not to be found in all MSS. of his work (<i>e.g.</i>, it is missing in that -translated by Halliday), and although the verse which he quotes, and which -probably goes back to the eleventh century, whilst the traditions which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> -it embodies may be regarded as a couple of centuries older, does not -mention this property of the Dagda’s<a name='fna_95' id='fna_95' href='#f_95'><small>[95]</small></a> Cauldron, it may, I think, be -assumed that the tradition here noticed is genuine, and that a vessel akin -to the Grail, as well as talismans akin to those that accompany the Grail, -formed part of the gear of the oldest Celtic divinities.<a name='fna_96' id='fna_96' href='#f_96'><small>[96]</small></a></p> - -<p>This conclusion appears no rash one when we consider the further -references to the cauldron in Middle Irish Literature. The Battle of Magh -Rath, a semi-historical romance relating to events which took place in the -seventh century, is ascribed by its editor, Dr. J. O’Donovan, to the -latter half of the twelfth century. It relates (pp. 51, <i>et seq.</i>) how the -sons of the King of Alba sought to obtain from their father the “Caire -Ainsicen†so called, because “it was the caire or cauldron which was used -to return his own proper share to each, and no party ever went away from -it unsatisfied, for whatever quantity was put into it there was never -boiled of it but what was sufficient for the company according to their -grade or rank.†The mediæval story-teller then goes on to instance similar -cauldrons to be met with in the older history of Ireland. These may nearly -all be referred to the oldest heroic Irish cycle, the Ultonian, of which -Cuchulainn is the most prominent figure. This cycle, in its origin almost -if not wholly mythic, was at an early date (probably as early as the -eighth century) euhemerised, and its gods and demi-gods made to do duty as -historical personages living at the beginning of the Christian era. It is, -indeed, not improbable that actual historical events and personages of -that period may have coloured and distorted the presentment of the myth; -and it is highly probable that the substance of these stories does go back -to that age, as they are almost entirely free from any admixture of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> -Christian elements, and such admixture as there is can be readily detected -as the handiwork of the tenth and eleventh century monks by whom these -tales were written in MSS. which have for the most part come down to us. -The cauldron is found with the same properties as those set forth in the -Battle of Magh Rath, in two of the most celebrated tales of this cycle, -the Toghail Bruighne da Derga, and the Tale of Mac Datho’s pig.</p> - -<p>Turning from Irish to Welsh literature we may note that the Grail has -frequently been compared with the cauldron of Bran in the Mabinogi of -Branwen, the daughter of Llyr. I have dealt with this tale fully -(Folk-Lore Record, Vol. V.), and see no reason to depart from the -conclusion I then arrived at; namely, that it goes back in the main to the -eleventh or tenth century. Here, the revivifying power of the vessel is -dwelt upon, “The property of it is that if one of thy men be slain to-day, -and be cast therein, the morrow he will be as well as ever he was at his -best, except that he will not regain his speech.†We cannot fail to recall -that in the Queste which, as far as the Grail itself is concerned, must be -referred on the whole to the feud quest formula, when the sacred vessel -appears the assembled company is struck dumb.<a name='fna_97' id='fna_97' href='#f_97'><small>[97]</small></a></p> - -<p>Later Celtic folk-literature has followed the Mabinogi rather than the -older Irish legend in its account of the mystic vessel. Where it appears -in the folk-tale its function is to heal or to bring back to life. We may -leave out of account for the present the references in the Welsh “bardic†-literature to the cauldron of Ceridwen, chief among which is that in the -Mabinogi of Taliesin. I am far from thinking that this literature deserves -the wholesale condemnation that has been passed upon it, but it has been -too little and too uncritically studied to afford, as yet, a firm basis -for investigation. We are on surer ground in dealing with the living -folk-tale. Thus the tale of Fionn’s Enchantment, although belonging more -properly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> to the other formula, may be noticed here as containing a cup of -balsam, the washings of which restore the maimed Fionn to complete health. -Mr. Campbell, who has noted the tale, remarks that the cup of healing is -common in all the Fenian stories, which is what we should naturally -expect, seeing the close connection between Fionn and Peredur (Rev. Celt. -I., p. 194). Other instances have already been given in <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">Chapter VI.</a> of the -appearance of the vessel of balsam in connection with the glaive of light, -and of its use in bringing back to life the hero’s enemies. And here it -maybe noted that almost the very mode in which it is introduced in the -folk-tales may be paralleled from the romances. The Grail appears to -Perceval and Hector, lying well nigh dead upon the field of battle, and -makes them whole, even as the vessel of balsam revivifies the dead -warriors whom Conall Gulban has just slain, and heals the latter. It is, -perhaps, only a coincidence that the angel in the one, the Carlin in the -other case, appear in a great flashing of light. But, as a rule, in those -task-stories which otherwise present such close similarities to the feud -quest of the Proto-Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal, the mystic vessel has -dropped out altogether, and the sword is the chief if not the only -talisman. This is the case in Campbell, I., the young King of Easaidh -Ruadh, and in XLVI. Mac Iain Direach. In one instance the glaive of light -is met with outside the task group, in Campbell XLI., the Widow and her -Daughters, variant ii (a Bluebeard story), and here it is found associated -with the vessel of balsam. In the folk-tales, then, as in one section of -the Conte du Graal, the healing vessel is decidedly of less account than -the avenging or destroying weapon. This, as the sword, plays such an -important part in the French romances that an examination of its <i>rôle</i> in -Celtic literature will repay examination.</p> - -<p>Besides the already quoted instances in which the sword of light -accompanies the vessel of balsam as one of the treasures which reward the -hero’s quest, but in which it does not otherwise affect the march of the -story, we find others in which the sword is either that weapon which -causes the woe, the subject of the story, or else is the one means of -testing the hero’s fitness for his quest. In either case it is parallel to -the sword of the Grail romances. Apart<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> from these special instances there -are general references in the oldest Irish literature to the -quasi-supernatural nature attributed to the sword. Thus the Leabhar -Gabhala, or Book of Invasions, the tenth and eleventh century tract in -which Irish mythology was euphemerised into an historical relation of the -pre-Christian invasion of Ireland, has a passage relating to the sword of -Tethra, King of the Fomori,<a name='fna_98' id='fna_98' href='#f_98'><small>[98]</small></a> which spake, and, adds the Christian -scribe, the ancient Irish adored swords.<a name='fna_99' id='fna_99' href='#f_99'><small>[99]</small></a> This is borne out by a -passage in the Seirglige Conculainn, a story belonging to the Ultonian -cycle, which Mr. Whitley Stokes has translated (Rev. Celt. I., 260). The -men of Ulster, when showing their trophies, had their swords upon their -thighs, “for their swords used to turn against them where they made a -false trophy.â€</p> - -<p>The Christian transcriber notes that it was reasonable for the pagan Irish -to trust their swords “because demons used to speak from out them.†To -return to the sword of Tethra. The most famous battle of Irish mystic -history is that of Mag-Tured, in which the Tuatha de Danann, the gods of -light and life, overcome their enemies the Fomori. Ogma, the champion of -the Tuatha de Danann, wins the sword of Tethra, and as he cleans it it -tells him the many and great feats it had wrought.</p> - -<p>It is, however, in the second of the great heroic cycles of the ancient -Irish, the Fenian or Ossianic, that we find the sword put to a use which -strongly recalls that of the romances. Not until the hero is able to wield -the weapon so that it break not in his hand, or to weld it together so -that no flaw appears,<a name='fna_100' id='fna_100' href='#f_100'><small>[100]</small></a> is he fit to set<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> forth on the quest. In -Campbell’s LXXVII., “How the Een was set up,†Fionn applies for his sword -to Ullamh Lamhfhada<a name='fna_101' id='fna_101' href='#f_101'><small>[101]</small></a> (Ullamh the Longhanded), who gives him the most -likely sword and the best he found. The hero takes it, shakes it, casts it -out of the wooden handle and discards it. Thrice is this repeated, and -when the right weapon is in Fionn’s hand, he quells utterly all he -sees.<a name='fna_102' id='fna_102' href='#f_102'><small>[102]</small></a> Now how had Fionn obtained this sword originally? By slaying -black Arcan, his father’s slayer. It may, I think, be looked upon as -certain that in an earlier form of the story, the weapon in question would -turn out to be the one with which the treacherous deed was done, and -Fionn, a counterpart of Peredur in his bringing up, would also be his -counterpart in this incident.<a name='fna_103' id='fna_103' href='#f_103'><small>[103]</small></a> For the sword with which Partinal slew -Goon Desert is treasured up for the use of Perceval, but only after a -repeated essay is he held worthy of it.<a name='fna_104' id='fna_104' href='#f_104'><small>[104]</small></a></p> - -<p>The sword incident reappears in a tale of Campbell’s, Manus (Vol. III.), -which presents some very remarkable analogies with the romances. Manus is -driven into various adventures by his aunt;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> an armourer of his -grandfather offers to get him a sword; but all given to him he breaks save -the armourer’s old sword, and it beat him to break that. The armourer then -gives him a cloth, “When thou spreadest it to seek food or drink, thou -wilt get as thou usest.†Subsequently, helped by a lion, he achieves many -feats. He comes to the help of the White Gruagach by fetching the blood of -a venemous horned creature belonging to the King over the Great World, by -which alone the White Gruagach could be restored to life when the magic -trout with which his life was bound up had been slain. Afterwards he -accompanies him against his enemy the Red Gruagach, who is slain, and his -head stuck on a stake. This Red Gruagach is apparently the father of the -aunt who so persecutes Manus.<a name='fna_105' id='fna_105' href='#f_105'><small>[105]</small></a></p> - -<p>This examination of the sword incident shows that the Mabinogi has -preserved the original form of the story, and links afresh this portion of -the Conte du Graal with the other Celtic stories belonging to the -Expulsion and Return formula group, with which it has so much else in -common. In all the formula-stories, except those of the Conte du Graal and -the Proto-Mabinogi, the hero has to avenge his father, not his uncle; and -it is highly suggestive that at least one version of the Perceval cycle -(the Thornton romance) follows suit. With this remark we may take leave of -the feud quest.</p> - -<p>Many and interesting as have been the parallels from the older Celtic -literature to the feud quest, they are far outweighed by those which that -literature affords to the second formula—the visit to the Bespelled -Castle—which we have noted in the romances.</p> - -<p>From the recapitulation (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_173">pp. 173</a>, <i>et. seq.</i>) we may learn -several things. The castle lies, as a rule, on the other side of a river; -the visitor to it is under a definite obligation; he must either do a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> -certain thing, as, <i>e.g.</i>, in Perceval’s visit to the Castle of Maidens, -strike on the table three blows with the hammer, or he must put a certain -question, or again he must abstain from certain acts, as that of falling -asleep (Perceval and Gawain) or drinking<a name='fna_106' id='fna_106' href='#f_106'><small>[106]</small></a> (Gawain, in Heinrich von dem -Türlin). Disregard of the obligation is punished in various ways. In the -case of the Castle of Maidens the craven visitor is allowed to fare forth -unheeded without beholding the marvels of the castle; but, as a rule, the -hero of the adventure finds himself on the morrow far away from the -castle, which has vanished completely. The inmates of this castle fall -into two classes—they are supernatural beings like the maidens, who have -apparently no object to gain from their mortal visitor, but who love -heroism for its own sake, and are as kindly disposed towards the mortal -hero in the folk-lore and mythology of the Celts as gods, and especially -goddesses, are in the mythic lore of all other races; or they suffer from -an over-lengthened life, from which the hero alone can release them. This -latter feature, seen to perfection only in Heinrich von dem Türlin, is -apparent in the Didot-Perceval, and has, in the Conte du Graal, supplied -the figure of the old man, father to the Fisher King, nourished by the -Grail.</p> - -<p>These features sufficiently indicate that the Magic Castle is the realm of -the other world. The dividing water is that across which lies TÃr-na n-Og, -the Irish Avalon, or that Engelland dwelt in by the shades which the -inhabitants of the Belgian coast figured in the west.<a name='fna_107' id='fna_107' href='#f_107'><small>[107]</small></a> In Celtic lore -the earliest trace of this realm is found, as is the earliest trace of -Grail and sword, in connection with the Tuatha de Danann, that race of -dispossessed immortals which lives on in the hollow hill sides, and is -ever ready to aid and cherish the Irish mythic heroes. The most famous -embodiment of this conception in Irish myth is the Brug na Boine, the -dwelling place of Oengus,<a name='fna_108' id='fna_108' href='#f_108'><small>[108]</small></a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> son of the Dagda, and the earliest account -of it is that contained in the Book of Leinster, the second of the two -great Irish vellums written down in the twelfth century. It is a land of -Cockayne; in it are fruit trees ever loaded with fruit, on the board a pig -ready roasted which may not be eaten up, vessels of beer which may not be -emptied, and therein no man dies.<a name='fna_109' id='fna_109' href='#f_109'><small>[109]</small></a> But Oengus is not the only one of -the Tuatha de Danann who has such a fairy palace. The dwelling place of -Lug is of the same kind, and in the story of the Conception of -Cuchulainn,<a name='fna_110' id='fna_110' href='#f_110'><small>[110]</small></a> which tells how the god carried off Dechtire, sister of -Conchobor, and re-incarnated himself in her as the great Ulster hero, we -learn that when Conchobor and his men go in search of Dechtire and her -fifty maidens, they first come to a small house wherein are a man and -woman; the house suddenly becomes a splendid mansion,<a name='fna_111' id='fna_111' href='#f_111'><small>[111]</small></a> therein are the -vanished maidens in the shape of birds (and all sorts of goods, and dishes -of divers sorts, known and unknown; never did they have a better night, in -the morning they found themselves houseless, birdless in the east of the -land, and they went back to Emain Macha).<a name='fna_112' id='fna_112' href='#f_112'><small>[112]</small></a> Although no prohibition is -mentioned the similarity in parts of this story, which, it must be -repeated, is older than the introduction of Christianity in Ireland, to -the romances is evident. Another famous Brug of the Tuatha de Danann is -that of Manannan Mac Lir. Among the visitors was Bran, the son of Febal, -whose story may be found in the Leabhar na h’ Uidhre, the oldest of the -great Irish vellums.<a name='fna_113' id='fna_113' href='#f_113'><small>[113]</small></a> One day as he was alone in his palace there came -to him soft, sweet music, and he fell asleep. When he awoke a silver -branch, covered with flowers, was at his side. A short while after, as he -was in the midst of his kinsfolk, his chiefs, and his nobles, an unknown -damsel appeared, and bid him to her in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> land of <i>Sidhe</i>, and then -vanished, and with her the branch. Bran set sail, and with him thirty men. -After two days’ wandering they met Manannan Mac Lir. They continued their -journey until they came to an island dwelt in solely by women; their queen -it was who had sent for Bran. He stayed with her a while, and then came -back to Ireland.</p> - -<p>But the most famous of the visits to the Brug of Manannan is that of -Cormac Mac Art, whom the Irish legendary annals place in the third century -of our era, and bring into connection with Fionn. The story, though only -known to us from later MSS., can be traced back to the tenth century at -least, as the title of it figures in a list preserved in the Book of -Leinster, and as it is apparently alluded to by the eleventh century -annalist, Tighernach.<a name='fna_114' id='fna_114' href='#f_114'><small>[114]</small></a> The following summary is from a version, with -English translation by Mr. Standish Hayes O’Grady, in the third volume of -the Ossianic Society’s publications.</p> - -<p>Of a time that Cormac was in Liathdruim he saw a youth having in his hand -a glittering fairy branch, with nine apples of red gold upon it.<a name='fna_115' id='fna_115' href='#f_115'><small>[115]</small></a> And -this was the manner of that branch, that when any one shook it, men -wounded and women with child would be lulled to sleep by the sound of the -very sweet fairy music which those apples uttered, and no one on earth -would bear in mind any want, woe, or weariness of soul when that branch -was shaken for him. Cormac exchanged for this branch his wife and son and -daughter, overcoming their grief by shaking the branch. But after a year, -Cormac went in search of them. And he chanced upon a land where many -marvels were wrought before his eyes, and he understood them not. At -length he came to a house wherein was a very tall couple, clothed in -clothes of many colours, and they bade him stay. And the man of the house -brought a log<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> and a wild boar, and if a quarter of the boar was put under -a quarter of the log, and a true story was told, the meat would be cooked. -At Cormac’s request the host told the first story, how that he had seven -swine with which he could feed the world, for if the swine were slain, and -their bones put in the sty, on the morrow they would be whole again; and -the hostess the second, how that the milk of her seven white kine would -satisfy the men of the world. Cormac knew them for Manannan and his wife, -and then told his story how he had lost and was seeking for wife and -children. Manannan brought in the latter, and told Cormac it was he who -gave him the branch, that he might bring him to that house. Then they sat -down to meat, and the table-cloth was such that no food, however delicate, -might be demanded of it, but it should be had without doubt; and the -drinking cup was such that if a false story was told before it, it went in -four pieces, and if a true one, it came whole again, and therewith was the -faith of Cormac’s wife made evident. And Manannan gave branch and cloth -and goblet to Cormac, and thereafter they went to slumber and sweet sleep. -Where they rose upon the morrow was in the pleasant Liathdruim.</p> - -<p>The foregoing examples have been akin to the incident of the Maiden -Castle. We have seen the race of immortals caring for the sons of men, -signalling out and alluring to themselves the brave and wise hero. In the -tales we are now about to examine the benefit conferred by the visitor -upon the inmates of the Magic Castle is insisted upon. But we must first -notice a tale which presents many of the incidents of the Grail romances, -without actually belonging to the same story group as they. In Campbell’s -No. LXXXVI, the Daughter of King Under the Waves, Diarmaid, the fairest -and bravest of the Fenian heroes, weds a fay who, as her description -indicates, belongs to the same order of beings as the damsels who lure -away Connla and Bran, the son of Febal. She comes to him in loathly guise, -and the other heroes shrink from her; but Diarmaid, courteous as he is -brave, gives her the shelter of tent and bed and has his reward. She -builds for him such a castle as the fay mistress of the Knight of the -Black Tomb (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_17">p. 17</a>) builds for her lover. But she warns him that -after a threefold<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> reproach as to how he found her she would have to leave -him. Through the cunning of Fionn he is led to break the taboo and “it was -in a mosshole he awoke on the morrow. There was no castle, or a stone left -of it on another.†Diarmaid sets forth to seek his wife, he finds her -ailing to death, and to be cured she must have three draughts from the cup -of the King of the Plain of Wonder. Helped by a little russet man, he gets -the talisman, as was prophesied of him; but, advised by the little russet -man, he gives the maiden to drink out of a certain well, which changes -their love into aversion, and he returns to the light of day.</p> - -<p>This last feature should be noted as characteristic. The mortal lover -always tires sooner than the fay mistress. Oisin cannot stay in TÃr-na -n-Og. Perceval gives but one night to the Lady of the Chessboard.</p> - -<p>We now come to the “unspelling†stories, and I will cite in the first -place one which is the most striking testimony I know of to the influence -of this formula upon Celtic mythic lore. There is a widely spread -folk-tale of a hero robbed of three magic gifts and getting them back -thus; by chance he eats some fruit or herb which changes him into an ass, -causes his nose to grow, sets horns upon his head, or produces some -equally unpleasant result. Another herb he finds heals him. Armed with -specimens of either, he wins back his talismans. In Grimm it is No. 122, -Der Krautesel, and in Vol. III., p. 201, variants are given. In one the -hero is one of three soldiers, and he receives the gifts from a little -grey man. But neither here nor in the variants given by Dr. R. Köhler -(Orient und Occident, II., p. 124) is the opening the same as in -Campbell’s No. X.—The Three Soldiers.</p> - -<p>The three come to a house in the wilderness dwelt in by three girls who -keep them company at night, but disappear during the day. In the house is -a table, overnight they eat off it, and when they rise the board is -covered, and it would not be known that a bit had ever come off it. At the -first night’s close one soldier gets a purse never empty; at the second, -the next one a cloth always filled with meat; and the third, the youngest -(the hero), a transporting whistle. But as they leave he must needs ask -them who they are, and they burst out crying, “They were under charms till -they could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> find three lads who would spend three nights with them without -putting a question—had he refrained they were free.â€</p> - -<p>In one variant the time of probation lasts a year, and the talismans are: -a cup that empties not, and a lamp of light, the table-cloth of meat, and -a bed for rest. In another the damsels are swanmaids,<a name='fna_116' id='fna_116' href='#f_116'><small>[116]</small></a> and the -visitors are bidden “not to think nor order one of us to be with you in -lying down or rising up.â€<a name='fna_117' id='fna_117' href='#f_117'><small>[117]</small></a></p> - -<p>There can, I think, be little doubt that this last variant represents the -oldest form of the story, and that the swanmaid damsels belong to the -otherworld, as do the daughter of King Under the Waves and the maiden who -fetches Connla. There is nothing surprising in swanmaids being the object -of a taboo, this is so invariably the case in myth and folk-lore that it -is needless to accumulate instances; what is unique to my knowledge, I -speak under correction, is the fact of these damsels being in possession -of the talismans, one of which is so obviously connected with the Grail. -It may be noted that the obligation laid upon the hero is the direct -opposite of that in the Grail romances, in the one case a question must -not be asked, in the other it must. In this respect Campbell’s tale of -course falls into line with all the widely spread and varying versions of -the Melusine legend. The supernatural wife always forbids her husband some -special act which, as is perhaps natural, he can never refrain from doing.</p> - -<p>The next form of the Bespelled Castle legend is one which has attained far -greater celebrity than any other on account of its traditional association -with historical personages. It pictures the inmate of the castle as a -King, with his warriors around him, sunk into magic sleep, and awaiting a -signal to come forth and free his folk. To many English readers this -legend will be more familiar in connection with Frederick Barbarossa<a name='fna_118' id='fna_118' href='#f_118'><small>[118]</small></a> -or with Holger<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> the Dane than with any Celtic worthy. Yet the oldest -historic instance is that of Arthur.<a name='fna_119' id='fna_119' href='#f_119'><small>[119]</small></a> I have quoted (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_122">p. 122</a>) -Gerald’s words relating to the mountain seat of Arthur. A more definite -tradition, and one closely resembling the episode in the Grail romances, -is the one noted by Gervasius of Tilbury<a name='fna_120' id='fna_120' href='#f_120'><small>[120]</small></a> (c. 1211 <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span>). A groom of -the Bishop of Catania, following a runaway horse even to the summit of -Mount Etna, found himself in a far reaching plain, full of all things -delightful. A marvellous castle rose before him, wherein lay Arthur on a -royal bed, suffering from the wound inflicted upon him by Modred his -nephew, and Childeric the Saxon, and this wound broke out afresh each -year. The King caused the horse to be given to the groom, and made him -many rich presents.<a name='fna_121' id='fna_121' href='#f_121'><small>[121]</small></a></p> - -<p>This tradition of Arthur in Sicily raises some very interesting questions. -For one thing it is a fresh example of the tremendous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> and immediate -popularity of the Arthurian legend. It also shows with what rapidity a -tradition, however remote in its origin from a particular spot, may -associate itself with that. Of more immediate interest to us is the -question whether this tradition has any direct connection with the Grail -romances, whether it has shaped or been shaped by them. Martin refers the -Maimed King of the romances to the same myth-root as the wounded Arthur -waiting in Etna or in Avalon till his wound be healed and he come forth. -It seems to me more likely that in so far as the wound is concerned there -is a coincidence merely between the two stories, and that the Wounded King -belongs properly to the feud quest. I do not, however, deny that the fact -of the Lord of the Bespelled Castle, of the otherworld, being sometimes -pictured as suffering from an incurable wound, may have aided that fusion -of the two strains of legend which we find in the romances.</p> - -<p>It is not my purpose to examine here in detail the innumerable versions of -this widely-spread tradition<a name='fna_122' id='fna_122' href='#f_122'><small>[122]</small></a>, the more so as I have been able to -trace no exact parallel to that presentment of the story found in Heinrich -von dem Türlin and in the Didot-Perceval. No other version of this form of -the legend, to my knowledge, pictures the Bespelled King as awaiting the -deliverance of death at the hands of his visitor. Before endeavouring to -find a reason for the singularity of Heinrich’s account, I will first -quote one variant of the common form of the legend which has not been -printed before save by myself in the Folk-Lore Journal, Vol. I., p. -193.<a name='fna_123' id='fna_123' href='#f_123'><small>[123]</small></a> King Arthur sleeps bespelled in the ruins of (Richmond) Castle. -Many have tried to find him but failed. One man only, Potter Thompson by -name, wandering one night among the ruins chanced upon the hall wherein -sat the King and his men around a table upon which lay a horn and a sword. -Terrified, he turned and fled, and as he did so a voice sounded in his -ears—</p> - -<p class="poem">“Potter Thompson, Potter Thompson,<br /> -Had’st thou blown the horn,<br /> -Thou had’st been the greatest man<br /> -That ever was born.â€</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>for then he would have freed Arthur from his magic sleep. Never again -could he reach that hall.</p> - -<p>This version, besides being practically inedited has the merit of -exemplifying that association of the sword with the Lord of the Bespelled -Castle to which I have already alluded.</p> - -<p>The instances of the visit to the otherworld which have thus far been -collected from Celtic mythic literature, and which have been used as -parallels to the unspelling quest of the romances, are more closely akin -to one example of this incident, Perceval’s visit to the Castle of -Maidens, than to that found in Heinrich and the Didot-Perceval. None, -indeed, throw any light upon that death-in-life which is the special -feature in these two works. All are of one kind in so far as the -disposition of the inmates towards the visitor is concerned; he is -received with courtesy when he is not actually allured into the castle, -and the trials to which he is subjected are neither painful nor -humiliating. But it will not have escaped attention that the Conte du -Graal contains another form of the visit, one which I have hitherto left -unnoticed, in Gawain’s visit to the Magic Castle. A new conception is here -introduced: the Lord of the Castle<a name='fna_124' id='fna_124' href='#f_124'><small>[124]</small></a> is an evil being, who holds -captive fair dames and damsels; they it is, and not he, whom the hero must -deliver, and the act of deliverance subjects him to trial and peril -(<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_14">p. 14</a>, Chr. Inc. 17). Let us see if this form affords any -explanation of the mysterious features of Heinrich’s version. This -incident may, it is easily conceivable, be treated in two ways; the hero -may be a worthy knight and succeed, or a caitiff and fail. A story of this -latter kind may throw some light upon Gawain’s adventures at the Magic -Castle. The story in question (The Son of Bad Counsel) is ascribed by -Kennedy, Legendary Fictions, pp.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> 132, <i>et seq.</i>, to an author of the -early eighteenth century, Brian Dhu O’Reilly, and traced back to an older -Ossianic legend—Conan’s delusions in Ceash, of which Kennedy prints a -version, pp. 232, <i>et seq.</i> The hero of the story comes to the Castle of a -Gruagach, named the Giant of the Unfrequented Land, and his wife, daughter -to the King of the Lonesome Land. The name of the castle is the Uncertain -Castle. Very fair is their daughter, and she is proffered to the hero for -his promised aid against other fairy chieftains. After playing at -backgammon with the Gruagach, the hero lays himself to bed. He is -assailed, as he fancies, by great dangers from which he hastens to flee, -and, waking, finds himself in a ridiculous plight with his lady-love, and -the other folk of the castle laughing at him. In the morning he awakes, -“and his bed was the dry grass of a moat.â€</p> - -<p>The names of the personages in the story at once recall those of the -romances—the Waste Land or Forest, the Castle Perillous, and the -like—and one of the trials, the being shot at with fairy darts, is the -same as that to which Gawain is exposed in the Conte du Graal. But it is -interesting chiefly as being a version of a wide-spread tale of how gods -or heroes penetrating to the other world are made mock of by its inmates. -In Scandinavian mythology the story is well-known as Thor’s visit to -Utgarth Loki. It is equally well-known in the Fionn saga, and, considering -the many points of contact we have hitherto found between Fionn and the -Grail hero, the Fenian form claims our notice. The oldest preserved form -of the story, that in the Book of Leinster, has been printed with -translation by Mr. Whitley Stokes, Revue Celt., Vol. VII., pp. 289, <i>et -seq.</i>—Fionn comes at nightfall with Cailte and Oisin to a house he had -never heard of in that glen, knowing though he was. A grey giant greets -them; within are a hag with three heads on her thin neck, and a headless -man with one eye protruding from his breast. Nine bodies rise out of a -recess, and the hideous crew sing a strain to the guests; “not melodious -was that concert.†The giant slays their horses; raw meat is offered them, -which they refuse; the inmates of the house attack them; they had been -dead had it not been for Fionn alone. They struggle until the sun lights -up the house, then a mist falls into every one’s head, so that he was dead -upon the spot. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> champions rise up whole, and the house is hidden from -them, and every one of the household is hidden.—In the later Fenian saga -(later that is as far as the form in which it has come down to us is -concerned) the story closely resembles Thor’s visit. Kennedy (Bardic -Stories, pp. 132, <i>et seq.</i>) has a good version.<a name='fna_125' id='fna_125' href='#f_125'><small>[125]</small></a>—Fionn and his -comrades follow a giant, on his shoulders an iron fork with a pig -screeching between the prongs, behind him a damsel scourging him. They -follow them to a house wherein is an aged hoary-headed man and a beautiful -maid, a rough giant cooking the hog, and an old man having twelve eyes in -his head, a white-haired ram, and a hag clad in dark ash coloured garment. -Two fountains are before the house: Fionn drinks of one which at first -tastes sweet, but afterwards bitter to death; from the other, and though -he never suffered as much as while drinking, when he puts the vessel from -his lips he is as whole as ever he was. The hog is then shared; the ram -left out of count revenges itself by carrying out the guest’s share, and -smite it with their swords as they may, they cannot hurt it. The hag then -throws her mantle over the guests, and they become four withered -drooping-headed old men; on the mantle being removed they resume their -first shape. These wonders are explained. The giant is <i>sloth</i>, urged on -by <i>energy</i>; the twelve-eyed old man is the <i>world</i>; and the ram the -<i>guilt of man</i>; the wells are <i>truth</i> and <i>falsehood</i>; the hag <i>old age</i>. -The warriors sleep and in the morning find themselves on the summit of -Cairn Feargaill with their hounds and their arms by them.</p> - -<p>This tale betrays its semi-literary origin at once; and, though there is -no reason to doubt that the Irish Celts had a counterpart to Thor’s -journey to Giantland, I am inclined to look upon the version just -summarised as influenced by the Norse saga. Certain it is that the popular -version of Fionn’s visit to Giantland is much more like the eleventh -century poem, preserved in the Book of Leinster, than it is like the -mediæval, “How Fionn fared in the House of Cuana.†I have already alluded -(<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_186">p. 186</a>)<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> to one feature of the tale of Fionn’s enchantment, but -the whole tale is of interest to us.—As Fionn and his men are sitting -round the fire boasting of their prowess in comes a slender brown hare and -tosses up the ashes, and out she goes. They follow her, a dozen, to the -house of the Yellow Face, a giant that lived upon the flesh of men. A -woman greets them, and bids them begone before the Face returns, but Fionn -will not flee. In comes the Face and smells out the strangers. Six of the -Fenians he strikes with a magic rod, “and they are pillars of stone to -stop the sleety wind.†He then cooks and devours a boar, and the bones he -throws to the Fenians. They play at ball with a golden apple, and the Face -puts an end to Fionn’s other comrades. Hereafter he wrestles with Fionn, -and the griddle is put on the fire till it is red hot, and they all get -about Fionn and set him on the griddle till his legs are burnt to the hips -(’twas then he said, “a man is no man aloneâ€), and stick a flesh-stake -through both his hams, so that he could neither rise nor sit, and cast him -into a corner. But he manages to crawl out and sound his horn, and -Diarmaid hears it and comes to his aid, and does to the Face as the Face -did to Fionn, and with the cup of balsam which he wins from him makes -Fionn whole.—It is not necessary to dwell on the parallel between -Diarmaid healing his uncle Fionn, wounded with a stake through the two -thighs, by winning the cup of balsam, and Perceval healing his uncle -(mehaignié des II cuisses) by the question as to the Grail. This, alone, -would be sufficient to show us what <i>rôle</i> the Grail played in the oldest -form of the feud quest before the latter was influenced by the visit to -the Bespelled Castle.</p> - -<p>If we look at the stories we have just summarised, we shall easily -understand the meaning of the Magic Castle vanishing at dawn. As sleep is -brother to death, so are night and its realm akin to the otherworld; many -phantoms haunt them and seem quick and strive with and often terribly -oppress the mortal wanderer through this domain, but with the first gleam -of sunlight they vanish, leaving no trace behind them, and the awakening -hero find himself in his own place. The conditions of the visit to the -otherworld are thus partly determined by man’s nightly experience in that -dreamland which he figures to himself as akin to, if not an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> actual -portion of the land of shades. This visit, as we have seen, is conceived -of in several ways. Its object is almost invariably to win precious -talismans; all we have comes to us from our forefathers, and it is natural -to suppose that in the world whence they came, and whither they go back, -is to be found all that man seeks here, only in a form as more wonderful -than earthly objects as the dwellers in the otherworld are mightier and -cleverer than man. At times the talismans are held by beneficent beings, -who either gladly yield them to the mortal visitor, or from whom they may -be won by the exhibition of valour and magnanimity; at times by evil -monsters with whom the mortal must strive. In either case the visitor -arrives at nightfall and in the morning awakes to the life of this earth.</p> - -<p>The secondary or Gawain form of the myth, as found in the Conte de Graal, -may help us to understand Heinrich’s version. It is to free imprisoned -damsels that Gauvain undergoes the trials of the Magic Castle. Now the -effect of his visit in the German poem is to free the sister of -Gansguoter, who, with her maidens, remains when the other inmates of the -castle, released by the question, have utterly vanished.<a name='fna_126' id='fna_126' href='#f_126'><small>[126]</small></a> But what -means the death-in-life condition of the King and his men? Is it merely an -expedient to account for their sudden vanishing at daylight? I rather see -here the influence of another form of the unspelling myth, one that mixed -with Christian elements has powerfully impressed the popular imagination, -and is in many European countries the only one in which this old myth -still lives on.<a name='fna_127' id='fna_127' href='#f_127'><small>[127]</small></a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>The inmates of the Magic Castle or house are in this form figured as men -doomed for some evil deed to haunt that particular spot, until some mortal -is bold enough to win their secret and bring them rest. One would think -that under the circumstances they would be as amiable as possible to any -visitor. But the older form of the story persists, and they have not -terrors or trials enough for the man who is to be their deliverer. I will -only quote one version, from Irish sources.<a name='fna_128' id='fna_128' href='#f_128'><small>[128]</small></a></p> - -<p>A youth engages to sleep in a haunted castle. If he is alive in the -morning he will get ten guineas and the farmer’s daughter to wife. At -nightfall he goes thither, and presently three men in old-fashioned dress -come down in pieces through a hole in the ceiling, put themselves -together, and begin playing at football. Jack joins them, and towards -daybreak he judges they wish him to speak, so he asks them how he can give -them rest if rest they want. “Them is the wisest words you ever spoke,†is -answered to him. They had ground the poor and heaped up wealth evilly. -They show him their treasure, and tell him how to make restitution. As -they finish, “Jack could see the wall through their body, and when he -winked to clear his sight the kitchen was as empty as a noggin turned -upside down.†Of course Jack does as he is told, and has the daughter to -wife, and they live comfortably in the old castle.<a name='fna_129' id='fna_129' href='#f_129'><small>[129]</small></a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>We have here, it seems to me, the last echo of such a story as one of -those which enter into the Grail romances. In Heinrich’s version, as -elsewhere in these romances, different story types can be distinguished, -different conceptions are harmonised. Many, indeed, are both the early -conceptions and the varying shapes in which they embodied themselves, to -be traced in the complex mass of the romances. That a kinsman is bound to -avenge a blood feud, and that until he does so his kin may suffer from -ailment or enchantment and their land be under a curse; that the -otherworld is a land of feasting and joyousness and all fair things; that -it contains magic treasures which he who is bold may win; that it is -peopled with beings whom he may free by his courage; that it is fashioned -like dreamland—all these ideas find expression.</p> - -<p>If the foregoing exposition be accepted we have a valuable criterion for -the age of the immediate originals of the romances. That famous version of -the legend which pictured the dwellers in the otherworld as Kings, spell -bound, awaiting the releasing word to come forth and aid their folk, to -which special circumstances gave such wide popularity in the later middle -ages, causing it to supplant older tales of gods dwelling in the hollow -hills, this version has left no trace upon the romances. These must, -therefore, be older than the full-blown Arthurian legend. One or two minor -points may be briefly noticed. The ship in which is found the magic sword -which wounds all bold enough to handle it save the destined Knight may be -thought to have taken the place of an older island. The loathly Grail -messenger shows the influence of the two formulas: as coming from the -Bespelled Castle,<a name='fna_130' id='fna_130' href='#f_130'><small>[130]</small></a> type of the otherworld, she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> should be radiantly -fair; as the kinswoman of the destined avenger, under spells until the -vengeance be accomplished, she is hideous in the last degree.</p> - -<p>But before we take leave of this incident we must examine two features -upon which, as yet, no light has been thrown, the meaning of the epithet -the <i>Fisher</i> King, and the hero’s silence upon his first visit to the -Castle of Talismans.</p> - - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> - -<div class="note"><p class="hang">The Fisher King in the Conte du Graal, in the Queste, and in Borron -and the Grand St. Graal—The accounts of latter complete each -other—The Fish is the Salmon of Wisdom—Parallel with the Fionn -Saga—The nature of the Unspelling Quest—The Mabinogi of Taliesin and -its mythological affinities—Brons, Bran, Cernunnos—Perceval’s -silence: Conte du Graal explanation late; explanation from the Fionn -Saga—Comparison of incident with <i>geasa</i>; nature of latter; -references to it in Celtic folk-tales and in old Irish literature, -Book of Rights, Diarmaid, Cuchulainn—<i>Geasa</i> and <i>taboo</i>.</p></div> - - -<p>The Conte du Graal, as we have seen, offers no satisfactory explanation of -the Fisher King. By Chrestien he is represented on Perceval’s first -meeting with him as angling from a boat steered by his companion (v. -4,187); he directs Perceval to his castle. Perceval is afterwards informed -that, being wounded and consequently unable to mount on horseback, fishing -is his only solace, whence the name applied to him (vv. 4,681, <i>et seq.</i>). -This is practically all the Conte du Graal has to say about him, as the -continuators, whilst repeating the epithet, add no fresh details. Indeed -in none of the after-visits of Perceval is the King represented as -fishing, or is there the slightest reference to, let alone insistence -upon, this favourite occupation of his. It is another proof of the -inadequacy of Birch-Hirschfeld’s theory of the development of the legend, -that it represents Chrestien, who, <i>ex hypothesi</i>, divested Borron’s poem -of its religious character, as retaining this feature due wholly to -religious symbolism, whilst the continuators with their obvious fondness -for such symbolism entirely neglected it. The Queste, which in so far as -the quest portion is concerned is formally connected with the Conte du -Graal, says nothing about the Fisher, nor does that section of the Grand -St. Graal which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> presents the same Early History as the Queste. In -Borron’s poem, on the other hand, and in that later section of the Grand -St. Graal which agrees with it, an explanation is given of the epithet. -According to Borron, Brons catches a fish at Joseph’s bidding; Joseph, -having placed the vessel on the table and covered it with a towel, takes -the fish and lays it opposite the vessel; the people are then called -together, and it is possible to distinguish the sinners from the righteous -(vv. 2,500-2,600). Joseph is afterwards told by an angel, that, as Brons -was a good man, it was the Lord’s will he should catch the fish (vv. -3,310, <i>et seq.</i>), and he is to be called the Rich Fisher (v. 3,348). In -the Grand St. Graal (Vol. II., pp. 248, <i>et seq.</i>) not Brons but his son -Alain is bidden by Joseph to fish, and this with a view to providing food -for the sinners of the company whom the Holy Vessel leaves unsatisfied. -Alain fishes from a boat with a net. He catches but one fish, and there -are at first murmurs, but Joseph, by virtue of Alain’s prayers, multiplies -the fish so that it feeds the host, and thus Alain wins the name of Rich -Fisher.</p> - -<p>These accounts complete each other. Chrestien dwells upon the continued -act of fishing which, for aught to the contrary we learn from him or his -continuators, is always fruitless. Borron and the Grand St. Graal dwell -upon the one successful haul, and especially upon the miraculous -properties of the one fish caught. Reading the two accounts together, we -find that the Fisher King passes his life seeking for a fish which, when -caught, confers upon him the power of distinguishing good from evil, or -enables him to furnish an inexhaustible meal to his men.</p> - -<p>The Conte du Graal has been shown to derive more of its substance from the -feud quest—the Didot-Perceval from the unspelling quest. Borron’s poem, -as far as its primitive Celtic elements are concerned, is probably to be -ranged with the Didot-Perceval, to which many links unite it. We may, -therefore, turn to Celtic stories belonging to either of these formulas -for parallel features. The inexhaustible nature of the fish at once -recalls the pigs of Manannan Mac Lir (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_194">p. 194</a>); they, too, can -feed a multitude. But it is in stories formally connected with the feud -quest that we find what I venture to suggest is an adequate explanation of -the nature of the Fisher King and of the fish. The latter is, I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> think, -the Salmon of Wisdom,<a name='fna_131' id='fna_131' href='#f_131'><small>[131]</small></a> which appears so often and so prominently in -Irish mythic lore; and the former is that being who passes his life in -vain endeavours to catch the wonderful fish, and who, in the moment of -success, is robbed of the fruit of all his long toils and watchings. I am -prepared to admit that the incident as found in Borron’s poem has been -recast in the mould of mediæval Christian symbolism, but I think the older -myth can still be clearly discerned and is wholly responsible for the -incident as found in the Conte du Graal.<a name='fna_132' id='fna_132' href='#f_132'><small>[132]</small></a></p> - -<p>Let us first look at the Irish story. This is found in an account, to -which allusion has already been made, of the Boyish Exploits of Finn Mac -Cumhail.<a name='fna_133' id='fna_133' href='#f_133'><small>[133]</small></a> It is there told how Finn seeks his namesake, Finn-eges, to -learn poetry from him, as until then he durst not stay in Ireland for fear -of his foes. Now Finn-eges had remained seven years by the Boyne, watching -the salmon of Linn-Feic, which it had been foretold Finn (himself as he -thought) should catch and know all things afterwards. Finn, who conceals -his name, takes service with him and the salmon is caught. Finn is set to -watch it while it roasts, but warned not to eat of it. Inadvertently he -touches it with his thumb, which he burns, and carries to his mouth to -cool. Immediately he becomes possessed of all knowledge, and thereafter he -had only to chew his thumb to obtain wisdom. Finn-eges recognises that the -prophecy has been fulfilled, and hails his pupil as Finn.</p> - -<p>It is needless to dwell upon the archaic features of this tale,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> which -represents the hero seeking service of a powerful magician, from whom he -hopes to learn the spells and charms that may guard him against his foes. -Here, as in many other portions of the Ossianic saga, Fionn is strikingly -like a Red Indian medicine man, or the corresponding wizard among other -savage tribes. It is more to our purpose to note that this tale contains -the fullest presentment of Fionn as hero of the Expulsion and Return -Formula, and that a similar incident is to be found in the lives of other -heroes of the formula (notably Siegfried: the Adventure with Mimir.) Now, -as we have already seen that Peredur-Perceval is a formula hero, there is -nothing remarkable in finding an analogous incident in his <i>sage</i>. A -formal connection is thus at once made out. But we must look into the -matter a little closer, as the incident found in the romances is but a -faint echo, and that in part distorted by alien conceptions, of the -original story.</p> - -<p>The unspelling quest in one form resolves itself ultimately into the -hero’s search for riches, power, or knowledge, in prosecution of which he -penetrates to the otherworld. This is figured in the Grail romances both -by Brons’ or Alain’s (who here answers to Fionn) catching the wonderful -fish, and by Peredur-Perceval coming to the house of Brons, the Fisher -King (who here answers to Finn-eges), winning from him the mysterious -vessel of increase, and learning the secret words which put an end to the -enchantments of Britain. In the Grail romances the idea of wisdom is not -associated with the Grail, the vessel, at all; it is either bound up with -the fish, as in the Irish tale, or is the possession of the Fisher King as -the wonder-working spells are the possession of Finn-eges.</p> - -<p>But in the Welsh tradition which corresponds to that of Fionn and the -salmon, it is the vessel, the cauldron, or rather the drink which it -holds, which communicates the gift of wisdom and knowledge. I allude, of -course, to the story of Gwion, set by Ceridwen to watch the cauldron of -inspiration, inadvertently tasting its contents, becoming thereby filled -with knowledge, pursued by Ceridwen, who swallows him, and in whom he -re-incarnates himself as Taliesin, the Allwise Bard. Campbell had already -(Vol. IV., p. 299) drawn attention to the similarity of the two stories, -and equated Fionn, father of Oisin, with Gwion, father of Taliesin;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> and, -as Professor Rhys has now (Hibbert Lectures, p. 551) given the equation -his sanction, it may be accepted as philologically sound.</p> - -<p>I have hitherto refrained in the course of these studies from making any -use of the Mabinogi of Taliesin, or of references to the cauldron of -Ceridwen of a like nature with those contained in that tale; but it will, -I think, be admitted now that the Welsh Mabinogi, however late in form, -and however overlaid it may be with pseudo-archaic bardic rubbish, does go -back to a primitive stratum of Celtic mythology.</p> - -<p>In connection with this myth the name Brons is of high import. This -catcher of the fish, this lord of the Grail, at once suggests Bran, who is -also a guardian of the magic cauldron. Professor Rhys (pp. 85-95) shows -reason for looking upon Bran (as he is presented in the Mabinogi of -Branwen) as the representative of an old Celtic god, Cernunnos, that -Celtic Dis from whom, as Cæsar reports, the Gauls claimed descent, and -who, as god of the otherworld and the shades was also god of knowledge and -riches. We are thus brought back again to the fundamental conception of -the Grail quest.</p> - -<p>It is to this tale that I would turn for one of the possible explanations -of Perceval’s silence at the Court of the Fisher King. That the romance -writers did not understand this incident is evident from the explanation -they give.</p> - -<p>Gonemans’ moral advice to his nephew on the evil of curiosity may have its -foundation in a possible feature of the original, about which I shall -speak presently; or it may simply be an expedient of Chrestien’s or of his -immediate model. In either case its present form is obviously neither old -nor genuine. The silence of Perceval may, perhaps, be referred to the same -myth-root as Fionn’s concealment of his name whilst in the service of -Finn-eges.<a name='fna_134' id='fna_134' href='#f_134'><small>[134]</small></a> This prohibition might extend not only to the disclosing -of his name by the mortal visitor to the realm of the shades, but to the -utterance of any words at all. As he might not eat or drink in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> -underworld, so he might not speak lest he lose the power to return to the -land of the living. One tale we have seen (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_195">p. 195</a>) does contain -this very injunction to say no word whilst in company of the dwellers in -the Bespelled Castle. In this case we should have to assume that two -varying redactions of the theme have been maladroitly fused into one in -the romances—that, namely, which bids the visitor to the otherworld -abstain from a certain act, and that which, on the contrary, bids him -perform a certain act, failure of compliance with the injunction being -punished in either case. The positive injunction of one form of the story -is used as an explanation of the hero’s failure in another.</p> - -<p>An alternative hypothesis is that whilst the hero’s unreadiness of speech, -the cause of his want of success at his first visit, comes wholly from the -unspelling quest, the motive by which the romances seek to account for -that unreadiness comes from the feud quest. The latter, as has been shown, -is closely akin to many task-stories; and it is a frequent feature in such -stories, especially in the Celtic ones, that the hero has to accomplish -his quest in spite of all sorts of odd restrictions which are laid upon -him by an enemy, generally by a step-mother or some other evil-disposed -relative. In the language of Irish mythic tradition Perceval would be -under <i>geasa</i> to ask no questions, and Gonemans’ advice would be the last -faint echo of such an incident. The form which such prohibitions take in -Celtic folk-tales is very curious. The <i>gess</i> is generally embodied in a -magical formula, the language of which is very old and frequently -unintelligible to the narrators themselves. As a rule, the hero, by advice -of a friendly supernatural being, lays a counterspell upon his enemy. -Thus, in “How the Great Tuairsgeul was put to Death†(Scot. Celt. Rev. I., -p. 70) the magician “lays it as crosses and charms that water leave not -your shoe until you found out how the Great Tuairsgeul was put to death.†-The hero retorts by laying the same charms that the magician leave not the -hillock until he return. In Campbell, No. XLVII., Mac Iain Direach, the -stepmother, “sets it as crosses, and as spells, and as the decay of the -year upon thee; that thou be not without a pool of water in thy shoe, and -that thou be wet, cold, and soiled until, etc.;†and the hero bespells -her, “that thou be standing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> with the one foot on the great house and the -other foot on the castle: and that thy face be to the tempest whatever -wind blows, until I return back.†The formula in Campbell, No. LI, the -Fair Gruagach is very archaic. “I lay thee under spells, and under -crosses, under holy herdsmen of quiet travelling, wandering woman, the -little calf, most feeble and powerless, to take thy head and thine ear and -thy wearing of life from off thee if thou takest rest by night or day; -where thou takest thy breakfast that thou take not thy dinner, and where -thou takest thy dinner that thou take not thy supper, in whatsoever place -thou be, until thou findest out in what place I may be under the four -brown quarters of the globe.â€</p> - -<p>These instances will suffice to show the nature of the <i>gess</i> in Celtic -folk-lore, but some references to older Irish literature are necessary to -show its great importance in the social and religious life of the race. -O’Donovan (Book of Rights, p. xlv.) explains the word <i>geasa</i> as “any -thing or act forbidden because of the ill luck that would result from its -doing;†also “a spell, a charm, a prohibition, an interdiction or -hindrance.†This explanation occurs in the introduction to a poem on the -restrictions (<i>geasa</i>) and prerogatives (<i>buada</i>) of the Kings of Eire, -found in the Book of Ballymote (late fourteenth century) and Book of Lecan -(early fifteenth century). The poem is ascribed to Cuan O’Lochain (<span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> -1024), and, from the historical allusions contained in it, O’Donovan looks -upon it as in substance due to that poet, and as embodying much older -traditions. Some of these <i>geasa</i> may be quoted. For the King of Eire, -“that the sun should rise upon him on his bed in Magh Teamhrach;†for the -King of Leinster, “to go round Tuath Laighean left hand-wise on -Wednesday;†for the King of Munster, “to remain, to enjoy the feast of -Loch Lein from one Monday to another;†for the King of Connaught, “to go -in a speckled garment on a grey speckled steed to the heath of Luchaid;†-for the King of Ulster, “to listen to the fluttering of the flocks of -birds of Luin Saileach after sunset.â€<a name='fna_135' id='fna_135' href='#f_135'><small>[135]</small></a> Even these instances do not -exhaust the force or adequately connote the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> nature of this curious -institution. In the Irish hero-tales <i>geasa</i> attach themselves to the hero -from his birth up, and are the means by which fate compasses the downfall -of the otherwise invincible champion; thus it is a <i>gess</i> of Diarmaid that -he never hunt a swine, and when he is artfully trapped into doing it by -Fionn he meets his death; it is a <i>gess</i> of Cuchulainn’s that he never -refuse food offered him by women, and as he goes to his last fight he -accepts the poisoned meal of the witches though he full well knows it will -be fatal to him.<a name='fna_136' id='fna_136' href='#f_136'><small>[136]</small></a> But, besides this, <i>geasa</i> may also be an appeal to -the hero’s honour as well as a magic charm laid upon him, and it is -sometimes difficult to see by which of the two motives the hero is moved. -Thus Graine, wife of Fionn, lays <i>geasa</i> upon Diarmaid that he carry her -off from her husband, and though he is in the last degree unwilling he -must comply.<a name='fna_137' id='fna_137' href='#f_137'><small>[137]</small></a></p> - -<p>Enough has been said to show that we have in the <i>geasa</i> a cause quite -sufficient to explain the mysterious prohibition to ask questions laid -upon Perceval, if the first explanation I have offered of this prohibition -be thought inadequate.</p> - - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p> -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> - -<div class="note"><p class="hang">Summing up of the elements of the older portion of the -cycle—Parallelism with Celtic tradition—The Christian element in the -cycle: the two forms of the Early History; Brons form older—Brons and -Bran—The Bran conversion legend—The Joseph conversion legend: Joseph -in apocryphal literature—Glastonbury—The head in the platter and the -Veronica portrait—The Bran legend the starting point of the Christian -transformation of the legend—Substitution of Joseph for -Bran—Objections to this hypothesis—Hypothetical sketch of the growth -of the legend.</p></div> - - -<p>I have now finished the examination of all those incidents in the Grail -Quest romances which are obviously derived from some other sources than -Christian legend, and which are, indeed, referred by pronounced adherents -of the Christian-origin hypothesis to Celtic tradition. I have also -claimed a Celtic origin for features hitherto referred to Christian -legend. This examination will, I trust, convince many that nearly all the -incidents connected with the Quest of the Grail are Celtic in their -origin, and that thus alone can we account for the way in which they -appear in the romances. The latter are, as we have seen, in the highest -degree inconsistent in their account of the mystic vessel and its -fortunes; the most cursory examination shows the legend to be composed of -two parts, which have no real connection with each other; the older of -these parts, the Quest, can easily be freed from the traces of Christian -symbolism; this older part is itself no homogeneous or consistent tale, -but a complex of incidents diverse in origin and character. These -incidents are: the rearing of the hero in ignorance of the world and of -men; his visit to the court of the King, his uncle; his slaying of his -father’s murderer, the trial made of him by means of the broken sword; his -service with the Fisher King; his quest in search of the sword and of the -vessel by means of which he is to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> avenge the death or wounding of his -kinsman; his accomplishment of this task by the aid of a kinsman who is -under spells from which he will not be loosed until the quest be ended; -the adventure of the stag-hunt, in which the bespelled kinsman tests the -hero’s skill and courage; the hero’s visit to the Castle of Talismans; the -prohibition under which he labours; his failure to accomplish certain -acts; the effects of his failure; his visit to the Magic Castle, the lord -of which is under the enchantment of death-in-life; his visit to the -Castle of Maidens; his visit to the Castle Perillous; and his deliverance -of the captive damsels by means of the trials which he successfully -undergoes. To one and all of these incidents Celtic parallels have been -adduced; these have in each case been drawn from stories which present a -general similarity of outline with the Grail romances, or share with them -similar guiding conceptions, whilst at the same time they are so far -disconnected with them that no hypothesis of borrowing can account for the -features they have in common. The inconsistencies of the romances have -been explained by the fusion into one of two originally distinct groups of -stories, and this explanation is confirmed by the fact that traces of this -fusion may readily be found in the parallel Celtic tales. These latter, -when studied by scholars who never thought of comparing them with the -Grail romances, have been found to contain mythical elements which other -scholars had detected independently in the romances. Those features of the -romances which have perplexed previous students, the Fisher King and the -omitted question, have been explained from the same group of Celtic -traditions, and in accordance with the same scheme of mythical -interpretation which have been used to throw light upon the remainder of -the cycle. Finally, the one Celtic version of the Grail Quest, the -Mabinogi, which presents no admixture of Christian symbolism, has been -shown, when cleared of certain easily distinguishable interpolations, to -be genuine in character, and to present the oldest form of one of the -stories which enters into the romances.</p> - -<p>I have tried not to force these parallels, nor to go one step beyond what -the facts warrant. I have also tried to bear in mind that a parallel is of -no real value unless it throws light upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> puzzling features in the -development of the romances. I thus rest my case, not so much upon the -accumulative effect of the similarities which I have pointed out between -the romances and Celtic tradition, as upon the fact that this reference of -the romances to certain definite cycles of Celtic myth and legend makes us -understand, what otherwise we cannot do, how they came by their present -shape. It now remains to be seen if this reference, can in any way explain -the Christian element in the legend, which I have hitherto left almost -entirely out of account. Birch-Hirschfeld’s hypothesis is condemned, in my -opinion, by its failure to account for the Celtic element; although I do -not think an explanation of a late and intruding feature is as incumbent -upon me as that of the original Celtic basis of the legend is upon him, I -yet feel that an hypothesis which has nothing to say on such a vital point -can hardly be considered satisfactory. It is the Christian transformation -of the old Celtic myths and folk-tales which gave them their wide vogue in -the Middle Ages, which endowed the theme with such fascination for the -preachers and philosophers who used it as a vehicle for their teaching, -and which has endeared it to all lovers of mystic symbolism. The question -how and why the Celtic tales which I have tried, not unsuccessfully I -trust, to disentangle from the romances were ever brought into contact -with Christ and His disciples, and how the old mystic vessel of healing, -increase, and knowledge became at last the sacramental cup, must, -therefore, be faced. The hypotheses set forth in the preceding page might -be accepted in their entirety, and the merit of this transformation still -be claimed, as Birch-Hirschfeld claims it, for the North French poets, to -whom we owe the present versions of the romances. On first reading -Birch-Hirschfeld’s book, I thought this claim one of the flaws in his -argument, and, as will be seen by reference to <a href="#CHAPTER_IV">Chapter IV.</a>, other -investigators, who accept the Christian origin of the larger part of the -legend, hold that it has been shaped in these islands, or in accordance -with Celtic traditions now lost. I think we can go a step farther. A -number of myths and tales have been used to illustrate the romances. In -them may be found the personages through whom probably took place the -first contact between Celtic mythic tradition and Christian legend.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>We must revert for one moment to the results obtained in <a href="#CHAPTER_III">Chapter III.</a> by -an examination of the way in which the Grail and its fortunes are -mentioned in the romances. We there distinguished two forms of the -distinctively Christian portion of the legend, the Early History. In both -Joseph is the first possessor and user of the holy vessel, but in one its -farther fortunes are likewise bound up with him or with his seed. He, or -his son, it is who leads the Grail host to Britain, who converts the -island, and by whom the precious vessel is handed down through a chosen -line of kings in anticipation of the promised Knight’s coming. In the -other form, on the contrary, Joseph has nothing to do with Britain, which -is converted by Brons and his son, Alain; Brons is the guardian of the -holy vessel, and, in one version, the fisher of the mystic fish, whilst in -another his son takes this part. There is repeated insistence upon the -connection between the Grail host and Avalon. Finally Brons is the -possessor of “secret words,†and may not die until he has revealed them to -his grandson.</p> - -<p>This account is, we saw, later in form than the Joseph one. As we have it, -it was written after the greater portion of the Conte du Graal, after that -redaction of the Early History made use of by the author of the Queste and -of the first draft of the Grand St. Graal. Its influence only makes itself -felt in the later stages of development of the legend. But none the less -it clearly represents an older and purer form of the Early History than -that of the Queste and of Chrestien’s continuators. It has not been -doctored into harmony with the full-blown Arthurian legend as the Joseph -Early History has. It is still chiefly, if not wholly, a legend, the main -purport of which is to recount the conversion of Britain.</p> - -<p>Such a legend is surely more likely to have been shaped by Welsh or Breton -monks than by North French <i>trouvères</i>. And when we notice the Celtic -names of the personages, and their connection with the Celtic paradise, -Avalon, there can remain little, if any, doubt respecting the first home -of the story. We may thus look upon Brons, owner of a mystic vessel, -fisher of a mystic fish, as the hero of an early conversion legend. But -the name Brons has at once suggested to most students of the cycle that of -Bran. The latter is, as we saw in the last Chapter, the representative of -an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> old Celtic god of the otherworld. He is the owner of the cauldron of -renovation. He is also the hero in Welsh tradition of a conversion legend, -and is commonly known as Bran the Blessed. Unfortunately the only -explanation we have of this epithet occurs in a late triad, to which it is -not safe to assign an earlier date than the fourteenth century. He is -described therein as son of Llyr Llediath, “as one of the three blissful -Rulers of the Island of Britain, who first brought the faith of Christ to -the nation of the Cymry from Rome, where he was seven years a hostage for -his son Caradawc.â€<a name='fna_138' id='fna_138' href='#f_138'><small>[138]</small></a> But if late in form this triad may well embody an -old tradition. It gives the significant descent of Bran from Llyr, and -thereby equates him with Mannanan Mac Lir, with whom he presents otherwise -so many points of contact. It is quite true that the Bran legend, as is -pointed out to me by Professor Rhys, is mentioned neither in the earliest -genealogies nor in Geoffrey. But it should be noted that the Grand St. -Graal does bring one member of the Brons group, Petrus, into contact with -King Luces, the Lucius to whom Geoffrey ascribes the conversion. Again, -the epithet “blessed†is applied to Bran in the Mabinogi of Branwen, -daughter of Llyr. I have placed this tale as a whole as far back as the -eleventh-tenth centuries, and my arguments have met with no opposition, -and have won the approval of such authorities as Professor Windisch and -Monsieur Gaidoz. But the Mabinogi, as we have it, was written down in the -fourteenth century; the last transcriber abridged it, and at times did not -apparently understand what he was transcribing. By his time the full-blown -Bran legend of the triad was in existence, and it may be contended that -the epithet was due to him and did not figure in his model. On the other -hand, Stephens (Lit. of the Cymry, p. 425) quotes a triad of Kynddelw, a -poet of the twelfth century, referring to the three blessed families of -the Isle of Britain, one of which is declared by a later tradition to be -that of Bran.<a name='fna_139' id='fna_139' href='#f_139'><small>[139]</small></a> Again, the triads of Arthur and his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> Warriors, printed -by Mr. Skene, Four Ancient Books, Vol. II., p. 457, from MS. Hengwrt, 566, -of the beginning of the fourteenth century, and probably at least fifty -years older, mentions the “blessed head of Bran.â€<a name='fna_140' id='fna_140' href='#f_140'><small>[140]</small></a> On the whole, in -spite of the silence of older sources, I look upon the epithet and the -legend which it presupposes as old, and I see in a confusion between Bran, -Lord of the Cauldron, and Bran the Blessed, the first step of the -transformation of the Peredur <i>sage</i> into the Quest of the Holy Grail. In -the first capacity Bran corresponds to the Lord of the Castle of -Talismans. From the way in which the fish is dwelt upon in his legend, it -may, indeed, be conjectured that he stood to Peredur in some such relation -as Finn-eges to Fionn. As hero of a conversion legend he came into contact -with Joseph. We do not know how or at what date the legend of the -conversion of Britain by Joseph originated. It is found enjoying wide -popularity in the latter half of the twelfth century, the very time in -which the romances were assuming their present shape. Wülcker (Das -Evangelium Nicodemi in der abendländischen Literatur, Paderborn, 1872) -shows that the legend is not met with before William of Malmesbury; and -Zarncke, as already stated (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_107">p. 107</a>), has argued that the passage -in William is a late interpolation due to the popularity of the -romances.<a name='fna_141' id='fna_141' href='#f_141'><small>[141]</small></a> But to accept Zarncke’s contention merely shifts back the -difficulty. If William did not first note and give currency to the -tradition, the unknown predecessor of Robert de Borron and of the authors -of the Queste and Grand St. Graal did so; and the question still remains -how did he come by the tradition, and what led him to associate it with -Glastonbury. Birch-Hirschfeld, it is true, makes short work of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> this -difficulty. The fact that there is no earlier legend in which Joseph -figures as the Apostle of Britain is to him proof that Borron evolved the -conception of the Grail out of the canonical and apocryphal writings in -which Joseph appears, and then devised the passage to Britain in order to -incorporate the Arthurian romances with the legend he had invented. It is -needless to repeat that this theory, unacceptable on <i>a priori</i> grounds, -is still more so when tested by facts.</p> - -<p>But Joseph under other aspects than that of Apostle of Britain is worthy -of notice. The main source whence the legend writers drew their knowledge -of him was the Evangelium Nicodemi, the history of which has been -investigated by Wülcker. The earliest allusion in western literature to -this apocryphal gospel is that of Gregory of Tours (Wülcker, p. 23), but -no other trace of its influence is to be met with in France until we come -to the Grail romances, and to mystery-plays which relate Christ’s -Harrowing of Hell. In Provence, Italy, and Germany the thirteenth and -twelfth centuries are the earliest to which this gospel can be traced. In -England, on the contrary, it was known as far back as the latter quarter -of the eighth century; Cynewulf based upon it a poem on the Harrowing of -Hell, and alludes to it in the Crist; the ninth century poem, “Christ and -Satan,†likewise shows knowledge of it, and there is a West-Saxon -translation dating from the early eleventh century.</p> - -<p>Whence this knowledge and popularity of the gospel in England several -centuries before it entered prominently into the literature of any other -European people? Wülcker can only point by way of answer to the early -spread of Christianity in these Islands, and to the possibility of this -gospel having reached England before it did France or Germany. He also -insists upon the early development of Anglo-Saxon literature.</p> - -<p>Whether the fact that the apocryphal writings which told of Joseph were -known here when they were unknown on the Continent be held to warrant or -no the existence of a specifically British Joseph legend, they at all -events prove that he was a familiar and favourite legendary figure on -British soil. It would be rash to go any farther, and to argue from the -inadequacy of the reasons by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> which Wülcker seeks to account for the early -knowledge of the Evangelium Nicodemi in England, that Joseph enjoyed -particular favour among the British Christians, and that it was from them -the tidings of him spread among their Saxon conquerors.</p> - -<p>The legendary popularity of Joseph in these islands, though not in any -special capacity of Apostle of Britain, is thus attested. Let us admit for -argument’s sake that the conversion legend did first take shape in the -twelfth century, is it not more likely to have done so here, where the -apocryphal writings about him were widely spread, than in France, where -they were practically unknown? And why if Borron, or any other French -poet, wanted to connect the Holy Vessel legend which he had imagined with -Arthur, should he go out of his way to invent the personages of Brons and -Alain? The story as found in the Queste would surely have been a far more -natural one for him. And why the insistence upon Avalon? We have plain -proof that Borron did not understand the word, as he explains it by a -ridiculous pun (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_78">p. 78</a>).<a name='fna_142' id='fna_142' href='#f_142'><small>[142]</small></a></p> - -<p>These difficulties are met in a large measure if we look upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> Bran -(Brons) as the starting point of the Christian transformation of the -legend. In any case we may say that a conversion legend, whether -associated with Joseph or anyone else, would almost inevitably have -gravitated towards Glastonbury, but there are special reasons why this -should be the case with a Bran legend. Avalon is certainly the Welsh -equivalent of the Irish TÃr na n-Og, the land of youth, the land beyond -the waves, the Celtic paradise. When or how this Cymric myth was localised -at Glastonbury we know not.<a name='fna_143' id='fna_143' href='#f_143'><small>[143]</small></a> We only know that Glastonbury was one of -the first places in the island to be devoted to Christian worship. Is it -too rash a conjecture that the Christian church may have taken the place -of some Celtic temple or holy spot specially dedicated to the cult of the -dead, and of that Lord of the Shades from which the Celts feigned their -descent? The position of Glastonbury, not far from that western sea beyond -which lie the happy isles of the dead, would favour such an hypothesis. -Although direct proof is wanting, I believe that the localisation is old -and genuine: Bran, ruler of the otherworld, of Avalon, would thus come -into natural contact with Glastonbury; and if, as I assume, Joseph took -his place in the conversion legend the association would extend to him. -The after development of the legend would then be almost a matter of -course. Bran, the ruler in Avalon, would pass on his magic gear (cauldron, -spear, and sword, as in the case of the Tuatha de Dannan) to Bran the -Blessed, who would in his turn transfer them to Joseph. And once the -latter had entered into the legend, he would not fail to recall that last -scene of the Lord’s life with which he was so closely associated, not by -any pseudo-gospel but by the canonical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> writings themselves, and thus the -gear of the old Celtic gods became transformed into such objects as were -most prominent in the story of the Passion and of the scene that -immediately preceded it. The spear became that one wherewith Christ’s side -was pierced. As for the vessel, the sacramental nature is the last stage -of its Christian development; its original object was merely to explain -the sustenance of Joseph in prison, and to provide a miraculous -refreshment for the Grail host, as is shown by the Early History portion -of the Conte du Graal and by the Queste. In a dim and confused way the -circumstances of the Resurrection helped to effect the change of the pagan -resuscitation-cauldron into a symbol of the risen Lord. And some now lost -feature of the original legend—some insistence upon the <i>contents</i> of the -vessel, some assimilation of them to blood—may have suggested the use to -which the vessel was first put.</p> - -<p>This hypothesis assumes many things. It assumes a Bran conversion legend, -of which the only evidence of anything like the same date as the romances -is a single epithet; it assumes that the hero of this legend was -originally an old Celtic divinity; it assumes a Joseph conversion legend, -for which there is really no other evidence than that of the romances; it -assumes the amalgamation of the two legends, and that Joseph took over in -a large measure the <i>rôle</i> and characteristics of Brons. And when it is -recollected that the primary assumption, the identification of the two -Brans, rests in a large measure upon the appearance of the fish in the -Brons legend, that this fish is nowhere in Celtic tradition associated -with Bran, that it is associated on the other hand with a being, Fionn, -whom we have compared with Peredur, but that it is absent from the -Peredur-saga, the hypothesis must be admitted to be of a tentative nature. -I fully appreciate the force of the objections that can be urged against -it; at the same time it has the merit of accounting for many puzzling -features in the legend. When in the same story two personages can be -distinguished whose <i>rôle</i> is more or less of the same nature, when the -one personage is subordinated in one version and has disappeared -altogether from the other, it is quite legitimate to conclude that two -originally independent accounts have become blended, and that one has -absorbed the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> other. The hypothesis is on safe ground so far. It thus -explains the presence of Brons in the legend, as well as his absence from -some versions of it; it has something to say in explanation of the -connection with Glastonbury; it explains in what way the Celtic traditions -were started on their path of transformation; and it provides for that -transformation taking the very course it did. There is nothing to be urged -against it on <i>a priori</i> grounds; once admit the premisses, and the rest -follows easily and naturally. Its conjectural character (the main -objection to it) is shared in an even higher degree by the other -hypotheses, which have essayed to account for the growth and origin of the -legend, and <i>they</i> have the disadvantage of being inherently impossible.</p> - -<p>In the light of the foregoing investigations and hypotheses we may now -amplify the sketch history of the whole cycle given in <a href="#CHAPTER_III">Chapter III.</a> The -Peredur-saga probably came into existence in much its later form at an -early date in the Middle Ages. A number of older mythical tales centered -in a, perhaps, historical personage. The circumstances of his life and -adventures may have given them not only cohesion, but may also have -coloured and distorted them; nevertheless they remained, in the main, -mythical tales of the same kind as those found all over the world. One of -these tales was undoubtedly a Cymric variant of the Celtic form of the -Expulsion and Return formula; another dealt with the hero’s journey to the -Land of Shades; traces of many others are to be found in the Mabinogi. -Another Celtic worthy, Gwalchmai, was early associated with Peredur, and -the two stood in some such relation to each other as the twin brethren of -a widely spread folk-tale group. Curiously enough, whilst comparatively -few incidents in the Peredur-saga were worked up into the version which -served as immediate model to the North French romances, that version -contained many adventures of Gwalchmai’s which have not been preserved in -Welsh. We can trace three main crystallizations of the original saga-mass; -one represented by the Proto-Mabinogi contained the feud quest, and, -probably, some only of the other adventures found in the present Mabinogi; -the second, based more on the lines of the Expulsion and Return formula, -is represented by the Thornton MS. romance; in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> third the feud quest -was mixed up with the hero’s visit to the Bespelled Castle, and those -portions of the Gwalchmai-saga which told of his visit to Castle Perillous -as well as to the Bespelled Castle. Whilst the Proto-Mabinogi was probably -in prose, the Proto-Conte du Graal was probably in verse, a collection of -short <i>lais</i> like those of Marie de France. Meanwhile, one of the chief -personages of the older mythic world which appear in the Peredur-saga, -Bran, the Lord of the Land of Shades, of the Bespelled Castle, of the -cauldron of healing, increase and wisdom, and of the knowledge-giving -salmon, had become the Apostle of Britain, his pagan attributes thus -suffering a Christian change, which was perfected when Joseph took the -place of Brons, bringing with him his gospel associations and the -apocryphal legends that had clustered round his name. Thus a portion of -the saga was Christianised, whilst the other portion lost its old, fixed -popular character, owing to the fusion of originally distinct elements, -and the consequent unsettling both of the outlines and of the details of -the story. Incidents and features which in the earlier folk-tale stage -were sharply defined and intelligible became vague and mysterious. In this -state, and bearing upon it the peculiarly weird and fantastic impress of -Celtic mythic tradition, the story, or story-mass rather, lay ready to the -hand of courtly poet or of clerical mystic. At first Christian symbolism -was introduced in a slight and meagre way—the Brons-Joseph legend -supplied the Christian meaning of the talismans, and that was all. But the -Joseph legend was soon vigorously developed by the author of the work -which underlies the Queste and the Grand St. Graal. He may either not have -known or have deliberately discarded Brons, the old Celtic hero of the -conversion, as he certainly deliberately thrust down from his place of -pre-eminence Perceval, the Celtic hero of the Quest, substituting for him -a new hero, Galahad, and for the adventures of the Conte du Graal, based -as they were upon no guiding conceptions, fresh adventures intended to -glorify physical chastity. With all his mystic fervour he failed to see -the full capacities of the theme, his presentment of the Grail itself -being in especial either over-material or over-spiritual. But his work -exercised a profound influence, as is seen in the case of Chrestien’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> -continuators. Robert de Borron, on the other hand, if to him the merit -must be assigned, if he was not simply transcribing an older, forgotten -version, was a more original thinker, if a less gifted writer. Although he -was not able to entirely harmonise the conflicting accounts of which he -made use, he yet succeeded in keeping close to the old lines of the legend -whilst giving a consistent symbolical meaning to all its details. His work -came too late, however, to exercise the influence it should have done upon -the development of the legend; the writers who knew it were mere heapers -together of adventures, and the very man who composed a sequel to it -abandoned Robert’s main conception.</p> - -<p>The history of the Legend of the Holy Grail is, thus, the history of the -gradual transformation of old Celtic folk-tales into a poem charged with -Christian symbolism and mysticism. This transformation, at first the -inevitable outcome of its pre-Christian development, was hastened later by -the perception that it was a fitting vehicle for certain moral and -spiritual ideas. These have been touched upon incidentally in the course -of these studies, but they and their manifestation in modern as well as in -mediæval literature deserve fuller notice.</p> - - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p> -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> - -<div class="note"><p class="hang">Popularity of the Arthurian Romance—Reasons for that -Popularity—Affinities of the Mediæval Romances with early Celtic -Literature; Importance of the Individual Hero; Knighthood; the <i>rôle</i> -of Woman; the Celtic Fairy and the Mediæval Lady; the Supernatural—M. -Renan’s views—The Quest in English Literature, Malory—The earliest -form of the Legend, Chrestien, his continuators—The Queste and its -Ideal—The Sex-Relations in the Middle Ages—Criticism of Mr. -Furnivall’s estimate of the moral import of the Queste—The Merits of -the Queste—The Chastity Ideal in the later versions—Modern English -Treatments: Tennyson, Hawker—Possible Source of the Chastity Ideal in -Popular Tradition—The Perceval Quest in Wolfram; his Moral -Conception; the Question; Parzival and Conduiramur—The Parzival Quest -and Faust—Wagner’s Parsifal—The Christian element in the -Legend—Ethical Ideas in the folk-tale originals of the Grail -Romances: the Great Fool, the Sleeping Beauty—Conclusion.</p></div> - - -<p>Few legends have attained such wide celebrity, or been accepted as so -thoroughly symbolical of one master conception, as that of the Holy Grail. -Poets and thinkers from mediæval times to our own days have used it as a -type of the loftiest goal of man’s effort. There must be something in the -romances which first embodied this conception to account for the enduring -favour it has enjoyed. Nor is it that we read into the old legend meanings -and teachings undreamt of before our day. At a comparatively early stage -in the legend’s existence its capacities were perceived, and the works -which were the outcome of that perception became the breviary and the -exemplar of their age. There are reasons, both general and special, why -the Celtic mythic tales grew as they did, and had such overwhelming vogue -in their new shapes. In no portion of the vast Arthurian cycle is it more -needful or more instructive to see what these reasons were than in that -which recounts the fortunes of the Grail.</p> - -<p>The tales of Peredur and Gwalchmai, bound up with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> Arthurian romance, -shared its success, than which nothing in all literary history is more -marvellous. It was in the year 1145 that Geoffrey of Monmouth first made -the legendary history of Britain accessible to the lettered class of -England and Continent. He thereby opened up to the world at large a new -continent of romantic story, and exercised upon the development of -literature an influence comparable in its kind to that of Columbus’ -achievement upon the course of geographical discovery and political -effort. Twenty years had not passed before the British heroes were -household names throughout Europe, and by the close of the century nearly -every existing literature had assimilated and reproduced the story of -Arthur and his Knights. Charlemagne and Alexander, the sagas of Teutonic -tribes, the tale of Imperial Rome itself, though still affording subject -matter to the wandering jongleur or monkish annalist, paled before the -fame of the British King. The instinct which led the twelfth and -thirteenth centuries thus to place the Arthurian story above all others -was a true one. It was charged with the spirit of romance, and they were -pre-eminently the ages of the romantic temper. The West had turned back -towards the East, and, although the intent was hostile, the minds of the -western men had been fecundated, their imagination fired by contact with -the mother of all religions and all cultures. The achievements of the -Crusaders became the standard of attainment to the loftiest and boldest -minds of Western Christendom. For these men Alexander himself lacked -courage and Roland daring. The fathers had stormed Jerusalem, and the -sons’ youth had been nourished on tales of Araby the Blest and Ophir the -Golden of strife with the Paynim, of the sorceries and devilries of the -East. Nothing seemed impossible to a generation which knew of toils and -quests greater than any minstrel had sung, which had beheld in the East -sights as wondrous and fearful as any the jongleur could tell of. -Moreover, the age was that of Knight Errantry, and of that phase of love -in which every Knight must qualify himself for the reception of his lady’s -favours by the performance of some feat of skill and daring. Such an age -and such men demanded a special literature, and they found it in -adaptations of Celtic tales.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>The mythic heroic literature of all races is in many respects alike. The -sagas not only of Greek or Persian, of Celt or Hindu, of Slav or Teuton, -but also of Algonquin or Japanese, are largely made up of the same -incidents set in the same framework. But each race shapes this common -material in its own way, sets upon it its own stamp. And no race has done -this more unmistakably than the Celtic. Stories which go back to the first -century, stories taken down from the lips of living peasants, have a -kinship of tone and style, a common ring which no one who has studied this -literature can fail to recognise. What stamps the whole of it is the -prevailing and abiding spirit of romance. To rightly urge the Celtic -character of the Arthurian romances would require the minute analysis of -many hundred passages, and it would only be proving a case admitted by -everyone who knows all the facts. It will be more to the point to dwell -briefly upon those outward features which early (<i>i.e.</i>, pre-eleventh -century) Celtic heroic literature has in common with the North French -romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, especially as we thus -gain a clue to much that is problematic in the formal and moral growth of -the Arthurian cycle in general and of the Grail cycle in particular.</p> - -<p>In Celtic tradition, as little as in mediæval romance, do we find a record -of race-struggles such as meets us in the Nibelungenlied, in the Dietrich -saga, or the Carolingian cycle.<a name='fna_144' id='fna_144' href='#f_144'><small>[144]</small></a> In its place we have a glorification -of the individual hero. The reason is not far to seek. The Celtic tribes, -whether of Ireland or Britain, were surrounded by men of their own speech, -of like institutions and manners. The shock of opposing nations, of rival -civilisations,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> could not enter into their race-tradition. The -story-teller had as his chief theme the prowess and skill of the -individual “brave,†the part he took in the conflicts which clan -incessantly waged with clan, or his encounters with those powers of an -older mythic world which lived on in the folk-fancy. To borrow Mr. -Fitzgerald’s convenient terminology, the “constants†of this tradition may -be the same as in that of other Aryan races, the “resultants†are not. To -give one instance: the conception of a chief surrounded by a picked band -of warriors is common to all heroic tradition, but nowhere is it of such -marked importance, nowhere does it so mould and shape the story as in the -cycles of Conchobor and the Knights of the Red Branch, of Fionn and the -Fianna, and of Arthur and his Knights. The careers of any of the early -Irish heroes, the single-handed raids of Cét mac Magach or Conall -Cearnach, above all the fortunes of Cuchullain, his hero’s training in the -Amazon-isle, his strife with Curoi mac Daire, his expeditions to -fairy-land, his final holding of the ford against all the warriors of -Erinn, breathe the same spirit of adventure for its own sake, manifest the -same subordination of all else in the story to the one hero, that are such -marked characteristics of the Arthurian romance.</p> - -<p>Again, in the bands of picked braves who surround Conchobor or Fionn, in -the rules by which they are governed, the trials which precede and -determine admission into them, the duties and privileges which attach to -them, we have, it seems to me, a far closer analogue to the knighthood of -mediæval romance than may be found either in the Peers of Carolingian saga -or in the chosen warriors who throng the halls of Walhalla.</p> - -<p>In the present connection the part played by woman in Celtic tradition is -perhaps of most import to us. In no respect is the difference more marked -than in this between the twelfth century romances, whether French or -German, and the earlier heroic literature of either nation. The absence of -feminine interest in the earlier <i>chansons de geste</i> has often been noted. -The case is different with Teutonic heroic literature, in which woman’s -<i>rôle</i> is always great, sometimes pre-eminently so. But a comparison of -the two strains of traditions, Celtic and Teutonic, one with the other, -and again with the romances, may help to account<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> for much that is -otherwise inexplicable to us in the mediæval presentment of the -sex-feelings and sex-relations.</p> - -<p>The love of man, and immortal, or, if mortal, semi-divine maid is a -“constant†of heroic tradition. Teuton and Celt have handled this theme, -however, in a very different spirit. In the legends of the former the man -plays the chief part; he woos, sometimes he forces the fairy maiden to -become the mistress of his hearth. As a rule, overmastered by the prowess -and beauty of the hero, she is nothing loth. But sometimes, as does -Brunhild, she feels the change a degradation and resents it. It is -otherwise with the fairy mistresses of the Celtic hero; they abide in -their own place, and they allure or compel the mortal lover to resort to -them. Connla and Bran and Oisin must all leave this earth and sail across -ocean or lake before they can rejoin their lady love; even Cuchullain, -mightiest of all the heroes, is constrained, struggle as he may, to go and -dwell with the fairy queen Fand, who has woed him. Throughout, the -immortal mistress retains her superiority; when the mortal tires and -returns to earth she remains, ever wise and fair, ready to welcome and -enchant a new generation of heroes. She chooses whom she will, and is no -man’s slave; herself she offers freely, but she abandons neither her -liberty nor her divine nature. This type of womanhood, capricious, -independent, severed from ordinary domestic life, is assuredly the -original of the Vivians, the Orgueilleuses, the Ladies of the Fountain of -the romances; it is also one which must have commended itself to the -knightly devotees of mediæval romantic love. Their “<i>dame d’amour</i>†was, -as a rule, another man’s wife; she raised in their minds no thought of -home or child. In the tone of their feelings towards her, in the character -of their intercourse with her, they were closer akin to Oisin and Neave, -to Cuchullain and Fand, than to Siegfried and Brunhild, or to Roland and -Aude. Even where the love-story passes wholly among mortals, the woman’s -<i>rôle</i> is more accentuated than in the Teutonic sagas. She is no mere -lay-figure upon a fire-bound rock like Brunhild or Menglad, ready, when -the destined hero appears, to fall straightway into his arms. Emer, the -one maiden of Erinn whom Cuchullain condescends to woo, is eager to show -herself in all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> things worthy of him; she tests his wit as well as his -courage, she makes him accept her conditions.<a name='fna_145' id='fna_145' href='#f_145'><small>[145]</small></a> In the great tragic -tale of ancient Ireland, the Fate of the Sons of Usnech, Deirdre—born -like Helen or Gudrun, to be a cause of strife among men, of sorrow and -ruin to whomsoever she loves—Deirdre takes her fate into her own hands, -and woos Noisi with outspoken passionate frankness. The whole story is -conceived and told in a far more “romantic†strain than is the case with -parallel stories from Norse tradition, the loves of Helgi and Sigrun, or -those of Sigurd and Brunhild-Gudrun. And if the lament of Deirdre over her -slain love lacks the grandeur and the intensity with which the Norse -heroines bewail their dead lords, it has, on the other hand, an intimate, -a personal touch we should hardly have looked for in an eleventh century -Irish epic.<a name='fna_146' id='fna_146' href='#f_146'><small>[146]</small></a></p> - -<p>Another link between the Celtic sagas and the romances is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> their treatment -of the supernatural. Heroic-traditional literature is made up of mythical -elements, of scenes, incidents, and formulas which have done service in -that account of man’s dealings with and conceptions of the visible world -which we call mythology. All such literature derives ultimately from an -early, wholly animistic stage of culture. Small marvel, then, if in the -hero-tales of every race there figure wonder-working talismans and -bespelled weapons, if almost every great saga has, as part of its -<i>dramatis personæ</i>, objects belonging to what we should now call the -inanimate world. Upon these a species of life is conferred, most often by -power of magic, but at times, it would seem, in virtue of the older -conception which held all things to be endowed with like life. All heroic -literatures do not, however, accentuate equally and similarly this magic -side of their common stock. Celtic tradition is not only rich and varied -beyond all others in this respect, it often thus secures its chief -artistic effects. The talismans of Celtic romance, the fairy branch of -Cormac, the Ga-bulg of Cuchullain, the sounding-hammer of Fionn, the -treasures of the Boar Trwyth after which Prince Kilhwch sought, the -glaives of light of the living folk-tale, have one and all a weird, -fantastic, half-human existence, which haunts and thrills the imagination. -No Celtic story-teller could have “mulled†the Nibelung-hoard as the poet -of the Nibelungenlied has done. How different in this respect the twelfth -century romances are from the earlier German or French sagas, how close to -the Irish tales is apparent to whomsoever reads them with attention.<a name='fna_147' id='fna_147' href='#f_147'><small>[147]</small></a></p> - -<p>I do not for one moment imply that the romantic literature of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> the Middle -Ages was what it was, wholly or even mainly in virtue of its Celtic -affinities. That literature was the outcome of the age, and something akin -to it would have sprung up had Celtic tradition remained unknown to the -Continent. The conception of feudal knighthood as a favoured class, in -which men of different nations met on a common footing; the conception of -knightly love as something altogether disassociated from domestic life, -must in any case have led to the constitution of such a society as we find -portrayed in the romances. What is claimed is that the spirit of the age, -akin to the Celtic, recognised in Celtic tales the food it was hungering -for. It transformed them to suit its own needs and ideas, but it carried -out the transformation on the whole in essential agreement with tradition. -In some cases a radical change is made; such a one is presented to us in -the Grail cycle.</p> - -<p>The legend thus started with the advantages of belonging to the popular -literature of the time, and of association through Brons with Christian -tradition. Its incidents were varied, and owing to the blending of diverse -strains of story vague enough to be plastic. The formal development of the -cycle has been traced in the earlier chapters of these studies; that of -its ideal conceptions will be found to follow similar lines. Various -ethical intentions can be distinguished, and there is not more difference -between the versions in the conduct of the story than in the ideals they -set forth.</p> - -<p>To some readers it may have seemed well nigh sacrilegious to trace that</p> - -<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 6em;">... vanished Vase of Heaven</span><br /> -That held like Christ’s own Heart an Hin of Blood,</p> - -<p>to the magic vessels of pagan deities. In England the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>Grail-legend is -hardly known save in that form which it has assumed in the Queste. This -French romance was one of those which Malory embodied in his <i>rifacimento</i> -of the Arthurian cycle, and, thanks to Malory, it has become a portion of -English speech and thought.<a name='fna_148' id='fna_148' href='#f_148'><small>[148]</small></a> In our own days our greatest poet has -expressed the quintessence of what is best and purest in the old romance -in lines of imperishable beauty. As we follow Sir Galahad by secret shrine -and lonely mountain mere until</p> - -<p class="poem">Ah, blessed vision! Blood of God,<br /> -The spirit beats her mortal bars,<br /> -As down dark tides the glory slides,<br /> -And star-like mingles with the stars.</p> - -<p>we are under a spell that may not be resisted. And yet of the two main -paths which the legend has trodden that of Galahad is the least fruitful -and the least beautiful. Compared with the Perceval Quest in its highest -literary embodiment the Galahad Quest is false and antiquated on the -ethical side, lifeless on the æsthetic side.</p> - -<p>As it first meets us in literature the legend has barely emerged from its -pure and simple narrative stage. There is a temptation to exaggerate -Chrestien’s skill of conception when speculating how he would have -finished his work, but we know enough, probably, to correctly gauge his -intentions. It has been said he meant to portray the ideal knight in -Perceval. As was formerly the wont of authors he presents his hero in a -good light, and he may be credited with a perception of the opportunity -afforded him by his subject for placing that hero in positions wherein a -knight could best distinguish himself. In so far his work may be accepted -as his picture of a worthy knight. But I can discover in it no scheme of a -quest after the highest good to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> be set forth by means of the incidents at -his command. Perceval is brave as a matter of course, punctual in obeying -the counsels of his mother and of his teachers, Gonemans and the -hermit-uncle, unaffectedly repentant when he is convicted of having -neglected his religious duties. But it cannot be said that the hermit’s -exhortations or the hero’s repentance, confession, and absolution mark, or -are intended to mark, a definite stage in a progress towards spiritual -perfection. The explanation of the hero’s silence as a consequence of his -sin in leaving his mother, shows how little real thought has been bestowed -upon the subject. This explanation, whether wholly Chrestien’s, as I am -tempted to think, or complacently reproduced from his model, gives the -measure of his skill in constructing an allegory. Beyond insistence upon -such points (the hero’s docility) as were indicated to him by his model, -or, as in the case of his religious opinions, were a matter of course in a -work of the time, Chrestien gives Perceval no higher morality, no loftier -aims than those of the day. The ideal of chastity, soon to become of such -importance in the development of the legend, is nowhere set forth. -Perceval, like Gawain, takes full advantage of what <i>bonnes fortunes</i> come -in his way. And if the Quest connotes no spiritual ideal, still less does -it one of temporal sovereignty. Had Chrestien finished his story he would -have made Perceval heal the Maimed King and win his kingdom, but that -kingdom would not have been a type of the highest earthly magnificence. We -have seen reason to hold that Chrestien made one great change in the story -as he found it in his model; he assigns the Fisher-King’s illness to a -wound received in battle. This he did, I think, simply with a view to -shortening the story by leaving out the whole of the Partinal episode. No -mystical conception was floating in his mind. Yet, as we shall see, the -shape which he gave to this incident strongly influenced some of the later -versions, and gave the hint for the most philosophical <i>motif</i> to be found -in the whole cycle.</p> - -<p>The immediate continuators of Chrestien lift the legend to no higher -level. I incline to think that Gautier, with less skill of narrative and -far greater prolixity, yet trod closely in Chrestien’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> footsteps. In the -love episodes he is as full of charm as the more celebrated poet. The -second meeting of Perceval and Blanchefleur is told with that graceful -laughing <i>naïveté</i> of which French literature of the period has the -secret. But of a plan, an animating conception even such slight traces as -Chrestien had introduced into the story are lacking. Here, as in -Chrestien, the mysterious talismans themselves in no way help forward the -story. Chrestien certainly had the Christian signification of them in his -mind, but makes no use of it. The Vessel of the Last Supper, the Spear -that pierced Christ’s side might be any magic spear or vessel as far as he -is concerned. The original Pagan essence is retained; the name alone is -changed.</p> - -<p>Thus far had the legend grown when it came into the hands of the author of -the Queste. The subject matter had been partly shaped and trimmed by a -master of narrative, the connection with Christian tradition had been -somewhat accentuated. It was open to the author of the Queste to take the -story as it stood, and to read into its incidents a deep symbolical -meaning based upon the Christian character of the holy talismans. He -preferred to act otherwise. He broke entirely with the traditional -framework, dispossessed the original hero, and left not an incident of his -model untouched. But his method of proceeding may be likened to a shuffle -rather than to a transformation. The incidents reappear in other -connection, but do not reveal the author’s plan any more than is the case -in the Conte du Graal. The Christian character of the talismans is dwelt -upon with almost wearisome iteration, the sacramental act supplies the -matter of many and of the finest scenes, and yet the essence of the -talismans is unchanged. The Holy Grail, the Cup of the Last Supper, the -Sacramental Chalice is still when it appears the magic food-producing -vessel of the old Pagan sagas. What is the author’s idea? Undoubtedly to -show that the attainment of the highest spiritual good is not a thing of -this world; only by renouncing every human desire, only by passing into a -land intermediary between this earth and heaven, is the Quest achieved. In -the story of the prosecution of that Quest some attempt may be traced at -portraying the cardinal virtues and deadly sins by means of the adventures -of the questers,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> and of the innumerable exhortations addressed to them. -But no skill is shown in the conduct of this plan, which is carried out -chiefly by the introduction of numerous allegorical scenes which are made -a peg for lengthy dogmatic and moral expositions. In this respect the -author compares unfavourably with Robert de Borron, who shapes his story -in full accord with his conception of the Grail itself, a conception -deriving directly from the symbolic Christian nature he attributed to it, -and who makes even such unpromising incidents as that of the Magic Fisher -subserve his guiding idea.<a name='fna_149' id='fna_149' href='#f_149'><small>[149]</small></a></p> - -<p>If the author’s way of carrying out his conception cannot be praised, how -does it stand with the conception itself? The fact that the Quest is -wholly disassociated from this earth at once indicates the standpoint of -the romance. The first effect of the Quest’s proclamation is to break up -the Table Round, that type of the noblest human society of the day, and -its final achievement brings cheer or strengthening to no living man. The -successful questers alone in their unhuman realm have any joy of the -Grail. The spirit in which they prosecute their quest is best exemplified -by Sir Bors. When he comes to the magic tower and is tempted of the -maidens, who threaten to cast themselves down and be dashed to pieces -unless he yield them his love, he is sorry for them, but unmoved, thinking -it better “they lose their souls than he his.†So little had the Christian -writer apprehended the signification of Christ’s most profound saying. The -character of the principal hero is in consonancy with this aim, wholly -remote from the life of man on earth. A shadowy perfection at the outset, -he remains a shadowy perfection throughout, a bloodless and unreal -creature, as fit when he first appears upon the scene as when he quits it, -to accomplish a quest, purposeless, inasmuch as it only removes him from a -world in which he has neither part nor share. Such human interest as there -is in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> story is supplied by Lancelot, who takes over many of the -adventures of Perceval or Gawain in the Conte du Graal. In him we note -contrition for past sin, strivings after a higher life with which we can -sympathise. In fine, such moral teaching as the Queste affords is given us -rather by sinful Lancelot than by sinless Galahad.</p> - -<p>But the aversion to this world takes a stronger form in the Queste, and -one which is the vital conception of the work, in the insistence upon the -need for physical chastity. To rightly understand the author’s position we -must glance at the state of manners revealed by the romances, and in -especial at the sex-relations as they were conceived of by the most -refined and civilised men and women of the day. The French romances are, -as a rule, too entirely narrative to enable a clear realisation of what -these were. Wolfram, with his keener and more sympathetic eye for -individual character—Wolfram, who loves to analyse the sentiments and to -depict the outward manifestations of feeling of his personages—is our -best guide here. The manners and customs of the day can be found in the -French romances; the feelings which underlie them must be sought for in -the German poet.</p> - -<p>The marked feature of the sex-relations in the days of chivalry was the -institution of <i>minnedienst</i> (love-service). The knight bound himself to -serve a particular lady, matron or maid. To approve himself brave, hardy, -daring, patient, and discreet was his part of the bargain, and when -fulfilled the lady must fulfil hers and pay her servant. The relation must -not for one moment be looked upon as platonic; the last favours were in -every case exacted, or rather were freely granted, as the lady, whether -maid or wedded wife, thought it no wrong thus to reward her knight. It -would have been “bad form†to deny payment when the service had been -rendered, and the offender guilty of such conduct would have been scouted -by her fellow-women as well as by all men. Nothing is more instructive in -this connection than the delightfully told episode of Gawain and -Orgueilleuse. The latter is unwedded, a great and noble lady, but she has -already had several favoured lovers, as indeed she frankly tells Gawain. -He proffers his service, which she hardly accepts, but heaps upon him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> all -manner of indignity and insult, which he bears with the patient and -resourceful courtesy, his characteristic in mediæval romance. Whilst the -time of probation lasts, no harsh word, no impatient gesture, escapes him. -But when he has accomplished the feat of the Ford Perillous he feels that -he has done enough, and taking his lady-love to task he lectures her, as a -grave middle-aged man might some headstrong girl, upon the duties of a -well-bred woman and upon the wrong she has done knighthood in his person. -To point the moral he winds up, at mid-day in the open forest, with a -proposition which the repentant scornful one can only parry by the naïve -remark, “Seldom she had found it warm in the embrace of a mail-clad arm.†-Not only was it the lady’s duty to yield after a proper delay, but at -times she might even make the first advances and be none the worse thought -of. Blanchefleur comes to Perceval’s bed with scarce an apology.<a name='fna_150' id='fna_150' href='#f_150'><small>[150]</small></a> -Orgueilleuse, overcome with admiration at the Red Knight’s prowess, offers -him her love. True, she has doubts as to the propriety of her conduct, but -when she submits them to Gawain, the favoured lover for the time being, he -unhesitatingly approves her—Perceval’s fame was such that had he accepted -her proffered love she could have suffered naught in honour.</p> - -<p>Customs such as these, and a state of feelings such as they imply, are so -remote from us, that it is difficult to realise them, particularly in view -of the many false statements respecting the nature of chivalrous love -which have obtained currency. But we must bear in mind that the age was -pre-eminently one of individual prowess. The warlike virtues were all in -all. That a man should be brave, hardy, and skilful in the use of his -weapons was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> essential in a time when the single hero was almost of as -much account as in the days of Achilles, Siegfried, or Cuchullain. That -<i>minnedienst</i> tended to this end, as did other institutions of the day -which we find equally blamable, is its historical excuse. Even then many -felt its evils and perceived its anti-social character. Some, too, there -were who saw how deeply it degraded the ideal of love.</p> - -<p>A protest against this morality was indeed desirable. Such a one the -Queste does supply. But it is not enough to protest in a matter so -profoundly affecting mankind as the moral ideas which govern the -sex-relations. Not only must the protest be made in a right spirit, and on -the right lines, but a truer and loftier ideal must be set up in place of -the one attacked. In how far the Queste fulfils these conditions we shall -see. Meanwhile, as a sample of the feelings with which many Englishmen -have regarded it, and as an attempt to explain its historical and ethical -<i>raison d’être</i>, I cannot do better than quote Mr. Furnivall’s -enthusiastic words: “What is the lesson of it all? Is the example of -Galahad and his unwavering pursuit of the highest spiritual object set -before him, nothing to us? Is that of Perceval, pure and tempted, on the -point of yielding, yet saved by the sight of the symbol of his Faith, to -be of no avail to us? Is the tale of Bohors, who has once sinned, but by a -faithful life ... at last tasting spiritual food, and returning to devote -his days to God and Good—is this no lesson to us?... On another point, -too, this whole Arthur story may teach us. Monkish, to some extent, the -exaltation of bodily chastity above almost every other earthly virtue is; -but the feeling is a true one; it is founded on a deep reverence for -woman, which is the most refining and one of the noblest sentiments of -man’s nature, one which no man can break through without suffering harm to -his spiritual life.â€</p> - -<p>It would be hard to find a more striking instance of how the “editorial -idol†may override perception and judgment. He who draws such lofty and -noble teachings from the Queste del Saint Graal, must first bring them -himself. He must read modern religion, modern morality into the mediæval -allegory, and on one point he must entirely falsify the mediæval -conception.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> Whether this is desirable is a question we can have no -hesitation in deciding negatively. It is better to find out what the -author really meant than to interpret his symbolism in our own fashion.</p> - -<p>The author of the Queste places the object and conditions of his mystic -quest wholly outside the sphere of human action or interest; in a similar -spirit he insists, as an indispensable requirement in the successful -quester, upon a qualification necessarily denied to the vast majority of -mankind. His work is a glorification of physical chastity. “Blessed are -the pure—in body—for they shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven,†is the -text upon which he preaches. In such a case everything depends upon the -spirit of the preacher, and good intent is not enough to win praise. His -conception, says Mr. Furnivall, is founded upon a deep reverence for -woman. This is, indeed, such a precious thing that had the mediæval -ascetic really felt it we could have forgiven the stupidity which ignores -all that constitutes the special dignity and pathos of womanhood. But he -felt nothing of the kind. Woman is for him the means whereby sin came into -the world, the arch stumbling-block, the tool the devil finds readiest to -his hands when he would overcome man. Only in favour of the Virgin Mother, -and of those who like her are vowed to mystical maidenhood, does the -author pardon woman at all. One single instance will suffice to -characterize the mediæval standpoint. When the Quest of the Holy Grail was -first proclaimed in Arthur’s Court there was great commotion, and the -ladies would fain have joined therein, “car cascune dame ou damoiselle -(qui) fust espousée ou amie, dist à son chiualer qu’ele yroit od lui en la -queste.†But a hermit comes forward to forbid this; “No dame or damsel is -to accompany her knight lest he fall into deadly sin.†Wife or leman, it -was all one for the author of the Queste; woman could not but be an -occasion for deadly sin, and the sin, though in the one case less in -degree (and even this is uncertain), was the same in kind. Fully one-half -of the romance is one long exemplification of the essential vileness of -the sex-relation, worked out with the minute and ingenious nastiness of a -Jesuit moral theologian. The author was of his time; it was natural he -should think and write as he did, and it would be uncritical to blame him -for his degrading view of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> womanhood or for his narrow and sickly view of -life. But when we are bidden to seek example of him, it is well to state -the facts as they are.<a name='fna_151' id='fna_151' href='#f_151'><small>[151]</small></a></p> - -<p>If his transformation of the story has been rudely effected without regard -to its inherent possibilities, if the spirit of his ideal proves to be -miserably ascetic and narrow, what then remains to the Queste, and how may -we account for its popularity in its own day, and for the abiding -influence which its version of the legend has exercised over posterity. -Its literary qualities are at times great; certain scenes, especially such -as set forth the sacramental nature of the Grail, are touched with a -mystical fervour which haunts the imagination. It has given some of the -most picturesque features to this most picturesque of legends. But I see -in the idea of the mystic quest proclaimed to and shared in by the whole -Table Round the real secret of the writer’s success. This has struck the -imagination of so many generations and given the Queste an undeserved -fame. In truth the conception of Arthur’s court, laying aside ordinary -cares and joys, given wholly up to one overmastering spiritual aim, is a -noble one. It is, I think, only in a slight degree the outcome of definite -thought and intent but was dictated to the writer by the form into which -he had recast<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> the story. Galahad had supplanted Perceval, but the latter -could not be suppressed entirely. The achievement of the quest involved -the passing away out of this world of the chief heroes, hence a third less -perfect one is joined to them to bring back tidings to earth of the -marvels he had witnessed. Lancelot, to whom are assigned so many of -Perceval’s adventures, cannot be denied a share in the quest; it is the -same with Gawain, whose character in the older romance fits him, moreover, -excellently for the <i>rôle</i> of “dreadful example.†By this time the -Arthurian legend was fully grown, and the mention of these Knights called -up the names of others with whom they were invariably connected by the -romance writers. Well nigh every hero of importance was thus drawn into -the magic circle, and the mystic Quest assumed, almost inevitably, the -shape it did.</p> - -<p>This conception, to which, if I am right, the author of the Queste was led -half unconsciously, seems to us the most admirable thing in his work. It -was, however, his ideal of virginity which struck the idea of his -contemporaries, and which left its mark upon after versions. An age with -such a gross ideal of love may have needed an equally gross ideal of -purity. Physical chastity plays henceforth the leading part in the moral -development of the cycle. With Robert de Borron it is the sin of the flesh -which brings down upon the Grail host the wrath of Heaven, and -necessitates the display of the Grail’s wondrous power. Here may be noted -the struggle of the new conception with the older form of the story. -Alain, the virgin knight, would rather be flayed than marry, and yet he -does marry in obedience to the original model. Robert is consistent in all -that relates to the symbolism of the Grail, but in other respects, as we -have already seen, he is easily thrown off his guard. In the -Didot-Perceval, written as a sequel to Robert’s poem, the same struggle -between old and new continues, and the reconciling spirit goes to work in -naïve and unskilful style. The incidents of the Conte du Graal are kept, -although they accord but ill with the hero’s ascetic spirit. In the -portion of the Conte du Graal itself which goes under Manessier’s name, -along with adventures taken direct from Chrestien’s model, and far less -Christianised than in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> earlier poet’s work, many occur which are -simply transferred from the Queste. No attempt is made at reconciling -these jarring elements, and the effect of the contrast is at times almost -comic. In two of the later romances of the cycle the fusion has been more -complete, and the result is, in consequence, more interesting. The prose -Perceval le Gallois keeps the original hero of the Quest as far as name -and kinship are concerned, but it gives him the aggressive virginity and -the proselytising zeal of Galahad. Gerbert’s finish to the Conte du Graal -is, perhaps, the strangest outcome of the double set of influences to -which the later writers were exposed. Without doubt his model differed -from the version used by Gautier and Manessier. It is more Celtic in tone, -and is curiously akin to the hypothetical lost source of Wolfram von -Eschenbach. The hero’s absence from his lady-love is insisted upon, and -the need of returning to her before he can find peace. The genuineness of -this feature admits of little doubt. Many folk-tales tell of the severance -of lover and beloved, and of their toilful wanderings until they meet -again; such a tale easily lends itself to the idea that separation is -caused by guilt, and that, whilst severed, one or other lover must suffer -misfortune. Often, as in the case of Diarmaid and the Daughter of King -Under the Waves (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_194">p. 194</a>), definite mention is made of the guilt, -as a rule an infringed taboo. Such an incident could scarcely fail to -assume the ethical shape Gerbert has given it. Thus he had only to listen -to his model, to take his incidents as he found them, and he had the -matter for a moral conception wholly in harmony with them. The chastity -ideal has been too strong for him. His lovers do come together, but only -to exemplify the virtue of continence in the repulsive story of their -bridal night. After Gerbert the cycle lengthens, but does not develop. The -Queste retains its supremacy, and through Malory its dominant conception -entered deeply into the consciousness of the English race.</p> - -<p>How far the author of the Queste must be credited with the new ideal he -brought into the legend is worth enquiry. Like so much else therein, it -may have its roots in the folk and hero tales which underlie the romances. -The Castle of Talismans visited<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> by Perceval is the Land of Shades. In -popular tradition the incident takes the form of entry into the hollow -hill-side where the fairy king holds his court and hoards untold riches. -Poverty and simplicity are the frequent qualifications of the successful -quester; oftener still some mystic birthright, the being a Sunday’s child -for instance, or a seventh son; or again freedom from sin is required, -and, perhaps, most frequently maidenhood.<a name='fna_152' id='fna_152' href='#f_152'><small>[152]</small></a> The stress which so many -peoples lay upon virginity in the holy prophetic maidens, who can -transport themselves into the otherworld and bring thence the commands of -the god, may be noted in the same connection. No Celtic tale I have -examined with a view to throwing light upon the Grail romances insists -upon this idea, but some version, now lost, may possibly have done so. -Celtic tradition gave the romance writers of the Middle Ages material and -form for the picture of human love; it may also have given them a hint of -the opposing ideal of chastity.<a name='fna_153' id='fna_153' href='#f_153'><small>[153]</small></a></p> - -<p>All this time it should be noted that no real progress is made in the -symbolical machinery of the legend. The Holy Grail becomes superlatively -sacrosanct, but it retains its pristine pagan essence, even in the only -version, the Grand St. Graal, which knew of Borron and of his mystical -conception.</p> - -<p>Such, then, had been the growth of the legend in one direction. The -original incidents were either transformed, mutilated, or, where they kept -their first shape, underwent no ethical deepening or widening. The -talismans themselves had been transferred from Celtic to Christian -mythology, but their fate was still bound<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> up with the otherworld. He who -would seek them must turn his back upon this earth from which the Palace -Spiritual and the City of Sarras were even more remote than Avalon or -Tir-na n-Og. Was no other course open? Could not framework and incidents -of the Celtic tales be retained, and yet, raised to a loftier, wider -level, become a fit vehicle for philosophic thought and moral exhortation? -One side of popular tradition figured the hero as wresting the talismans -from the otherworld powers for the benefit of his fellow men. Could not -this form of the myth be made to yield a human, practical conception of -the Quest and Winning of the Holy Grail?</p> - -<p>We are luckily not reduced to conjecture in this matter. A work largely -fulfilling these hypothetical requirements exists in the Parzival of -Wolfram von Eschenbach. On the whole it is the most interesting individual -work of modern European literature prior to the Divina Commedia, and its -author has a better claim than any other mediæval poet to be called a man -of genius. He must, of course, be measured by the standard of his time. It -would be useless to expect from him that homogeneity of narrative, that -artistic proportion of style first met with 150 years later in Italy, and -which from Italy passed into all European literatures. Compared with the -unknown poets who gave their present shape to the Nibelungenlied or to the -Chanson de Roland he is an individual writer, but he is far from deserving -this epithet even in the sense that Chaucer deserves it. His subject -dominates him. Even when his philosophic mind is conceiving it under a new -aspect he anxiously holds to the traditional form. Hence great -inconsistencies in his treatment of the theme, hence, too, the frequent -difficulty in interpreting his meaning, the frequent doubt as to how far -the interpretation is correct. Here, as in the discussion respecting the -<i>origines</i> of the Grail legend, resort must often be had to conjecture, -and any solution of the fascinating problems involved is necessarily and -largely subjective.</p> - -<p>Wolfram’s relation to his predecessors must be taken into account in -estimating the value of the Parzival. The earlier portion of his work -differs entirely, as we have seen, from any existing French romance; so -does the finish in so far as it agrees<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> with the opening. The greater part -of the story is closely parallel to Chrestien; there are points of -contact, peculiar to these two writers, with Gerbert. Little invention, -properly so called, of incident can be traced in the Parzival. The part -common to it and Chrestien is incomparably fuller and more interesting in -the German poet, but the main outlines are the same. Wolfram has, however, -been at some pains to let us know what was his conception of the legend. -That much is allowed to remain at variance therewith is a clear proof of -his timidity of invention.</p> - -<p>Doubt, he says, is the most potent corrupter of the soul. Whoso gives -himself over to unfaith and unsteadfastness treadeth in truth the downward -path. God Himself is very faithfulness. Strife against Him, doubt of Him, -is the highest sin. But humility and repentance may expiate it, and he who -thus repents may be chosen by God for the Grail Kingship, the summit of -earthly holiness. Peace of soul and all earthly power are the chosen -one’s; alone, unlawful desire and the company of sinners are denied him by -the Grail.</p> - -<p>How is this leading conception worked out? The framework and the march of -incidents are the same as in the Conte du Graal. One capital change at -once, however, lifts the story to a higher level. The Fisher King suffers -from a wound received in the cause of unlawful love, in disobedience to -those heavenly commands which govern the Grail community. The healing -question can be put only by one worthy to take up the high office Amfortas -has dishonoured, in virtue of having passed through the strife of doubt, -and become reconciled to God by repentance and humble trust. If Parzival -neglected to put the question on his first arrival at the Grail Castle, it -was that in the conceit of youth he fancied all wisdom was his. Childish -insistence upon his mother’s counsels had brought down reproof upon him; -he had learnt the world’s wisdom from Gurnemanz, he had shown himself in -defence of Conduiramur a valiant knight, worthy of power and woman’s love. -When brought into contact with the torturing sorrow of Amfortas, he is too -full of himself, of his teacher’s wisdom, to rightly use the opportunity.</p> - -<p>The profound significance of the question which at once releases<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> the -sinner, and announces the one way in which the sin may be cancelled, -namely, by the coming of a worthier successor, is due, if we may credit -Birch-Hirschfeld, to an accident. Wolfram only knew Chrestien. The latter -never explains the real nature of the Grail, and the German poet’s -knowledge of French was too slight to put him on the right track. The -question, “Whom serve they with the Grail?†which he found in Chrestien, -was necessarily meaningless to him, and he replaced it by his, “Uncle, -what is it tortures thee?†The change <i>may</i> be the result of accident as -is so much else in this marvellous legend, but it required a man of genius -to turn the accident to such account. It is the insistence upon charity as -the herald and token of spiritual perfection that makes the grandeur of -Wolfram’s poem, and raises it so immeasureably above the Queste.</p> - -<p>The same human spirit is visible in the delineation of the Grail Kingship -as the type of the highest good. Wolfram’s theology is distinctively -antinomian—no man may win the Grail in his own strength; it choseth whom -it will—and has been claimed on the one hand<a name='fna_154' id='fna_154' href='#f_154'><small>[154]</small></a> as a reflex of orthodox -Catholic belief, on the other as a herald of the Lutheran doctrine of -grace.<a name='fna_155' id='fna_155' href='#f_155'><small>[155]</small></a> Theological experts may be left to fight out this question -among themselves. Apart from this, Wolfram has a practical sense of the -value of human effort. With him the Quest is not to be achieved by utter -isolation from this earth and its struggles. The chief function of the -Grail Kingdom is to supply an abiding type of a divinely ordered Society; -it also trains up leaders for those communities which lack them. It is a -civilising power as well as a Palace Spiritual.</p> - -<p>In the relation of man to Heaven, Wolfram, whilst fully accepting the -doctrines of his age, appeals to the modern spirit with far greater power -and directness than the Queste. In the other great question of the legend, -the relation of man to woman, he is likewise nearer to us, although it -must be confessed that he builds better than he knows. To the love ideal -of his day, based wholly upon passion and vanity and severed from all -family feeling, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> opposes the wedded love of Parzival and Conduiramur. -The hero’s recollection of the mother of his children is the one saving -influence throughout the years of doubt and discouragement which follow -Kundrie’s reproaches. Whilst still staggering under this blow, so cruelly -undeserved as it seems to him, he can wish his friend and comrade, Gawain, -a woman chaste and good, whom he may love and who shall be his guardian -angel. The thought of Conduiramur holds him aloof from the offered love of -Orgeluse. In his last and bitterest fight, with his unknown brother, when -it had nigh gone with him to his death, he recalls her and renews the -combat with fresh strength. She it is for whom he wins the highest earthly -crown, of which her pure, womanly heart makes her worthy. Reunion with her -and with his children is Parzival’s first taste of the joy that is -henceforth to be his.</p> - -<p>Passages may easily be multiplied that tally ill with the ideas of the -poem as here briefly set forth. But the existence of these ideas is patent -to the unprejudiced reader. Despite its many shortcomings, the poem which -contains them is the noblest and most human outcome of that mingled strain -of Celtic fancy and Christian symbolism whose history we have traced.<a name='fna_156' id='fna_156' href='#f_156'><small>[156]</small></a></p> - -<p>In Wolfram, equally with the majority of the French romance writers, there -is little consistency in the formal use of the mystic talismans. Be the -reason what it may, Wolfram certainly never thought of associating the -Grail with the Last Supper. But its religious character is, at times, as -marked with him as with Robert de Borron or the author of the Queste. It -is the actual vehicle of the Deity’s commands; it restrains from sin; it -suffers no unchaste servant; it may be seen of no heathen; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> simple -beholding of it preserves men from death. This last characteristic would -be thought in modern times a sufficient tribute to the original nature of -the old pagan cauldron of increase and rejuvenescence. But Wolfram was of -his time, and followed his models faithfully. Along with the lofty -spiritual attributes of his Grail, he pictures in drastic fashion its -food-dispensing powers. The mystic stone, fallen from Heaven itself, -renewed each Good Friday by direct action of the Spirit, becomes all at -once a mere victual producing machine. We can see how little Wolfram liked -this feature of his model, and how he felt the contrast between it and his -own more spiritual conception. But here, as elsewhere in the poem, he -allowed much to stand against which his better judgment protested. His own -share in the development of the legend must be gauged by what is -distinctively his, not by what he has in common with others. Judged thus, -he must be said to have developed the Christian symbolic side of the -legend as much as the human philosophic side. If in Robert de Borron the -Grail touches its highest symbolic level through its identification with -the body of the dead and risen Lord, we can trace in Wolfram the germ of -that approximation of the Grail-Quester to the earthly career of the -Saviour which Wagner was to develop more than 600 years later.<a name='fna_157' id='fna_157' href='#f_157'><small>[157]</small></a></p> - - -<p>What influence Wolfram’s poem, with its practical, human enthusiasm, its -true and noble sexual morality, might have had on English literature is an -interesting speculation. It would have appealed, one would think, to our -race with its utilitarian ethical instinct, with its lofty ideal of wedded -love. The true man, Parzival, should, in the fitness of things, be the -English hero of the Quest, rather than the visionary ascetic Galahad. -Mediæval England was dominated by France and knew nothing of Germany,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> and -when in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries we can trace German -influence on English thought and writ, taste had changed, and the Parzival -was well-nigh forgotten in its own land. It remained so almost until our -own days. The Quest after Perfection still haunted the German mind, but it -was conceived of on altogether different lines from those of the twelfth -century poet. The nation of scholars pictured the quester as a student, -not as a knight. When it took shape in the dreary period of Protestant -scholasticism the quest is wholly cursed. Faust’s pursuit of knowledge is -unlawful, a rebellion against God, which dooms him irrevocably. Not until -Goethe’s day is the full significance of the legend perceived, is the -theme widened to embrace the totality of human striving. Thus the last -glimpse we have of Faust is of one devoted to the service of man; the last -words of the poem are a recognition of the divine element in the love of -man and woman.<a name='fna_158' id='fna_158' href='#f_158'><small>[158]</small></a></p> - -<p>In Germany, as in England, the old legend has appealed afresh to poets and -thinkers, and then, as was natural, they turned to Germany’s greatest -mediæval poet. Wagner’s Parsifal would, in any case, be interesting as an -expression of one of the strongest dramatic geniuses of the century. -Considered purely as a work of literature, apart from the music, it has -rare beauty and profound significance. The essentially dramatic bent of -Wagner’s mind, the stage destination of the poem, must be borne in mind -when considering it. Wolfram’s conception—youthful folly and inexperience -chastised by reproof, followed by doubt and strife, cancelled by the -faithful steadfastness of the full-grown man—is obviously unsuited for -dramatic purposes. At no one point of Wolfram’s poem do we find that clash -of motives and of characters which the stage requires. In building up -<i>his</i> conception Wagner has utilised every hint of his predecessor with -wonderful ingenuity. Klinschor, the magician, becomes with him the active -opponent of the Grail King, Amfortas, from whom he has wrested the holy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> -spear by the aid of Kundry’s unholy beauty. Kundry is Wagner’s great -contribution to the legend. She is the Herodias whom Christ for her -laughter doomed to wander till He come again. Subject to the powers of -evil, she must tempt and lure to their destruction the Grail warriors. And -yet she would find release and salvation could a man resist her love -spell.<a name='fna_159' id='fna_159' href='#f_159'><small>[159]</small></a> She knows this. The scene between the unwilling temptress, -whose success would but doom her afresh, and the virgin Parsifal thus -becomes tragic in the extreme. How does this affect Amfortas and the -Grail? In this way. Parsifal is the “pure fool,†knowing nought of sin or -suffering. It had been foretold of him he should become “wise by -fellow-suffering,†and so it proves. The overmastering rush of desire -unseals his eyes, clears his mind. Heart-wounded by the shaft of passion, -he feels Amfortas’ torture thrill through him. The pain of the physical -wound is his, but far more, the agony of the sinner who has been unworthy -his high trust, and who, soiled by carnal sin, must yet daily come in -contact with the Grail, symbol of the highest purity and holiness. The -strength which comes of the new-born knowledge enables him to resist -sensual longing, and thereby to release both Kundry and Amfortas.</p> - -<p>In the latest version of the Perceval Quest, as in the Galahad Quest, the -ideal of chastity is thus paramount. This result is due to Wagner’s -dramatic treatment of the theme. The conception that knowledge of sin and -fellowship in suffering are requisite to enable man to resist temptation, -and that thus alone does he acquire the needful strength to assist his -fellows, however true and profound, can obviously only be worked out on -the stage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> through the medium of one form of sin and suffering. The long -psychological process of Wolfram’s poem, the slow growth of the unthinking -youth into the steadfast, faithful man, is replaced by a mystic, -transcendental conversion. From out a world of human endeavour, human -motive, we have stepped into one wholly ascetic and symbolical. The love -of man for woman only appears in the guise of forbidden desire; the aims -and needs of this world are not even thought of. Every incident has been -remoulded in accord with Christian tradition. Wagner fully accepts the -sacramental nature of the Grail, and the Grail feast is with him a -faithful reproduction of the Last Supper. Holiness and purity are the -essence of the Grail, which is cleared from every taint of its pagan -origin. And whilst Wagner, following the French models, identifies the -Grail with the most sacred object of Christian worship, he also, -developing hints of Wolfram’s, reshapes the career of his Grail-seeker in -accord with that of Christ. Parsifal, the releaser of sin-stricken Kundry, -of sin-stricken Amfortas—Parsifal, the restorer of peace and holiness to -the Grail Kingdom—becomes a symbol of the Saviour.</p> - -<p>In the reasoned, artistic growth of the legend, the plastic, living -element is that supplied by Christian tradition. From the moment that the -Celtic lord of the underworld is identified with the evangelist of Britain -we see the older complex of tales acquire consistency, life, and meaning. -Even where the direct influence of the intruding element is slightest, as -in the Conte du Graal, we can still perceive that it is responsible for -the germs of after development. Sometimes violently and unintelligently, -sometimes with a keen feeling for the possibilities of the original -romance, sometimes with the boldest introduction of new matter, sometimes -with slavish adherence to pre-Christian conceptions, the transformation of -the Celtic tales goes on. The cauldron of increase and renovation, the -glaive of light, the magic fish, the visit to the otherworld, all are -gradually metamorphosed until at last the talisman of the Irish gods -becomes the symbol of the risen Lord, its seeker a type of Christ in His -divinest attributes.</p> - -<p>The ethical teaching of the legend becomes also purely Christian as the -Middle Ages conceived Christianity. Renunciation of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> world and of the -flesh is its key-note. Once only in Wolfram do we find an ideal human in -its essence, though dogmatic in form; the path thus opened is not trodden -further, and the legend remains as a whole, on the moral side, a monument -of Christian asceticism.</p> - -<p>We have seen reason to surmise that the folk-tales which underlie the -romances themselves gave the hint for the most characteristic -manifestation of this ascetic ideal. It is worth enquiry if these tales -have developed themselves independently from the Christianised legend, and -if such development shows any trace of ethical conceptions comparable with -those of the legend. Can we gather from the tales as fashioned by the folk -teaching similar to that of the preachers, philosophers, and artists by -whom the legend has been shaped? Few enquiries can be more interesting -than one which traces such a conception as the Quest after the highest -good as pictured by the rudest and most primitive members of the race.</p> - -<p>Many of the tales which formed a part of the (hypothetical) Welsh original -of the earliest Grail romances have been shown to come under the Aryan -Expulsion and Return Formula (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">Ch. VI</a>). Among most races this -formula has connected itself with the national heroes, and has given rise -to hero-tales in which the historical element outweighs the ethical. -Sometimes, as in the tale of Perseus, the incidents are so related as to -bring out an ethical <i>motif</i>; Perseus is certainly thought of as avenging -his mother’s undeserved wrongs. I cannot trace anything of the kind among -the Celts. All the incidents of the formula in Celtic tradition which I -know of are purely historical in character. This element of the old -Saga-mass thus yields nothing for the present enquiry. Others are more -fruitful. Perceval is akin not only to Fionn, but also to the Great Fool. -The Lay of the Great Fool was found to tally closely with adventures in -the Mabinogi and in the Conte du Graal (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">Ch. VI</a>). It also sets -forth a moral conception that admits of profitable comparison with that of -the Grail romances.</p> - -<p>Ultimately, the Lay is, I have little doubt, one of the many forms in -which a mortal’s visit to the otherworld was related. Wandering into the -Glen of Glamour, the hero and his love <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>encounter a magician; the hero -drinks of the proffered cup, despite his love’s remonstrances, and -forthwith loses his two legs. This is obviously a form of the -widely-spread myth which forbids the visitant to the otherworld to partake -of aught there under penalty of never returning to earth. But this -mythical <i>motif</i> has taken an ethical shape in popular fancy. According to -Kennedy’s version, it is the hero’s excess in draining the cup to the -dregs which calls for punishment. This change is of the same nature as -that noted with regard to a similar incident in the Grail romances. There, -the old mythic taboo of sleeping or speaking in the otherworld called at -last for an explanation, and found one in Wolfram’s philosophic -conception. The parallel does not end here. Perceval may retrieve his -fault, and so may the Great Fool; Wolfram makes his hero win salvation by -steadfast faith, the folk-tale makes its hero in the face of every form of -temptation a pattern of steadfast loyalty to the absent friend and to the -pledged word. It may, or may not, be considered to the advantage of the -folk-tale that, unlike the mediæval romance, it deals neither in mysticism -nor in asceticism. The sin and atonement of the Great Fool are such as the -popular mind can grasp; he is an example of human weakness and human -strength. The woman he loves is no temptress, no representative of the -evil principle—on the contrary, she is ever by his side to counsel and to -cheer him.</p> - -<p>When it is remembered that the two off-shoots, romantic-legendary and -popular, from the one traditional stem have grown up in perfect -independence of each other, the kinship of moral idea is startling. The -folk-lorist has often cause to wonder at the spontaneous flower-like -character of the object of his study; folk-tradition seems to obey fixed -laws of growth and to be no product of man’s free thought and speech. The -few partisans of the theory that folk-tradition is only a later and -weakened echo of the higher culture of the race are invited to study the -present case. A Celtic tale, after supplying an important element to the -Christianised Grail legend, has gone on its way entirely unaffected by the -new shape which that legend assumed, and yet it has worked out a moral -conception of fundamental likeness to one set forth in the legend. It -would be difficult to find a more perfect instance of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> spontaneous, -evolutional character of tradition contended for by what, in default of a -better name, must be called the anthropological school of folk-lorists.</p> - -<p>We must quit Celtic ground to find another example of an element in the -originals of the Grail romances, embodying a popular ethical idea. This -instance is such an interesting one that I cannot pass it by in silence. -As was shown in <a href="#CHAPTER_VII">Chapter VII</a>, one of the many forms of the hero’s visit to -the otherworld has for object the release of maidens held captive by an -evil power. A formal connection was established between this section of -the romance and the folk-tale of the Sleeping Beauty. As a whole, too, -this tale admits of comparison with the legend. Its origin is mythic -without a doubt. Whether it be regarded as a day or as a year myth, as the -rescue of the dawn from night, or of the incarnate spring from the bonds -of winter, it equally pictures a victory of the lord of light and heat and -life over the powers of darkness, cold, and death. With admirable fidelity -folk-tradition has preserved the myth, so that its true nature can be -recognised without fail. It would be wrong, though, to conclude that -retention of the mythic framework implied any recognition of its mythic -character on the part of those who told or listened to the story. Some -investigators, indeed, hold it idle to consider it otherwise than as a -tale told merely for amusement. But a story, to live, must appeal to moral -as well as to æsthetic emotions. In the folk-mind this story sets forth, -dimly though it may be, that search for the highest human felicity which -is likewise a theme of the Grail romances. What better picture of this -quest could be found than the old mythic symbol of the awakening of life -and increase beneath the kiss of the sun-god. The hero of the folk-tale -makes his way through the briars and tangle of the forest that he may -restore to the deserted castle life and plenty; so much has the tale -retained of the original mythic signification. As regards the quester -himself, the maiden he thus woos is his reward and the noblest prize earth -has to offer him. Where the romance writers made power, or riches, or -learning, or personal salvation the goal of man’s effort, the folk-tale -bids him seek happiness in the common human affections.</p> - -<p>Such, all too briefly sketched, has been the fate and story of these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> -tales, first shaped in a period of culture wellnigh pre-historic, gifted -by reason of their Celtic setting with a charm that commended them to the -romantic spirit of the middle ages, and made them fit vehicles for the -embodiment of mediæval ideas. Quickened by Christian symbolism they came -to express and typify the noblest and the most mystic longings of man. The -legend, as the poets and thinkers of the twelfth century fashioned it, has -still a lesson and a meaning for us. It may be likened to one of the -divine maidens of Irish tradition. She lives across the western sea. Ever -and again heroes, filled with mysterious yearning for the truth and beauty -of the infinite and undying, make sail to join her if they may. They pass -away and others succeed them, but she remains ever young and fair. So long -as the thirst of man for the ideal endures, her spell will not be -weakened, her charm will not be lessened. But each generation works out -this Quest in its own spirit. This much may be predicted with some -confidence: henceforth, whosoever would do full justice to the legend must -take pattern by Wolfram von Eschenbach rather than by any of his rivals; -he must deal with human needs and human longings; his ideal must be the -widening of human good and human joy. Above all, he must give reverent yet -full expression to all the aspirations, all the energies of man and of -woman.</p> - -<p> </p> -<p class="center">FINIS.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p> - - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p> -<h2><a name="APPENDIX_A" id="APPENDIX_A"></a>APPENDIX A.</h2> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Relationship of Wolfram von Eschenbach and Chrestien.</span></p> - - -<p>The various arguments for and against the use of any other French source -than Chrestien by Wolfram have been clearly summed up by G. Bötticher, Die -Wolfram Literatur seit Lachmann, Berlin, 1880. The chief representative of -the negative opinion is Birch-Hirschfeld, who first gives, Chapter VIII. -of his work, a useful collection of passages relating to the Grail, the -Castle, and the Quest, from both authors. His chief argument is this:—The -Grail in all the romances except in Wolfram is a cup or vessel, but in -Wolfram a stone, a peculiarity only to be explained by Wolfram’s ignorance -of any source than Chrestien, and by the fact that the latter, in -accordance with his usual practice of leaving objects and persons in as -mysterious an atmosphere as possible, nowhere gives a clear description of -the Grail. He undoubtedly would have done so if he had finished his work. -Such indications as he gave led Wolfram, who did not understand the word -<i>Graal</i>, to think it was a stone. It is inconceivable that Kyot, if such a -personage existed, should have so far departed from all other versions as -not to picture the Grail as a vessel, inconceivable, again, that his -account of it should have been just as vague as Chrestien’s, that he -should have afforded Wolfram no hint of the real nature of the object. In -Chrestien Perceval’s question refers to the Grail, but Wolfram, missing -the significance of the holy vessel owing to the meagreness of the -information respecting it given to him by Chrestien, was compelled to -transform the whole incident, and to refer it solely to the sufferings of -the wounded King. Again, Chrestien meant to utilise the sword, and to -bring Gawain to the Grail Castle; but his unfinished work did not carry -out his intention, and in Wolfram Gawain also fails to come to the Grail -Castle; the sword is passed over in silence in the latter part of the -poem.—Simrock, jealous for the credit of Wolfram, claimed for him the -invention of all that could not be traced to Chrestien, resting the claim -chiefly upon consideration of a sentimental patriotic nature.—In -opposition to these views, although the fact is not denied that Wolfram -followed Chrestien closely for the parts common to both, it is urged to be -incredible that he, a German poet, should invent a prologue to Chrestien’s -unfinished work connecting with an Angevin princely genealogical legend. -It was also pointed out, with greatest fulness by Bartsch, Die Eigennamen -im Parcival und Titurel, Germanist. Studien, II., 114, <i>et seq.</i>, that the -German poet gives<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> a vast number of proper names which are not to be found -in Chrestien, and that these are nearly all of French, and especially -Southern French and Provençal origin.—Simrock endeavoured to meet this -argument in the fifth edition of his translation, but with little -success.—Bötticher, whilst admitting the weight of Birch-Hirschfeld’s -arguments, points out the difficulties which his theory involves. If -Wolfram simply misunderstood Chrestien and did not differ from him -personally, why should he be at the trouble of inventing an elaborately -feigned source to justify a simple addition to the original story? If he -only knew of the Grail from Chrestien, what gave him the idea of endowing -it, as he did, with mystic properties? Martin points out in addition (Zs. -f. d. A., V. 87) that Wolfram has the same connection of the Grail and -Swan Knight story as Gerbert, whom, <i>ex hypothesi</i>, he could not have -known, and who certainly did not know him.—In his Zur Gralsage, Martin -returned to the question of proper names, and showed that a varying -redaction of a large part of the romance is vouched for by the different -names which Heinrich von dem Türlin applies to personages met with both in -Chrestien and in Wolfram. If, then, one French version, that followed by -Heinrich, who is obviously a translator, is lost, why not another?</p> - -<p>The first thorough comparison of Chrestien and Wolfram is to be found in -Otto Küpp’s Unmittelbaren Quellen des Parzival, (Zs. f. d. Ph. XVII., l). -He argues for Kyot’s existence. Some of the points he mentions in which -the two poems differ, and in which Wolfram’s account has a more archaic -character, may be cited: The mention of Gurnemanz’s sons; the food -producing properties of the Grail on Parzival’s first visit; the -reproaches of the varlet to Parzival on his leaving the Grail Castle, “You -are a goose, had you but moved your lips and asked the host! Now you have -lost great praise;â€<a name='fna_160' id='fna_160' href='#f_160'><small>[160]</small></a> the statement that the broken sword is to be made -whole by dipping in the Lake Lac, and the mention of a sword charm by -virtue of which Parzival can become lord of the Grail Castle; the mention -that no one seeing the Grail could die within eight days. In addition Küpp -finds that many of the names in Wolfram are more archaic than those of -Chrestien. On the other hand, Küpp has not noticed that Chrestien has -preserved a more archaic feature in the prohibition laid upon Gauvain not -to leave for seven days the castle after he had undergone the adventure of -the bed.</p> - -<p>Küpp has not noticed that some of the special points he singles out in -Wolfram are likewise to be found in Chrestien’s continuators, <i>e.g.</i>, the -mention of the sons of Gurnemanz, by Gerbert.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>I believe I have the first pointed out the insistence by both Wolfram and -Gerbert upon the hero’s love to and duty towards his wife.</p> - -<p>The name of Parzival’s uncle in Wolfram, Gurnemanz, is nearer to the form -in Gerbert, Gornumant, than to that in Chrestien, Gonemant.</p> - -<p>The matter may be summed up thus: it is very improbable that Wolfram -should have invented those parts of the story found in him alone; the -parts common to him and Chrestien are frequently more archaic in his case; -there are numerous points of contact between him and Gerbert. All this -speaks for another French source than Chrestien. On the other hand, it is -almost inconceivable that such a source should have presented the Grail as -Wolfram presents it.</p> - -<p>I cannot affect to consider the question decidedly settled one way or the -other, and have, therefore, preferred to make no use of Wolfram. I would -only point out that if the contentions of the foregoing studies be -admitted, they strongly favour the genuineness of the non-Chrestien -section of Wolfram’s poem,<a name='fna_161' id='fna_161' href='#f_161'><small>[161]</small></a> though I admit they throw no light upon -his special presentment of the Grail itself.</p> - - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p> -<h2><a name="APPENDIX_B" id="APPENDIX_B"></a>APPENDIX B.</h2> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Prologue to the Grand St. Graal and the Brandan Legend.</span></p> - - -<p>I believe the only parallel to this prologue to be the one furnished by -that form of the Brandan legend of which Schröder has printed a German -version (Sanct Brandan) at Erlangen, in 1871, from a MS. of the fourteenth -century, but the first composition of which he places (p. 15) in the last -quarter of the twelfth century. The text in question will be found pp. 51, -<i>et seq.</i>: Brandan, a servant of God, seeks out marvels in rare books, he -finds that two paradises were on earth, that another world was situated -under this one, so that when it is here night it is day there, and of a -fish so big that forests grew on his back, also that the grace of God -allowed some respite every Saturday night to the torments of Judas. Angry -at all these things he burnt the book. But the voice of God spake to him, -“Dear friend Brandan thou hast done wrong, and through thy wrath I see My -wonders lost.†The holy Christ bade him fare nine years on the ocean, -until he see whether these marvels were real or a lie. Thereafter Brandan -makes ready a ship to set forth on his travels.</p> - -<p>This version was very popular in Germany. Schröder prints a Low German -adaptation, and a chap book one, frequently reprinted during the -fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. But besides this form -there was another, now lost, which can be partially recovered from the -allusions to it in the Wartburg Krieg, a German poem of the thirteenth and -early fourteenth century, and which is as follows:—An angel brings -Brandan a book from heaven: Brandan finds so many incredible things in it -that he taxes book and angel with lying, and burns the book. For his -unfaith he must wander till he find it. God’s grace grants him this at -last; an angel gives him the sign of two fires burning, which are the eyes -of an ox, upon whose tongue he shall find the book. He hands it to -Uranias, who brings it to <i>Scotland</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, of course Ireland) Schröder, -p. 9.</p> - -<p>The closeness of the parallel cannot be denied, and it raises many -interesting questions, which I can here only allude to. The Isle of -Brandan has always been recognized as a Christian variant of the Celtic -TÃr-na n-Og, the Land of the Shades, Avalon. Schröder has some instructive -remarks on this subject, p. 11. The voyage of Brandan may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> thus be -compared with that of Bran, the son of Febal (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_232">p. 232</a>), both being -versions of the wide-spread myth of a mortal’s visit to the otherworld. It -is not a little remarkable that in the Latin legend, which differs from -the German form by the absence of the above-cited prologue, there is an -account (missing in the German), of a “conopeus†(“cover†or “canopy,â€) -<i>cf.</i> Ducange and Diez, <i>sub voce</i>; the old French version translates it -by “Pavillon of the colour of silver but harder than marble, and a column -therein of clearest crystal.†And on the fourth day they find a window and -therein a “calix†of the same nature as the “conopeus†and a “patena†of -the colour of the column (Schröder, p. 27, and Note 41).</p> - -<p>Thus there is a formal connection between the Brandan legend and the Grail -romances in the prologue common to two works of each cycle, and there is a -likeness of subject-matter between the Brandan legend and the older Celtic -traditions which I have assumed to be the basis of the romances. But -German literature likewise supplies evidence of a connection between -Brandan and Bran. Professor Karl Pearson has referred me to a passage in -the Pfaffe Amis, a thirteenth century South German poem, composed by Der -Stricker, the hero of which, a prototype of Eulenspiegel, goes through the -world gulling and tricking his contemporaries. In a certain town he -persuades the good people to entrust to him their money, by telling them -that he has in his possession a very precious relic, the head of St. -Brandan, which has commanded him to build a cathedral (Lambl’s Edition, -Leipzig, 1872, p. 32). The preservation of the head of Bran is a special -feature in the Mabinogi. I have instanced parallels from Celtic tradition -(Branwen, p. 14), and Professor Rhys has since (Hibb. Lect., p. 94) -connected the whole with Celtic mythological beliefs. This chance -reference in a German poem is the only trace to my knowledge of an earlier -legend in which, it may be, Bran and Brandan, the visitor to and the lord -of the otherworld, were one and the same person.</p> - -<p>It is highly desirable that every form of or allusion to the Brandan -legend should be examined afresh, as, perhaps, able to throw fresh light -upon the origin and growth of the Grail legend. In Pseudo-Chrestien -Perceval’s mother goes on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Brandan.</p> - - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p> -<h2><a name="INDEX_I" id="INDEX_I"></a>INDEX I.</h2> - -<p class="center">DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.</p> - - -<p>[This Index is to the Summaries contained in <a href="#CHAPTER_II">Chapter II</a>, and the -references are not to page and line, but to Version and Incident. The -Versions are distinguished by the following abbreviations:—</p> - -<p>Conte du Graal <b>Co</b>, Pseudo-Chrestien <b>PC</b>, Chrestien <b>C</b>, Gautier <b>G</b>, Manessier -<b>Ma</b>, Gerbert <b>Ge</b>, Wolfram <b>W</b>, Heinrich von dem Türlin <b>H</b>, Mabinogi of Peredur -<b>M</b>, Thornton MS. Sir Perceval <b>T</b>, Didot-Perceval <b>D</b>, Borron’s poem <b>B</b>, Queste -<b>Q</b> (<b>Q</b><sup>1</sup> and <b>Q</b><sup>2</sup> refer to the different drafts of the romance -distinguished <a href="#Page_83">p. 83</a>) Grand St. Graal <b>GG</b>. With the less important entries, -or when the entries are confined to one version, a simple number reference -is given. But in the case of the more important personages, notably -Perceval, Gawain, and Galahad, an attempt has been made to show the life -history, by grouping together references to the same incident from -different versions; in this case each incident group is separated from -other groups by a long dash ——. Any speciality in the incident presented -by a version is bracketed <i>before</i> the reference initial, and, when deemed -advisable, reference has been made to allied as well as to similar -incidents. This detail, to save space, is, as a rule, given only once, as -under Perceval, and not duplicated under other headings, the number -reference alone being given in the latter cases. The fullest entry is -Perceval, which practically comprises such entries as Fisher King, Grail, -Sword, Lance, etc.]</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ABEL</b> <b>Q</b>37, <b>GG</b>24.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ABRIORIS</b> <b>G</b>9.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ACHEFLOUR</b> <b>T</b>1.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ADAM</b> <b>Q</b>37, <b>GG</b>24.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ADDANC OF LAKE</b> <b>M</b>16, 19.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>AGARAN</b> <b>Q</b>23.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>AGRESTES</b> <b>GG</b>40.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>AGUIGRENONS</b> <b>Co</b>, <i>Kingrun</i> <b>W</b>, anonymous <b>M</b>, <b>C</b>6, <b>W</b>, <b>M</b>8.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ALAINS</b>, Celidoine’s son <b>GG</b>43.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ALAINS</b> or <b>ALEIN</b> (<b>li Gros</b> <b>D</b>, <b>Q</b>, <b>GG</b>) <b>B</b>12——<b>Dprol</b>, 1, 6, 12, <b>Q</b>26, <b>GG</b>30, 43, -45, 51, 58, 59.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ALEINE</b>, Gawain’s niece, <b>D</b>1.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ALFASEM</b> <b>GG</b>51, 58.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>AMANGONS</b> <b>PC</b>1, 2, 4.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>AMFORTAS</b>, see <a href="#fisher_king">Fisher King</a>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>AMINADAP</b> <b>GG</b>58.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ANGHARAD</b> Law Eurawc, <b>M</b>12, 14.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ANTIKONIE</b>, see <a href="#facile_damsel">Facile Damsel</a>.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ARGASTES</b> <b>Q</b>27.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ARIDES</b> of Cavalon <b>Ma</b>14, 16 (a King of Cavalon mentioned <b>C</b>12 corresponds to -<i>Vergulat</i> of Askalon in <b>W</b>).</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ARTHUR</b> <b>PC</b>2, 3, 5, <b>C</b>1, <b>Dprol</b>——arrival of Perceval at his court <b>C</b>3, <b>W</b>, <b>M</b>3, -<b>T</b>4, <b>Dprol</b>——<b>C</b>6, 9, 10, <b>W</b>, <b>M</b>9, 10, 11——<b>M</b>13, 14——<b>C</b>11, <b>W</b>, -<b>M</b>20——<b>T</b>7——<b>C</b>18, <b>W</b>——<b>G</b>1, <b>W</b>——<b>G</b>2, 3, 6, 9, 11, 13, 16, 19, 20, <b>Ma</b>10, 16, -23, <b>Ge</b>5, <b>H</b>, <b>D</b>1, 3, 5, 8, 14, 16, <b>M</b>25, <b>Q</b>3, 5, 13, <b>GG</b>33, 45, 48.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>AUGUSTUS CÆSAR</b> <b>GG</b>11.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>AVALON</b> or <b>AVARON</b> <b>B</b>12, 13, <b>D</b>9.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>BAGOMMEDES</b> <b>G</b>19, 20.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>BANDAMAGUS</b> <b>Q</b>5, 6, 43.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>BANS</b> <b>Q</b>26, <b>GG</b>30, 59.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>BEAU MAUVAIS</b>, le, <b>G</b>11, <b>D</b>8.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>BEDUERS</b> <b>D</b>2.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>BLAISE</b> <b>Dprol</b>, 14.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>BLANCHEFLEUR</b> <b>Co</b>, Conduiramur <b>W</b>, anonymous <b>M</b>, <i>cf.</i> Lufamour -<b>T</b>——Perceval’s cousin <b>Co</b>, <b>W</b>——first meeting with Perceval <b>C</b>6, <b>W</b>, -<b>M</b>8——second meeting with Perceval <b>G</b>10——third meeting <b>Ma</b>13-16——third -meeting and marriage with Perceval <b>Ge</b>8-10, <i>cf.</i> <b>W</b>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>BLIHIS</b> <b>PC</b>1 = Blaise?</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>BLIHOS BLIHERIS</b> <b>PC</b>2.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>BLIOCADRANS</b> (of Wales, Perceval’s father), <b>PC</b>6.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>BORS, BOHORS, BOORT</b> <b>Q</b>1, 3, 13, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, <b>Ma</b>18——<b>Q</b>35, 48-52.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>BRANDALIS</b> <b>G</b>1, 2.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>BRIOS</b> <b>G</b>16.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>BRONS, BRON</b>, or <b>HEBRON</b>. <b>B</b>7, 8, 12, 14, <b>Dprol</b>, 6, 16, <b>GG</b>41, 42, <i>cf.</i> <a href="#Page_19">p. 19</a>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>BRUILLANT</b> <b>GG</b>58 = Urlain <b>Q</b>35.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>BRUN DE BRANLANT</b> <b>G</b>1.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CAIN</b> <b>Q</b>37, <b>GG</b>24.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CAIPHAS</b> <b>GG</b>2, 3.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CAIUS</b> <b>GG</b>3.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CALIDES</b> <b>Ma</b>9.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CALOGRENANT</b> <b>Q</b>33. <b>CALOGRINANT</b> <b>Ma</b>18——<i>Calocreant</i> in <b>H</b>, one of the three -Grail-seekers.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CARAHIES</b> <b>G</b>5.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CARCHELOIS</b> <b>Q</b>39.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CARDUEL</b> <b>C</b>3——<i>Carduel</i> of Nantes <b>G</b>1.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CASTRARS</b> <b>PC</b>4.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CATHELOYS</b> <b>GG</b>58.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CAVALON</b> <b>C</b>12——<b>Ma</b>14, 16.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CELIDOINE</b> <b>GG</b>22, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 39, 59, <b>Q</b>26.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CHANAAN</b> <b>GG</b>45, 47.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CHESSBOARD CASTLE</b> <b>G</b>7, <b>D</b>4, <b>M</b>24——<b>G</b>14——<b>G</b>18, <b>D</b>13.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CHRIST</b> <b>B</b>1-3, 5, 6, 8, 11, <b>Q</b>7, 10, 13, 15, 20, 26, 50, <b>Dprol</b>, 16, <b>Ge</b>15, -<b>GG</b>1-4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16, 21, 23, 30, 37, 41, 45.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CLAMADEX</b> <b>C</b>6, Clamide <b>W</b>, the earl <b>M</b>8 = the Sowdane <b>T</b>7.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CLARISSE</b> <b>Co</b> Mons MS. or <i>Clarissant</i> Montpellier MS., <span class="smcap">Itonje</span> <b>W</b>——<b>C</b>18, <b>G</b>1, -<b>W</b>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CLAUDIUS</b> <b>GG</b>3.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CLAUDIUS</b>, son of Claudas <b>Q</b><sup>2</sup>51.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CORBENIC</b> <b>Q</b>, <b>GG</b>, <b>CORBIÈRE</b> <b>Ma</b>23, <b>Q</b>13, 43, 48, <b>GG</b>51.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CORSAPIAS</b> <b>GG</b>22.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>COWARD KNIGHT</b> <b>Ma</b>17, 19.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>CRUDEL</b> <b>Q</b>6, 15, <b>Ge</b>15, <b>GG</b>36-38.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>DAVID</b> <b>Q</b>37.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>DODINEL</b> <b>Ma</b>14.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ELIEZER</b> <b>Q</b>27.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>EMPTY SEAT</b>, see <a href="#seat_perillous">Seat Perillous</a>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ENYGEUS</b>, <b>ENYSGEUS</b>, or <b>ANYSGEUS</b> <b>B</b>7, 8, 11, 12.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>EREC</b> <b>D</b>2.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ERNOUS</b> <b>Q</b>39.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ESCORANT</b> <b>Q</b><sup>2</sup>51.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ESCOS</b> <b>GG</b>47.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ESPINOGRE</b> <b>Ma</b>5.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ESTROIS DE GARILES</b> <b>Q</b><sup>2</sup>51.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ETLYM GLEDDYV COCH</b> <b>M</b>16-18.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>EVALACH.</b> Evalach li mescouncus <b>GG</b>, Eualac <b>Q</b> (Anelac 26), Evelac <b>Ma</b>, <b>Ge</b>. -Overcoming Tholomes <b>GG</b>6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, <b>Q</b>6, 15, 26, <b>Ma</b>3, <b>Ge</b>15, name -changed to <a href="#mordrains"><i>Mordrains</i></a>, which see.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>EVE</b> <b>Q</b>37, <b>GG</b>24.</p> -<p><a name="facile_damsel" id="facile_damsel"></a></p> -<p class="hang"><b>FACILE DAMSEL</b>, Anonymous <b>Co</b>, <b>H</b>, <b>M</b>, <i>Antikonie</i> <b>W</b>, <b>C</b>14, <b>W</b>, <b>H</b>, <b>M</b>21.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>FEIREFIZ</b> <b>W</b>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>FELIX</b> <b>GG</b>3, 11.</p> -<p><a name="fisher_king" id="fisher_king"></a></p> -<p class="hang"><b>FISHER KING.</b> Anonymous <b>Co</b>, Amfortas <b>W</b>, Brons <b>B</b>, <b>D</b>, Alain <b>GG</b>. Anonymous -(?), <b>Q</b><sup>1</sup>, Pelles <b>Q</b><sup>2</sup>. In <b>M</b> the Fisher corresponds to Gonemans. In all -the French works of the cycle the adjective rich is commonly applied to -the Fisher. Splendour of court <b>PC</b>1——learned in black art <b>PC</b>3——old and -sick <b>Dprol</b>, First meeting with Perceval <b>C</b>7, <b>W</b>, <b>D</b>11, <i>cf.</i> <b>PC</b>3, <b>M</b>6——<b>C</b>8, -<b>W</b>, <i>cf.</i> <b>D</b>2, 12——<b>C</b>11, <b>W</b>, <i>cf.</i> <b>D</b>15, <b>M</b>21——<b>G</b>7, 8, 9, 16, 18, 19, -20——Second meeting with Perceval <b>G</b>22, <b>Ma</b>1-7 or <b>Ge</b>1-5, <b>D</b>16, <i>cf.</i> -<b>M</b>25——<b>Ma</b>10——Third meeting with Perceval <b>Ma</b>22, <b>Ge</b>22, <b>W</b>——Grandfather of -Galahad <b>Q</b><sup>1</sup>2, 26. See also <a href="#maimed_king">Maimed King</a>.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>Surname given to Brons <b>B</b>12, to Alain <b>GG</b>43.</p> - -<p>Vessel given to him <b>D</b>1——commanded to go to the West <b>D</b>6.</p></div> - -<p class="hang"><b>FLEGENTYNE</b> <b>GG</b>22, 29, 31, 37, 59.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>GAHMURET</b> <b>W</b>.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p> - -<p class="hang"><b>GALAHAD</b> (<span class="smcap">Galaad</span>). <i>Father</i>: Lancelot <b>Q</b>, <b>GG</b>——<i>Mother</i>: daughter of King -Pelles <b>Q</b><sup>1</sup>, <b>GG</b>, or Fisher King <b>Q</b><sup>2</sup>——Seat Perillous <b>Q</b>2——Sword -<b>Q</b>3——Quest proclaimed <b>Q</b>5——Evelac’s Shield <b>Q</b>6, <b>GG</b>50——Devil-inhabited -tomb <b>Q</b>7, <i>cf.</i> <b>Ge</b>17——Melians’ discomforture <b>Q</b>8——Castle of Maidens -<b>Q</b>9——overcoming of Lancelot and Perceval <b>Q</b>11——destined achiever of -Quest <b>Q</b>13——rescue of Perceval <b>Q</b>16——Genealogy <b>Q</b>26, <b>GG</b>21, 30, -58——likening to a spotless bull -<b>Q</b>29——overcoming of Gawain <b>Q</b>34——stay -on ship <b>Q</b>35, 36——sword <b>Q</b>36——Maimed King <b>Q</b><sup>2</sup> 36——capture of Castle -Carchelois <b>Q</b>39——stag and lions <b>Q</b>40, <i>cf.</i> <b>GG</b>45——castle of the evil -custom <b>Q</b>41——stay with father <b>Q</b>42——healing of Mordrains <b>Q</b>44, <i>cf.</i> -<b>GG</b>39——cooling of fountain <b>Q</b>45——making white the Cross <b>GG</b>40——release -of Symeu <b>Q</b>46, <b>GG</b>49——making whole sword <b>GG</b>44——release of Moys -<b>GG</b>46——five years’ wanderings <b>Q</b>47——arrival at King Peleur’s <b>Q</b><sup>1</sup>, -Maimed King’s <b>Q</b><sup>2</sup>, witnessing of Grail and healing of Maimed King -<b>Q</b>48-50——Sarras, crowning, death <b>Q</b>51, 52.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>GALAHAD</b> (<span class="smcap">Galaad</span>) son of Joseph <b>GG</b>8, 31, 34——King of Hocelice and -ancestor of Urien <b>GG</b>49——founding of abbey for Symeu <b>GG</b>49.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>GANSGUOTER</b> <b>H</b>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>GANORT</b> <b>GG</b>33, 35.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>GARALAS</b> <b>G</b>13.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>GAWAIN.</b> Gauvain <b>Co</b>, <b>Q</b>, <b>GG</b>, Gwalchmai <b>M</b>, Gawan <b>W</b>, Gawein <b>H</b>, Gawayne or -Wawayne <b>T</b>——of the seed of Joseph of Arimathea <b>GG</b>48, Arthur’s nephew <b>Co</b>, -<b>Q</b>——conquers Blihos Bliheris <b>PC</b>2——allusion to his finding the Grail -<b>PC</b>3——one of the knights met by Perceval in wood <b>M</b>1, <b>T</b>2——helps Perceval -to disarm Red Knight <b>T</b>4——meeting with Perceval after blood-drops -incident <b>C</b>10, <b>W</b>, <b>M</b>11——vow to release imprisoned maiden <b>C</b>11, -<b>M</b>20——reproached by Guigambresil <b>C</b>12, (Kingrimur) <b>W</b>, (anonymous) -<b>M</b>20——tournament at Tiebaut’s <b>C</b>13, (Lippaot) <b>W</b>, (Leigamar) <b>H</b>, <i>cf.</i> <b>D</b>15, -where Perceval is hero but Gawain best knight after him——adventure with -the facile damsel <b>C</b>14, (Antikonie) <b>W</b>, <b>H</b>, <b>M</b>21——injunction to seek -bleeding lance <b>C</b>14, <b>W</b>, (Grail) <b>H</b>——adventure with Griogoras <b>C</b>16, (Urjan) -<b>W</b>, (Lohenis) <b>H</b>——meeting with scornful damsel, Orgeuilleuse, arrival at -ferryman’s <b>C</b>16, <b>W</b>——Magic Castle <b>C</b>17, <b>W</b>, <i>cf.</i> <b>GG</b>51——may not leave -castle <b>C</b>17——second meeting with Orgueilleuse <b>C</b>18, <b>W</b>, (Mancipicelle) -<b>H</b>——Ford Perillous, Guiromelant <b>C</b>18, (Gramoflanz) <b>W</b>, (Giremelanz) -<b>H</b>——marriage with Orgueilleuse <b>W</b>, (?) <b>C</b>18——arrival of Arthur to witness -combat with Guiromelant <b>C</b>18 continued by <b>G</b>1, <b>W</b>, <b>H</b>——fight with Perceval -<b>W</b>, <i>cf.</i> <b>T</b>7——reconciliation with Guiromelant <b>G</b>1, <b>W</b>, <b>H</b>——departure on -Grail Quest and winning various talismans <b>H</b>——[first arrival at Grail -Castle according to Montpellier MS. of <b>Co</b>]——Brun de Branlant, Brandalis -<b>G</b>1 and 2——slaying of unknown knight and Quest to avenge him <b>G</b>3——Chapel -of Black Hand <b>G</b>3——arrival at Grail Castle (first according to Mons MS. -of <b>Co</b>), half successful <b>G</b>3, wholly successful <b>H</b>, <i>cf.</i> <b>M</b>25 found by -Peredur at Castle of Talismans, and reference in <b>Q</b>51 Welsh -version——greetings of country folk <b>G</b>3, <i>cf.</i> <b>Ge</b>3——meeting with his son -<b>G</b>4——Mount Dolorous Quest <b>G</b>19——renewed Grail Quest, reproached for -conduct at Fisher King’s, slaying of Margon <b>Ma</b>10——rescue of Lyonel -<b>Ma</b>18——rescue by Perceval <b>Ge</b>16.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>Joins in search for Grail with remainder of Table Round <b>D</b><sup>2</sup>, <b>Q</b>, -betraying knowledge of Maimed King <b>Q</b>5.</p> - -<p>Meeting with Ywain, Gheheris and confession to hermit <b>Q</b>10.</p> - -<p>Meeting with Hector de Mares <b>Q</b>29.</p> - -<p>Overcoming at Galahad’s hand <b>Q</b>34.</p></div> - -<p class="hang"><b>GHEHERIES</b> <b>Q</b>10.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>GIFLÈS</b> <b>C</b>11, <b>G</b>2.</p> -<p><a name="gonemans" id="gonemans"></a></p> -<p class="hang"><b>GONEMANS</b> or <b>GONEMANT</b> <b>Co</b>, Gornumant <b>Ge</b>, Gurnemanz <b>W</b>, Fisher Uncle <b>M</b>, <b>C</b>5, <b>W</b>, -<b>M</b>5, uncle to Blanchefleur <b>C</b>6, <b>C</b>7, <b>W</b>, second meeting with Perceval <b>Ge</b>8-9, -<i>cf.</i> <b>T</b>6.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>GOON DESERT</b> <b>Ma</b>4.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>GRAIL</b>, Early History of. Last Supper cup given to Joseph <b>B</b>2, 3, 4, <b>GG</b>2, -<b>Q</b>50, <b>Ma</b>3——Solace of Joseph <b>B</b>5, 6, <b>GG</b>2, <b>D</b>16, <b>Ma</b>3 (Montpellier -MS.)——Grail and Fish <b>B</b>8, 9 <i>cf.</i> <b>GG</b>43——Directs Joseph what to do with -Alain <b>B</b>12, <i>cf.</i> <b>GG</b>42, confided to Brons <b>B</b>14,15, <b>Dprol</b> 6, (Alain) -<b>GG</b>51——<b>D</b>6, 10——feeds host <b>GG</b>5, <b>Q</b>13, also <b>GG</b>32——Blinding of Nasciens -<b>GG</b>16, 21, 23, 30, passage to England 31, <b>D</b>6, <b>Q</b>6, 13, 15——Crudel <b>GG</b>38, -<b>Q</b>15, <b>Ge</b>15——Blinding of Mordrains <b>GG</b>38, 39, 42, only feeds the sinless -43, 44, refuses meat to Chanaan and Symeu 47, resting-place, Castle -Corbenic <b>GG</b>51.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>Book of, revealed to hermit <b>GG</b>2.</p></div> - -<p class="hang"><b>GRAIL</b>, Quest of <i>by Perceval</i>: first seen at Fisher King’s <b>PC</b>3, <b>C</b>7, <b>W</b>, -<b>D</b>11——properties of <b>C</b>8, <b>W</b>, <b>D</b>12——<b>C</b>11, <b>W</b>——<b>C</b>15, <b>W</b>——lights up forest -<b>G</b>14——<b>G</b>21——seen for second time <b>G</b>22-<b>Ma</b>1-7 or <b>Ge</b>1-3, <b>D</b>16——heals Hector -and Perceval <b>Ma</b>20——taken from earth <b>Ge</b>6, <i>cf.</i> <b>W</b>——opposed by witch, -<b>Ge</b>8, 9——connection with Shield <b>Ge</b>13——seen for third time <b>Ma</b>23, 24, -<b>Ge</b>22; <i>by Gawain</i>: <b>H</b> and <b>G</b>3; <i>by Lancelot</i>: <b>Q</b>12, 22, 43; <i>by Galahad</i>: <b>Q</b>2, -feeds Arthur’s court <b>Q</b>4, quest proclaimed <b>Q</b>5, feeds host <b>Q</b>13, <b>GG</b>32, denied -to Gawain and Hector <b>Q</b>29, 30, accomplished <b>Q</b>50-52.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>GRAIL-MESSENGER</b>, see <a href="#loathly_damsel">Loathly Damsel</a>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>GRAMOFLANZ</b> see <a href="#guiromelant">Guiromelant</a>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>GRIOGORAS</b> <b>C</b>16 = Lohenis <b>H</b>.</p> -<p><a name="guiromelant" id="guiromelant"></a></p> -<p class="hang"><b>GUIROMELANT</b> <b>Co</b>, Gramoflanz <b>W</b>, Giremelanz <b>H</b>, <b>C</b>18-<b>G</b>1, <b>W</b>, <b>H</b>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>HECTOR</b> (de <b>MARES</b> <b>Q</b>) <b>Q</b>29, 34, 43, <b>Ma</b>20.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>HELAIN</b> <b>Q</b>27.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>HELICORAS</b> <b>GG</b>22.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>HELYAB</b> <b>GG</b>2, 8, 34.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>HELYAS</b> <b>Q</b>26 = Ysaies <b>GG</b>30, 38.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>HERZELOYDE</b> <b>W</b>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>HUDEN</b> <b>PC</b>4.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>HURGAINS</b> or <b>HURGANET</b> <b>D</b>2, 3.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>JONAANS</b> <b>Q</b>26, <b>JONANS</b> <b>GG</b>30, <b>JONAS</b> <b>GG</b>59.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA.</b> D’Arymathye <b>B</b>, de Arimathie <b>GG</b>, d’Abarimathie or -d’Arimathie <b>Q</b>, de Barimacie <b>G</b>, and <b>Ma</b> (Montpellier MS.), Josep (without -mention of town <b>Ma</b>, Mons MS.), de Barismachie <b>Ge</b>——care of Christ’s body, -captivity, solace, release <b>B</b>2-7, <b>GG</b>2, 3, <b>D</b>16, <i>cf.</i> <b>Q</b>6, <b>Ma</b>2——stay in -Sarras <b>GG</b>4-11, <b>Q</b>6, 26, <b>Ge</b>15, <b>Ma</b>3——<b>B</b>7——Passage to England <b>GG</b>31, -<b>Q</b>6——feeding by Grail <b>GG</b>32, <b>Q</b>13, <i>cf.</i> <b>B</b>8, 9——Moys <b>B</b>11, 12, <b>Dprol</b>, -<i>cf.</i> <b>GG</b>41——<b>B</b>12-15——<b>GG</b>34, 36, <b>Q</b>15, <b>Ge</b>15——<b>GG</b>38, 44, 45, 48, 50—<b>D</b>1, -6, 12.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p> - -<p class="hang"><b>JOSEPHES</b>, <b>JOSEPHE</b>, <b>JOSEPHUS</b>, or <b>JOSAPHES</b>, son of Joseph of Arimathea, <b>GG</b>2, -5, 9, 10, 11 <b>Q</b>6, 13, 14, 16, 17, 31 <b>Q</b>6, 13 and 32, 36 <b>Q</b>6, 38 <b>Q</b>6 and 15, -40, 41 <b>Q</b>13 <i>cf.</i> <b>D</b>6, 42, 43, 45, 46, 49, 50 <b>Q</b>6, <b>Q</b>50, 51.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>JOSUE</b> <b>GG</b>51, 58.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>KALAFIER</b> <b>GG</b>20, 22.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>KARDEIZ</b> <b>W</b>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>KAY.</b> Kex <b>Co</b>——<b>T</b>2——<b>C</b>3, <b>W</b>, <b>M</b>3——<b>C</b>4, <b>W</b>, -<b>M</b>4——<b>C</b>6, <b>C</b>9——<b>C</b>10, <b>W</b>, -<b>M</b>11——<b>M</b>14——<b>T</b>7——<b>G</b>3, 19, <b>Ma</b>10, <b>Ge</b>21, <b>D</b>8——one of the three -Grail-questers <b>H</b>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>KLINSCHOR</b> <b>W.</b></p> - -<p class="hang"><b>LABAN</b> <b>Q</b>35 (query variant of Lambar?).</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>LABEL</b> <b>GG</b>26.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>LABEL’S DAUGHTER</b> <b>GG</b>28, 29, 37, 39.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>LAMBAR</b> or <b>LABRAN</b> <b>Q</b>35, <b>LAMBOR</b> <b>GG</b>58.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>LANCE</b> (Spear) <b>PC</b>3, 4, <b>C</b>7, 8, <b>M</b>6, <b>C</b>11, 14, 15, <b>G</b>3, 22, <b>Ma</b>1, 2, 24, <b>Ge</b>22, <b>H</b>, -<b>D</b>11, 12, 16, <b>Q</b>50, 51, <b>GG</b>9, 15, 16.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>LANCELOT</b>, Lancelot of Lake’s grandfather <b>Q</b>26, <b>GG</b>30, 59.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>LANCELOT.</b> Galahad’s father <b>Q</b>, <b>GG</b>, <b>Q</b>1, 2, 4 (<i>cf.</i> <b>C</b>11), 5, 11, 12 (<i>cf.</i> -<b>C</b>7 and <b>G</b>3), 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 (<i>cf.</i> <b>GG</b>58) 27, 28, 29, 42, 43, <b>GG</b>30, 33, -40, 45, 58, 59, <b>PC</b>4.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>LEUCANS</b> <b>GG</b>10.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>LIONEL Q</b>1, 3, attacks Bors <b>Q</b>33, <b>Ma</b>18.</p> -<p><a name="loathly_damsel" id="loathly_damsel"></a></p> -<p class="hang"><b>LOATHLY DAMSEL.</b> Anonymous <b>Co</b>, Kundrie <b>W</b>, Perceval’s cousin <b>M</b>, reproaches -Perceval <b>C</b>11, <b>W</b>, <b>M</b>20——announces end of Quest, <b>Ma</b>23, <b>M</b>25.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>LOGRES</b> <b>PC</b>1, <b>G</b>3, <b>Q</b>12, 35, 47.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>LOHENIS</b> <b>H</b> = Griogoras <b>C</b>16.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>LOHERANGRIN</b> <b>W</b>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>LONGIS</b> <b>PC</b>4, <b>Ma</b>2, <b>D</b>16.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>LOT</b> <b>GG</b>48.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>LUCES</b> <b>GG</b>48.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>LUFAMOUR</b> <b>T</b>7, <i>cf.</i> Blanchefleur.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>MAIDENS’ CASTLE</b> <b>PC</b>5, <b>G</b>12<b>a</b>, <b>Ge</b>6——<b>Q</b>9.</p> -<p><a name="maimed_king" id="maimed_king"></a></p> -<p class="hang"><b>MAIMED</b> or <b>LAME KING</b>. Same personage as Fisher King. Designated in this way -<i>only</i> <b>M</b>, almost entirely so <b>Q</b><sup>2</sup> (5, 13, also <b>Q</b><sup>1</sup> 36, 39, 47, 50), never -so <b>B</b>, <b>D</b>. <b>GG</b>58 applies the designation to Pelleans.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>MANAAL</b> <b>GG</b>58.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>MANCIPICELLE</b>, see <a href="#orgueilleuse">Orgueilleuse</a>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>MARGON</b> <b>Ma</b>10.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>MARIE LA VENISSIENNE</b> <b>GG</b>3 = Verrine, <b>B</b>6, <b>W</b>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>MARPUS</b> (<b>WARPUS</b> <b>Q</b>26) <b>GG</b>30, 59.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>MEAUX</b> <b>GG</b>11.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>MELIANS</b>, Galahad’s companion <b>Q</b>8, 10.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>MELIANS DE LIS</b> <b>C</b>13, <b>D</b>15.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>MERLIN</b> (see <a href="#Page_64d">p. 64<span class="smcaplc">D</span></a>) <b>G</b>20, <b>Dprol</b>, 14, 15, <b>Q</b>13.</p> -<p><a name="mordrains" id="mordrains"></a></p> -<p class="hang"><b>MORDRAINS</b> <b>GG</b>, Mordains <b>Q</b>, <i>once</i> Noodrans <b>Ma</b>, <i>once</i> Mordrach -<b>Ge</b>——Baptism <b>GG</b>14, 15, <b>Q</b>6, 26, <b>Ma</b>3 <b>Ge</b>15——<b>GG</b>16, 17, vision of -descendants 18, <b>Q</b>26——<b>GG</b>19, 20, stay on island 21, <i>cf.</i> <b>Q</b>19——<b>GG</b>27, -<b>Q</b>36——<b>GG</b>29 Crudel, and blinding by Grail 37, 38, <b>Q</b>15, <b>Ge</b>15——retires to -hermitage <b>GG</b>39, <b>Q</b>44——his shield <b>GG</b>50, <b>Q</b>6.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p> - -<p class="hang"><b>MORDRED</b> <b>GG</b>45.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>MORDRET</b> <b>Ge</b>6, 7.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>MORGHE LA FÉE</b> <b>G</b>18.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>MORONEUS</b> <b>Q</b><sup>2</sup>26.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>MORS DEL CALAN</b> <b>PC</b>4.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>MOUNT DOLOROUS</b> <b>G</b>19, 20, <b>Ge</b>5.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>MOYS</b>, <b>MOYSES</b> (<b>B</b>). Seat Perillous <b>B</b>10, 11, 12, <b>Dprol</b>, 1, <b>GG</b>41, 46.</p> -<p><a name="nasciens" id="nasciens"></a></p> -<p class="hang"><b>NASCIENS</b> <b>GG</b>, <b>Q</b>, Natiien <b>Ma</b>——Baptism <b>GG</b>14, <b>Q</b>6, 26, <b>Ma</b>3——Blinded by -Grail <b>GG</b>16——<b>GG</b>18, 19, 20, 21, 22, turning isle and Solomon’s ship, -23-27, <b>Q</b>35-37——<b>GG</b>28, 29, 30, 32, 33, Crudel 37, 38, (called Seraphe) -<b>Q</b>15——<b>GG</b>39——his tomb <b>GG</b>50——death <b>GG</b>59——appears as hermit in -Arthur’s time <b>Q</b>4, 5, 6, 29.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>NASCIENS</b>, son of Celidoine, <b>GG</b>39.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>NASCIENS</b>, grandson of Celidoine <b>GG</b>30, 59.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>NICODEMUS</b> <b>B</b>3, 4, 5.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>NOIRONS</b>, <i>i.e.</i>, Nero <b>GG</b>3.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ORCANZ</b> <b>GG</b>48.</p> -<p><a name="orgueilleuse" id="orgueilleuse"></a></p> -<p class="hang"><b>ORGUEILLEUSE.</b> Orguellouse <b>C</b>, Orgeluse <b>W</b> = Mancipicelle <b>H</b>, <b>C</b>16——<b>G</b>1, <b>W</b>, <b>H</b>.</p> -<p><a name="owain" id="owain"></a></p> -<p class="hang"><b>OWAIN</b> <b>M</b>, <b>EWAYNE</b> <b>T</b>, <b>YONES</b> <b>C</b>4, <b>YWAIN</b> “li aoutres†<b>Q</b>6, 9, 10, 29, -<b>GG</b>49——meets Perceval <b>M</b>1, <b>T</b>2——helps him <b>M</b>3, <b>C</b>4.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>PARTINAL</b> <b>Ma</b>5, 8, 21, 22.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>PECORINS</b> <b>PC</b>4.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>PELEUR</b> <b>Q</b><sup>1</sup>5, 47, 48.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>PELLEANS</b> <b>GG</b>58.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>PELLEHEM</b> <b>Q</b><sup>2</sup>35.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>PELLES</b> <b>Q</b><sup>2</sup>1-3, 14, 27, 36, 44, 48, 50, <b>GG</b>59.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p> - -<p class="hang"><b>PERCEVAL</b> <b>Co</b>, <b>D</b>, <b>Q</b>, <b>GG</b>; <span class="smcap">Parzival</span> <b>W</b>, <b>H</b>; <span class="smcap">Peredur</span> <b>M</b>; <span class="smcap">Percyvelle</span> <b>T</b>.—<i>Father</i>: -Bliocadrans <b>PC</b>; anonymous <b>Co</b>, <b>Q</b>; Alain <b>D</b>; Gahmuret <b>W</b>; Evrawe <b>M</b>; Percyvelle -<b>T</b>; Pellehem <b>Q</b><sup>2</sup>. <i>Mother</i>: Anonymous <b>Co</b>, <b>D</b>, <b>Q</b>, <b>M</b>; Herzeloyde <b>W</b>; Acheflour -(Arthur’s sister) <b>T</b>——brought up in wood <b>C</b>1, <b>W</b>, <b>M</b>, <b>T</b>1——meets knights -(5) <b>C</b>1, <b>W</b>, (3) <b>M</b>1, <b>T</b>2——leaves mother <b>C</b>1, <b>W</b>, <b>D</b>, <b>M</b>1, <b>T</b>2——first meeting -with lady of tent <b>C</b>2, (Ieschute) <b>W</b>, <b>M</b>2, <b>T</b>3——arrival at Arthur’s Court -<b>C</b>3, <b>W</b>, <b>D</b>, <b>M</b>3, <b>T</b>4——laughing prophetic damsel <b>C</b>3, <b>W</b>, dwarves <b>M</b>3——slays -<i>red</i> knight <b>C</b>4, (Ither of Gaheviez) <b>W</b>, (colour not specified) <b>M</b>3, -<b>T</b>4——overcomes 16 Knights <b>M</b>4——burns witch <b>T</b>5——arrival at house of -first uncle, Gonemans <b>C</b>5, Gurnemanz <b>W</b>, Anonymous <b>M</b>5, and (different -adventure partly corresponding to <b>Ge</b>8) <b>T</b>6——first arrival at castle of -lady love, Blanchefleur <b>C</b>5, Conduiramur <b>W</b>, Anonymous <b>M</b>8, Lufamour -<b>T</b>7——first arrival at Fisher King’s <b>C</b>7, <b>W</b>, <b>D</b>11, <b>M</b>6——is reproached by -wayside damsel, cousin: (Anonymous) <b>C</b>8, (Sigune) <b>W</b>, <b>D</b>12, foster sister -<b>M</b>7——second meeting with lady of tent <b>C</b>9, <b>W</b>, <b>M</b>9——overcoming of -Sorceresses of Gloucester <b>M</b>10——blood drops in the snow <b>C</b>10, <b>W</b>, -<b>M</b>11——Adventures with Angharad Law Eurawc; at the castle of the huge grey -man; serpent on the gold ring; Mound of Mourning; Addanc of the Lake; -Countess of Achievements <b>M</b>12-19——reproaches of the loathly damsel <b>C</b>11, -(Kundrie) <b>W</b>, <b>M</b>20——Good Friday incident and confession to uncle <b>C</b>15, -(Trevrezent) <b>W</b>, <b>D</b>14, <b>M</b>22——the Castle of the Horn <b>G</b>6——the Castle of the -Chessboard <b>G</b>7, <b>D</b>4, <b>M</b>24——meeting with brother of Red Knight <b>G</b>8——Ford -<i>amorous</i> <b>G</b>9, <i>perillous</i> <b>D</b>9——second meeting with Blanchefleur -<b>G</b>10——meeting with Rosette and Le Beau Mauvais <b>G</b>11, <b>D</b>8——meeting with -sister and visit to hermit <b>G</b>12, <b>D</b>5 and 6——the Castle of Maidens -<b>G</b>12<b>a</b>——meeting with the hound-stealing damsel <b>G</b>13, <b>D</b>13, <b>M</b>24——meeting -with the damsel of the white mule <b>G</b>14——tournament at Castle Orguellous -<b>G</b>16 = <b>D</b>15 (Melianz de Lis) and <b>M</b>19 (?)——Deliverance of knight in tomb -<b>G</b>17——second visit to the Castle of the Chessboard <b>G</b>18, <b>D</b>13——delivery -of Bagommedes <b>G</b>19——arrival at Mount Dolorous <b>G</b>20——the Black Hand in -the Chapel <b>G</b>21——second arrival at Grail Castle <b>G</b>22-<b>Ma</b>1-7 and <b>Ge</b>1, <b>D</b>16, -(with final overcoming of Sorceresses of Gloucester) <b>M</b>25.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>Puts on red armour for love of Aleine, accomplishes the feat of the -Seat Perillous, and sets forth on Quest <b>D</b>1 and 2.</p> - -<p>Slays the red knight, Orgoillous Delandes, <b>D</b>3.</p> - -<p>Overcomes Black Knight, slays giant and finds mother <b>T</b>9.</p></div> - -<p class="hang">Perceval and Saigremors <b>Ma</b>8——Second visit to Chapel of the Black Hand -<b>Ma</b>11——the demon horse <b>Ma</b>12, <b>Q</b>18——Stay on the island <b>Q</b>19, and 20, and -temptation by damsel 21, <b>Ma</b>13——Delivery of Dodinel’s lady love -<b>Ma</b>14——Tribuet <b>Ma</b>15——third meeting with Blanchefleur <b>Ma</b>16——meeting -with coward knight <b>Ma</b>17——combat with Hector <b>Ma</b>20——slaying of Partinal -<b>Ma</b>21——third arrival at Grail Castle <b>Ma</b>22——learns death of his uncle -the Fisher King from loathly damsel <b>Ma</b>23, <b>W</b>——retires into wilderness -<b>Q</b>52, <b>Ma</b>24——dies <b>Q</b>52, goes to Palestine and dies (?) <b>T</b>.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>Encounter, unknown to either, with Galahad <b>Q</b>11. Meeting with recluse -aunt <b>Q</b>13.</p> - -<p>Assistance at the hands of the Red Knight <b>Q</b>16.</p> - -<p>Adventure of the ship <b>Q</b>33, essay to draw sword <b>Q</b>35.</p> - -<p>Receives Galahad’s sword <b>Q</b>41, bears Galahad company for five years -<b>Q</b>47——adjusts the sword at the Court of Pelles <b>Q</b><sup>2</sup>48.</p></div> - -<p class="hang">Breaking of sword at the Gate of Paradise <b>Ge</b>2——Blessings of the country -folk for putting question <b>Ge</b>3——Mending of sword at forge of the serpent -<b>Ge</b>4——Accomplishment of the feat of the Perillous Seat <b>Ge</b>5——adventures -at sister’s Castle, with Mordret, and at cousin’s, Castle of Maidens -<b>Ge</b>6——encounter with Kex, Gauvain, and Tristan <b>Ge</b>7, <i>cf.</i> <b>T</b>7——meeting -with Gornumant <b>Ge</b>8 (<i>cf.</i> <b>T</b>6) and fight with the resuscitating -hag——third arrival at Blanchefleur’s Castle, marriage <b>Ge</b>9——deliverance -of maiden, abolition of evil custom, knight on fire <b>Ge</b>10-12——obtains the -promised shield <b>G</b>13——combat with the Dragon King <b>Ge</b>14——arrival at -abbey and story of Mordrains <b>Ge</b>15, <b>Q</b>15——the swan-drawn coffin -<b>Ge</b>16——Devil in tomb <b>Ge</b>17, <i>cf.</i> <b>Q</b>7——deliverance of maiden from -fountain <b>Ge</b>18——punishment of traitress damsel <b>Ge</b>19——combat with giant -<b>Ge</b>20, <i>cf.</i> <b>T</b>9——encounters Kex <b>Ge</b>21——third arrival at Grail Castle -<b>Ge</b>22.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span></p> - -<p class="hang"><b>PERCEVAL’S AUNT</b> <b>Q</b>13, 14.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>PERCEVAL’S SISTER</b>, daughter to Pellehem <b>Q</b><sup>2</sup>, <b>G</b>12, <b>D</b>5-7, <b>Q</b>35, 36, 38, 41, -42——<i>cf.</i> <b>M</b>7.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>PERCEVAL’S UNCLE</b>, see <a href="#gonemans">Gonemans</a>, <a href="#fisher_king">Fisher King</a>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>PETRONE</b> <b>GG</b>29.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>PETRUS</b> <b>B</b>8, 12, 13, 14, <b>PETER</b> <b>GG</b>43, <b>PIERRON</b> <b>GG</b>45, 47, 48.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>PHILOSOPHINE</b> <b>Ge</b>6, 15.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>PILATE</b> <b>B</b>1, <b>GG</b>2, <b>B</b>3, 6.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>PRIADAM THE BLACK</b> <b>Q</b>30.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>QUIQUAGRANT</b> <b>Ma</b>5.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>RED KNIGHT.</b> Slain by Perceval <b>C</b>3, 4, <b>T</b>1, 5, who takes his arms, and is -mistaken for him <b>C</b>6, <b>T</b>6, transferred to Galahad when latter takes -Perceval’s place <b>Q</b>14, 16——<b>G</b>8, 9.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>ROSETTE</b>, Loathly Maiden, <b>G</b>11, <b>D</b>8.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>SAIGREMORS</b> <b>C</b>10, <b>Ma</b>8, 9, 18, <b>D</b>2.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>SARRAQUITE</b> <b>GG</b>13, 16, 22, 28, 29, 59.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>SARRAS</b> <b>GG</b>5, 11, 13, 15, 18, <b>Ma</b>3, <b>Q</b>26, 41, 50, <b>GG</b>30.</p> -<p><a name="seat_perillous" id="seat_perillous"></a></p> -<p class="hang"><b>SEAT PERILLOUS</b> (empty) <b>B</b>10, <b>Dprol</b>, 1——<b>Q</b>2, <b>GG</b>41, <b>Ge</b>5, <b>Q</b>13.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>SERAPHE</b> <b>GG</b>, <b>Q</b>, <b>Ge</b>, <i>once</i> Salafrès <b>Ma</b>——Battle with Tholomes <b>GG</b>12, 14, -<b>Q</b>6, 26, <b>Ma</b>3, <b>Ge</b>15, renamed <a href="#nasciens"><i>Nasciens</i></a>, which see.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>SEVAIN OF MEAUX</b> <b>GG</b>11.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>SOLOMON’S SHIP</b> <b>Q</b>35-38, <b>GG</b>24, 27, 30, 58.</p> -<p><a name="solomons_sword" id="solomons_sword"></a></p> -<p class="hang"><b>SOLOMON’S SWORD</b> <b>Q</b>35, 38, <b>GG</b>27, <i>cf.</i> <b>Q</b>48.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>SORCERESSES OF GLOUCESTER</b> <b>M</b>10, 25.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>STAG HUNT</b> <b>G</b>7, 8, 16, 18, <b>D</b>4, 13, <b>M</b>24.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>SWORD</b> <b>PC</b>3, <b>C</b>7, 8, <b>M</b>6, <b>G</b>3, 12, 22, <b>Ma</b>5, 22, <b>Ge</b>1, 2, 4, 15, 22, <b>H</b>, <b>Q</b>2, 3, -48, <b>GG</b>33, 44, 58. See also <a href="#solomons_sword">Solomon’s sword</a>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>SYMEU</b> <b>Q</b>46, <b>GG</b>31, 47, 49.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>THOLOMES</b> <b>Q</b>6, <b>Ge</b>15, <b>GG</b>11, 12, 14.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>THOLOME CERASTRE</b> <b>GG</b>11.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>TIBERIUS CÆSAR</b> <b>GG</b>3, 11, <b>Ma</b>3.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>TITUS</b> <b>GG</b>3.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>TREBUCET</b> or <b>TRIBUET</b> <b>C</b>8, <b>W</b>, <b>Ma</b>15.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>URBAN OF THE BLACK THORN</b> <b>D</b>9, <b>Co</b>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>URLAIN</b> or <b>URBAN</b> <b>Q</b>35 = Bruillant <b>GG</b>58.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>UTHER PENDRAGON</b> <b>GG</b>9, <i>cf.</i> <a href="#Page_64d">p. 64<span class="smcaplc">D</span></a>.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>VERRINE</b> <b>B</b>6 = Marie la Venissienne <b>GG</b>3.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>VESPASIAN</b> <b>B</b>6, <b>GG</b>3, 4, <b>Ma</b>3, <b>Q</b>7.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>WASTE CITY</b>, King of the, <b>Ge</b>8.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>WASTE LAND</b> <b>PC</b>1, (forest) 6, <b>Q</b>13, 35, <b>GG</b>58.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>YSAIES</b> <b>GG</b>30, 59 = Helyas, <b>Q</b>26.</p> - -<p class="hang"><b>YWAIN</b>, see <a href="#owain">Owain</a>.</p> - - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span></p> -<h2><a name="INDEX_II" id="INDEX_II"></a>INDEX II.</h2> - - -<p>[This Index comprises the whole of the work with exception of the -Summaries, for which see Index I. The references are to the pages. The -entries apply solely to the page number or page group-number which they -immediately precede, and not to all the pages between themselves and the -next entry. In the majority of cases a simple number reference is given, -and the fuller entries are to those points which the author wishes -specially to emphasise.]</p> - -<p> -Abundia and Herodias, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Adonis, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Alain (son of Brons), <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as Fisher King, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Amfortas, Fisher King in Wolfram, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Wagner’s Parsifal, <a href="#Page_253">253-55</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Aminadap, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Arbois de Jubainville, <a href="#Page_184">184-85</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192-93</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Arthur, Arthur saga, Arthurian romance or legend, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Martin’s interpretation of, <a href="#Page_122">122-24</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A’s waiting, <a href="#Page_197">197-98</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A and Potter Thompson, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">popularity of, <a href="#Page_228">228-29</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Celtic character of, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Avalon (Avaron), <a href="#Page_77">77</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">punning explanation of, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">parallel to the Grail, <a href="#Page_122">122-23</a> and <a href="#Page_188">188</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">with the Magic Castle, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">connection with Glastonbury, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">parallel with Brandan’s isle, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -Baldur, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Ban, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Baring-Gould, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Bartsch, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Battle of Magh Rath, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Bergmann’s San Grëal, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Bespelled Castle in Celtic tradition, <a href="#Page_190">190-206</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Birch-Hirschfeld, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_64d">64<i>d</i></a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">full analysis of his work, <a href="#Page_108">108-121</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Martin’s criticism, <a href="#Page_121">121-23</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">objections to his hypothesis, <a href="#Page_125">125-126</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wolfram and Chrestien, <a href="#Page_261">261-62</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Blaise, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Blanchefleur, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">comparison of Chrestien and Mabinogi, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">example of sex-relations of the time, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Blood-drops in the snow, <a href="#Page_137">137-38</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Books of Rights and Geasa, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.<br /> -<br /><a name="borron" id="borron"></a> -Borron, Robert de, author of the Joseph d’Arimathie, bibliographical details, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">MS. statements respecting, <a href="#Page_4">4-6</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">passage of Grail to England, <a href="#Page_79">79-80</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hucher’s views, <a href="#Page_105">105-6</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to other versions according to Birch-Hirschfeld, <a href="#Page_111">111-115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118-20</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Martin’s views, <a href="#Page_121">121-124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">secret words, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fisher King in, <a href="#Page_207">207-9</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his conception, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">chastity ideal in, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Bors, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">exemplification of spirit of Queste, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Bötticher, Wolfram and Chrestien, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Bran (the Blessed), <a href="#Page_108">108</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Cernunnos, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">connection with conversion of Britain, <a href="#Page_218">218-20</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">connection with Brandan legend, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Bran the Son of Febal, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Brandan legend, <a href="#Page_264">264-65</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Branwen (Mabinogi of), <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cauldron, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Britain, evangelisation of, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105-106</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">connection with the Brons and Joseph legends, <a href="#Page_219">219-24</a>.</span><br /> -<br /><a name="brons" id="brons"></a> -Brons, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">special form of Early History, <a href="#Page_78">78-79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">two accounts respecting, <a href="#Page_82">82-83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the Didot-Perceval, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as Fisher King, <a href="#Page_208">208-11</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as Apostle of Britain, <a href="#Page_218">218-26</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</span><br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span><br /> -Bruillans, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Brunhild, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Bundling, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<br /> -Caesarius of Heisterbach, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Campbell, J. F., <a href="#Page_102">102-03</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159-60</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cup of healing, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Campbell,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 1 Young King of Easaidh Ruadh, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 10 The Three Soldiers, <a href="#Page_195">195-96</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 41 The Widow and her Daughters, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 47 Mac Iain Direach, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 51 The Fair Gruagach, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 52 The Knight of the Red Shield, <a href="#Page_156">156-57</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2em;">the resuscitating carlin, <a href="#Page_166">166-67</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 58 The Rider of Grianaig, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 76 Conall Gulban, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 82 How the Een was set up, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 84 Manus, <a href="#Page_189">189-90</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 86 The Daughter of King Under the Waves, <a href="#Page_194">194-95</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Campbell, J. G., Muilearteach, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Catheloys, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Celidoine, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Celtic tradition, origin of or elements in Grail legend, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">how affected by placing of versions, <a href="#Page_68">68-69</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opinions of previous investigators, <a href="#Page_97">97-107</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Birch-Hirschfeld, <a href="#Page_111">111-113-14-15-17-20</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Martin, <a href="#Page_121">121-24</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hertz, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grail apparently foreign to, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164-65</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Carlin in, <a href="#Page_167">167-69</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170-71</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183-84</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Vessel in, <a href="#Page_184">184-88</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sword in, <a href="#Page_188">188-90</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">origin of legend, <a href="#Page_215">215-18</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223-27</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to mediæval romance, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">individualism in, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">woman in, <a href="#Page_231">231-33</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the supernatural in, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">chastity ideal, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">transformation of, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Ceridwen, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210-11</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Cernunnos, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Cét mac Magach, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Chanson de Roland, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Charlemagne, Carolingian Saga, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Chastity ideal in the Queste, <a href="#Page_243">243-44</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in later versions, <a href="#Page_245">245-46</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in popular and Celtic tradition, <a href="#Page_246">246-47</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Chessboard Castle, <a href="#Page_127">127-30</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139-41</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Chrestien, bibliographical description, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">statements of MSS. respecting, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">views of previous investigators, <a href="#Page_98">98-108</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Birch-Hirschfeld, <a href="#Page_108">108-121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to Didot-Perceval, <a href="#Page_127">127-131</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">to Mabinogi, <a href="#Page_132">132-145</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nature of model, <a href="#Page_145">145-46</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to Sir Perceval, <a href="#Page_147">147-51</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to Great Fool, <a href="#Page_155">155-56-58-59</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to Grail Castle in, <a href="#Page_171">171-74</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">represents mainly feud quest, <a href="#Page_180">180-82</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his ideal, <a href="#Page_237">237-38</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to Wolfram, <a href="#Page_261">261-63</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Christian origin of or elements in Grail legend, Christian tradition, legend, etc.;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as affected by placing of versions, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170-73</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as affected by my hypothesis, <a href="#Page_215">215-18</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226-27</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to the talismans, <a href="#Page_238">238-39</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251-52</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">influence on the legend as a whole, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Chronological arrangement of versions, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Author’s, <a href="#Page_95">95-96</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Zarncke’s, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Birch-Hirschfelds’, <a href="#Page_120">120-21</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Conall Cearnach, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Conan’s delusions, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Conchobor, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Conduiramur, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Parzival, <a href="#Page_249">249-51</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Connla, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Constituent elements in the romances, <a href="#Page_215">215-16</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Corbenic, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Cormac’s visit to the otherworld, <a href="#Page_193">193-94</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Counsels, the, in the romances, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Crestiens, p. <a href="#Page_83">83</a> = Nasciens, p. <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Cuchulainn, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conception of, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>gess</i> of, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">parallel of legend to mediæval romances, <a href="#Page_231">231-34</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Cumhall, father of Fionn, <a href="#Page_158">158-59</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Curoi mac Daire, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Cynewulf, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<br /> -Dagda, the, and the cauldron, <a href="#Page_184">184-85</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Deirdre, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the Sons of Usnech, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Diarmaid, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>gess</i> of, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Didot-Perceval, prose sequel to Borron’s poem, numbered as C 2, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Quest in, <a href="#Page_89">89-91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Zarncke’s opinion of, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Authorship of according to Birch-Hirschfeld, <a href="#Page_112">112-15</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relationship to Conte du Graal, <a href="#Page_127">127-30</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">origin of, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">stag hunt in, <a href="#Page_141">141-42</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145-46</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172-73</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198-99</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Dietrich Saga, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Domanig, Parzival-Studien, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Duvau, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Dwarves incident in Chrestien and Mabinogi, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.<br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span><br /> -<br /> -Elton, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Emer, wooing of, <a href="#Page_232">232-33</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Encyclopædia Britannica, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.<br /> -<br /> -England, arrival of Grail in <a href="#Page_76">76-80</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Birch-Hirschfeld <a href="#Page_116">116</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Joseph legend in <a href="#Page_221">221-22</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Enygeus (Brons’ wife), <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Evangelium Nicodemi, <a href="#Page_221">221-22</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Espinogre, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Expulsion and Return Formula (Aryan), <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153-54</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163-64</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<br /> -Fand, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Faust, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Fenian saga or cycle, sword in, <a href="#Page_188">188-90</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Feud-Quest in the romances and in Celtic tradition, <a href="#Page_181">181-90</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Finn-eges, <a href="#Page_209">209-11</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Fionn (Finn), Fionn-saga, <a href="#Page_153">153-54</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">connection with Great Fool and boyhood of Peredur, <a href="#Page_158">158-59</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163-64</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fionn’s enchantment, <a href="#Page_186">186-87</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and sword, <a href="#Page_189">189-90</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the otherworld, <a href="#Page_200">200-03</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and salmon, <a href="#Page_209">209-11</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Fish, according to Birch-Hirschfeld, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Martin, <a href="#Page_123">123-24</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See also <a href="#salmon">Salmon</a>.</span><br /> -<br /><a name="fisher" id="fisher"></a> -Fisher King, Fisher or Rich Fisher, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as Grail-Keeper, <a href="#Page_80">80-86</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation the Promised Knight, <a href="#Page_87">87-89</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">accounted for by Birch-Hirschfeld, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Author’s explanation of, <a href="#Page_207">207-11</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Wolfram, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Fisher King’s daughter, <a href="#Page_140">140-42</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Fisher King’s father, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Fitzgerald, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Fomori, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Förster on Peredur, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Frederick II, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the Kyffhäuser, <a href="#Page_196">196-97</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Frederick I (Barbarossa), <a href="#Page_196">196-97</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Furnivall, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102-03</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">estimate of Queste criticised, <a href="#Page_242">242-43</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -Gaelic talismans = Grail and lance, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Gaidoz, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Galahad, Galahad Quest, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83-86</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as Promised Knight, <a href="#Page_90">90-94</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">comparison with Perceval Quest, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">morality of, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245-46</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Gaston Paris on relation between Chrestien and Mabinogi, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Gautier (de Doulens), Pseudo-Gautier, numbered <span class="smcaplc">A</span> II., <a href="#Page_1">1-2</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">statements respecting in MS., <a href="#Page_4">4</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Berne MS. of, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69-70</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74-75</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76-77</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92-95</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120-21</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to Didot-Perceval, <a href="#Page_128">128-30</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">to Mabinogi, <a href="#Page_133">133</a> and <a href="#Page_140">140-44</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to Grail Castle in, <a href="#Page_171">171-72</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gawain Quest in, <a href="#Page_174">174</a> and <a href="#Page_178">178-79</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Gautier (Walter) de Montbeliart and Borron, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.<br /> -<br /><a name="gawain" id="gawain"></a> -Gawain (Gauvain), <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to Grail King, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Martin’s view of, <a href="#Page_122">122</a> and <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">special form of Quest, <a href="#Page_176">176-78</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to Magic Castle, <a href="#Page_199">199-200</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Heinrich, <a href="#Page_203">203-05</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Orgueilleuse, <a href="#Page_240">240-41</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261-62</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Geasa, <a href="#Page_212">212-14</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Geoffrey of Monmouth, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Gerald (Giraldus Cambrensis), testimony respecting Map’s authorship, <a href="#Page_117">117-18</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Gerbert, numbered <span class="smcaplc">A</span> IV., <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">love <i>motif</i> in, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the witch who brings the dead to life in, <a href="#Page_165">165-69</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174-75</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">chastity ideal in, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to Wolfram, <a href="#Page_262">262-63</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Gervasius of Tilbury, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Glastonbury, Skeat’s view, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Zarncke, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Avalon, <a href="#Page_223">223-25</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Goethe, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.<br /> -<br /><a name="gonemans_index2" id="gonemans_index2"></a> -Gonemans, <a href="#Page_130">130-34</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Fisher King, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the witch, <a href="#Page_165">165-68</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advice to Perceval, <a href="#Page_211">211-12</a>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See also <a href="#gurnemanz">Gurnemanz</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Goon Desert, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.<br /> -<br /><a name="grail" id="grail"></a> -Grail, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hypothetical Christian origin of, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">first possessor of, <a href="#Page_69">69-70</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">solace of Joseph, <a href="#Page_70">70-72</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">connection with Sacrament, <a href="#Page_71">71</a> and <a href="#Page_73">73</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Trinity, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">properties and effect of, <a href="#Page_74">74-76</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">name, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arrival in England, <a href="#Page_76">76-79</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83-84</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89-90</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100-112</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">phraseology used by romances in mentioning it, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114-16</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">symbol of Christ’s body, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">symbol of Avalon, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124-26</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140-142</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">absence of from Mabinogi and Thornton Sir P., <a href="#Page_164">164</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">apparently foreign to Celtic legend, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">various forms of visit to castle of, <a href="#Page_170">170-79</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">double nature of, <a href="#Page_182">182-83</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">parallel to magic vessel of Celtic tradition, <a href="#Page_185">185-96</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Fionn, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mode of transformation, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Wolfram, <a href="#Page_250">250-52</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Wagner, <a href="#Page_254">254-55</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261-63</a>.</span><br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span><br /> -Grail (Early History of), two forms, <a href="#Page_65">65-66</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Joseph form, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to Christian origin hypothesis, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brons form, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">two forms in French romances, <a href="#Page_93">93-94</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">later than Queste, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95-96</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">according to Birch-Hirschfeld, <a href="#Page_108">108-21</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">origin of, <a href="#Page_218">218</a> and <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Grail (Quest of), two forms, <a href="#Page_65">65-67</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Perceval form, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to Celtic origin hypothesis, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">object of according to different versions, <a href="#Page_88">88-90</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">original form of, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Perceval form older, <a href="#Page_93">93-94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95-96</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105-06</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109-26</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mabinogi form of, <a href="#Page_139">139-44</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">inconsistency of accounts respecting, <a href="#Page_180">180-81</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">two formulas fused in, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">constituent elements in, <a href="#Page_215">215-16</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mode of transformation, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237-39</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Grail legend, romance or cycle, origin of according to Birch-Hirschfeld, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Christian element in, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">genesis and growth of, <a href="#Page_225">225-27</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">popularity of, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">development of ethical ideas in, <a href="#Page_235">235</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">future of, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Grail-Keeper and Promised Knight, <a href="#Page_80">80-81</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Grail-Messenger and Rosette, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See also <a href="#loathly">Loathly Damsel</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Graine, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Gramoflanz, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Grand St. Graal, numbered E 3, authorship ascribed to Borron, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Helinandus’ testimony, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65-67</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72-73</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75-76</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conflicting accounts respecting Promised Knight in, <a href="#Page_84">84-86</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94-96</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102-112</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">authorship of, <a href="#Page_119">119-20</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207-08</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">prologue of and Brandan legend, <a href="#Page_264">264-65</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Great Fool, lay or tale of the, <a href="#Page_101">101-02</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">prose opening, <a href="#Page_152">152-53</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">comparison with romances, <a href="#Page_154">154-56</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">originality of, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to Fionn legend, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lay, <a href="#Page_159">159-162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ethical import of, <a href="#Page_256">256-57</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Gregory of Tours and Evangelium Nicodemi, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Greloguevaus, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Grimm, No. 122, Der Krautesel, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204-05</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Gudrun, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Guinevere, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.<br /> -<br /><a name="gurnemanz" id="gurnemanz"></a> -Gurnemanz, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262-63</a>.<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See also <a href="#gonemans_index2">Gonemans</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Guyot = Kiot, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Gwalchmai, <a href="#Page_225">225-26</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See <a href="#gawain">Gawain</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Gwion and Fionn, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<br /> -Hahn, J. G. von, <a href="#Page_153">153-54</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Halliwell, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Haunted Castle, <a href="#Page_204">204-05</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Hawker, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Hebron, <a href="#Page_108">108</a> = <a href="#brons">Brons</a>, which see.<br /> -<br /> -Hector, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Heinrich von dem Türlin, numbered K 4, citation of Chrestien, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Martin’s view of, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to Grail Castle in, <a href="#Page_172">172-73</a> and <a href="#Page_178">178</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">double origin, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">special form of Quest, <a href="#Page_198">198-99</a> and <a href="#Page_203">203</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">parallel with Sleeping Beauty, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Hélie de Borron, <a href="#Page_105">105-06</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">testimony of, <a href="#Page_118">118-19</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Helinandus, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Helyas, <a href="#Page_83">83</a> = Ysaics, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Hennessy, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Henry II, <a href="#Page_118">118-19</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Herodias, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Hertz’ views, <a href="#Page_124">124-25</a>.<br /> -<br /> -How the Great Tuairsgeul etc., <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Hucher, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attempt to harmonise conflicting accounts in Borron, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">statement of views, <a href="#Page_105">105-06</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">criticised by Birch-Hirschfeld, <a href="#Page_111">111</a> and <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and cauldron, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -Iduna, apples of, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<br /> -John the Baptist, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Jonaans, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Joseph of Arimathea, Joseph legend, <a href="#Page_65">65-67</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Grail, <a href="#Page_70">70-73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and England, <a href="#Page_78">78-80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104-109</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112-117</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the Fisher, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Apocryphal legend of, <a href="#Page_220">220-24</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Joseph, Metrical, poem by Robert de Borron, numbered B 2, author of, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65-66</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70-73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74-76</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77-80</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">two accounts in, <a href="#Page_81">81-82</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93-94</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102-103</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to Didot-Perceval according to Birch-Hirschfeld, <a href="#Page_112">112-14</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Josephes (son of Joseph), and Veronica, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84-86</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Josue, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<br /> -Kay, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Keating and the treasures of the Tuatha de Danann, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Kennedy’s Fellow with the Goat-skin, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Castle Knock, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Great Fool, <a href="#Page_159">159-61</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Son of Bad Counsel, <a href="#Page_199">199-200</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fionn’s visit to Cuana, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">haunted castle tale, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Kiot, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">San Marte’s view, <a href="#Page_99">99-100</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107-08</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Wolfram, <a href="#Page_261">261-63</a>.</span><br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span><br /> -Klinschor, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Knight Errantry, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Knighthood, prototype of in Celtic tradition, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Knights of the Red Branch, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Knowles’ Said and Saiyid, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Koch, Kyffhäuser Sage, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Köhler, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Kundry in Wagner, <a href="#Page_254">254-55</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See <a href="#loathly">Loathly Damsel</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Küpp on Pseudo-Chrestien, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the branch, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Kynddelw, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<br /> -Lambar, <a href="#Page_83">83-84</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Lame King, see <a href="#maimed">Maimed King</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Lance, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Grail legend according to Birch-Hirschfeld, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Lancelot, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172-173</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Latin original of French romances probable, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Liebrecht, <a href="#Page_197">197-98</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Llyr Llediath, <a href="#Page_219">219-20</a>.<br /> -<br /><a name="loathly" id="loathly"></a> -Loathly Damsel, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Rosette, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Mabinogi and Chrestien, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hero’s cousin, <a href="#Page_139">139-41</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">double origin of in romances, <a href="#Page_205">205-06</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Wagner, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Longis, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Luces de Gast, <a href="#Page_118">118-19</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Luces (Lucius), <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Lufamour, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Lug Lamhfhada, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Mabinogi of Peredur (generally Mabinogi sometimes Peredur) numbered H 3, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Villemarqué on, <a href="#Page_97">97-98</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Simrock on, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nash, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hucher, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lateness of according to Birch-Hirschfeld, <a href="#Page_114">114-115</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125-26</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to Conte du Graal, <a href="#Page_131">131-37</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dwarves incident in, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">greater delicacy in Blanchefleur incident, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">blood drops incident, <a href="#Page_137">137-38</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">differences with Chrestien, <a href="#Page_138">138-39</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">machinery of Quest in, <a href="#Page_139">139-42</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to Manessier, <a href="#Page_142">142-44</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">origin and development of, <a href="#Page_143">143-145</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">special indebtedness to Chrestien, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to Sir Perceval, <a href="#Page_148">148-49</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">counsels in, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">apparent absence of Grail from, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">comparison with Great Fool tale, <a href="#Page_154">154-57</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">with Great Fool Lay, <a href="#Page_161">161-62</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">with Gerbert’s witch incident, <a href="#Page_168">168-69</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to Talismans Castle in, <a href="#Page_172">172-73</a> and <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fusion of numerous Celtic tales in, <a href="#Page_225">225-26</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sex-relations in, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Maidens’ Castle, parallels to in Celtic tradition, <a href="#Page_191">191-94</a>.<br /> -<br /><a name="maimed" id="maimed"></a> -Maimed or Lame or Sick King, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83-88</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">parallel with Arthur, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">probable absence from Proto Mabinogi, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">belongs to Feud Quest, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">parallel to Fionn, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Malory, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Manaal, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Manannan mac Lir, <a href="#Page_192">192-94</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Bran, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Manessier, numbered A III, <a href="#Page_1">1-2</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">date etc., <a href="#Page_4">4-5</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69-71</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73-74</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to the Mabinogi, <a href="#Page_142">142-46</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168-69</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">disregard of question, <a href="#Page_180">180-82</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245-46</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Manus, <a href="#Page_189">189-90</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Mapes or Map, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">not author of Queste or Grand St. Graal according to Birch-Hirschfeld, <a href="#Page_117">117-19</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Martin’s views, <a href="#Page_121">121-26</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kyffhäuser hypothesis criticised, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wolfram and Gerbert, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Meaux, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Menglad, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Merlin, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Merlin, Borron’s poem, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_64d">64<span class="smcaplc">D</span></a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112-13</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Meyer, Kuno, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Minnedienst, <a href="#Page_240">240-41</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Modred, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Montsalvatch, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Mordrains, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109-10</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Morgan la Fay, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Morvan lez Breiz, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Moys or Moses, <a href="#Page_88">88-90</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Mythic conceptions in the romances, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<br /> -Nasciens, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Nash, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Nibelungenlied, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Nicodemus, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Noisi, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<br /> -O’Daly, <a href="#Page_159">159-61</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Odin, <a href="#Page_100">100-01</a>.<br /> -<br /> -O’Donovan, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Oengus of the Brug, <a href="#Page_191">191-92</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and swanmaid, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -O’Flanagan, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Ogma, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Oisin, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Gwion, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -O’Kearney, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Orgueilleuse, Celtic character of, <a href="#Page_124">124</a> and <a href="#Page_232">232</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">illustrates mediæval morality, <a href="#Page_240">240-41</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Osiris, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span><br /> -<br /> -Pagan essence of Grail etc. in the Christianised romances, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Partinal, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142-43</a>.<br /> -<br /><a name="parzival" id="parzival"></a> -Parzival, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252-53</a>.<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See <a href="#perceval">Perceval</a> and <a href="#wolfram">Wolfram</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Paulin-Paris, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">explanation of word Grail, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116-17</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Pearson on the Veronica legend, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and St. Brandan, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Peleur, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Pelleans or Pellehem, <a href="#Page_83">83-86</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Pelles, <a href="#Page_83">83-86</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.<br /> -<br /><a name="perceval" id="perceval"></a> -Perceval, Perceval-Quest, type hero of Quest, <a href="#Page_66">66-67</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to the Grail-keeper, <a href="#Page_80">80-86</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88-89</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91-92</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">oldest hero of Quest, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102-04</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">according to Birch-Hirschfeld, <a href="#Page_110">110-119</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Didot-Perceval and Conte du Graal, <a href="#Page_127">127-31</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Mabinogi and Conte du Graal, <a href="#Page_131">131-45</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to (bespelled) cousin, <a href="#Page_139">139-42</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation of existing versions to earliest form, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the Thornton MS. romance, <a href="#Page_147">147-51</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hero of Expulsion and Return Formula, <a href="#Page_153">153-56</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">parallel with Highland folk-tales, <a href="#Page_157">157-58</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to Twin Brethren folk-tale and dualism in, <a href="#Page_162">162-64</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">versions of Quest, <a href="#Page_171">171-76</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to the Maidens’ Castle, <a href="#Page_178">178-79</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">significance of Didot-Perceval form, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and sword, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Castle of Maidens, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">parallel with Diarmaid, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">possible hero of Haunted Castle form, <a href="#Page_204">204-05</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to Fisher, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his silence, <a href="#Page_211">211-14</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">superiority to Galahad Quest, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237-38</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240-41</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261-62</a>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See also <a href="#parzival">Parzival</a> and <a href="#peredur">Peredur</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Perceval’s aunt, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Perceval’s sister, <a href="#Page_83">83-84</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Perceval’s uncle, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Perceval le Gallois, numbered G 3, authorship, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65-66</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.<br /> -<br /><a name="peredur" id="peredur"></a> -Peredur (hero of Mabinogi = Perceval), Peredur-saga, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mother of, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132-36</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">parallel to Tom of the Goat-skin, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the sword test, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hero of the stag hunt, <a href="#Page_139">139-42</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">original form of saga, <a href="#Page_144">144-45</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153-54</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168-69</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Fionn, <a href="#Page_187">187</a> and <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fish absent from, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">genesis and growth of, <a href="#Page_225">225-227</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Blanchefleur incident in, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See <a href="#perceval">Perceval</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Peronnik l’idiot, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Perseus, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Petrus, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88-90</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">connection with Geoffrey conversion legend, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Pfaffe Amis, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Pilate, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Potter Thompson and Arthur, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Potvin, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his views, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Prester John, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Procopius, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Promised or Good Knight, and Grail Keeper, <a href="#Page_80">80-86</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Galahad as, <a href="#Page_85">85-86</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">work of, <a href="#Page_86">86-91</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">qualifications of, <a href="#Page_92">92-93</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Prophecy incident in Grail romances, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Pseudo-Chrestien, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Pseudo-Gautier, numbered <span class="smcaplc">A</span>II<i>a</i>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15-16</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Pseudo-Manessier, numbered <span class="smcaplc">A</span>III<i>a</i>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72-73</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<br /> -Queste del St. Graal, numbered D 2-3, varying redactions distinguished typographically, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65-67</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75-76</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">three drafts of, <a href="#Page_83">83-86</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90-91</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">glorification of virginity in, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to Grand St. Graal, <a href="#Page_108">108-09</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">to Conte du Graal, <a href="#Page_110">110-11</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">authorship of, <a href="#Page_117">117-20</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to Grail Castle in, <a href="#Page_172">172-73</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ideal of, <a href="#Page_238">238-40</a> and <a href="#Page_243">243-44</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ideal criticised, <a href="#Page_243">243-44</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">merits of, <a href="#Page_244">244-45</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">inferiority to Wolfram, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Question, Birch-Hirschfeld’s opinion, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">belongs to Unspelling Quest, <a href="#Page_181">181-82</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wolfram’s presentment, <a href="#Page_249">249-50</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -Red Knight, <a href="#Page_147">147-49</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155-56</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Renan on Celtic poetry, <a href="#Page_234">234-35</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Rhys, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bran legend, <a href="#Page_219">219-20</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Rich Fisher or King. See <a href="#fisher">Fisher King</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Riseut, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Robert de Borron. See <a href="#borron">Borron</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Rochat, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his views, <a href="#Page_101">101-02</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Roland, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Roménie, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Rosette, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See <a href="#loathly">Loathly Damsel</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -<br /><a name="salmon" id="salmon"></a> -Salmon of Wisdom, <a href="#Page_209">209-10</a>.<br /> -<br /> -San Marte, views, <a href="#Page_99">99-100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101-02</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Wolfram, <a href="#Page_250">250-5</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Sarras, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Schröder, Brandan legend, <a href="#Page_264">264-65</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Seat, empty or Perillous, <a href="#Page_81">81-82</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88-90</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Secret words, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Seraphe, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Sex-relations in Middle Ages, <a href="#Page_240">240-42</a>.<br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span><br /> -Siegfried, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232-33</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Simei, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Simrock, views, <a href="#Page_100">100-101</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261-62</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Skeat, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Skene, <a href="#Page_219">219-20</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Sleep and the Magic Castle myth, <a href="#Page_202">202-03</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Sleeping Beauty, parallel with Heinrich’s version, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ethical import of, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Solomon’s sword, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See <a href="#sword">Sword</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Sons of Usnech, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Sorceresses of Gloucester, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Spontaneity of folk tradition, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257-58</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Stag Hunt in Conte du Graal and Mabinogi, <a href="#Page_139">139-40</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Didot-Perceval, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">parallel with Lay of Great Fool, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Steinbach on Sir Perceval, <a href="#Page_147">147-50</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Stephens, <a href="#Page_219">219-20</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Stokes, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Suetonius, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>.<br /> -<br /><a name="sword" id="sword"></a> -Sword, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">belongs more to Feud Quest, <a href="#Page_180">180-82</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">found also in Unspelling Quest, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Lug, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Celtic myth, <a href="#Page_187">187-90</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198-99</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Taboo and Geasa, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Taliesin, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Oisin, <a href="#Page_210">210-11</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Templars, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Tennyson, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Tethra, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Thor, Irish parallels to, <a href="#Page_200">200-01</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Thornton MS. Sir Perceval (often simply Sir Perceval), numbered I 4, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68-69</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101-02</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Steinbach’s theory of, <a href="#Page_147">147-50</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">criticised, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">absence of Grail from, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">connection with Great Fool tale, <a href="#Page_154">154-58</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164-65</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">witch incident, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -TÃr-na n-Og, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Titurel, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Titus, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Trinity, symbolizing of, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Tuatha de Danann, treasures of, <a href="#Page_184">184-85</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189-92</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Two Brothers tale, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162-63</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<br /> -Ultonian cycle, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Unspelling Quest, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Celtic parallels to, <a href="#Page_190">190-206</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Urban (Urlain), <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<br /> -Van Santen, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Vanishing of Bespelled Castle, <a href="#Page_202">202-03</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Veronica (Verrine), <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ward’s theory, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Vespasian, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Vessel in Celtic myth, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Ultonian cycle, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Welsh myth, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Celtic folk-tales, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See <a href="#grail">Grail</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Villemarqué, views <a href="#Page_97">97-98</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Virginity, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<br /> -Wagner, <a href="#Page_252">252-54</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Ward, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Wartburg Krieg and Brandan legend, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.<br /> -<br /> -William of Malmesbury, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Zarncke’s opinion of, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ward’s opinion of, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Windisch, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Witch who brings the dead to life, <a href="#Page_165">165-69</a>.<br /> -<br /><a name="wolfram" id="wolfram"></a> -Wolfram von Eschenbach, numbered F 3, sources, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25-26</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65-67</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Gerbert, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99-102</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121-25</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">brother incident in, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172-73</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">branch in, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">magician lord, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">account of mediæval morality, <a href="#Page_240">240-41</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ideal of, <a href="#Page_248">248-52</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pattern for future growth of legend, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to Chrestien, <a href="#Page_261">261-63</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -Woman in Celtic tradition, <a href="#Page_231">231-33</a>.<br /> -<br /> -Wülcker, Evangelium Nicodemi, <a href="#Page_220">220-21</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<br /> -Zarncke, views, <a href="#Page_106">106-07</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.<br /> -</p> - - -<p> </p> -<p class="center">HARRISON AND SONS,<br /> -PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY,<br /> -ST. MARTIN’S LANE, LONDON.</p> - - - -<p> </p><p> </p> -<hr style="width: 50%;" /> -<p><b>Footnotes:</b></p> - -<p><a name='f_1' id='f_1' href='#fna_1'>[1]</a> Fully described by Potvin, VI, lxix, etc.</p> - -<p><a name='f_2' id='f_2' href='#fna_2'>[2]</a> Potvin, VI, lxxv, etc.</p> - -<p><a name='f_3' id='f_3' href='#fna_3'>[3]</a> Birch-Hirschfeld: Die Sage vom Gral, 8vo., Leipzig, 1877, p. 81.</p> - -<p><a name='f_4' id='f_4' href='#fna_4'>[4]</a> Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 89.</p> - -<p><a name='f_5' id='f_5' href='#fna_5'>[5]</a> Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 110.</p> - -<p><a name='f_6' id='f_6' href='#fna_6'>[6]</a> Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 232, quoting the colophon of a Paris MS., after -Paulin Paris, Cat. des MSS. français, vol. ii, pp. 361, etc.</p> - -<p><a name='f_7' id='f_7' href='#fna_7'>[7]</a> Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 143.</p> - -<p><a name='f_8' id='f_8' href='#fna_8'>[8]</a> This prologue is certainly not Chrestien’s work; but there is no -reason to doubt that it embodies a genuine tradition, and affords valuable -hints for a reconstruction of the original form of the story. <i>Cf.</i> Otto -Küpp in Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, vol. xvii., No. 1.</p> - -<p><a name='f_9' id='f_9' href='#fna_9'>[9]</a> Potvin’s text, from the Mons MS., is taken as basis.</p> - -<p><a name='f_10' id='f_10' href='#fna_10'>[10]</a> Several MSS. here intercalate the history of Joseph of Arimathea: -Joseph of Barimacie had the dish made; with it he caught the blood running -from the Saviour’s body as it hung on the Cross, he afterwards begged the -body of Pilate; for the devotion showed the Grail he was denounced to the -Jews, thrown into prison, delivered thence by the Lord, exiled together -with the sister of Nicodemus, who had an image of the Lord. Joseph and his -companions came to the promised land, the White Isle, a part of England. -There they warred against them of the land. When Joseph was short of food -he prayed to the Creator to send him the Grail wherein he had gathered the -holy blood, after which to them that sat at table the Grail brought bread -and wine and meat in plenty. At his death, Joseph begged the Grail might -remain with his seed, and thus it was that no one, of however high -condition, might see it save he was of Joseph’s blood. The Rich Fisher was -of that kin, and so was Greloguevaus, from whom came Perceval.</p> - -<p>It is hardly necessary to point out that this must be an interpolation, as -if Gauvain had really learnt all there was to be told concerning the -Grail, there would have been no point in the reproaches addressed him by -the countryfolk. The gist of the episode is that he falls asleep before -the tale is all told.</p> - -<p><a name='f_11' id='f_11' href='#fna_11'>[11]</a> The existence of this fragment shows the necessity of collating all -the MSS. of the Conte du Graal and the impossibility of arriving at -definite conclusions respecting the growth of the work before this is -done. The writer of this version evidently knew nothing of Queste or Grand -St. Graal, whilst he had knowledge of Borron’s poem, a fact the more -remarkable since none of the other poets engaged upon the Conte du Graal -knew of Borron, so far, at least, as can be gathered from printed sources. -It is hopeless in the present state of knowledge to do more than map out -approximately the leading sections of the work.</p> - -<p><a name='f_12' id='f_12' href='#fna_12'>[12]</a> It is by no means clear to me that Gerbert’s portion of the Conte du -Graal is an interpolation. I am rather inclined to look upon it as an -independent finish. As will be shown later on, it has several features in -common with both Mabinogi and Wolfram, features pointing to a common -prototype.</p> - -<p><a name='f_13' id='f_13' href='#fna_13'>[13]</a> In the solitary MS. which gives this version, it follows, as has -already been stated, prose versions of Robert de Borron’s undoubted poems, -“Joseph of Arimathea†and “Merlin.â€</p> - -<p><a name='f_14' id='f_14' href='#fna_14'>[14]</a> Birch-Hirschfeld, in his Summary (p. 37, l. 22) or his MS. authority, -B.M., xix, E. iii., has transposed the relationships.</p> - -<p><a name='f_15' id='f_15' href='#fna_15'>[15]</a> And buried it, adds B. H. in his Summary, whether on MS. authority or -not I cannot say, but the Welsh translation has—“there was a period of -240 years†(an obvious mistake on the part of the translator) “after the -passion of J. C. when Jos. of A. came; he who buried J. C. and drew him -down from the cross.â€</p> - -<p><a name='f_16' id='f_16' href='#fna_16'>[16]</a> Thus was Evelach called as a Christian, adds B. H. Here W. agrees -with Furnivall.</p> - -<p><a name='f_17' id='f_17' href='#fna_17'>[17]</a> Here Birch-Hirschfeld’s Summary agrees with W.</p> - -<p><a name='f_18' id='f_18' href='#fna_18'>[18]</a> B. H. agrees with W.</p> - -<p><a name='f_19' id='f_19' href='#fna_19'>[19]</a> According to B. H., the recluse tells him he has fought with his -friends, whereupon, ashamed, he hurries off.</p> - -<p><a name='f_20' id='f_20' href='#fna_20'>[20]</a> B. H. here agrees with W.</p> - -<p><a name='f_21' id='f_21' href='#fna_21'>[21]</a> B. H. has <i>five</i> candles.</p> - -<p><a name='f_22' id='f_22' href='#fna_22'>[22]</a> B. H.: “When will the Holy Vessel come to still the pain I feel? -Never suffered man as I.â€</p> - -<p><a name='f_23' id='f_23' href='#fna_23'>[23]</a> B. H. agrees with W.</p> - -<p><a name='f_24' id='f_24' href='#fna_24'>[24]</a> B. H. agrees with Furnivall.</p> - -<p><a name='f_25' id='f_25' href='#fna_25'>[25]</a> B. H., the <i>ninth</i>.</p> - -<p><a name='f_26' id='f_26' href='#fna_26'>[26]</a> B. H., the vision is that of a crowned old man, who with two knights -worships the cross.</p> - -<p><a name='f_27' id='f_27' href='#fna_27'>[27]</a> B. H., Nasciens.</p> - -<p><a name='f_28' id='f_28' href='#fna_28'>[28]</a> B. H. has all this passage, save that the references to the vision at -the cross-ways seem omitted.</p> - -<p><a name='f_29' id='f_29' href='#fna_29'>[29]</a> B. H., the latter.</p> - -<p><a name='f_30' id='f_30' href='#fna_30'>[30]</a> B. H., in Chaldee.</p> - -<p><a name='f_31' id='f_31' href='#fna_31'>[31]</a> B. H., Labran slays Urban.</p> - -<p><a name='f_32' id='f_32' href='#fna_32'>[32]</a> The 1488 text has Urban.</p> - -<p><a name='f_33' id='f_33' href='#fna_33'>[33]</a> B. H., Thus was the King wounded, and he was Galahad’s grandfather.</p> - -<p><a name='f_34' id='f_34' href='#fna_34'>[34]</a> It does not appear from B. H.’s Summary whether his text agrees with -F. or W.</p> - -<p><a name='f_35' id='f_35' href='#fna_35'>[35]</a> B. H., seven knights.</p> - -<p><a name='f_36' id='f_36' href='#fna_36'>[36]</a> B. H., that was the Castle of Corbenic where the Holy Grail was kept.</p> - -<p><a name='f_37' id='f_37' href='#fna_37'>[37]</a> B. H., the Castle of the Maimed King.</p> - -<p><a name='f_38' id='f_38' href='#fna_38'>[38]</a> B. H., ten. Obviously a mistake on the part of his text, as the nine -with the three Grail questers make up twelve, the number of Christ’s -disciples.</p> - -<p><a name='f_39' id='f_39' href='#fna_39'>[39]</a> B. H., three.</p> - -<p><a name='f_40' id='f_40' href='#fna_40'>[40]</a> B. H. agrees with F.</p> - -<p><a name='f_41' id='f_41' href='#fna_41'>[41]</a> One cannot see from B. H. whether his text agrees with F. or W.</p> - -<p><a name='f_42' id='f_42' href='#fna_42'>[42]</a> B. H. agrees with F.</p> - -<p><a name='f_43' id='f_43' href='#fna_43'>[43]</a> It will be advisable to give here the well-known passage from the -chronicle of Helinandus, which has been held by most investigators to be -of first-rate importance in determining the date of the Grand St. Graal. -The chronicle ends in the year 1204, and must therefore have been finished -in that or the following year, and as the passage in question occurs in -the earlier portion of the work it may be dated about two years earlier -(Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 33). “Hoc tempore (717-719) in Britannia cuidam -heremitae demonstrata fuit mirabilis quaedam visio per angelum de Joseph -decurione nobili, qui corpus domini deposuit de cruce et de catino illo -vel paropside, in quo dominus caenavit cum discipulis suis, de quo ab -eodem heremita descripta est historia quae dicitur gradale. Gradalis autem -vel gradale gallice dicitur scutella lata et aliquantulum profunda, in qua -preciosae dapes divitibus solent apponi gradatim, unus morsellus post -alium in diversis ordinibus. Dicitur et vulgari nomine greal, quia grata -et acceptabilis est in ea comedenti, tum propter continens, quia forte -argentea est vel de alia preciosa materia, tum propter contentum .i. -ordinem multiplicem dapium preciosarum. Hanc historiam latine scriptam -invenire non potui sed tantum gallice scripta habetur a quibusdem -proceribus, nec facile, ut aiunt, tota inveniri potest.â€</p> - -<p>The Grand St. Graal is the only work of the cycle now existing to which -Helinandus’ words could refer; but it is a question whether he may not -have had in view a work from which the Grand St. Graal took over its -introduction. Helinandus mentions the punning origin of the word “greal†-(<i>infra</i>, <a href="#Page_76">p. 76</a>), which is only hinted at in the Grand St. Graal, but -fully developed elsewhere, <i>e.g.</i>, in the Didot-Perceval and in Borron’s -poem.</p> - -<p>Another point of great interest raised by this introduction will be found -dealt with in Appendix B.</p> - -<p><a name='f_44' id='f_44' href='#fna_44'>[44]</a> The MS. followed by Furnivall has an illustration, in which Joseph is -represented as sitting under the Cross and collecting the blood from the -sides and feet in the basin.</p> - -<p><a name='f_45' id='f_45' href='#fna_45'>[45]</a> MS. reading.</p> - -<p><a name='f_46' id='f_46' href='#fna_46'>[46]</a> I have not thought it necessary to give a summary of the prose -romance Perceval le Gallois. One will be found in Birch-Hirschfeld, pp. -123-134. The version, though offering many interesting features, is too -late and unoriginal to be of use in the present investigation.</p> - -<p><a name='f_47' id='f_47' href='#fna_47'>[47]</a> <i>Cf.</i> <a href="#Page_78">p. 78</a> as to this passage.</p> - -<p><a name='f_48' id='f_48' href='#fna_48'>[48]</a> It is forty-two years, according to D. Queste (p. 119), after the -Passion that Joseph comes to Sarras.</p> - -<p><a name='f_49' id='f_49' href='#fna_49'>[49]</a> It is plain that B I is abridged in the passage dealt with, from the -following fact: Joseph (v. 2,448, etc.) praying to Christ for help, -reminds Him of His command, that when he (Joseph) wanted help he should -come “devant ce veissel precieus Où est votre sans glorieus.†Now Christ’s -words to Joseph in the prison say nothing whatever about any such -recommendation; but E, Grand St. Graal, does contain a scene between our -Lord and Joseph, in which the latter is bidden, “Et quant tu vauras à moi -parler si ouuerras l’arche en quel lieu que tu soies†(I, 38-39) from -which the conclusion may be drawn that B I represents an abridged and -garbled form of the prototype of E.</p> - -<p><a name='f_50' id='f_50' href='#fna_50'>[50]</a> In the Mabinogi of Branwen, the daughter of Llyr, the warriors cast -into the cauldron of renovation come forth on the morrow fighting men as -good as they were before, except that they are not able to speak (Mab., p. -381).</p> - -<p><a name='f_51' id='f_51' href='#fna_51'>[51]</a> The version summarised by Birch-Hirschfeld.</p> - -<p><a name='f_52' id='f_52' href='#fna_52'>[52]</a> Curiously enough this very text here prints Urban as the name of the -Maimed King; Urban is the antagonist of Lambar, the father of the Maimed -King in the original draft of the Queste, and his mention in this place in -the 1488 text seems due to a misprint. In the episode there is a direct -conflict of testimony between the first and second drafts, Lambar slaving -Urlain in the former, Urlain Lambar in the latter.</p> - -<p><a name='f_53' id='f_53' href='#fna_53'>[53]</a> This account agrees with that of the second draft of the Queste, in -which Urlain slays Lambar.</p> - -<p><a name='f_54' id='f_54' href='#fna_54'>[54]</a> Only <i>one</i> beholder of the Quest is alluded to, although in the -Queste, from which the Grand St. Graal drew its account, <i>three</i> behold -the wonders of the Grail.</p> - -<p><a name='f_55' id='f_55' href='#fna_55'>[55]</a> This, of course, belongs to the second of the two accounts we have -found in the poem respecting the Promised Knight, the one which makes him -the grandson and not the son merely of Brons.</p> - -<p><a name='f_56' id='f_56' href='#fna_56'>[56]</a> The object of the Quest according to Heinrich von dem Türlin will be -found dealt with in <a href="#CHAPTER_VII">Chapter VII</a>.</p> - -<p><a name='f_57' id='f_57' href='#fna_57'>[57]</a> This is one of a remarkable series of points of contact between -Gerbert and Wolfram von Eschenbach.</p> - -<p><a name='f_58' id='f_58' href='#fna_58'>[58]</a> It almost looks as if the author of C were following here a version -in which the hero only has to go once to the Grail Castle; nothing is said -about Perceval’s first unsuccessful visit, and Merlin addresses Perceval -as if he were telling him for the first time about matters concerning -which he must be already fully instructed.</p> - -<p><a name='f_59' id='f_59' href='#fna_59'>[59]</a> It is remarkable, considering the scanty material at his disposal, -how accurate Schulz’ analysis is, and how correct much of his -argumentation.</p> - -<p><a name='f_60' id='f_60' href='#fna_60'>[60]</a> Wagner has admirably utilised this hint of Simrock’s in his Parsifal, -when his Kundry (the loathly damsel of Chrestien and the Mabinogi) is -Herodias. <i>Cf. infra</i>, <a href="#CHAPTER_X">Ch. X</a>.</p> - -<p><a name='f_61' id='f_61' href='#fna_61'>[61]</a> Excepting, of course, the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century -Paris imprints, which represented as a rule, however, the latest and most -interpolated forms, and Mons. Fr. Michel’s edition of Borron’s poem.</p> - -<p><a name='f_62' id='f_62' href='#fna_62'>[62]</a> Hucher’s argument from v. 2817 (<i>supra</i> <a href="#Page_106">p. 106</a>) that the poem knew of -the Grand St. Graal is, however, not met.</p> - -<p><a name='f_63' id='f_63' href='#fna_63'>[63]</a> <i>Vide</i> <a href="#Page_200">p. 200</a>, for Birch-Hirschfeld’s summary comparison of the two -works, and <i>cf. infra</i> <a href="#Page_127">p. 127</a>.</p> - -<p><a name='f_64' id='f_64' href='#fna_64'>[64]</a> <i>Cf. infra</i> <a href="#Page_128">p. 128</a>, for a criticism of this statement.</p> - -<p><a name='f_65' id='f_65' href='#fna_65'>[65]</a> Opera V. 410: Unde et vir ille eloquio clarus W. Mapus, Oxoniensis -archidiaconus (cujus animae propitietur Deus) solita verborum facetia et -urbanitate praecipua dicere pluris et nos in hunc modum convenire solebat: -“Multa, Magister Geralde, scripsistis et multum adhue scribitis, et nos -multa diximus. Vos scripta dedistis et nos verba.â€</p> - -<p><a name='f_66' id='f_66' href='#fna_66'>[66]</a> Printed in full, Hucher, I. 156, etc.</p> - -<p><a name='f_67' id='f_67' href='#fna_67'>[67]</a> Printed by Hucher, I. p. 35, etc.</p> - -<p><a name='f_68' id='f_68' href='#fna_68'>[68]</a> The remainder of Birch-Hirschfeld’s work is devoted to proving that -Chrestien was the only source of Wolfram von Eschenbach, the latter’s Kiot -being imagined by him to justify his departure from Chrestien’s version; -departures occasioned by his dissatisfaction with the French poet’s -treatment of the subject on its moral and spiritual side. This element in -the Grail problem will be found briefly dealt with, Appendix A.</p> - -<p><a name='f_69' id='f_69' href='#fna_69'>[69]</a> I have not thought it necessary, or even advisable, to notice what -the “Encyclopædia Britannica†(Part XLI, pp. 34, 35) and some other -English “authorities†say about the Grail legends.</p> - -<p><a name='f_70' id='f_70' href='#fna_70'>[70]</a> They are brought together by Hucher, vol. i, p. 383, etc.</p> - -<p><a name='f_71' id='f_71' href='#fna_71'>[71]</a> In the preface to the second volume of his edition of Chrestien’s -works (Halle, 1887), W. Förster distinguishes Peredur from the Lady of the -Fountain and from Geraint, which he looks upon as simple copies of -Chrestien’s poems dealing with the same subjects. Peredur has, he thinks, -some Welsh features.</p> - -<p><a name='f_72' id='f_72' href='#fna_72'>[72]</a> It is perhaps only a coincidence that in Gautier the “pucelle de -malaire†is named Riseut la Bloie, and that Rosette la Blonde is the name -of the loathly damsel whom Perceval meets in company of the Beau Mauvais, -and whom Birch-Hirschfeld supposes to have suggested to Chrestien <i>his</i> -loathly damsel, the Grail messenger. But from the three versions one gets -the following:—Riseut (Gautier), loathly damsel (Didot-Perceval), Grail -messenger (Chrestien), = Peredur’s cousin, who in the Mabinogi is the -loathly Grail messenger, and the protagonist in the stag-hunt.</p> - -<p><a name='f_73' id='f_73' href='#fna_73'>[73]</a> I have not thought it necessary to discuss seriously the hypothesis -that Chrestien may have used the Mabinogi as we now have it. The foregoing -statement of the facts is sufficient to negative it.</p> - -<p><a name='f_74' id='f_74' href='#fna_74'>[74]</a> <span class="smcap">The Counsels.</span> <i>Chrestien</i> (v. 1,725, etc.): aid dames and damsels, -for he who honoureth them not, his honour is dead; serve them likewise; -displease them not in aught; one has much from kissing a maid if she will -to lie with you, but if she forbid, leave it alone; if she have ring, or -wristband, and for love or at your prayer give it, ’tis well you take it. -Never have comradeship with one for long without seeking his name; speak -ever to worthy men and go with them; ever pray in churches and monasteries -(then follows a dissertation on churches and places of worship generally). -<i>Mabinogi</i> (p. 83): wherever a church, repeat there thy Paternoster; if -thou see meat and drink, and none offer, take; if thou hear an outcry, -especially of a woman, go towards it; if thou see a jewel, take and give -to another to obtain praise thereby; pay thy court to a fair woman, -<i>whether she will or no</i>, thus shalt thou render thyself a better man than -before. (In the italicised passage the Mabinogi gives the direct opposite -of Chrestien, whom he has evidently misunderstood.) <i>Sir Perceval</i> (p. -16): “Luke thou be of mesure Bothe in haulle and boure, And fonde to be -fre.†“There thou meteste with a knyghte, Do thi hode off, I highte, and -haylse hym in hy†(He interprets the counsel to be of measure by only -taking half the food and drink he finds at the board of the lady of the -tent. The kissing of the lady of the tent which follows is in no way -connected with his mother’s counsel.) <i>Wolfram</i>: “Follow not untrodden -paths; bear thyself ever becomingly; deny no man thy greeting; accept the -teaching of a greybeard; if ring and greeting of a fair woman are to be -won strive thereafter, kiss her and embrace her dear body, for that gives -luck and courage, if so she be chaste and worthy.†Beside the mother’s -counsels Perceval is admonished by Gonemans or the personage corresponding -to him. In <i>Chrestien</i> (2,838, <i>et seq.</i>) he is to deny mercy to no knight -pleading for it; to take heed he be not over-talkful; to aid and counsel -dames and damsels and all others needing his counsel; to go often to -church; not to quote his mother’s advice, rather to refer to him -(Gonemans). In the <i>Mabinogi</i> he is to leave the habits and discourse of -his mother; if he see aught to cause him wonder not to ask its meaning. In -<i>Wolfram</i> he is not to have his mother always on his lips; to keep a -modest bearing; to help all in need, but to give wisely, not heedlessly; -and in especial not to ask too much; to deny no man asking mercy; when he -has laid by his arms to let no traces thereof be seen, but to wash hands -and face from stain of rust, thereby shall ladies be pleased; to hold -women in love and honour; never to seek to deceive them (as he might do -many), for false love is fleeting and men and women are one as are sun and -daylight.—There seems to me an evident progression in the ethical -character of these counsels. Originally they were doubtless purely -practical and somewhat primitive of their nature. As it is, Chrestien’s -words sound very strange to modern ears.</p> - -<p><a name='f_75' id='f_75' href='#fna_75'>[75]</a> In the notes to my two articles in the “Folk-Lore Record†will be -found a number of references establishing this fact.</p> - -<p><a name='f_76' id='f_76' href='#fna_76'>[76]</a> The hero renews his strength after his various combats by rubbing -himself with the contents of a vessel of balsam. He has moreover to enter -a house the door of which closes to of itself (like the Grail Castle -Portcullis in Wolfram), and which kills him. He is brought to life by the -friendly raven. The mysterious carlin also appears, “there was a turn of -her nails about her elbows, and a twist of her hoary hair about her toes, -and she was not joyous to look upon.†She turns the hero’s companions into -stone, and to unspell them he must seek a bottle of living water and rub -it upon them, when they will come out alive. This is like the final -incident in many stories of the Two Brothers class. <i>Cf.</i> note, <a href="#Page_162">p. 162</a>.</p> - -<p><a name='f_77' id='f_77' href='#fna_77'>[77]</a> O’Daly’s version consists of 158 quatrains; Campbell’s of 63. The -correspondence between them, generally very close (frequently verbal), is -shown by the following table:—</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> -<tr><td>O’D., 1, 2.</td> - <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> - <td>C., 1, 2.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">—</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 3.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 3.</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 4.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 4-15.</td> - <td> </td> - <td align="center">—</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 16.</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 4.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 17-24.</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 5-12.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 25.</td> - <td> </td> - <td align="center">—</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">—</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 13-15.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 26-47.</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 16-36.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 48-56.</td> - <td> </td> - <td align="center">—</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 57-61.</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 37-40.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 62.</td> - <td> </td> - <td align="center">—</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 63-65.</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 41-43.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 66.</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 45.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 67.</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 44.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 68, 69.</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 46, 47.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 70.</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 49.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 71.</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 48.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">—</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 50.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 72.</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 52.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 73.</td> - <td> </td> - <td align="center">—</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 74.</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 53.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 75.</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 54.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 76-80.</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 55-59.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 81-134.</td> - <td> </td> - <td align="center">—</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 135, 136.</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 60, 61.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">—</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 62.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 137.</td> - <td> </td> - <td align="center">—</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 138.</td> - <td> </td> - <td>C., 63.</td></tr> -<tr><td>O’D., 139-158.</td> - <td> </td> - <td align="center">—</td></tr></table> - -<p><a name='f_78' id='f_78' href='#fna_78'>[78]</a> Of this widely spread group, Grimm’s No. 60, Die zwei Brüder, may be -taken as a type. The brethren eat heart and liver of the gold bird and -thereby get infinite riches, are schemed against by a goldsmith, who would -have kept the gold bird for himself, seek their fortunes throughout the -world accompanied by helping beasts, part at crossways, leaving a life -token to tell each one how the other fares; the one delivers a princess -from a dragon, is cheated of the fruit of the exploit by the Red Knight, -whom after a year he confounds, wins the princess, and, after a while, -hunting a magic hind, falls victim to a witch. His brother, learning his -fate through the life token, comes to the same town, is taken for the -young king even by the princess, but keeps faith to his brother by laying -a bare sword twixt them twain at night. He then delivers from the witch’s -spells his brother, who, learning the error caused by the likeness, and -thinking advantage had been taken of it, in a fit of passion slays him, -but afterwards, hearing the truth, brings him back to life again. Grimm -has pointed out in his notes the likeness between this story and that of -Siegfried (adventures with Mimir, Fafnir, Brunhilde, and Gunnar). In India -the tale figures in Somadeva’s Katha Sarit Sagara (Brockhaus’ translation, -ii., 142, <i>et seq.</i>). The one brother is transformed into a demon through -accidental sprinkling from a body burning on a bier. He is in the end -released from this condition by his brother’s performing certain exploits, -but there is no similarity of detail. Other variants are <i>Zingerle</i> (p. -131) where the incident occurs of the hero’s winning the king’s favour by -making his bear dance before him; this I am inclined to look upon as a -weakened recollection of the incident of a hero’s making a princess -<i>laugh</i>, either by playing antics himself or making an animal of his play -them (<i>see supra</i>, <a href="#Page_134">p. 134</a>, Kennedy’s Irish Tale). Grimm also quotes -<i>Meier</i> 29 and 58, but these are only variants of the dragon-killing -incident. In the variant of 29, given p. 306, the hero makes the king -laugh, and in both stories occurs the familiar incident of the hero coming -unknown into a tournament and overcoming all enemies, as in Peredur (Inc. -9). <i>Wolf.</i>, p. 369, is closer, and here the hero is counselled by a grey -mannikin whom he will unspell if he succeeds. <i>Stier</i>, No. I. (not p. 67, -as Grimm erroneously indicates) follows almost precisely the same course -as Grimm’s 60, save that there are three brothers. <i>Graal</i>, p. 195, has -the magic gold bird opening, but none of the subsequent adventures tally. -<i>Schott</i>, No. 11, is also cited by Grimm, but mistakenly; it belongs to -the faithful-servant group. Very close variants come from Sweden -(Cavallius-Oberleitner, V<i>a</i>, V<i>b</i>) and Italy (Pentamerone, I. 7 and I. -9). The Swedish tales have the miraculous conception opening, which is a -prominent feature in tales belonging to the Expulsion and Return group -(<i>e.g.</i>, Perseus, Cu-Chulaind, and Taliesin), but present otherwise very -nearly the same incidents as Grimm. The second of the Italian versions has -the miraculous conception opening so characteristic of this group of -folk-tales, and of the allied formula group, the attainment of riches -consequent upon eating the heart of a sea dragon, the tournament incident -(though without the disguise of the hero), the stag hunt, wherein the -stag, an inimical wizard haunting the wood, is a cannibal and keeps the -captured hero for eating. In the story of the delivery by the second -brother, the separating sword incident occurs. The first version opens -with what is apparently a distorted and weakened form of the hero’s -clearing a haunted house of its diabolical inmates (<i>see infra</i> <a href="#CHAPTER_VII">Ch. VII.</a>, -Gawain) and then follows very closely Grimm’s Two Brothers, save that the -alluring witch is young and fair, the whole tale being made to point the -moral, “more luck than wit.†Straparola, <i>a</i> 3, is a variant of the dragon -fight incident alone. It is impossible not to be struck by the fact that -in this widely spread group of tales are to be found some of the most -characteristic incidents of the Perceval and allied Great Fool group. The -only version, however, which brings the two groups into formal contact is -O’Daly’s form of the Great Fool.</p> - -<p><a name='f_79' id='f_79' href='#fna_79'>[79]</a> The brother feature appears likewise in Wolfram von Eschenbach, where -Parzival’s final and hardest struggle is against the unknown brother, as -the Great Fool’s is against the Gruagach. This may be added to other -indications that Wolfram <i>did</i> have some other version before him besides -Chrestien’s.</p> - -<p><a name='f_80' id='f_80' href='#fna_80'>[80]</a> I cannot but think that these words have connection with the incident -in the English Sir Perceval of the hero’s throwing into the flames and -thus destroying his witch enemy.</p> - -<p><a name='f_81' id='f_81' href='#fna_81'>[81]</a> I must refer to my Mabinogion Studies, I. Branwen for a discussion of -the relation of this tale with Branwen and with the Teutonic Heldensage.</p> - -<p><a name='f_82' id='f_82' href='#fna_82'>[82]</a> Another parallel is afforded by the tale of Conall Gulban (Campbell, -III., 274). Conall, stretched wounded on the field, sees “when night grew -dark a great Turkish carlin, and she had a white glaive of light with -which she could see seven miles behind her and seven miles before her; and -she had a flask of balsam carrying it.†The dead men are brought to life -by having three drops of balsam put into their mouths. The hero wins both -flask and glaive.</p> - -<p><a name='f_83' id='f_83' href='#fna_83'>[83]</a> <i>Cf.</i> my Branwen for remarks on the mythological aspect of the -ballad. It should be noted that most of the ballads traditionally current -in the Highlands are of semi-literary origin, <i>i.e.</i>, would seem to go -back to the compositions of mediæval Irish bards, who often sprinkled over -the native tradition a profusion of classical and historical names. I do -not think the foreign influence went farther than the “names†of some -personages, and such as it is is more at work in the ballads than in the -tales.</p> - -<p><a name='f_84' id='f_84' href='#fna_84'>[84]</a> This may seem to conflict with the statement made above (<a href="#Page_145">p. 145</a>), -that the Mabinogi probably took over the maimed uncle from Chrestien. But -there were in all probability several forms of the story; that hinted at -in Chrestien and found in Manessier had its probable counterpart in Celtic -tradition as well as that found in Gerbert. It is hardly possible to -determine what was the form found in the proto-Mabinogi, the possibility -of its having been exactly the same as that of Gerbert is in no way -affected by the fact that the Mabinogi, as we now have it, has in this -respect been influenced by Chrestien. Meanwhile Birch-Hirschfeld’s -hypothesis that Gerbert’s section of the Conte du Graal is an -interpolation between Gautier and Manessier is laid open to grave doubt. -It is far more likely that Gerbert’s work was an independent and original -attempt to provide an ending for Chrestien’s unfinished poem, and that he -had before him a different version of the original from that used by -Gautier and Manessier.</p> - -<p><a name='f_85' id='f_85' href='#fna_85'>[85]</a> It occurs also in Peredur (Inc. 16), where the hero comes to the -Castle of the Youths, who, fighting every day against the Addanc of the -Cave, are each day slain, and each day brought to life by being anointed -in a vessel of warm water and with precious balsam.</p> - -<p><a name='f_86' id='f_86' href='#fna_86'>[86]</a> For the second time, if Gerbert’s continuation be really intended for -our present text of Gautier, and if Potvin’s summary of Gerbert is to be -relied upon; Birch-Hirschfeld seemingly differs from him here, and makes -the King at once mention the flaw.</p> - -<p><a name='f_87' id='f_87' href='#fna_87'>[87]</a> It may be worth notice that v. 35,473 is the same as Chrestien, v. -4,533.</p> - -<p><a name='f_88' id='f_88' href='#fna_88'>[88]</a> It is evident that, although in the MS. in which this version is -found it is followed by Manessier’s section, the poem was intended by -Gerbert to end here.</p> - -<p><a name='f_89' id='f_89' href='#fna_89'>[89]</a> Told at other times, and notably by Gautier himself (Inc. 21), of -Perceval, where the feature of a dead knight lying on the altar is added.</p> - -<p><a name='f_90' id='f_90' href='#fna_90'>[90]</a> According to the Montpellier MS., which here agrees substantially -with Potvin’s text (the Mons MS.), this is Gauvain’s second visit to the -Grail Castle. At his first visit he had been subjected to the sword test -and had slept. The mystic procession is made up as follows:—Squire with -lance; maidens with plate; two squires with candlesticks; fair maiden -weeping, in her hands a “graal;†four squires with the bier, on which lies -the knight and the broken sword. Gauvain would fain learn about these -things, but is bidden first to make the sword whole. On his failure he is -told</p> - -<p class="poem">Vous n’avez par encore tant fet<br /> -D’armes, que vous doiez savoir, etc.,</p> - -<p>and then goes to sleep. His awakening finds him in a marsh.</p> - -<p><a name='f_91' id='f_91' href='#fna_91'>[91]</a> It may be conjectured that the magic vessel which preserves to this -enchanted folk the semblance of life passes into the hero’s possession -when he asks about it, and that deprived of it their existence comes to an -end, as would that of the Anses without the Apples of Iduna. I put this -into a note, as I have no evidence in support of the theory. But read in -the light of this conjecture some hitherto unnoticed legend may supply the -necessary link of testimony.</p> - -<p><a name='f_92' id='f_92' href='#fna_92'>[92]</a> Nearly all the objections to the view suggested in the text may be -put aside as due to insufficient recognition of the extent to which the -two formulas have been mingled, but there is one which seems to me of real -moment. The wasting of the land which I have looked upon as belonging to -the unspelling formula, is traced by the Queste to the blow struck by King -Lambar against King Urlain, a story which, as we have seen, is very -similar to that which forms the groundwork of one at least of the models -followed by the Conte du Graal in its version of the feud quest. It does -not seem likely that the Queste story is a mere echo of that found in the -Conte du Graal, nor that the fusion existed so far back as in a model -common to both. But the second alternative is possible.</p> - -<p><a name='f_93' id='f_93' href='#fna_93'>[93]</a> I do not follow M. Hucher upon the (as it seems to me) very insecure -ground of Gaulish numismatic art. The object which he finds figured in -pre-Christian coins may be a cauldron—and it may not—and even if it is a -cauldron it may have no such significance as he ascribes to it.</p> - -<p><a name='f_94' id='f_94' href='#fna_94'>[94]</a> <i>Cf.</i> as to Lug D’Arbois de Jubainville, Cycle Mythologique -Irlandais; Paris, 1884, p. 178. He was revered by all Celtic races, and -has left his trace in the name of several towns, chief among them -Lug-dunum = Lyons. In so far as the Celts had departmental gods, he was -the god of handicraft and trade; but <i>cf.</i> as to this Rhys, Hibb. Lect., -p. 427-28.</p> - -<p><a name='f_95' id='f_95' href='#fna_95'>[95]</a> <i>Cf.</i> D’Arbois de Jubainville, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 269-290. The Dagda—the -good god—seems to have been head of the Irish Olympus. A legend anterior -to the eleventh century, and belonging probably to the oldest stratum of -Celtic myth, ascribes to him power over the earth: without his aid the -sons of Miledh could get neither corn nor milk. It is, therefore, no -wonder to find him possessor of the magic cauldron, which may be looked -upon as a symbol of fertility, and, as such, akin to similar symbols in -the mythology of nearly every people.</p> - -<p><a name='f_96' id='f_96' href='#fna_96'>[96]</a> <i>Cf.</i> as to the mythic character of the Tuatha de Danann, D’Arbois de -Jubainville, <i>op. cit.</i>, and my review of his work, Folk-Lore Journal, -June, 1884.</p> - -<p><a name='f_97' id='f_97' href='#fna_97'>[97]</a> I at one time thought that the prohibition to reveal the “secret -words,†which is such an important element in Robert de Borron’s version, -might be referred to the same myth-root as the instances in the text. -There is little or no evidence to sustain such a hazardous hypothesis. -Nevertheless it is worth while drawing attention in this place to that -prohibition, for which I can offer no adequate explanation.</p> - -<p><a name='f_98' id='f_98' href='#fna_98'>[98]</a> Powers of darkness and death. Tethra their king reigns in an island -home. It is from thence that the maiden comes to lure away Connla of the -Golden Hair, as is told in the Leabhar na-h-Uidhre, even as the Grail -messenger comes to seek Perceval—“’tis a land in which is neither death -nor old age—a plain of never ending pleasure,†the counterpart, in fact, -of that Avalon to which Arthur is carried off across the lake by the fay -maiden, that Avalon which, as we see in Robert de Borron, was the earliest -home of the Grail-host.</p> - -<p><a name='f_99' id='f_99' href='#fna_99'>[99]</a> <i>Cf.</i> D’Arbois de Jubainville, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 188.</p> - -<p><a name='f_100' id='f_100' href='#fna_100'>[100]</a> When Cuchulainn was opposing the warriors of Ireland in their -invasion of Ulster one of his feats is to make smooth chariot-poles out of -rough branches of trees by passing them through his clenched hand, so that -however bent and knotted they were they came from his hands even, -straight, and smooth. <i>Tain bo Cualgne</i>, quoted by Windisch, Rev. Celt., -Vol. V.</p> - -<p><a name='f_101' id='f_101' href='#fna_101'>[101]</a> This epithet recalls Lug, of whom it is the stock designation. Now -Lug was <i>par excellence</i> the craftsman’s god; he, too, at the battle of -Mag Tured acted as a sort of armourer-general to the Tuatha de Danann. A -dim reminiscence of this may be traced in the words which the folk-tale -applies to Ullamh l.f., “he was the one special man for taking their -arms.â€</p> - -<p><a name='f_102' id='f_102' href='#fna_102'>[102]</a> <i>Cf.</i> my Aryan Expulsion and Return formula, pp. 8, 13, for variants -of these incidents in other stories belonging to this cycle and in the -allied folk-tales.</p> - -<p><a name='f_103' id='f_103' href='#fna_103'>[103]</a> This incident is only found in the living Fionn-<i>sage</i>, being absent -from all the older versions, and yet, as the comparison with the allied -Perceval sage shows, it is an original and essential feature. How do the -advocates of the theory that the Ossianic cycle is a recent mass of -legend, growing out of the lives and circumstances of historical men, -account for this development along the lines of a formula with which, <i>ex -hypothesi</i>, the legend has nothing to do? The Fionn-<i>sage</i>, it is said, -has been doctored in imitation of the Cuchulainn-<i>sage</i>, but the assertion -(which though boldly made has next to no real foundation) cannot be made -in the case of the Conte du Graal. Mediæval Irish bards and unlettered -Highland peasants did not conspire together to make Fionn’s adventures -agree with those of Perceval.</p> - -<p><a name='f_104' id='f_104' href='#fna_104'>[104]</a> In the Gawain form of the feud quest found in Gautier, the knight -whose death he sets forth to avenge is slain by the cast of a dart. Can -this be brought into connection with the fact that Perceval slays with a -cast of his dart the Red Knight, who, according to the Thornton romance, -is his father’s slayer.</p> - -<p><a name='f_105' id='f_105' href='#fna_105'>[105]</a> This prose tale precedes an oral version of one of the commonest -Fenian poems, which in its present shape obviously goes back to the days -when the Irish were fighting against Norse invaders. The poem, which still -lives in Ireland as well as in the Highlands, belongs to that later stage -of development of the Fenian cycle, in which Fionn and his men are -depicted as warring against the Norsemen. It is totally dissimilar from -the prose story summarised above, and I am inclined to look upon the prose -as belonging to a far earlier stage in the growth of the cycle, a stage in -which the heroes were purely mythical and their exploits those of mythical -heroes generally.</p> - -<p><a name='f_106' id='f_106' href='#fna_106'>[106]</a> The prohibition seems to be an echo of the widely-spread one which -forbids the visitor to the otherworld tasting the food of the dead, which, -if he break, he is forfeit to the shades. The most famous instance of this -myth is that of Persephone.</p> - -<p><a name='f_107' id='f_107' href='#fna_107'>[107]</a> <i>Cf.</i> Procopius quoted by Elton, Origins of English History, p. 84.</p> - -<p><a name='f_108' id='f_108' href='#fna_108'>[108]</a> Prof. Rhys, Hibbert Lectures for 1886, looks upon him as a Celtic -Zeus. He dispossessed his father of the Brug by fraud, as Zeus -dispossessed Kronos by force.</p> - -<p><a name='f_109' id='f_109' href='#fna_109'>[109]</a> D’Arbois de Jubainville, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 275. Rhys, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. -149.</p> - -<p><a name='f_110' id='f_110' href='#fna_110'>[110]</a> M. Duvau, Revue Celtique, Vol. IX., No. 1, has translated the -varying versions of the story.</p> - -<p><a name='f_111' id='f_111' href='#fna_111'>[111]</a> Like many of the older Irish tales the present form is confused and -obscure, but it is easy to arrive at the original.</p> - -<p><a name='f_112' id='f_112' href='#fna_112'>[112]</a> The part in brackets is found in one version only of the story. Of -the two versions each has retained certain archaic features not to be -found in the other.</p> - -<p><a name='f_113' id='f_113' href='#fna_113'>[113]</a> Summarised by D’Arbois de Jubainville, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 323.</p> - -<p><a name='f_114' id='f_114' href='#fna_114'>[114]</a> D’Arbois de Jubainville, p. 326.</p> - -<p><a name='f_115' id='f_115' href='#fna_115'>[115]</a> Otto Küpp, Z.f.D. Phil. xvii, i, 68, examining Wolfram’s version -sees in the branch guarded by Gramoflanz and broken by Parzival a trace of -the original myth underlying the story. Gramoflanz is connected with the -Magic Castle (one of the inmates of which is his sister), or with the -otherworld. Küpp’s conjecture derives much force from the importance given -to the branch in the Irish tales as part of the gear of the otherworld.</p> - -<p><a name='f_116' id='f_116' href='#fna_116'>[116]</a> This recalls the fact that Oengus of the Brug fell in love with a -swanmaid. See text and translation Revue Celtique, Vol. III., pp. 341, -<i>et. seq.</i> The story is alluded to in the catalogue of epic tales (dating -from the tenth century) found in the Book of Leinster.</p> - -<p><a name='f_117' id='f_117' href='#fna_117'>[117]</a> In a variant from Kashmir (Knowles’ Folk-tales of Kashmir, London, -1888, p. 75, <i>et. seq.</i>), Saiyid and Said, this tale is found embedded in -a twin-brethren one.</p> - -<p><a name='f_118' id='f_118' href='#fna_118'>[118]</a> Frederick (I.) Barbarossa is a mistake, as old as the seventeenth -century (<i>cf.</i> Koch, Sage vom Kaiser Friedrich in Kyffhäuser, Leipzig, -1886), for Frederick II., the first German Emperor of whom the legend was -told. The mistake was caused by the fact that Frederick took the place of -a German red-bearded god, probably Thor, hence the later identification -with the <i>red-bearded</i> Frederick, instead of with that great opponent of -the Papacy whose death away in Italy the German party refused for many -years to credit.</p> - -<p><a name='f_119' id='f_119' href='#fna_119'>[119]</a> Unless the passage relating to Carl the Great quoted by Grimm (D.M., -III., 286) from Mon. Germ. Hist., Vol. VIII., 215, “inde fabulosum illud -confictum de Carolo Magno, quasi de mortuis in id ipsum resuscitato, et -alio nescio quo nihilominus redivivo,†be older.</p> - -<p><a name='f_120' id='f_120' href='#fna_120'>[120]</a> Liebrecht’s edition of the Otia Imperialia, Hanover, 1856, p. 12, -and note p. 55.</p> - -<p><a name='f_121' id='f_121' href='#fna_121'>[121]</a> Martin Zur Gralsage, p. 31, arguing from the historical connection -of Frederick II. with Sicily, thinks that the localisation of this -Arthurian legend in that isle was the reason of its being associated with -the Hohenstauffen; in other words, the famous German legend would be an -indirect offshot of the Arthurian cycle. I cannot follow Martin here. I -see no reason for doubting the genuineness of the traditions collected by -Kuhn and Schwartz, or for disbelieving that Teutons had this myth as well -as Celts. It is no part of my thesis to exalt Celtic tradition at the -expense of German; almost all the parallels I have adduced between the -romances and Celtic mythology and folk-lore could be matched from those of -Germany. But the romances are historically associated with Celtic -tradition, and the parallels found in the latter are closer and more -numerous than those which could be recovered from German tradition. It is, -therefore, the most simple course to refer the romances to the former -instead of to the latter.</p> - -<p><a name='f_122' id='f_122' href='#fna_122'>[122]</a> See Grimm, D.M., Ch. XXXII.; Fitzgerald, Rev. Celt., IV., 198; and -the references in Liebrecht, <i>op. cit.</i></p> - -<p><a name='f_123' id='f_123' href='#fna_123'>[123]</a> Personally communicated by the Rev. Mr. Sorby, of Sheffield.</p> - -<p><a name='f_124' id='f_124' href='#fna_124'>[124]</a> In Chrestien the part of the Magician Lord is little insisted upon. -But in Wolfram he is a very important personage. It may here be noted that -the effects which are to follow in Chrestien the doing away with the -enchantments of this Castle, answer far more accurately to the description -given by the loathly Grail-Maiden of the benefits which would have accrued -had Perceval put the question at the Court of the Fisher King than to -anything actually described as the effect of that question being put, -either by Gautier, Manessier, or Gerbert. This castle seems, too, to be -the one in which lodge the Knights, each having his lady love with him, -which the loathly maiden announces to be her home.</p> - -<p><a name='f_125' id='f_125' href='#fna_125'>[125]</a> Kennedy follows in the main Oss. Soc., Vol. II, pp. 118, <i>et. seq.</i>, -an eighteenth century version translated by Mr. O’Kearney. This particular -episode is found, pp. 147, <i>et. seq.</i> I follow the Oss. Soc. version in -preference to Kennedy’s where they differ.</p> - -<p><a name='f_126' id='f_126' href='#fna_126'>[126]</a> The story as found in Heinrich may be compared with the folk-tale of -the Sleeping Beauty. She is a maiden sunk in a death-in-life sleep -together with all her belongings until she be awakened by the kiss of the -destined prince. May we not conjecture that in an older form of the story -than any we now possess, the court of the princess vanished when the -releasing kiss restored her to real life and left her alone with the -prince? The comparison has this further interest, that the folk-tale is a -variant of an old myth which figures prominently in the hero-tales of the -Teutonic race (Lay of Skirni, Lay of Swipday and Menglad, Saga of Sigurd -and Brunhild), and that in its most famous form Siegfried, answering in -Teutonic myth to Fionn, is its hero. But Peredur is a Cymric Fionn, so -that the parallel between the two heroes, Celtic and Teutonic, is closer -than at first appears when Siegfried is compared only to his Gaelic -counterpart.</p> - -<p><a name='f_127' id='f_127' href='#fna_127'>[127]</a> I have not examined Gawain’s visit to the Magic Castle in detail, in -the first place because it only bears indirectly upon the Grail-Quest, and -then because I hope before very long to study the personality of Gawain in -the romances, and to throw light upon it from Celtic mythic tradition in -the same way that I have tried in the foregoing pages to do in the case of -Perceval.</p> - -<p><a name='f_128' id='f_128' href='#fna_128'>[128]</a> Kennedy, Legendary Fictions, p. 154, <i>et. seq.</i></p> - -<p><a name='f_129' id='f_129' href='#fna_129'>[129]</a> Grimm, Vol. III., p. 9 (note to Märchen von einem der auszog das -Fürchten zu lernen), gives a number of variants. It should be noted that -in this story there is the same mixture of incidents of the Magic Castle -and Haunted Castle forms as in the romances. Moreover, one of the trials -to which the hero’s courage is subjected is the bringing into the room of -a coffin in which lies a dead man, just as in Gawain’s visit to the Grail -Castle. Again, as Grimm notes, but mistakenly refers to Perceval instead -of to Gawain, the hero has to undergo the adventures of the magic bed, -which, when he lays himself down in it, dashes violently about through the -castle and finally turns topsy turvy. In connection with this story, and -with the whole series of mythical conceptions noted in the Grail romances, -Chapter XXXII. of the Deutsche Mythologie deserves careful study. Grimm -compares Conduiramur’s (Blanchefleur’s) nightly visit to Percival’s -chamber to the appearance at the bedside of the delivering hero of that -white maiden, who is so frequently figured as the inmate of the Haunted -Castle. As niece of the Lord of the Grail Castle, Blanchefleur is also a -denizen of the otherworld, but I hardly think that the episode of -Perceval’s delivering her from her enemies can be looked upon as a version -of the removal of the spells of the Haunted Castle. In a recent number of -the Revue des Traditions Populaires (III., p. 103), there is a good Breton -version of the Bespelled Castle sunk under the waves. A fair princess is -therein held captive; once a year the waves part and permit access, and he -who is bold enough to seize the right moment wins princess and castle, -which are restored to earth.</p> - -<p><a name='f_130' id='f_130' href='#fna_130'>[130]</a> Whether it be the Castle of the Fisher King, <i>i.e.</i>, the Castle of -the Perceval Quest; or the Magic Castle, <i>i.e.</i>, the Castle of the Gawain -Quest.</p> - -<p><a name='f_131' id='f_131' href='#fna_131'>[131]</a> For fuller information about this mysterious fish, see Rhys, Hibbert -Lectures, pp. 553-54.</p> - -<p><a name='f_132' id='f_132' href='#fna_132'>[132]</a> In an already quoted tale of Campbell’s (LVIII., the Rider of -Grianaig) allusion is made to the “black fisherman working at his tricks.†-Campbell remarks that a similar character appears in other tales. Can this -wizard fisher be brought into contact with the Rich Fisher of -Pseudo-Chrestien (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_8">p. 8</a>), who knew much of black art, and could -change his semblance a hundred times?</p> - -<p><a name='f_133' id='f_133' href='#fna_133'>[133]</a> Complete text, edited by Kuno Meyer, Revue Celt., Vol. V. Major -portion of text with English translation by Dr. J. O’Donovan, Oss. Soc., -Vol. IV. The tract as a whole is only known to us from a fifteenth century -MS.; but the earlier portion of it appears in the L.n.H., in a strongly -euhemerised form, only such incidents being admitted as could be presented -historically, and these being divested of all supernatural character. See -my paper, “Folk-Lore Record,†Vol. IV., for a discussion of the genuine -and early character of the tract.</p> - -<p><a name='f_134' id='f_134' href='#fna_134'>[134]</a> A reason for this concealment may be found in the idea, so -frequently met with in a certain stage of human development, that the name -is an essential portion of the personality, and must not be mentioned, -especially to possible enemies or to beings possessed of magical powers, -lest they should make hurtful use of it.</p> - -<p><a name='f_135' id='f_135' href='#fna_135'>[135]</a> <i>Cf.</i> the whole of the Book of Rights for an exemplification of the -way in which the pre-Christian Irishman was hedged and bound and fettered -by this amazingly complicated system of what he might and what he might -not do.</p> - -<p><a name='f_136' id='f_136' href='#fna_136'>[136]</a> They offer him dog’s-flesh cooked on rowan spits, and, it has been -conjectured that the <i>gess</i> has a totemistic basis, Culann’s Hound -(Cuchulainn) being forbidden to partake of the flesh of his totem.</p> - -<p><a name='f_137' id='f_137' href='#fna_137'>[137]</a> It is only within the last 100 years that our knowledge of savage -and semi-savage races has furnished us with a parallel to the “geasa†in -the “taboo†of the Polynesian. I am not advancing too much in the -statement that this institution, although traces of it exist among all -Aryan races, had not the same importance among any as among the Irish -Gael. It is another proof of the primitive character of Irish social life, -a character which may, perhaps, be ascribed to the assimilation by the -invading Celts of the beliefs and practices of much ruder races.</p> - -<p><a name='f_138' id='f_138' href='#fna_138'>[138]</a> Mr. Elton (Origins, pp. 291, 292) looks upon Bran and Caradoc as -original war gods. Caradoc, he thinks, was confounded with Caractacus, -Bran with Brennus, and hence the two personages were sent to Rome in -imitation of the presumed historical prototypes.</p> - -<p><a name='f_139' id='f_139' href='#fna_139'>[139]</a> Kynddelw’s triad does not really refer to the “blessed†families at -all, but to the “faithful†or “loyal†families. Stephen’s mistake arose -from the fact of the name Madawc occurring in two sets of triads, one -relating to the “lordly†families of Britain in which the family of Llyr -Llediath also figures, and one to the faithful families. In both triads -the name is probably a mistake for Mabon. (Note communicated by Professor -Rhys.)</p> - -<p>I let the statement in the text stand, to exhort myself and others to that -fear of trusting authorities which in scholarship is the beginning of -wisdom.</p> - -<p><a name='f_140' id='f_140' href='#fna_140'>[140]</a> Professor Rhys tells me this passage can only mean “Blessed Bran’s -head.â€</p> - -<p><a name='f_141' id='f_141' href='#fna_141'>[141]</a> Mr. Ward endorses Zarncke’s contention. According to him there is no -trace of any connection between Joseph and the evangelisation of Britain -which can be said to be older than the romances. The statements of the “De -ant. eccl. Glast.†are, he thinks, no guide to the knowledge or opinions -of William of Malmesbury.</p> - -<p><a name='f_142' id='f_142' href='#fna_142'>[142]</a> I may here notice a theory to which my attention has only just been -called. It is found cited in a work of great research, <i>Die Fronica</i>, by -Professor Karl Pearson, Strassburg, 1887. The author quotes an opinion of -Mr. Jenner, of the British Museum, that the head in the platter of the -Mabinogi may be derived from a Veronica portrait. Professor Pearson -expresses doubt, because such a procession of the Veronica portrait and -the Passion Instruments as the scene in the Mabinogi would, <i>ex -hypothesi</i>, imply is not known to him before the fourteenth century, -whereas the Mabinogi must be attributed, at latest, to the middle of the -thirteenth century. Mr. H. L. D. Ward informs me that the suggestion was -his. Noting the connection of the Veronica and Grail legends, testified to -by Borron, it occurred to him that the whole scene at the Wounded King’s -might be derived from the former legends. The Wounded King, healed by the -Grail, would thus be a counterpart of the leprous Vespasian healed by the -Veronica portrait, which some wandering “jongleur†turned boldly into an -actual head. But it must be noted that in Borron, our authority for the -connection of the two legends, there is no Wounded King at all; in the -Conte du Graal the Maimed King is not healed by any special talisman, but -by the death of his enemy, the visible sign of which is that enemy’s head, -whilst in the “procession†(which Mr. Ward thinks to have been intended as -a vision), the Grail is certainly a vessel, and has no connection whatever -with any head or portrait. The theory thus requires that the version which -gives the oldest form of the hypothetical remodelled Veronica legend -omitted the very feature which was its sole <i>raison d’être</i>.</p> - -<p><a name='f_143' id='f_143' href='#fna_143'>[143]</a> Mr. Ward thinks the localisation a late one, and that practically -there is no authority for it of an older date than the romances. He points -out in especial that Geoffrey’s Vita Merlini, which has so much to say -about the “insula pomorum†in no way connects it with Glastonbury. There -is considerable doubt as the etymology of Glastonbury, but there is -substantial unanimity of opinion among Celtic scholars of the present day -in referring it to a Celtic rather than to a Saxon source. Be this as it -may, the fact remains that at sometime in the course of the twelfth -century the old Christian site of Glastonbury took, as it were, the place -of the Celtic paradise, and it seems far more likely that the -transformation was effected in virtue of some local tradition than wholly -through the medium of foreign romances.</p> - -<p><a name='f_144' id='f_144' href='#fna_144'>[144]</a> The pre-Christian Irish annals, which are for the most part -euhemerised mythology, contain also a certain amount of race history; thus -the struggle between the powers of light and darkness typified by the -antagonism between Tuatha de Danann and Fomori, is doubled by that between -the fair invading Celts and the short dark aborigines. But the latter has -only left the barest trace of its existence in the national sagas. Not -until we come to that secondary stage of the Fenian saga, which must have -been shaped in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and which represents -the Fenians as warring against the harrying Northmen, does the foreign -element reappear in Irish tradition.</p> - -<p><a name='f_145' id='f_145' href='#fna_145'>[145]</a> The Tochmarc Emer, or the Wooing of Emer by Cuchullain, has been -translated by Professor Kuno Meyer in the Archæological Review, Nos. 1-4 -(London, 1888). The original text is found partly in the Leabhar na -h-Uidhre, partly in later MSS.</p> - -<p><a name='f_146' id='f_146' href='#fna_146'>[146]</a> The fate of the Sons of Usnech is known to us in two main -redactions, one found in the Book of Leinster (compiled in the middle of -the twelfth century from older MS.) printed by Windisch, Irische Texte -(first series) pp. 67-82, and translated by M. Poinsignon, Revue des -Traditions Populaires, III, pp. 201-207. A text printed and translated by -J. O’Flanagan (Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, 1808, pp. -146-177), agrees substantially with this. The second redaction has only -been found in later MSS. Mr. Whitley Stokes has given text and translation -from a fifteenth century MS. (Irische Texte, II. 2, pp. 109-178), and -O’Flanagan has edited a very similar version (<i>loc. cit.</i> pp. 16-135). -This second version is fuller and more romantic; in it alone is to be -found Deirdre’s lament on leaving Scotland, one of the earliest instances -in post-classic literature of personal sympathy with Nature.</p> - -<p>But the earlier version, though it bear like so much else in the oldest -Irish MS. obvious traces of abridgment and euhemerism, is also full of the -most delicate romantic touches. Part of Deirdre’s lament over the slain -Noisi may be paraphrased thus:—“Fair one, loved one, flower of beauty; -beloved, upright and strong; beloved, noble and modest warrior. When we -wandered through the woods of Ireland, sweet with thee was the night’s -sleep! Fair one, blue-eyed, beloved of thy wife, lovely to me at the -trysting place came thy clear voice through the woods. I cannot sleep; -half the night my spirit wanders far among throngs of men. I cannot eat or -smile. Break not to-day my heart; soon enough shall I lie within my grave. -Strong are the waves of the sea, but stronger is sorrow, Conchobor.â€</p> - -<p><a name='f_147' id='f_147' href='#fna_147'>[147]</a> M. Renan’s article “De la Poésie des Races Celtiques†(Revue des -Deux Mondes, 1854, pp. 473-506) only came into my hands after the bulk of -this chapter was printed, or I should hardly have dared to state in my own -words those conclusions in which we agree. It may be useful to indicate -those points in which I think this suggestive essay no longer represents -the present state of knowledge. When M. Renan wrote, the nature of popular -tradition had been little investigated in France—hence a tendency to -attribute solely to the Celtic genius what is common to all popular -tradition. Little or nothing was then known in France of early Irish -history or literature—hence the wild, primitive character of Celtic -civilization is ignored. The “bardic†literature of Wales was still -assigned wholesale to the age of its alleged authors—hence a false -estimate of the relations between the profane and ecclesiastical writings -of the Welsh. Finally the three Mabinogion (The Lady of the Fountain, -Geraint, Peredur), which correspond to poems of Chrestien’s, are -unhesitatingly accepted as their originals. The influence of Welsh fiction -in determining the courtly and refined nature of mediæval romance is, in -consequence, greatly exaggerated. It is much to be wished that M. Renan -would give us another review of Celtic literature based on the work of the -last thirty years. His lucid and sympathetic criticism would be most -welcome in a department of study which has been rather too exclusively -left to the specialist.</p> - -<p><a name='f_148' id='f_148' href='#fna_148'>[148]</a> Malory is a wonderful example of the power of style. He is a most -unintelligent compiler. He frequently chooses out of the many versions of -the legend, the longest, most wearisome, and least beautiful; his own -contributions to the story are beneath contempt as a rule. But his -language is exactly what it ought to be, and his has remained in -consequence the classic English version of the Arthur story.</p> - -<p><a name='f_149' id='f_149' href='#fna_149'>[149]</a> See <a href="#Page_112">p. 112</a> for a brief summary of Borron’s conception; Sin the cause -of want among the people; the separation of the pure from the impure by -means of the fish (symbol of Christ); punishment of the self-willed false -disciple; reward of Brons by charge of the Grail; symbolising of the -Trinity by the three tables and three Grail Keepers.</p> - -<p><a name='f_150' id='f_150' href='#fna_150'>[150]</a> The greater delicacy of the Welsh tale has already been noted. “To -make him such a offer before I am wooed by him, that, truly, can I not -do,†says the counterpart of Blanchefleur in the Mabinogi. “Go my sister -and sleep,†answers Peredur, “nor will I depart from thee until I do that -which thou requirest.†I cannot help looking upon the prominence which the -Welsh story-teller has given to this scene as his protest against the -strange and to him repulsive ways of knightly love. The older, mythic -nature of Peredur’s beloved, who might woo without forfeiting womanly -modesty, in virtue of her goddesshood, had died away in the narrator’s -mind, the new ideal of courtly passion had not won acceptance from him.</p> - -<p><a name='f_151' id='f_151' href='#fna_151'>[151]</a> The perplexities which beset the modern reader of the Queste are -reflected in the Laureate’s retelling of the legend. Nowhere else in the -Idylls has he departed so widely from his model. Much of the incident is -due to him, and replaces with advantage the nauseous disquisitions upon -chastity which occupy so large a space in the Queste. The artist’s -instinct, rather than the scholar’s respect for the oldest form of the -story, led him to practically restore Perceval to his rightful place as -hero of the quest. <i>His</i> fortunes we can follow with an interest that -passing shadow, Galahad, wholly fails to evoke. Nor, as may easily be - -seen, is the fundamental conception of the twelfth century romance to the -Laureate’s taste. Arthur is his ideal of manhood, and Arthur’s energies -are practical and human in aim and in execution. What the “blameless king†-speaks when he first learns of the quest represents, we may guess, the -author’s real attitude towards the whole fantastic business.</p> - -<p>It is much to be regretted by all lovers of English poetry that Hawker’s -Quest of the Sangraal was never completed. The first and only chant is a -magnificent fragment; with the exception of the Laureate’s Sir Galahad, -the finest piece of pure literature in the cycle. Hawker, alone, perhaps -of moderns, could have kept the mediæval tone and spirit, and yet brought -the Quest into contact with the needs and ideas of to-day.</p> - -<p><a name='f_152' id='f_152' href='#fna_152'>[152]</a> <i>Cf.</i> Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, II, 811, and his references.</p> - -<p><a name='f_153' id='f_153' href='#fna_153'>[153]</a> The ideas held by many peoples in a primitive stage of culture -respecting virginity are worthy careful study. Some physiological basis -may be found for them in the phenomena of hysteria, which must necessarily -have appeared to such peoples evidences of divine or demoniac possession, -and at that stage are hardly likely to have been met with save among -unmarried women. In the French witch trials these phenomena are often -presented by nuns, in whose case they were probably the outcome of a life -at once celibate and inactive. On the other hand the persons accused of -witchcraft were as a rule of the most abandoned character, and it is a, -morally speaking, degraded class which has furnished Professor Charcot and -his pupils with the subjects in whom they have identified all the -phenomena that confront the student of witch trials.</p> - -<p><a name='f_154' id='f_154' href='#fna_154'>[154]</a> Domanig, Parzival-Studien, I, II, 1878-80.</p> - -<p><a name='f_155' id='f_155' href='#fna_155'>[155]</a> San-Marte, Parzival-Studien, I-III, 1861-63.</p> - -<p><a name='f_156' id='f_156' href='#fna_156'>[156]</a> Some readers may be anxious to read Wolfram’s work to whom -twelfth-century German would offer great difficulties. A few words on the -translation into modern German may, therefore, not be out of place. -San-Marte’s original translation (1839-41) is full of gross blunders and -mistranslations, and, what is worse, of passages foisted into the text to -support the translator’s own interpretation of the poem as a whole. -Simrock’s, which followed, is extremely close, but difficult and -unpleasing. San Marte’s second edition, corrected from Simrock, is a great -advance upon the first; but even here the translator has too often allowed -his own gloss to replace Wolfram’s statement. A thoroughly faithful yet -pleasing rendering is a desideratum.</p> - -<p><a name='f_157' id='f_157' href='#fna_157'>[157]</a> J. Van Santen, Zur Beurtheilung Wolfram von Eschenbach, Wesel, 1882, -has attacked Wolfram for his acceptance of the morality of the day, and -has, on that ground, denied him any ethical or philosophic merit. The -pamphlet is useful for its references, but otherwise worthless. The fact -that Wolfram does accept <i>Minnedienst</i> only gives greater value to his -picture of a nobler and purer ideal of love, whilst to refuse recognition -of his other qualities on this account is much as who should deny Dante’s -claim to be regarded as a teacher and thinker because of his acceptance of -the hideous mediæval hell.</p> - -<p><a name='f_158' id='f_158' href='#fna_158'>[158]</a> In the Geheimnisse Goethe shows some slight trace of the Parzival -legend, and the words in which the teaching of the poem are summed up: -“Von der Gewalt, die alle Wesen bindet, Befreit <i>der</i> Mensch sich der sich -überwindet,†may be looked upon as an eighteenth century rendering of -Wolfram’s conception.</p> - -<p><a name='f_159' id='f_159' href='#fna_159'>[159]</a> We may here note an admirable example of the inevitable, spontaneous -character of the growth of certain conceptions, especially of such as have -been partly shaped by the folk-mind. There is nothing in Wolfram or in the -French romances to show that the fortunes of the loathly damsel (Wagner’s -Kundry) are in any way bound up with the success of the Quest. But we have -seen that the Celtic folk-tales represent the loathly damsel as the real -protagonist of the story. She cannot be freed unless the hero do his task. -Precisely the same situation as in Wagner, who was thus led back to the -primitive <i>donnée</i>, although he can only have known intermediary stages in -which its signification had been quite lost.</p> - -<p><a name='f_160' id='f_160' href='#fna_160'>[160]</a> <i>Cf.</i> the reproaches addressed to Potter Thompson (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_198">p. 198</a>). -That the visitor to the Bespelled Castle should be reproached, at once, -for his failure to do as he ought, seems to be a feature of the earliest -forms of the story. <i>Cf.</i> Campbell’s Three Soldiers (<i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_196">p. 196</a>). If -Wolfram had another source than Chrestien it was one which partook more of -the unspelling than of the feud quest formula. Hence the presence of the -feature here.</p> - -<p><a name='f_161' id='f_161' href='#fna_161'>[161]</a> In Wolfram’s work there is a much closer connection between the -Gawain quest and the remainder of the poem than in Chrestien. -Orgueilleuse, to win whose love Gawain accomplishes his feats, is a former -love of Amfortas, the Grail King, who won for her a rich treasure and was -wounded in her service. Klinschor, too, the lord of the Magic Castle, is -brought into contact with Orgueilleuse, whom he helps against Gramoflanz. -It is difficult to say whether this testifies to an earlier or later stage -of growth of the legend. The winning of Orgueilleuse as the consequence of -accomplishing the feat of the Ford Perillous and plucking the branch is -strongly insisted upon by Wolfram and not mentioned by Chrestien, though -it is possible he might have intended to wed the two had he finished his -poem. In this respect, however, and taking these two works as they stand, -Wolfram’s account seems decidedly the earlier. In another point, too, he -seems to have preserved the older form. Besides his Kundrie la Sorcière -(the loathly damsel) he has a Kundrie la Belle, whom I take to be the -loathly damsel released from the transforming spell.</p> - - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, by -Alfred Nutt - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDIES ON LEGEND OF HOLY GRAIL *** - -***** This file should be named 42205-h.htm or 42205-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/2/0/42205/ - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you -do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the -rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose -such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and -research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do -practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is -subject to the trademark license, especially commercial -redistribution. - - - -*** START: FULL LICENSE *** - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at - www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy -all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. -If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" -or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the -collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from -copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative -works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg -are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project -Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by -freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of -this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with -the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by -keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project -Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate -access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently -whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, -copied or distributed: - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived -from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is -posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied -and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees -or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work -with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the -work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 -through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional -terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked -to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the -permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), -you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a -copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon -request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other -form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided -that - -- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is - owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he - has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments - must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you - prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax - returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and - sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to - the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." - -- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or - destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium - and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of - Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any - money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days - of receipt of the work. - -- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set -forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from -both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm -collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain -"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or -corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual -property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a -computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by -your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. -To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 -and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent -permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. -Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 -North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email -contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the -Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To -SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any -particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. -To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - - -</pre> - -</body> -</html> diff --git a/old/42205-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/42205-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 4ce532e..0000000 --- a/old/42205-h/images/cover.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/42205-h/images/deco.jpg b/old/42205-h/images/deco.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 3dd3600..0000000 --- a/old/42205-h/images/deco.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/42205.txt b/old/42205.txt deleted file mode 100644 index ca6e35c..0000000 --- a/old/42205.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,13330 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, by Alfred Nutt - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail - With Especial Reference to the Hypothesis of Its Celtic Origin - -Author: Alfred Nutt - -Release Date: February 26, 2013 [EBook #42205] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDIES ON LEGEND OF HOLY GRAIL *** - - - - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - - - - - - - - - The Folk-Lore Society, - FOR COLLECTING AND PRINTING - RELICS OF POPULAR ANTIQUITIES, &c. - ESTABLISHED IN - THE YEAR MDCCCLXXVIII. - - [Illustration: Alter et Idem.] - - PUBLICATIONS - OF - THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY. - 1888. - XXIII. - - - - -List of Officers of the Society. - -1887-1888. - - -PRESIDENT. - - THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF STRAFFORD. - - -VICE-PRESIDENTS. - - ANDREW LANG, M.A. - W. R. S. RALSTON, M.A. - EDWARD B. TYLOR, LL.D., F.R.S. - - -DIRECTOR. - - G. L. GOMME, F.S.A., 1, Beverley Villas, Barnes Common, S.W. - - -COUNCIL. - - THE HON. J. ABERCROMBY. - A. MACHADO Y ALVAREZ. - THE EARL BEAUCHAMP, F.S.A. - EDWARD BRABROOK, F.S.A. - DR. G. B. BRINTON. - JAMES BRITTEN, F.L.S. - LOYS BRUEYRE. - MISS C. S. BURNE. - EDWARD CLODD. - PROFESSOR D. COMPARETTI. - G. LAURENCE GOMME, F.S.A. - A. GRANGER HUTT, F.S.A. - SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, BT., F.R.S. - REV. DR. RICHARD MORRIS. - ALFRED NUTT. - EDWARD PEACOCK, F.S.A. - Z. D. PEDROSO. - PROFESSOR A. H. SAYCE, M.A. - CAPTAIN R. C. TEMPLE. - HENRY B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A. - - -AUDITORS. - - G. L. APPERSON. - JOHN TOLHURST, F.S.A. - - -LOCAL SECRETARIES. - - IRELAND: G. H. KINAHAN, R.I.A. - SOUTH SCOTLAND: WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK, ESQ. - NORTH SCOTLAND: Rev. WALTER GREGOR. - INDIA: CAPTAIN R. C. TEMPLE. - CHINA: J. STEWART LOCKHART. - - -HONORARY SECRETARIES. - - A. GRANGER HUTT, F.S.A., 8, Oxford Road, Kilburn, N.W. - J. J. FOSTER, 36, Alma Square, St. John's Wood, N.W. - - - - -STUDIES ON THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL. - - - - -_Works by the same Author._ - - -=The Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula among the Celts.=--_Folk-Lore -Record_, Vol. IV. 10_s._ 6_d._ - - "Interessante etude de mythographie comparee."--_Revue Celtique._ - -=Mabinogion Studies, I. The Mabinogi of Branwen, daughter of -Llyr.=--_Folk-Lore Record_, Vol. V. 10_s._ 6_d._ - - "Eingehendes und sehr beachtenswerthes Studium."--Prof. ERNST - WINDISCH, in _Ersch und Gruber_. - - "These careful and searching studies deserve to be honourably - mentioned."--Mons. HENRI GAIDOZ, in the _Academy_. - - - - - STUDIES ON THE - LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL - - _WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE HYPOTHESIS_ - OF ITS CELTIC ORIGIN. - - - BY ALFRED NUTT. - - - "Welchem Volke das Maerchen (von Parzival's Jugendgeschichte) - angehoerte, welches die schriftliche oder muendliche - Ueberlieferung mit der Gralsage in Verbindung brachte, ist - schwer zu bestimmen, doch wuerde dasjenige Volk den meisten - Anspruch darauf haben, bei welchem sich dies Maerchen ausserhalb - jenes Zusammenhangs nachweisen liesse."--K. SIMROCK. - - "The Celtic hero who in the twelfth century became Perceval le - Chercheur du basin ... in the end became possessed of that - sacred basin le Saint Graal, and the holy lance which, though - Christian in the story, are the same as the talismans which - appear so often in Gaelic tales ... the glittering weapon which - destroys, and the sacred medicinal cup which cures."--J. F. - CAMPBELL. - - "In all the Fenian stories mention is made of Fionn's healing - cup ... it is the same as the Holy Grail of course."--J. F. - CAMPBELL. - - - London: - DAVID NUTT, 270-71, STRAND. - 1888. - - - - - HARRISON AND SONS, - PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY, - ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON. - - - - -DEDICATION. - - - To the Memory - OF - J. F. CAMPBELL, - FROM WHOM - I FIRST LEARNT TO LOVE CELTIC TRADITION. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - CHAPTER I. - - Description of the leading forms of the Romance: Conte del - Graal--Joseph d'Arimathie--Didot-Perceval--Queste del Saint - Graal--Grand Saint Graal--Parzival--Perceval le Gallois-- - Mabinogi of Peredur--Sir Perceval--Diu Crone--Information - respecting date and authorship of these works in the MSS. page 1 - - - CHAPTER II. - - Summaries--Conte du Graal: Pseudo-Chrestien, Chrestien, - Gautier de Doulens, Manessier, Gerbert--Wolfram--Heinrich von - dem Tuerlin--Didot-Perceval--Mabinogi of Peredur--Thornton MS. - Sir Perceval--Queste del Saint Graal--Grand Saint Graal-- - Robert de Borron's poem, Joseph of Arimathea page 8 - - - CHAPTER III. - - The legend formed of two portions: Early History of Grail, - Quest--Two forms of each portion distinguished--Grouping of - the various versions--Alternative hypotheses of development-- - Their bearing upon the alleged Celtic origin of the Grail-- - Closer examination of the various accounts of the Grail: The - first use made of it and its first possessor; its solace of - Joseph; its properties and the effect produced by it; its - name; its arrival in England; the Grail-keeper and his - relationship to the Promised Knight--Three different stages - in the development of the Queste--The work and the - qualification of the Promised Knight--Conclusions: Priority - over Early History of Quest--Chronological arrangement of the - versions page 65 - - - CHAPTER IV. - - SKETCH OF THE LITERATURE CONNECTED WITH THE GRAIL CYCLE. - - Villemarque--Halliwell--San Marte (A. Schulz)--Simrock-- - Rochat--Furnivall's reprint of the Grand St. Graal and of - Borron--J. F. Campbell--Furnivall's Queste--Paulin Paris-- - Potvin's Conte du Graal--Bergmann--Skeat's Joseph of - Arimathea--Hucher: Grail Celtic, date of Borron--Zarncke, Zur - Geschichte der Gralsage; Grail belongs to Christian - legend--Birch-Hirschfeld develops Zarncke's views: Grand St. - Graal younger than Queste, both presuppose Chrestien and an - earlier Queste, the Didot-Perceval, which forms integral part - of Borron's trilogy; Mabinogi later than Chrestien; various - members of the cycle dated--Martin combats Birch-Hirschfeld: - Borron later than Chrestien, whose poem represents oldest - stage of the romance, which has its roots in Celtic - tradition--Hertz--Criticism of Birch-Hirschfeld page 97 - - - CHAPTER V. - - Relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du Graal--The - former not the source of the latter--Relationship of the - Conte du Graal and the Mabinogi--Instances in which the - Mabinogi has copied Chrestien--Examples of its independence-- - The incident of the blood drops in the snow--Differences - between the two works--The machinery of the Mabinogi and the - traces of it in the Conte du Graal--The stag hunt--The - Mabinogi and Manessier--The sources of the Conte du Graal and - the relation of the various parts to a common original--Sir - Perceval--Steinbach's theory--Objections to it--The counsels - in the Conte du Graal--Wolfram and the Mabinogi--Absence of - the Grail from the apparently oldest Celtic form page 127 - - - CHAPTER VI. - - The Lay of the Great Fool--Summary of the Prose Opening--The - Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula--Comparison with the - Mabinogi, Sir Perceval, and the Conte du Graal--Comparison - with various Gaelic maerchen, the Knight of the Red Shield, - the Rider of Grianaig--Originality of the Highland tale-- - Comparison with the Fionn legend--Summary of the Lay of the - Great Fool--Comparison with the stag hunt incident in the - Conte du Graal and the Mabinogi--The folk-tale of the twin - brethren--The fight against the witch who brings the dead to - life in Gerbert and the similar incident in the folk-tale of - the Knight of the Red Shield--Comparison with the original - form of the Mabinogi--Originality of Gerbert page 152 - - - CHAPTER VII. - - The various forms of the visit to the Grail Castle in the - romances--Conte du Graal: Chrestien; Gautier-Manessier; - Gautier-Gerbert--Didot-Perceval--Mabinogi--Conte du Graal; - Gawain's visit to the Grail Castle--Heinrich von dem - Tuerlin--Conte du Graal: Perceval's visit to the Castle of - Maidens--Inconsistency of these varying accounts; their - testimony to stories of different nature and origin being - embodied in the romances--Two main types: feud quest and - unspelling quest--Reasons for the confusion of the two - types--Evidence of the confusion in older Celtic literature-- - The Grail in Celtic literature: the gear of the Tuatha de - Danann; the cauldron in the Ultonian cycle; the Mabinogi of - Branwen; vessel of balsam and glaive of light in the - contemporary folk-tale--The sword in Celtic literature: - Tethra; Fionn; Manus--Parallels to the Bespelled Castle; the - Brug of Oengus, the Brug of Lug, the Brug of Manannan Mac - Lir, Bran's visit to the Island of Women, Cormac Mac Art, and - the Fairy Branch; Diarmaid and the Daughter of King Under the - Waves--Unspelling stories: The Three Soldiers; the waiting of - Arthur; Arthur in Etna; the Kyffhaeuser Legend, objections to - Martin's views concerning it--Gawain's visit to the Magic - Castle and Celtic parallels; The Son of Bad Counsel; Fionn in - Giant Land; Fionn in the House of Cuana; Fionn and the Yellow - Face--The Vanishing of the Bespelled Castle--Comparison with - the Sleeping Beauty cycle--The "Haunted Castle" form and its - influence on Heinrich's version--The Loathly Grail Messenger page 170 - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - The Fisher King in the Conte du Graal, in the Queste, and in - Borron and the Grand St. Graal--The accounts of latter - complete each other--The Fish is the Salmon of Wisdom-- - Parallel with the Fionn Saga--The nature of the Unspelling - Quest--The Mabinogi of Taliesin and its mythological - affinities--Brons, Bran, Cernunnos--Perceval's silence: Conte - du Graal explanation late; explanation from the Fionn Saga-- - Comparison of incident with _geasa_; nature of latter; - references to it in Celtic folk-tales and in old Irish - literature, Book of Rights, Diarmaid, Cuchulainn--_Geasa_ and - _taboo_ page 207 - - - CHAPTER IX. - - Summing up of the elements of the older portion of the - cycle--Parallelism with Celtic tradition--The Christian - element in the cycle: the two forms of the Early History; - Brons form older--Brons and Bran--The Bran conversion - legend--The Joseph conversion legend, Joseph in apocryphal - literature, the Evangelium Nicodemi--The Bran legend the - starting point of the Christian transformation of the - legend--Substitution of Joseph for Bran--Objection to this - hypothesis--Hypothetical sketch of the growth of the legend page 215 - - - CHAPTER X. - - The Moral and Spiritual import of the Grail-Legend - universally recognised--Popularity of the Arthurian Romance-- - Reasons for that Popularity--Affinities of the Mediaeval - Romances with early Celtic Literature; Importance of the - Individual Hero; Knighthood; the _role_ of Woman; the Celtic - Fairy and the Mediaeval Lady; the Supernatural--M. Renan's - views--The Quest in English Literature, Malory--The earliest - form of the Legend, Chrestien, his continuators--The Queste - and its Ideal--The Sex-Relations in the Middle Ages-- - Criticism of Mr. Furnivall's estimate of the moral import of - the Queste--The Merits of the Queste--The Chastity Ideal in - the later versions--Modern English Treatments: Tennyson, - Hawker--Possible Source of the Chastity Ideal in Popular - Tradition--The Perceval Quest in Wolfram; his Moral - Conception; the Question; Parzival and Conduiramur--The - Parzival Quest and Faust--Wagner's Parsifal--The Christian - element in the Legend--Ethical Ideas in the folk-tale - originals of the Grail Romances: the Great Fool; the Sleeping - Beauty--Conclusion page 228 - - - APPENDIX A.: The Relationship of Wolfram to Chrestien page 261 - - - APPENDIX B.: The Grand St. Graal Prologue and the Brandan - Legend page 264 - - - INDEX I. The Dramatis Personae of the Legend page 266 - - - INDEX II. page 275 - - - - -INTRODUCTION. - - -The present work is, as its title states, a collection of "Studies." It -does not profess to give an exhaustive or orderly account of the Grail -romance cycle; it deals with particular aspects of the legend, and makes -no pretence of exhausting even these. - -It may be urged that as this is the case the basis of the work is too -broad for the superstructure, and that there was no need to give full -summaries of the leading forms of the legend, or to discuss at such length -their relation one to another, when it was only intended to follow up one -of the many problems which this romance cycle presents. Had there existed -any work in English which did in any measure what the writer has here -attempted to do, he would only too gladly have given more space and more -time to the elaboration of the special subject of these studies. But the -only work of the kind is in German, _Birch-Hirschfeld's Die Gralsage_. -Many interested in the Arthurian romances do not know German; and some who -profess an interest in them, and who do know German, are not, to judge by -their writings, acquainted with Birch-Hirschfeld's work. It seemed worth -while, therefore, to present the facts about the cycle with greater -fulness than would have been necessary had those facts been generally -accessible. The writer felt, too, that whatever judgment might be passed -upon his own speculations, his statements of fact might give his book some -value in the eyes of students. He also wished to give all who felt an -interest in the line of investigation he opened up the opportunity of -pursuing it further, or the means of checking his assertions and -conjectures. - -The writer has taken his texts as he found them. He has studied the -subject matter of the romances, not the words in which they have been -handed down. Those who seek for philological disquisitions are, therefore, -warned that they will find nothing to interest them; and those scholars -who are well acquainted with the printed texts, but who are on the search -for fresh MS. evidence, must not look here for such. On the other hand, as -the printed texts are for the most of such rarity and price as to be -practically inaccessible to anyone not within reach of a large library, -the writer trusts that his abstract of them will be welcome to many. He -has striven to take note of all works of real value bearing upon the -subject. He endeavoured, though unsuccessfully, to obtain a copy of M. -Gaston Paris' account of the Arthurian romances which, though it has been -for some months in print, is not yet published. - -The writer has done his best to separate the certain from the conjectural. -Like M. Renan, in a similar case, he begs the reader to supply the -"perhaps" and the "possibly's" that may sometimes have dropt out. The -whole subject is fraught with difficulty, and there are special reasons -why all results must for some time to come be looked upon as conjectural. -These are glanced at here and there in the course of these studies, but it -may be well to put them together in this place. Firstly, whatever opinions -be held as to which are the older forms of the legend, it is certain that -in no one case do we possess a primary form. All the versions that have -come down to us presuppose, even where they do not actually testify to, a -model. Two of the forms which there is substantial agreement in reckoning -among the oldest, the poems of Chrestien de Troyes and Robert de Borron, -were never finished by the authors; sequels exist to both, of a later date -and obviously affected by other forms of the legend. A reconstruction of -the original story is under these circumstances a task of great -uncertainty. So much for the difficulty inherent in the nature of the -evidence, a difficulty which it is to be feared will always beset the -student of this literature, as no new texts are likely to be found. -Secondly, this evidence, such as it is, is not accessible in a form of -which the most can be made. The most important member of the group, the -Conte du Graal, only exists in one text, and that from a late and poor -MS. It is certain that a critical edition, based upon a survey of the -entire MS. evidence, will throw great light upon all the questions here -treated of. The Mabinogi of Peredur has not yet been critically edited, -nor have the MSS. of the other romances yielded up all that can be learnt -from them. Thirdly, whatever opinion be held respecting the connection of -the North French romances and Celtic tradition, connection of some kind -must be admitted. Now the study of Celtic tradition is only beginning to -be placed upon a firm basis, and the stores of Celtic myth and legend are -only beginning to be thrown open to the non-Celtic scholar. Were there in -existence a Celtic parallel to Grimm's great work on German Mythology, the -views for which the writer contends would have been, in all likelihood, -admitted ere now, and there would have been no necessity for this work at -all. - -Whilst some of the reasons which render the study of the Grail legends so -fascinating, because so problematic, will probably always remain in force, -others will vanish before the increase of knowledge. When the diplomatic -evidence is accessible in a trustworthy form; when the romances have -received all the light that can be shed upon them from Celtic history, -philology, and mythology, the future student will have a comparatively -easy task. One of the writer's chief objects has been to excite an -interest in these romances among those who are able to examine the Celtic -elements in them far more efficiently than he could do. Welsh philologists -can do much to explain the _Onomasticon Arthurianum_; Cymric history -generally may elucidate the subject matter. But as a whole Welsh -literature is late, meagre, and has kept little that is archaic. The study -of Irish promises far better results. Of all the races of modern Europe -the Irish have the most considerable and the most archaic mass of -pre-Christian traditions. By the side of their heroic traditional -literature that of Cymry or Teuton (High and Low), or Slav is recent, -scanty, and unoriginal. - -A few words must be said in defence of the free use made of conjecture in -the course of these studies. This is well nigh unavoidable from the way in -which the texts we have to deal with have come down to us. What M. Renan -has said about the Hebrew historical scriptures is excellently exemplified -in the Grail romances. There was no fixed text, no definite or rounded -sequence of incidents, of which scribes respected the integrity. On the -contrary, each successive transcriber was only anxious to add some fresh -adventure to the interminable tale, and those MSS. were most thought of -which contained the greatest number of lines. The earlier MSS. have, -therefore, almost entirely disappeared, and we are dealing with works -which we know to have been composed in the twelfth century, but of which -we have only thirteenth or fourteenth century transcripts. Inconsistencies -in the conduct of the story are the inevitable consequence in most cases, -but sometimes the latest arranger had an eye for unity of effect, and -attained this by the simple process of altering the old account so as to -make it fit with the new. In dealing with the text of an _individual_ -author, whether ancient or modern, it would be in the last degree -uncritical to explain difficulties by such hypotheses as the loss of an -earlier draft, or the foisting into the work of later and incongruous -incidents and conceptions. Not so in the case of the romances; this method -of explanation is natural and legitimate, but none the less is it largely -conjectural. - -The writer may be blamed for not having presented his subject in a more -engaging and more lucid form. He would plead in excuse the circumstances -under which his work has been carried on. When the only hours of study are -those which remain after the claims, neither few nor light, of business -and other duties have been met, it is hard to give an appearance of unity -to a number of minute detail studies, and to weld them together into one -harmonious whole. The fact that the work has been written, and printed, at -considerable intervals of time may, it is hoped, be accepted as some -excuse for inconsistency in the terminology. - -The writer has many acknowledgments to make. First and chief to Dr. -Birch-Hirschfeld, but for whose labours, covering well nigh the whole -field of the Grail cycle, he would not have been able to take in hand his -work at all; then to Dr. Furnivall, to whose enthusiasm and spirit the -publication of some of the most important texts are due. In these two -cases the writer acknowledges his gratitude with the more readiness that -he has felt compelled to come to an opposite conclusion from that arrived -at by Dr. Birch-Hirschfeld respecting the genesis and growth of the -legend, and because he has had to differ from Dr. Furnivall's estimate of -the moral value of the Galahad romances. To M. Hucher, to Mons. Ch. -Potvin, the editor, single-handed, of the Conte du Graal, to M. d'Arbois -de Jubainville, to Professor Ernst Martin, to the veteran San-Marte, to -Herr Otto Kuepp, and to Herr Paul Steinbach, these studies owe much. -Professor Rhys' Hibbert Lectures came into the writer's hands as he was -preparing the latter portion of the book for the press; they were of great -service to him, and he was especially gratified to find opinions at which -he had arrived confirmed on altogether independent grounds by Professor -Rhys' high authority. The writer is also indebted to him, to Mr. H. L. D. -Ward, of the British Museum, and to his friend Mr. Egerton Phillimore for -help given while the sheets were passing through the press. Lastly, the -writer desires to pay an especial tribute of gratitude and respect to that -admirable scholar, J. F. Campbell. Of all the masters in folk-lore, Jacob -Grimm not excepted, none had a keener eye or surer, more instinctively -right judgment. - -Although the writer admits, nay, insists upon the conjectural character of -his results, he believes he is on the right track, and that if the Grail -romances be worked out from any other point of view than the one here -taken, the same goal will be reached. It should be said that some of the -conclusions, which he can claim as his own by right of first mention, were -stated by him in a paper he read before the Folk-Lore Society in 1880 -(afterwards reprinted, Celtic Magazine, 1887, August-October); and in a -paper he read before the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, in 1884. - -These studies have been a delight and a solace to the writer; had it been -otherwise, he would still feel himself amply repaid for his work by the -thought that he had made a contribution, however slight, to the criticism -of the Legend of the Holy Grail. - - - - -ERRATA. - - -[The reader is kindly begged to mark in these corrections before using the -book.] - - Page 22, line 12, _for_ Corbierc _read_ Corbiere. - " 25, line 37, _insert_ Passion _before_ Week. - " 30, 7 lines from bottom, _for_ Avallon _read_ Avalon. - " 85, line 24, _for_ Percival _read_ Perceval. - " 86, line 12, _for_ Percival _read_ Perceval. - " 90, 5 lines from bottom, _for_ Pelleur _read_ Pelleans. - " 102, line 22, _for_ seems _read_ seem. - " 120, line 3, _for_ 1180 _read_ 1189. - " 124, line 29, _for_ Bron _read_ Brons. - " 156, line 11, _insert_ comma _after_ specially. - " 159, line 11, _for_ Henessey _read_ Hennessy. - " 163, note, _i.e._, _for_ Graal _read_ Gaal. - " 183, line 23, _insert_ comma _after_ more. - " 188, line 5, _for_ euphemerised _read_ euhemerised. - " 188, line 5, _for_ invasion _read_ invasions. - " 188, line 17, _for_ mystic _read_ mythic. - " 189, line 1, _for_ LXXVII _read_ LXXXII. - " 197, note, _for_ Carl the Great _read_ Karl the Great. - " 200, line 12, _insert_ comma _after_ plight; _dele_ comma _after_ - love. - " 201, 1 line from bottom, _insert_ late _before_ mediaeval. - " 204, note, _for_ Percival _read_ Perceval. - " 217, line 23, _for_ mystic _read_ mythic. - - - - -STUDIES ON THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - - Description of the leading forms of the Romance: Conte del - Graal--Joseph d'Arimathie--Didot-Perceval--Queste del Saint - Graal--Grand Saint Graal--Parzival--Perceval le Gallois--Mabinogi of - Peredur--Sir Perceval--Diu Crone--Information respecting date and - authorship of these works in the MSS. - - -The following are the forms in which the Legend of the Holy Grail has come -down to us:-- - -A.--=Le Conte del Graal=, a poem of over 60,000 verses, the major part of -which (45,379 verses) was printed for the first time by Potvin: Le Conte -del Graal, six volumes, 8vo. (vols. ii.-vi. containing our poem), Mons, -1866-71, from a MS. preserved in the Mons Library.[1] The portion of the -poem which is not printed in full is summarised by Potvin in the sixth -volume of his edition. The poem, so far as at present known, is the work -of four men: - - A I. Chrestien de Troyes, who carried the work down to verse 10,601. - - A II. Gautier de Doulens, who continued it to verse 34,934. - - A III. Manessier, who finished it in 45,379 verses. - - A IV. Gerbert, to whom are due over 15,000 verses, mostly found - interpolated between Gautier de Doulens and Manessier. - -A MS. preserved in the Library of Montpellier[2] differs in important -respects from the Mons one as far as Gautier de Doulens and Manessier are -concerned. It intercalates 228 verses between verses 20,294 and 20,296 of -the Mons MS., and gives a different redaction of verses 34,996-35,128 in -agreement with the aforesaid intercalation. It likewise mentions two -visits of Gawain to the Grail Castle. The intercalation in Gautier may be -called A II_a_, and the variant in Manessier A III_a_. - -B.--=Joseph d'Arimathie, Merlin=, exists in two forms: (1) a fragmentary -metrical version entitled in the sole existing MS. (Bibliotheque -Nationale, No. 20,047. Fonds St. Germain, No. 1,987) Li R(o)manz de l'est -(o)ire dou Graal, and consisting of 4,018 verses, 3,514 for the Joseph, -the remainder, for about one-fifth of the Merlin. First printed by -Francisque Michel: Le Roman du St. Graal. Bordeaux, 1841. Secondly by -Furnivall: Seynt Graal or the Sank Ryal. Printed for the Roxburghe Club, -two volumes, 4to., London, 1861-63, where it is found in an appendix at -the end of vol i. (2) A prose version of which several MSS. exist, all of -which are fully described by E. Hucher: Le Saint-Graal, ou le Joseph -d'Arimathie, three volumes, 12mo., Le Mans, 1875-78, vol. i., pp. 1-28. -The chief are: the Cange MS. (_circa_ 1250) of which Hucher prints the -Joseph, vol. i., pp. 209-276, and the Didot MS., written in 1301, of which -Hucher prints the Joseph, vol. i., pp. 277-333. Hucher likewise gives, -vol. i., pp. 335-365, variants from the Huth MS. (_circa_ 1280). - -These different versions may be numbered as follows:-- - - B I. The metrical version, which I shall always quote as Metr. Jos., - from Furnivall's edition. - - B II. The prose versions: B II_a_, Cange Jos.; B II_b_, Didot Jos.; B - II_c_, Huth Jos., all quoted from Hucher, vol. i. - -C.--=Perceval=, prose romance found in the already-mentioned Didot MS. at -the end of the Merlin, printed by Hucher, vol. i., pp. 415-505, from which -it will be quoted as Didot-Perceval. - -D.--=Queste del Saint Graal=, prose romance commonly found in the MSS. in -combination with Lancelot and the Mort Artur. Edited by Furnivall: La -Queste del St. Graal. Printed for the Roxburghe Club, 4to., London, 1864. -The introduction contains a full account of the existing MSS. A different -redaction from that of any of the known French MSS. is preserved in a -Welsh translation, printed, with a modern English version by the editor, -from a fifteenth century Hengwrt MS., by the Rev. Robert Williams: Y Seint -Graal, London, 8vo., 1876. I shall quote-- - - D I. Queste, from Furnivall's edition. - - D II. Welsh Quest, from Williams' edition. - -E.--The so-called =Grand Saint Graal=, prose romance found in the MSS., -both preceding the Merlin and the Queste, and preceding the Queste and the -Mort Artur. Printed by Furnivall from Cambridge and Brit. Mus. MSS., -together with a metrical English adaptation by Henry Lonelich, of about -the time of Henry the VIth, in the already-mentioned Seynt Graal; and by -Hucher, vols. ii. and iii., from a Le Mans MS.; will be quoted as Grand -St. Graal, from Furnivall's edition. - -F.--=Parzival=, by Wolfram von Eschenbach, German metrical romance, -critically edited from the MSS. by Karl Lachmann, Wolfram von Eschenbach, -Vierte Ausgabe, 8vo., Berlin, 1879, from which it will be quoted as -Wolfram. - -G.--=Perceval le Gallois=, prose romance, first printed by Potvin, vol. i. -of his Conte del Graal, from a Mons MS., with variants from a fragmentary -Berne MS. (as to both of which see pp. 353, etc.). A Welsh translation, -with modern English version by the editor, made from a MS. closely allied -to the Berne fragments, and representing a superior text to that printed -by Potvin, in Williams' already-mentioned Y Seint Graal. - -Besides these works there exist two versions of the Perceval legend in -which the Holy Grail, as such, does not appear. These are:-- - -H.--=The Mabinogi of Peredur, the son of Evrawc=, Welsh prose romance -found in the Red Book of Hergest, a MS. of the end of the fourteenth -century, and in MSS. a hundred years older. I shall quote it as Peredur, -from Lady Guest's English translation of the Mabinogion, 8vo., London, -1877. - -I.--=Sir Perceval of Galles=, English metrical romance, printed for the -first time from the Thornton MS., of _circa_ 1440, by Halliwell: The -Thornton Romances, printed for the Camden Society, small 4to., London, -1884; from which I shall quote it as Sir Perceval. - -Finally there exists an independent German version of certain adventures, -the hero of which in the Conte du Graal, in Wolfram, and in the Mabinogi, -is Gawain. This is-- - -K.--=Heinrich von dem Tuerlin.= Diu Crone. Edited by G. H. F. Scholl. -Bibliothek des Litterarischen Vereins, vol. xxvii., Stuttgart, 1852. - -The positive information which the different MSS. of the above mentioned -works afford respecting their authors, date of composition, sources, etc., -is as follows:--In the prologue to his poem, Chrestien (Potvin i., pp. -307-308) dedicates his work to "Li quens Felippes de Flandres," who as he -states (verse 67), "li bailla le livre," which served him as model, and -whom he praises at great length as surpassing Alexander. We know that -Count Philip of Flanders took the cross in 1188, set out for the Holy Land -in 1190, and died on the 1st of June, 1191, before Akkon.[3] As Chrestien -says not a word about the crusading intentions of Philip, it may be -inferred that he wrote his prologue before 1188, and began the poem in -1189 at the latest. Gautier de Doulens (probably of that ilk, in Picardy, -some miles from Amiens)[4] has only left his name, verse 33,755, Gautiers -de Dons qui l'estore, etc. Manessier the next continuator has been more -explicit; he describes himself as completing the work at the command -of ... - - Jehanne la Comtesse - Qu'est de Flandre dame et mestresse. - (Potvin, vi., p. 157.) - -This Joan, daughter of Baldwin the VIth, ruled Flanders _alone_ during the -imprisonment of her husband after the battle of Bouvines (1214-1227), and -Manessier's words can only apply to her during this period, so that his -continuation must have been written between 1214-1227.[5] The third -continuator, Gerbers, only mentions his name (Potvin, vi., p. 212). - -The author of version B, names himself, B I, verse 3,461, Messires Roberz -de Beron; verses 3,488-94 state that no mortal man had told the story, -until he had it from - - Mon seigneur Gautier en peis - Qui de Mont Belyal estoit. - -Verse 3,155 gives the name somewhat differently, Meistres Robers dist de -Bouron. The prose versions follow the poem with additions, thus Cange Jos. -(p. 275); Messires Roberz de Borron lou restrait a mon seigneur Gautier, -lou preu conte de Mobeliart. - -Walter of Montbeliard, brother to Count Richard of Montbeliard, went to -the Holy Land in 1199, became Constable of Jerusalem, Regent of Cyprus, -and died in 1212. The date of his birth is uncertain, but as his elder -brother died in 1237, Walter could hardly have been born before 1150. His -father, Amadeus, died in 1183, in which year he received the countship of -Montfaucon. It may only have been after he thus became independent that -Robert entered his service. In any case Robert could not have spoken of -him as "mon seigneur," before 1170. That year may, therefore, be taken as -a _terminus a quo_, and the year 1212 as a _terminus ad quem_ for dating -these versions. - -The Grand St. Graal is likewise ascribed in the MSS. to Robert de Borron, -and it is further stated that he translated from Latin into French--Et -ensi le temoigne me sires robiers de borron qui a translatee de latin en -franchois cheste estoire (ii. p. 78). - -The Queste ascribed in the MSS. to Walter Mapes, is said to have been -compiled by him for the love of his lord, King Henry--maistre Gautiers Map -les extrait pour l'amor del roy Henri son seignor, qui fist l'estore -translater du latin en francois[6]--Walter Mapes, born before 1143 (he -presided at the assizes of Gloucester in 1173), died in 1210. If we may -believe the MSS., the Queste would probably fall within the last -twenty-five years of the twelfth century. - -The author of Perceval le Gallois describes himself (Potvin, i., 348) as -writing the book for the "Seignor de Neele," whose Christian name, -"Johan," is given four lines lower down, at the command of the "Seingnor -de Cambresis," _i.e._, the Bishop of Cambray. This John of Nesle is -probably the one who in the year 1225 sold the lordship of Bruges to -Countess Joan of Flanders.[7] - -Wolfram von Eschenbach, of that ilk, in North Bavaria, born in the last -thirty years of the twelfth century, died about 1220. He knew Chrestien's -poem well, and repeatedly refers to it, but with great contempt, as being -the wrong version of the story, whereas he holds the true version from -Kyot, the singer, a "Provenzal," who found the tale of Parzival written in -heathen tongue at Dolet (Toledo), by Flegetanis, a heathen who first -taught concerning the Grail, put it into French, and after searching the -chronicles of Britain, France, and Ireland in vain, at length found -information in the chronicles of Anjou (pp. 202 and 219). - -Nothing is stated in the works themselves respecting the authors of the -Mabinogi and the Thornton Sir Perceval. - -Heinrich von dem Tuerlin frequently quotes Chrestien as his authority, -_e.g._, verses 16,941, 23,046, 23,982. - -If these various statements are to be accepted, it follows that in the -course of fifty years (1170-1220) a great body of romance came into -existence, partly in France, Chrestien, his continuators, and Robert de -Borron; partly in England, Walter Mapes; and partly in Germany, Wolfram -von Eschenbach, and Heinrich von dem Tuerlin. Of this body of romance only -a portion has come down to us, the work of Kyot and the Latin originals of -the Queste and the Grand St. Graal having disappeared. Furthermore, it is -only possible to date with any accuracy three or four of the works, viz., -Chrestien, Manessier, Wolfram (whose poem falls certainly within the first -ten years of the thirteenth century), though it may also be taken as -certain that R. de Borron wrote after 1170, and the anonymous author of -Perceval le Gallois before 1225. Of the dated works Chrestien's is the -oldest, 1188-90, and it postulates the existence of previous versions. - -The object of the present investigation being to determine, as far as -possible, the age and relationship to one another of the different -versions which have come down to us, to exhibit the oldest form of the -story as we have it, and to connect it with Celtic traditional belief and -literature, it will be well, before proceeding to further discuss the -various points left doubtful by the evidence gathered from the MSS., to -give clear and detailed summaries of the most important versions. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - - Summaries--Conte du Graal: Pseudo-Chrestien, Chrestien, Gautier de - Doulens, Manessier, Gerbert--Wolfram--Heinrich von dem - Tuerlin--Didot-Perceval--Mabinogi of Peredur--Thornton MS. Sir - Perceval--Queste del Saint Graal--Grand Saint Graal--Robert de - Borron's poem, Joseph of Arimathea. - - -=The Conte du Graal.=--PSEUDO-CHRESTIEN.[8]--The story tells of the -"Graal," whose mysteries, if Master Blihis lie not, none may reveal; it -falls into seven parts, and shows how the rich land of Logres was -destroyed. (1) In the wells and springs of that land harboured damsels who -fed the wayfarer with meat and pasties and bread. But King Amangons did -wrong to one and carried off her golden cup, so that never more came -damsels out of the springs to comfort the wanderer. And the men of King -Amangons followed his evil example. Thereafter the springs dried up, and -the grass withered, and the land became waste, and no more might be found -the court of the Rich Fisher, which had filled the land with plenty and -splendour. (2) The Knights of the Table Round, learning the ill done to -the damsels, set forth to protect them; they found them not, but fair -damsels wandering in the woods, each with her knight; with the latter they -strove, and when they overcame them sent them to Arthur. Thus came Blihos -Bliheris to Arthur's court conquered by Gauvain; he knew goodly tales and -he told how the wandering damsels were sprung from those ravished by King -Amangons. So long would they wander till God gave them to find the court, -whence joy and splendour would come to the land. (3) Arthur's knights -resolved to seek the court of the Rich Fisher--much knew he of black art, -more than an hundred times changed he his semblance, that no man seeing -him again recognised him. Gauvain found it, and had great joy therefrom; -but before him a young knight, small of age, but none bolder of -courage--Percevaus li Galois was he--he asked whereto the Grail served, -but nought of the lance why it dripped blood, nor of the sword one half of -which was away whilst the other lay in the bier. But he asked surely -concerning the rich cross of silver. Now in the room three times there -arose such great sorrow that no man who heard it, so bold he might be but -feared. Afterwards the room filled and the king came in, full richly -dressed, so that he might hardly be known of them that had seen him the -day before, fishing. And when all were sat down the Grail came in, and -without serjeant nor seneschal served all present, and 'twas wonder what -food it gave them. And then came the great marvel which has not its like. -But Perceval will tell of this, so I must say no more; it is a great shame -to tell beforehand what is in a good tale. When the good knight shall come -who found the court three times you shall hear me tell of Grail and lance, -and of him who lay in the bier, of the sword, of the grief and swooning of -all beholders. (4) Now the court was found seven times, and each time -shall have a fresh tale:-- - - The seventh (the most pleasing) tells of the lance wherewith Longis - pierced the side of the King of holy Majesty; - - The sixth of warlike feats; - - The fifth of the anger and loss of Huden; The fourth of heaven, for he - was no coward, the knight Mors del Calan, who first came to Glamorgan; - - The third of the hawk whereof Castrars had such fear--Pecorins, the - son of Amangons, bore all his days the wound on his forehead; - - The second has not yet been told; it tells of the great sorrows - Lancelot of the Lake had there where he lost his virtue; - - And the last is the adventure of the shield, never a better one was - there. - -(5) After this adventure the land was repeopled; court and grail were -found; the streams ran again; the meadows were green, the forests thick -and leafy; so that all folk marvelled. But there came back a folk, the -same that came out of the springs (save they were not cooks), a caitiff -set, and built for their damsels the rich Maidens' Castel, and the Bridge -Perillous, and Castel Orguellous, and warred against the Table Round. In -the castle were 376, each sire of 20 knights. And not till after four -years did Arthur overcome them and was there peace. - -_(Here beginneth the Story of the Grail.)_ - -(6) There were in the land of Wales twelve knights, of whom Bliocadrans -alone survived, so eager were they in seeking tournament and combats. -After living for two years with his wife, childless, Bliocadrans set forth -to a tournament given by the King of Wales and Cornwall against them of -the Waste Fountain. At first successful, he is at length slain. A few days -after his departure his wife has borne a son. When at length she learns -her husband's death, she takes counsel with her chamberlain, and -pretending a pilgrimage to St. Brandan, in Scotland, withdraws to the -Waste Forest far removed from all men. Here she brings up her son, and -though she allows him to hunt in the forest, warns him against men covered -with iron--they are devils. He promises to follow her counsel, and -thenceforth he goes into the forest alone. - -=The Conte du Graal.=--(_a_) CHRESTIEN.--(1) When as trees and meadows -deck themselves with green, and birds sing, the son of the widow lady goes -out into the wood. He meets five knights, and, as their weapons shine in -the sun, takes them for angels, after having first thought them to be the -devils his mother had warned him against. He prays to them as his mother -has taught him. One of the knights asks if he has seen five knights and -three maidens who had passed that way, but he can but reply with questions -concerning the arms and trappings of the knights. He learns of Arthur the -King who makes knights, and when he returns to his mother tells her he has -beheld a more beautiful thing than God and His angels, knights namely, and -he too will become one. In vain his mother tells him of his father's and -his two elder brothers' fates, slain in battle. Nothing will serve, so the -mother makes him a dress of coarse linen and leather, and before he leaves -counsels him as follows: If dame or damsel seek his aid he is to give it, -he is to do naught displeasing to them, but to kiss the maiden who is -willing, and to take ring and girdle of her if he can; to go for long with -no fellow-traveller whose name he knows not, to speak with and consort -with worthy men, to pray to our Lord when he comes to church or convent. -She then tells him of Jesus Christ, the Holy Prophet. He departs clad and -armed in Welsh fashion, and his mother swoons as though dead. (2) Perceval -comes to a tent in the wood, and, taking it for a convent, goes in and -finds sleeping on a bed a damsel, whom the neighing of his horse wakes. In -pursuance of his mother's counsel he kisses her more than twenty times, -takes her ring from her, and eats and drinks of her provisions. Thereafter -he rides forth, and her lover returning and hearing what has taken place, -swears to avenge himself upon the intruder, and until such time the -damsel, whose tale he disbelieves, is to follow him barefoot and not to -change her raiment. (3) Perceval learns the way to Carduel from a -charcoal-burner; arrived there, he sees a knight coming forth from the -castle and bearing a golden cup in his hand, clad in red armour, who -complains of Arthur as having robbed him of his land. Perceval rides into -the castle hall and finds the court at meat. Arthur, lost in thought, pays -no attention to the first two salutations of Perceval, who then turns his -horse to depart, and in so doing knocks off the King's hat. Arthur then -tells him how the Red Knight has carried off his cup, spilling its -contents over the Queen. Perceval cares not a rap for all this, but asks -to be made knight, whereat all laugh. Perceval insists, and claims the Red -Knight's armour. Kex bids him fetch them, whereat the King is displeased. -Perceval greets a damsel, who laughs and foretells he shall be the best -knight in the world. For this saying Kex strikes her, and kicks into the -fire a fool who had been wont to repeat that the damsel would not laugh -till she beheld the best of knights. (4) Perceval tarries no longer, but -follows the Red Knight, and bids him give up his arms and armour. They -fight, and Perceval slays his adversary with a cast of his dart. Yones, -who has followed him, finds him put to it to remove the knight's -armour--he will burn him out of it if need be--and shows him how to -disarm the dead man and to arm himself. Perceval then mounts the knight's -steed and rides off, leaving the cup to Yones to be given to the King, -with this message: he, Perceval, would come back to avenge the damsel of -the blow Kex struck her. (5) Perceval comes to a castle, in front of which -he finds an old knight, to whom he relates what has befallen him, and of -whom he asks counsel as his mother bade him. The knight, Gonemans of -Gelbort, takes him into his castle, teaches him the use of arms, and all -knightly practices. In especial he is to avoid over-readiness in speaking -and in asking questions, and to give over his habit of always quoting his -mother's counsels. He then dubs him knight, and sends him forth to return -to his mother. (6) After a day's journey Perceval comes to a town defended -by a castle, and, being allowed entrance therein, finds all waste and -deserted, even the very convents. The lady of the castle, a damsel of -surpassing beauty, welcomes him and bids him to table. Mindful of -Gonemans' counsels he remains silent, and she must speak to him first. She -turns out to be Gonemans' niece. At night the young stranger is shown to -his chamber, but the damsel cannot sleep for thought. Weeping she comes to -Perceval's bedside, and in reply to his wondering questions tells him how -the forces of King Clamadex encompass the castle, and how that on the -morrow she must yield, but rather than be Clamadex's she will slay -herself. He promises to help her, and bids her to him in the bed, which -she does, and they pass the night in each other's arms, mouth to mouth. On -the morrow he begs for her love in return for his promised aid, which she -half refuses, the more to urge him on. He fights with and overcomes -Aguigrenons, Clamadex's marshal, and sends him to Arthur's court. Clamadex -hearing of this tries afresh to starve out the castle, but a storm luckily -throws a passing ship ashore, and thereby reprovisions the besieged ones. -Clamadex then challenges Perceval, is overcome, and sent to Arthur's -court, where he arrives shortly after his marshal. They relate wonders -concerning the Red Knight, and the King is more than ever displeased with -Kex for having offended such a valiant warrior. After remaining for a -while with Blanchefleur, Perceval takes leave of her, as he longs to see -his mother again. (7) He comes to a river, upon which is a boat, and -therein two men fishing. One of them, in reply to his questions, directs -him for a night's shelter to his own castle hard by. Perceval starts for -it, and at first unable to find it reproaches the fisher. Suddenly he -perceives the castle before him, enters therein, is disarmed, clad in a -scarlet mantle, and led into a great hall. Therein is a couch upon which -lies an old man; near him is a fire, around which some four hundred men -are sitting. Perceval tells his host he had come from Biau-Repaire. A -squire enters, bearing a sword, and on it is written that it will never -break save in one peril, and that known only to the maker of it. 'Tis a -present from the host's niece to be bestowed where it will be well -employed. The host gives it to Perceval, "to whom it was adjudged and -destined." Hereupon enters another squire, bearing in his hand a lance, -from the head of which a drop of blood runs down on the squire's hand. -Perceval would have asked concerning this wonder, but he minds him of -Gonemans' counsel not to speak or inquire too much. Two more squires -enter, holding each a ten-branched candlestick, and with them a damsel, a -"graal" in her hands. The graal shines so that it puts out the light of -the candles as the sun does that of the stars. Thereafter follows a damsel -holding a (silver) plate. All defile past between the fire and the couch, -but Perceval does not venture to ask wherefore the graal is used. Supper -follows, and the graal is again brought, and Perceval, knowing not its -use, had fain asked, but always refrains when he thinks of Gonemans, and -finally puts off his questions till the morrow. After supper the guest is -led to his chamber, and on the morrow, awakening, finds the castle -deserted. No one answers his calls. Issuing forth he finds his horse -saddled and the drawbridge down. Thinking to find the castle dwellers in -the forest he rides forth, but the drawbridge closes so suddenly behind -him that had not the horse leapt quickly forward it had gone hard with -steed and rider. In vain Perceval calls: none answer. (8) He pricks on and -comes to an oak, beneath which sits a maid holding a dead knight in her -arms and lamenting over him. She asks him where he has passed the night, -and on learning it tells him the fisher who had directed him to the castle -and his host were one and the same; wounded by a spear thrust through both -thighs his only solace is in fishing, whence he is called the Fisher King. -She asks, had Perceval seen the bleeding lance, the graal, and the silver -dish? had he asked their meaning? No; then what is his name? He does not -know it, but she guesses it: Perceval le Gallois; but it should be -Perceval the Caitiff, for had he asked concerning what he saw, the good -king would have been made whole again, and great good have sprung -therefrom. He has also a heavy sin on his conscience in that his mother -died of grief when he left her. She herself is his cousin. Perceval asks -concerning the dead knight, and learning it is her lover offers to revenge -her upon his slayer. In return she tells him about the sword, how it will -fly in pieces if he have not care of it, and how it may be made whole -again by dipping it in a lake, near which dwells its maker, the smith -Trebucet. (9) Perceval leaves his cousin and meets, riding on a wretched -horse, a scantily and shabbily clad woman of miserable appearance, -lamenting her hard fate and unjust treatment. She is the lady of the tent -whose ring Perceval had carried off. She bids him fly her husband, the -Orgellous de la Lande. The latter appears, challenges Perceval, but is -overcome by him, convinced of his wife's innocence, compelled to take her -into favour again, and both must go to Arthur's court, relate the whole -story, and renew Perceval's promise to the damsel whom Kex had struck, to -avenge her. Arthur, when he hears of the deeds of the young hero, sets -forth with his whole court to seek him. (10) Snow has fallen, and a flock -of wild geese, blinded by the snow, has had one of its number wounded by a -falcon. Three blood drops have fallen on the snow, and Perceval beholding -them falls into deep thought on the red and white in his love's face. -Arthur and his knights come up with him. Saigremors sees him first, bids -him come, and, when he answers no word, tilts against him, but is -overthrown. Kex then trys his luck, but is unhorsed so rudely that arm and -leg are broken. Gauvain declares that love must be mastering the strange -knight's thoughts, approaches him courteously, tells his own name and -learns Perceval's, and brings the latter to Arthur, by whom he is received -with all honour. Perceval then learns it is Kex he has overthrown, thus -fulfilling his promise to the damsel whom Kex had smitten, and whose -knight he offers himself to be. (11) Perceval returns on the morrow with -the court to Carlion, and the next day at noon there comes riding on a -yellow mule a damsel more hideous than could be pictured outside hell. She -curses Perceval for having omitted to ask concerning the lance and graal; -had he done so the King would have been healed of his wound and ruled his -land in peace; now maidens will be put to shame, orphans and widows made, -and many knights slain. Turning to the King she tells of the adventures to -be achieved at the Castel Orgellous, where dwell five hundred and seventy -knights, each with his lady love. He, though, who would win the highest -renown must to Montesclaire to free the damsel held captive there. She -then departs. Gauvain will forth to the imprisoned damsel, Gifles to the -Castel Orgellous, and Perceval swears to rest no two nights in the same -place till he have learnt concerning graal and lance. (12) A knight, -Guigambresil, enters and accuses Gauvain of having slain his lord. The -latter sets forth at once to the King of Cavalon to clear himself of this -accusation. (13) On his way he meets the host of Melians, who is preparing -to take part in a tournament to approve himself worthy the love of the -daughter of Tiebaut of Tingaguel, who had hitherto refused his suit. -Gauvain rides on to Tingaguel to help its lord. On arriving at the castle -the eldest daughter jeers at him, whilst the youngest takes his part, -declaring him a better knight than Melians, whereat her sister is very -indignant. On the first day of the tournament Melians shows himself the -best knight, but the younger sister still declares her faith in Gauvain, -and has her ears boxed in consequence. She appeals to Gauvain to be her -knight and avenge the injury done her. He consents, overcomes Melians, -whose horse he sends to his little lady, and all other knights; then, -after telling his name, rides forth. (14) He meets two knights, the -younger of whom offers him hospitality, and sends him to his sister, -bidding her welcome him. She receives him kindly, and when, struck with -her beauty, he asks her favours, grants them at once. They are interrupted -by a steward, who reproaches her with giving her love to her father's -murderer, and calls upon the castle folk to attack Gauvain. The latter -defends himself until the return of Guigambresil, who reproaches the lord -of the castle for letting Gauvain be attacked, as he had expressed his -readiness to do single combat. Gauvain is then allowed to go, and is -excused the combat if within a year he can bring back the bleeding lance. -He sets off in search of it. (15) The tale returns to Perceval, who has -wandered about for five years without thinking of God, yet performing many -feats. He meets three knights accompanied by ladies, all clad in -penitents' dress. 'Twas a Good Friday, and the eldest knight rebukes -Perceval for riding fully armed on such a day. He must confess him to a -holy hermit who lives hard by. Perceval goes thither, accuses himself of -having forgotten God through his great grief at not learning the use of -the graal. The hermit reveals himself as his uncle, tells Perceval that he -is in sin as having caused his mother's death, and for that reason he -could not ask concerning lance and graal; but for her prayers he had not -lived till now. Perceval remains two days with his uncle, receives -absolution, and rides forth. (16) The story turns to Gauvain, who, after -Escalavon, finds beneath an oak a damsel lamenting over a wounded knight; -the latter advises Gauvain to push on, which he does, and comes upon a -damsel who receives him discourteously, and when at her bidding he has -fetched her horse from a garden hard by, mocks at him and rides off. He -follows, and culls on the way herbs with which he heals the wounded -knight. A squire rides up very hideous of aspect, mounted on a wretched -hack. Gauvain chastises him for discourteous answers; meanwhile the -wounded knight makes off with Gauvain's steed, making himself known as -Griogoras, whom Gauvain had once punished for ill-doing, Gauvain has to -follow the damsel upon the squire's hack, comes to a river, on the other -side of which is a castle, overcomes a knight who attacks him, during -which the damsel vanishes, is ferried across the stream, giving the -vanquished knight to the ferryman as toll; (17) comes on the morrow to the -Magic Castle, wherein damsels are held fast, awaiting a knight full of all -knightly virtues to restore their lands to the ladies, marry the damsels, -and put an end to the enchantments of the palace. Upon entering, Gauvain -sees a magnificent bed, seats himself therein, is assailed by magic art, -overcomes a lion, and is then acclaimed lord of the castle. He would then -leave the castle, but the ferryman says he may not, whereat Gauvain is -moved to anger. On the morrow, looking forth, Gauvain beholds the (18) -damsel who led him to the ford, accompanied by a knight. He hastens forth, -overcomes the knight, seeks again the damsel's love, but is sent by her to -the Ford Perillous. Here he meets Guiromelant, who loves Gauvain's sister, -Clarissant, a dweller in the Magic Castle. A combat is arranged to take -place after seven days. Upon his return to the damsel, named Orgellouse de -Logres, he is now well received by her. She hates Guiromelant for having -slain her lover, and has long sought a good knight to avenge her. -Guiromelant on his side hates Gauvain for having, as he says, -treacherously killed his father. Gauvain and Orgellouse return to the -Magic Castle. One of the queens who dwells there is mother to Arthur; the -second one, his daughter, mother to Gauvain. The latter gives his sister -Clarissant a ring Guiromelant had begged him, unknowing who he was, to -bring to her. He then sends a knight to Arthur to bid him and his whole -train come witness the fight 'twixt him and Guiromelant. The messenger -finds Arthur plunged in grief at Gauvain's absence.... - - * * * * * - -Here Chrestien's share breaks off abruptly in the middle of a sentence, -and the poem is taken up by - -(_b_) GAUTIER DE DOULENS.[9]--(1) Arthur and his court accept Gauvain's -invitation and make for the Castle of Wonders, the Queen whereof has -meantime made herself known to Gauvain as Ygene, Arthur's mother. The duel -between Gauvain and Guiromelant is hindered, and the latter weds Gauvain's -sister. (Montp. MS. here inserts a first visit of Gawain to Grail Castle, -which is substantially the same as the one it repeats afterwards in the -same place as the Mons MS.) Adventures of Arthur and Gauvain against Brun -de Branlant follow, of Gauvain with a maiden in a tent and her brother -Brandalis, of Carduel of Nantes, whose wife is beloved of the magician -Garahiet, and of their son Carados, and the magic horn (verses -11,000-15,800). (2) (A fresh series of adventures begins) Arthur sets -forth to seek Giflet, son of Dos; Gauvain meets again with Brandalis, -whose sister has meanwhile borne him a son; Castel Orgellous, where Giflet -is imprisoned, is captured; Gauvain's son by Brandalis' sister is lost. -(3) An unknown knight comes to Arthur's court; Keie, who demands his name, -is unhorsed; Gauvain brings the unknown to the court, but the latter is -slain by a javelin cast by invisible hands. Gauvain equips himself in the -unknown's armour and starts forth to learn the latter's name. After -praying in a chapel, in which he beholds a light on the altar quenched by -a black hand, he rides through Brittany and Normandy, and comes to a -castle where, owing to his armour, he is at first hailed as lord. In one -of the rooms stands a bier, whereon lies a knight, cross and broken sword -upon his body, his left hand bleeding. A crowned knight enters and goes to -battle with Gauvain; canons and clerks come and perform the Vigil of the -Dead; whilst at table Gauvain sees the rich Grail serving out bread and -wine to the knights. Gauvain remains alone after the meal; he sees a lance -which bleeds into a silver cup. The crowned knight again enters, bearing -in his hand a broken sword which had belonged to the unknown knight, over -whom he mourns. He hands the sword to Gauvain and asks him to put the -pieces together. Gauvain cannot, whereupon the knight declares him unfit -to fulfil the quest (_li besoin_) on which he came. Later he may try -again. Gauvain asks concerning lance, sword, and bier. The lance, he is -told, is the one wherewith the Son of God was pierced in the side, 'twill -bleed till Doomsday. The tale of the broken sword which brought so much -woe upon the kingdom of Logres will also be told, but here Gauvain falls -fast asleep.[10] On the morrow he wakes, and finds himself on the sea -strand. He rides off, and behold the country has burst into green leaf, -and the reason thereof is his having asked concerning the lance. The -countryfolk both bless and curse him for having so far delivered them and -for not having completed the deliverance by asking concerning the Grail. -(4) He meets a young knight who turns out to be his son. (5) (Adventures -in which Carahies, Gauvain's brother, is chief actor.) (6) The story -returns to Perceval, who, after leaving the hermit, rides for three days -and comes to a castle, over the door of which hangs a horn. Perceval blows -therein, overcomes the knight who answers the challenge, and sends him to -Arthur's court. (7) On his way to the Castle of Mont Orgellous, to the -pillar of which only an accomplished knight might tie his horse, he comes -to the stream on whose banks he had previously met the Fisher King. -Seeking for a bridge he meets a damsel on a mule, who, under pretence of -showing a way across the river, tries to drown him. He then comes to a -castle, which entering he finds untenanted. In the hall stands a -chessboard. Perceval plays, is beaten, seizes the board and makes as if to -throw it in the moat. Hereupon a damsel rises from the water to stay his -hand, and coming into the room reproaches him. Overcome by her beauty he -asks her favours. She will grant them if he bring the head of the stag -which roams in the castle park. Thereto she lends him her hound, bidding -him be sure he return it. The hunt follows; Perceval overtakes the stag, -slays it, and cutting off its head prepares to bring it back, when a maid -of ill-chance (_pucelle de malaire_) takes and carries it off. Perceval -claiming it is reproached by her for having slain her stag, but told he -may win again the hound if he go to a mound whereon a knight is painted -and say, "Vassal, what doest thou here?" The combat with the Knight of the -Tomb follows, during which hound and stag's head are carried off by -another knight, whom Perceval can only follow when he has overcome the -Knight of the Tomb and driven him back therein. Now this knight, hight the -Black Knight, had dwelt there summer and winter five years, striving with -all-comers for the sake of his love. Perceval, following up the Robber -Knight, meets the damsel who had carried off the hound, but she only mocks -him for answer to his questions. (8) After an adventure with a -discourteous knight, Perceval meets at length a brother of the Red Knight -whom he had formerly slain, who tells him he had seen the daughter of the -Fisher King, and she had told him of a knight who had carried off a hound -and stag's head belonging to a good knight who had been at her court, and -had omitted to ask concerning the grail, for which reason she had taken -his hound and refused him help to follow the Robber Knight. (9) Perceval -is directed by the Red Knight's brother to the Fisher King's castle, but -misses his way, and after an adventure at a castle, where he slays a lion, -overcomes Abrioris and sends him to Arthur; finds a damsel mourning over a -knight slain by a giant, whom he kills, achieves the feat of the Ford -Amorous, meets and fights with Gauvain's son until they learn who each -other is, and at length comes to Belrepaire. (10) At first unrecognised by -Blanchefleur he makes himself known, stays with her three days, and then -rides off, in spite of her entreaties. (11) He meets Rosette (the loathly -damsel) and Le Biaus Mauvais, laughs at the former, is challenged by the -latter, whom he overcomes and sends to Arthur. (12) He comes to his -mother's house, enters without making himself known, learns from his -sister that his mother died at his departure ten years before, tells her -who he is, and both set forth to their uncle, the hermit. On the way -Perceval slays a knight who offers violence to his sister. They come to -their uncle, sleep there, and on the morrow Perceval reveals himself, -confesses, is reproved for having slain the knight the day before. -Perceval, after mentioning his desire to learn more concerning lance, -Grail, and sword, and receiving good advice from the hermit, leaves with -his sister, with whom he stays three days and then quits her, despite her -piteous entreaties. (12_a_) Perceval comes to the Castle of Maidens, where -he falls untimely asleep, and on the morrow finds himself in the forest, -far from any castle. (13) Perceval finds the damsel who had carried off -the hound, fights with her knight, Garalas, overcomes him, learns that the -Knight of the Tomb is his brother, who had lived for ten years with a fay -in a magic invisible castle, and had met no one to overcome him until -Perceval came. Perceval sends both knight and damsel to Arthur. (14) -Perceval meets with a white mule led by a damsel; he joins her, although -she entreats him not to do so. Suddenly struck by a great light in the -forest, he turns to ask his companion what it might mean, but finds her -gone. A violent storm comes on. The morrow he meets the damsel with the -mule, who had felt no storm. She tells him about the great light: it came -from the "Greaus," which was given by the King of kings as He hung on the -Cross; the devil may not lead astray any man on the same day he sees it, -therefore the king has it carried about. Perceval asks further, but is -told only a holy man may speak of these mysteries. Perceval relates his -adventure with the lady of the chessboard, and the damsel gives him the -white mule, which will lead to her castle, together with a ring giving the -possessor power over the mule. He is to give both back when he meets her. -(16) The mule brings Perceval across a river, over a glass bridge, on the -other side of which he meets with Brios, who persuades him to join in a -tournament held by Arthur at the Castel Orguellous, as he must win the -prize of knighthood before coming to the castle of the Fisher King. -Perceval leaves stag's head and hound at Brios' castle, carries off the -prize at the tournament, remaining unknown. (17) Proceeding thence he -frees a knight imprisoned beneath a tombstone, who, in return, shuts him -up in the tomb, but, being unable to make the mule go forward, is obliged -to release him, and returns to his prison, telling Perceval he knows him -for the best knight in the world. (18) Perceval meets the damsel of the -mule, to whom he returns ring and mule, and who asks him if he has been at -the Fisher King's court; on his saying, No, she hurries off. Perceval -prays God to direct him to the Castle of the Chessboard. A voice tells him -to follow the hound; he does so, reaches the castle, is greeted by the -maiden, to whom he gives stag's head and hound, and who in return tells -him concerning the chessboard which _Morghe la fee_ had had made at -London, on the Thames, and grants him her favours as she had promised. On -the morrow Perceval rides forth, accompanied awhile by the damsel, who -will show him his onward way. (19) They come to a river, on which is a -boat tied to an oak tree. Perceval is to enter it, cross the river, and on -the other side he will find a road leading to the Fisher King. On his way -Perceval releases a knight whom he finds hanging by his feet from a tree; -'tis Bagommedes whom Keie had treated thus, and who returns to Arthur's -court, challenges Keie, and is only hindered by Arthur from slaying him. -All Arthur's knights then start forth for the Mont Dolorous and in search -of Perceval. The adventures of Gauvain alone are related in detail until -the tale returns to Perceval. (20) After freeing Bagommedes, Perceval, -wandering in the woods, comes to a tree, in whose branches sits a child, -who can tell nothing of the Fisher King, but tells Perceval he will come -on the morrow to the Mont Dolorous. This he does, and binds his horse to -the pillar. A damsel on a white mule tells him of Arthur's birth, and how -Merlin had made castle and pillar to prove who should be the best of -knights. She was Merlin's daughter. (21) Perceval rides on, and towards -evening sees afar off a tree upon which burn many lights; as he draws near -he finds only a chapel, upon the altar of which lies a dead knight. A -great and sudden light is followed by the appearance of a black hand, -which puts out the candle on the altar. On the morrow he meets first a -huntsman, who tells him he is near the castle, then a damsel, who explains -the child in the tree, the chapel, and the black hand as having connection -with the Holy Grail and the lance. (22) Perceval comes at last to the -castle of the Fisher King, whom he finds on a couch as heretofore. He -tells him his adventures, and asks concerning the child on the tree, the -tree full of lights, and the chapel with the dead knight. Meanwhile a -damsel enters a hall bearing the Grail, another follows with the bleeding -lance, then comes a squire with a sword broken in two. Again Perceval puts -his questions, and will not eat until they are answered. First, he is told -of the child which would not speak to him on account of his many sins, and -which climbed ever upwards to show man's thoughts should be raised to the -Creator. Before learning aught further Perceval is to try and weld the -broken sword together; none but a true knight lover of God, and of God's -spouse, Holy Church, may accomplish it. Perceval succeeds, save that a -little crack still remains. The Fisher King embraces him and hails him as -lord of his house. - -Here the section which goes under the name of Gautier ends. - -[A portion of Gautier's section of the Conte du Graal is found in the -Berne MS., partly edited, partly summarised, by Rochat in his work, _Ein -unbekannter Percheval li Gallois_ (_vide_ _infra_ p. 101). This version -offers some remarkable peculiarities. It has a short introduction of -thirteen lines; then follows line 21,930 of Gautier in Potvin's text (Mons -MS.). An incident follows, omitted in the Mons MS., but found in -Montpellier and in Paris, 794: Perceval meets a huntsman who upbraids him -for having been at the Fisher King's court, and failed to ask about Grail -and bleeding lance. Then follow Incidents 6, 7 (8 is absent so far as one -can judge from Rochat's summary), 9 to 13 (in which Perceval does not -apparently send Garalas and his love to Arthur), and 14 to end, the -following finish being then tacked on: The Fisher King is father to Alain -le Gros, husband to Enigeus, sister to that Joseph who, when Christ's body -was taken down from the Cross, had it from Pilate as a reward for his -services. Joseph had the vessel prepared to catch in it the blood from the -body; it was the same Jesus had made the Sacrament in on the Thursday -before. The Fisher King dies on the third day and Perceval reigns in his -stead.][11] - -The Conte du Graal is continued by-- - -(_c_) MANESSIER.--(1) Perceval, full of joy, sits down to table; after the -meal, lance, Grail, and a goodly silver dish pass before the royal table -away into the next room. Perceval, sighing, asks concerning these objects -and the maidens bearing them. (2) The King tells as follows: the lance is -that wherewith Longis pierced God's side that day he hung on the Cross -(Montpellier MS.: When Longis withdrew the spear the blood ran down to -feet, so that Joseph of Barimacie turned black from sorrow, and he -collected the blood in the holy vessel). On Perceval's asking further, the -Grail is the vessel wherein the holy precious blood of our Lord was -received. Then Perceval asks how it came thither; (3) Joseph brought it -when he departed from the prison whence he was freed by Vespasian. He -baptized forty of his friends, and wandered forth with them till they came -to Sarras, where, as the tale tells, they found the King in the Temple of -the Sun. Joseph helped the King against his enemies by means of a red -cross which he fixed on the King's shield. Evelac, such was the King's -name, won the battle thereby, was baptized, and renamed Noodrans. It went -so likewise with his brother-in-law, Salafres, renamed Natiien. Joseph -departed thence, ever bearing the Grail with him, till at length he came -hither, converted the land, and I, of his seed, am keeping manor and -Grail, the which shall never dwell elsewhere, God willing. (Montpellier -MS. merely says, how Joseph was put into a dark prison, and kept there -forty years, but the Lord sent him the sweetness of the Grail twice or -thrice a day. Tiberius and Vespasian deliver him and bring him to Rome, -whence he carries away the lance.) (4) To Perceval's questions concerning -the damsels: the Grail-bearer is of royal blood, and pure maid, or God -might not let her hold it, she is my child; the dish-bearer is also of -high lineage, daughter to King Goon Desert. (5) The King would then go to -sleep, but Perceval would know about the broken sword: In Quiquagrant -dwelt Goon Desert, the King's brother. Besieged by Espinogre he made a -sally and slew him. Espinogre's nephew swore revenge; donning the armour -of a knight of Goon Desert, he slew him, but the sword broke when the -traitrous blow was struck. Goon Desert's body was brought to his brother's -castle, whither came, too, his daughter with the broken sword, foretelling -that a knight should come, rejoin the pieces, and avenge the foul blow. -The Fisher King taking up the fragments incautiously was pierced through -the thigh, and the wound might not be healed until his brother's death was -avenged. The murderer's name is Partiniaus, Lord of the Red Tower. -Perceval vows to avenge this wrong, but first, despite the King's strong -hints that it is bed-time, must learn (6) about the candles on the trees, -how they are fay trees, and the lights deceiving ones, but they might not -deceive Perceval, he being destined to achieve the wonders of the earth, -and he has put an end to this illusion; (7) how the black hand haunted a -chapel wherein Pinogres had slain his mother, and over four thousand -knights had been slain by it. (8) Perceval starting on the morrow in -search of Partinal meets with Saigremors, and with him delivers a damsel -from ten robber knights. Perceval, wounded, stays a month at the damsel's -castle, and (9) the story tells for some fifteen hundred verses -(36,100-37,400) of Saigremors; how he pursues the robber knights, comes to -the Castle of Maidens, delivers the dame thereof from a knight, Calides, -who wars upon her, and afterwards delivers another maiden, to whom two -knights were offering violence; (10) then, for over two thousand verses of -Gauvain; how he prepares to set forth again in search of the Fisher King; -how a maiden comes to him whose brother had been slain in his service, -reproaches Gauvain for his conduct at the Fisher King's castle, and -carries him off; how he saves a maid going to be burnt; how after other -adventures he slays King Margon, returns to Arthur's court, fights with -Kex to avenge the brother of the damsel, etc. (11) Meanwhile Perceval, -leaving the damsel who has tended him right well, rides forth into a wood, -where he is overtaken by a great storm of thunder and hail, after which he -comes to the chapel where lies the body of the knight slain by the black -hand. Perceval strives with the devil to whom this belongs, overcomes, and -with the help of a hermit who tells him the tale of all the knights who -had fallen there, buries the body. He then confesses to the hermit, who -warns him not to think of acquiring fame, but rather to save his soul. -(12) Perceval, riding forth on the morrow, is met by the devil, who throws -him from his horse; he finds another, mounts it, but coming to a stream -luckily crosses himself, when it disappears; it was the devil. (13) A -damsel passes by with a bark, wherein Perceval mounts; she minds him of -Blanchefleur, and desire masters him, but again he crosses himself in -time, and ship and damsel vanish. (14) A hermit comes who instructs him -concerning all these things, brings him where he finds a fresh steed, and -to a fair castle. Perceval overcomes a knight who would bar his passing, -delivers the lady love of Dodinel from a felon knight; is appealed to for -help by a damsel of Blanchefleur's, oppressed by Arides of Cavalon. (15) -Setting off to the succour of his lady love, his horse falls lame, he -comes to a smith who tells him his name is Tribuet, the forger of the -broken sword. Tribuet makes the sword whole, and bids Perceval guard it -well, never had king or conqueror a better one. (16) Perceval reaches Bel -Repaire, overcomes Arides, whom he sends to Arthur's court, bidding him -announce his own arrival for Whitsuntide. He then quits Blanchefleur, and -(17) meets with the Coward Knight, who will not fight even when he sees -two damsels carried off by ten knights. Perceval attacks the ravishers, -the Coward Knight is drawn into the struggle, and quits himself valiantly. -The rescued damsels bring the knights to their castle, where Perceval, -sore wounded, remains for two months. (18) Meanwhile Saigremors has -announced Perceval's arrival at Camelot. Whitsuntide passing, all the -knights set forth in search of him, and, amongst others, Boort; he meets -his brother Lyonel led, bound and naked, by six knights, who scourge him, -and at the same moment he hears the plaint of a maid to whom a knight is -doing violence. Her he succours, then hurries after his brother, whom, -meanwhile, Gauvain has rescued. Lyonel bitterly reproaches his brother for -abandoning him, and falls upon him, sword in hand; Boort offers no -defence, and would be slain but for a passing knight, Calogrinant, who -pays for his interference with his life. Finally, heavenly intervention -appeases Lyonel. Calogrinant is buried by a hermit. (19) Perceval, healed, -leaves the castle together with the Coward Knight, is present with him at -a tournament, at which he distinguishes himself above all others, leaves -his companion, to whom he gives the name Le Hardis, and (20) meets Hector, -who challenges him. The two fight, and well-nigh kill each other. To them, -lying on the field of combat, appears an angel with the Grail, and makes -them whole. (21) Perceval rides on to Partinal's castle, before which -stands a fir tree whereon hangs a shield. Perceval throws this down, -whereupon Partinal appears and a desperate combat ensues, ended by the -overthrow of Partinal, and, as he will submit to no conditions, his death. -Perceval cuts off his head and makes for the Grail Castle, but only after -a summer's seeking, lights upon it chancewise. (22) As he nears the -castle, the warders come to the King, telling him a knight is coming with -a head hanging at his saddle-bow; hereupon the King leaps to his feet and -is straightway made whole. Partinal's head is stuck on a pike on the -highest tower of the castle. After supper, at which the same mystic -procession of talismans takes place as heretofore, the King learns -Perceval's name, and thereby finds that he is his own sister's son. He -would hand him his crown, but Perceval has vowed not to take it, his uncle -living. (23) He returns to Arthur's court, overcoming on the way seven -knights, and tells his adventures, which Arthur has written down and kept -in a box at Salisbury. The Grail damsel appears and tells Perceval his -uncle is dead. Perceval goes to Corbiere accompanied by all the court, who -assist at his crowning and remain with him a month, during which time the -Grail feeds all with the costliest foods. He marries his cousins, the two -Grail-bearers, to two valiant kings, and reigns in peace for seven years. -(24) After which time he follows a hermit into the wilderness, accompanied -by Grail, lance, and holy dish. He serves the Lord for ten years, and, -when he dies, Grail, lance, and dish were doubtless carried up to heaven, -for since that day no man saw them. - -(_d_) GERBERT.--(According to Birch Hirschfeld interpolated between -Gautier and Manessier, and joining on therefore to the last incident in -Gautier.)[12] - -(1) Perceval's sin in having indirectly caused the death of his mother -disables him from making whole the broken sword, and he must set forth -again in search of the Grail. In the night he dreams a danger threatens -his sister, and on the morrow he wakes up in open field, the Grail Castle -having vanished. (2) He comes to a fair castle in the midst of a meadow, -and, finding the door shut, knocks at it with his sword till the latter -breaks. An old man appears, and tells him the broken sword will cost him -seven years more wanderings until he come again to the Grail Castle. All -he can do for Perceval is to give him a letter which heals the wounded and -makes the wearer invincible. (3) Perceval riding thence through country -that the day before was waste and folkless, finds it now well cultivated -and peopled; all press round him and bless him for the change wrought by -his asking concerning the Grail. (4) He comes to a castle wherein is a -forge guarded by two serpents, and on it was a sword forged for a year, -and it might not be broken, save in a certain danger, or mended save at -the same forge. Perceval, after resisting the devil in the shape of a fair -maid, attacks and overcomes the two serpents, and has his sword mended by -the blacksmith, who tells him how he broke it at the gate of Paradise. -(5) After making whole by his letter two knights of the Round Table who -had lost their wits in Castle Dolorous, Perceval comes to Carlion, to -Arthur's court, and accomplishes the adventure of the Perillous Seat which -a fairy had sent to Arthur. Only the destined Grail-finder might sit in -it. Six knights who had previously essayed the feat had been swallowed up -by the earth; they reappear when Perceval is successful. (6) Perceval is -called away from the court by a forsaken damsel, whose false lover he -compels to marry her; then, after overcoming fresh temptation in -damsel-shape, he comes to his sister's castle, overcomes her adversary, -who turns out to be Mordret, and reaches the Castle of Maidens, where he -is healed of his wounds by the lady of the castle, his cousin. She tells -him of his mother, Philosofine, and how the Grail was taken from the ken -of man owing to the sinfulness of the world. Perceval leaves his sister in -this castle where dames are chaste and damsels maids. (7) Returning to -court, whither Mordret had preceded him in sorry plight, Perceval is -mocked at by Kex, whom he overcomes, and afterwards meets Gauvain and -Tristan. (8) Leaving the court, he meets with four knights carrying their -father, mortally wounded, accompanies them to their castle, recognises in -the wounded knight, Gornumant, who had knighted him, swears to avenge him, -tells all that has befallen himself, and learns that the cause of his -successive failures is his forsaking his betrothed, Blanchefleur, whom he -knows to be Gornumant's niece. He is told that if he listen heedfully to -mass and marry the damsel all will be well, and he will learn the secrets -of lance and Grail. But first Perceval overcomes a hideous hag, who by -night brings to life Gornumant's enemies slain during the day. She has a -potion, whereof Christ made use in the sepulchre, and with it she quickens -the dead. She recognizes Perceval and acknowledges him as her conqueror, -yet while she lives he shall know nought of the Grail; she works by order -of the King of the Waste City, who hates all Christian folk. Perceval -tries the virtue of the potion on the most valiant of his enemies, with -whom he engages in a fresh and desperate struggle, heals Gornumant with -it, and sets off to marry Blanchefleur, as he is wishful to live cleanly -and fly deadly sin. (9) She is overjoyed at his arrival; preparations are -made for the marriage; the night before, she comes to his bedside in smock -and mantle, and they pass the night side by side, but with the sheet -between them. The wedding follows, and then, fearful of losing the -heavenly joy for sake of carnal longing, they resolve to resist the devil -and live virgin-wise, for virginity surpasseth aught else, even as the -topaz does crystal. Perceval, in a dream, is assured that of his seed -shall be the Swan Knight and the deliverer of the Holy Sepulchre. -Meanwhile he is still to search after lance and Grail. (10) On the morrow -he quits Blanchefleur, "maid she laid her to bed, maid she arose;" frees a -maiden pursued by a brutal knight; (11) comes to a castle where the -wayfarer must first fight against four knights and then against the lord -of the castle; does away with this custom; (12) comes to cross roads, -whereof one is safe and easy, the other adventurous and full of danger; -meets a knight all on fire; sees two hermits, one kneeling at a cross, -the other scourging it; then a wonderful beast, a doe followed by fawns, -which assail and devour her; (13) is presented at a hermit's with a shield -none but the Grail-winner may wear, after which the table heretofore -meanly spread is covered with rich fare, and learns the meaning of the -mystic scenes he has witnessed. (14) He is summoned by a damsel, who tells -him of the Dragon King, lord of a heathen folk dwelling in mid-sea, -possessor of a shield whereon is painted a dragon that belches forth -flame. Perceval sets forth to attack him, resists the devil who dwells in -the dragon head, thanks to his miraculous shield whereon the cross is -painted, and forces him to flee; continues the fight against the Dragon -Knight without his shield, and slays him, but not till he has repented him -of his sins. (15) Meanwhile a thief has made off with the shield, in -pursuing whom Perceval comes to an abbey, where he learns the story of -Joseph of Arimathea. Some forty years after the Crucifixion lived a -heathen king, Evelac, in Sarras, wherefrom the Saracens have their name, -sore pressed by Tholomes, King of Syria. But Joseph of Barimaschie, who -had been five years in Pilate's service, comes to him, and with him his -brother-in-law, Seraphe; he promised the King victory if he would let -himself be baptized. The King consented, and received the name of -Mordrach. Joseph then came to this land, and with him sixty folk and two -fair ladies, whereof the one, Philosophine, bore a plate, the other an -ever-bleeding lance, whilst Joseph had a vessel, never saw man a fairer -one. But King Crudel flung Joseph and his companions into prison, where -they dwelt forty days, but it harmed them not, as through the Holy Grail -they were filled with great plenty and had every wish fulfilled. Now, -Mordrains, learning this, brought together a great host, invaded King -Crudel's lands, attacked and slew him. Mordrains, disarming, was found to -be covered with wounds, none of which he had felt. On the morrow Joseph -put up a table, altar-wise, and thereon laid the Grail, which Mordrains -seeing, pressed near to. But an angel with a fiery sword kept him back, -and a voice assured him he had laid such a burden on his shoulders as he -might not pass away, nor would his wounds be healed until should come the -true knight, loved of Christ, sinless, and in his arms he, Mordrains, -should die. And till then the Host should be his only food. Since then -three hundred years have passed, and the monks have heard that the knight -is in the land who shall ask concerning lance and Grail, and thereby heal -the king. (16) Perceval leaves on the morrow and comes to a castle wherein -is a coffin, brought thereto in a boat drawn by a swan; none save the best -knight in the world may open it. All have tried, even Gauvain, and failed. -Perceval succeeds, and finds in the coffin the body of a knight, former -lord of the castle, and a letter setting forth that he who should open the -coffin was his murderer. Perceval, attacked in consequence by the dead -man's sons, defends himself by making a buttress of the youngest son's -body. Afterwards he overcomes the folk of the castle, and delivers -Gauvain, held prisoner therein. (17) Perceval, after confessing his sins -to a hermit, has an adventure with the devil, who comes out of a tomb, -but whom he forces back therein. (18) He then succours a maiden whom her -jealous lover has thrown into a fountain; (19) punishes a damsel who -tempts him in traitrous-wise; (20) meets with and is sore pressed by a -giant, whom he overcomes; (21) has a fresh and victorious encounter with -Kex, and, finally, (22) arrives at crossways, is directed by the cross to -the Fisher King's court, reaches it, asks straightway for the Grail, is -questioned by the King and relates his allegorical adventures. At table -the Grail appears, followed by lance and sword. Perceval pieces together -the sword, and the King, full of joy, embraces him. - -=Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival.=--Gahmuret, Parzival's father, goes to -the East, takes service with Baruc, wins the love of the heathen queen -Belakane, but after remaining with her a short time forsakes her, -promising to return if she become Christian. She bears a son, and names -him Feirefiz. Gahmuret by his prowess at a tournament wins the love of -Herzeloyde, whom he marries on condition he may go a tourneying every -month. Hearing his old lord Baruc is in danger, he hastens to his aid, and -is slain. Herzeloyde on receipt of the news resolves to withdraw to the -wilderness, and bring up her son in ignorance of knighthood. - -[From this point up to and including the adventure with Orgeuilleuse, -where Chrestien's share of the Conte du Graal breaks off, Wolfram agrees -very closely with Chrestien. It has been much debated in Germany whether -he really had any other model but Chrestien, and whether his alleged model -Kyot be not a feigned source to justify his departure from the story as -found in the Conte du Graal. A brief outline of the arguments for and -against this view will be found in Appendix A. The chief points of -difference in the portion common to the two poets are: the more important -position in the narrative assigned to Perceval's cousin, whom Wolfram -names Sigune, who is fed from the Grail by the Grail messenger, the -loathly damsel, and about whose loves with Schianatulander Wolfram has -left fragments of another poem, Titurel. Parzival meets her immediately -after his adventure with the lady of the tent. Parzival's love is named -Condwiramur. On the first night of their marriage he leaves her maid (as -in Gerbert's version). But the most important peculiarity of Wolfram's -poem is his account of the Grail itself, a stone which yields all manner -of food and drink, the power of which is sustained by a dove, which every -week lays a Host upon it, given, after the fall of the rebel angels, in -charge to Titurel and his dynasty, by them preserved in the Grail castle, -Montsalvatch, guarded by a sacred order of knighthood whom it chooses -itself. The knights are vowed to virginity, the king alone being allowed -marriage. The cause of the maimed king's (Amfortas) hurt is his having -taken up arms in the cause of worldly and unlawful love. When Parzival -leaves the Grail castle after the first visit, he is mocked at by the -inmates for having omitted the question. More stress is laid on the broken -sword, connected with which is a magic spell Parzival must master before -he can become lord of the Grail castle. The "loathly damsel," Kundrie, is -also a much more important person with Wolfram than with Chrestien, and -she is brought into contact with Parzival's cousin, Sigune. Parzival's -love for his wife is dwelt upon at length, and he is urged by the hermit -rather to rejoin her than to seek the Grail.] - -After the adventure with Orgueilleuse, Wolfram continues as follows:--The -lord of the magic castle, wherein are kept prisoners Arthur's mother and -the other queens, is Clinschor, nephew of Virgilius of Naples, who took to -magic after his unmanning at the hands of King Ibert, whose wife, Iblis, -he loved. Gawain overcomes the magician, and, both unknowing, fights with -Parzival. The latter, after many lesser adventures, meets his half-brother -Feirefiz, and sustains with him the hardest of all his fights. At length -recognition is brought about, the two embrace, and repair to Arthur's -court. Cundrie nears once more, tells Parzival he has been chosen Grail -king, that his wife and twin sons, Loherangrin and Kardeiz, have been -summoned to the Grail castle, and that the question will now free Amfortas -and his land. With Cundrie and Feirefiz, Parzival rides to the Grail -castle, meets his wife, together they all behold the talismans, save -Feirefiz, to whom as a heathen the sight of the Grail is denied. But he is -baptised, weds Repanse de Schoie, the Grail damsel, the two return to -India, and from them is born Prester John. Parzival rules over his Grail -kingdom. Of his son Loherangrin it is told how he is led to the aid of the -Duchess of Brabant by a swan, how he marries her on condition she inquire -not as to his origin, and how, on her breaking the command, the swan -carries him away from her. - -=Heinrich von dem Tuerlin.=--_The Gawain Episodes of Diu Crone._--The -parallelism of Heinrich's poem with those of Wolfram and Chrestien begins -about verse 17,500 with an adventure of Gawain's corresponding to Inc. 13 -in Chrestien (Tournament for the hand of Tiebaut of Tingaguel's daughter, -episode of the two sisters, combat with Melians de Lis). In Heinrich the -father is named Leigamar, the eldest daughter Fursensephin, (Fleur sans -epine ?), the youngest Quebelepluz, where Heinrich has taken a French -phrase setting forth the greater fairness of the damsel for a proper name. -Inc. 14 in Chrestien then follows with these differences: the name of the -castle is Karamphi; Gawain and the facile damsel are surprised by the -latter's brother, and it is her father who, to avenge the wrong done his -house, makes Gawain swear that within a year he will either seek out the -Grail or return as prisoner to Karamphi. Chrestien's Inc. 15 is of course -missing, the story going straight on to Inc. 16, meeting with the wounded -knight (here Lohenis) and his lady love Emblie, who by treachery deprive -Gawain of his steed; then the arrival at the Castle of Wonders, and the -night passed in the enchanted bed, where the hero is overwhelmed with -crossbolts shot at him by invisible foes. The plucking of the flower from -the enchanted garden at the bidding of a damsel (Orgueilleuse in Chrestien -and Wolfram, here Mancipicelle), and the meeting with and challenge by -Giremelanz follow. Arthur's court comes to the Castle of Wonders to -witness the combat. Gawain and Giremelanz are reconciled, the latter -marries Gawain's sister, and Gawain himself sets off to search for the -Grail. [Adventures then follow which correspond to nothing in Chrestien or -Wolfram, in which Gawain wins talismans destined to aid him in his -search.] Gawain sets forth on his quest accompanied by Kay, Lancelot, and -Calocreant. They part at crossways. Gawain comes to the sister of the -magician (anonymous in Chrestien, Klinschor in Wolfram, here Gansguoter) -of the Castle of Wonders. She bids him take heed, if he wish to see the -Grail, he be not overcome by sleep, and for this that he drink not -overmuch; as soon as he saw it and its accompanying damsels, he was to ask -about it. If he neglected this, all his past and any future toil would be -useless. On his way to the Grail castle, the hero meets with all sorts of -dangers, and obstacles, and wonders; amongst others, passing the night in -a castle where he is tended by invisible hands. After month-long -wanderings he meets with Lancelot and Calocreant, and learns that Kay, in -a vain attempt to penetrate to the Grail, has been flung into prison. The -three comrades then come to the Grail castle. They are led into a hall -which passes in splendour aught earthly eye ever saw. The floor is strewn -with roses, on a bed lies an old man in gold-embroidered garments, and -watches two youths playing at chess. Towards night the hall fills with -knights and dames, a youth enters bearing a sword which he lays before the -old man. Gawain is pressed to drink; but refuses, not so his two -companions, who straightway fall asleep. Then enter two damsels bearing -lights, followed by two knights with a spear, and two more damsels with a -"toblier" (? tailleor, plate) of gold and jewels. After them comes the -fairest woman ever God created, and with her a maiden weeping. The spear -is laid on the table, by it the "toblier" wherein are three drops of -blood. In the box borne by the fair lady is a piece of bread, one third -part of which she breaks off and gives to the old man. Gawain recognising -in her Gansguoter's sister, stays no longer, but asks what these wonders -mean. Straightway knights and dames all with mighty shout leap from table, -and great joy arises. The old man says what he has seen is the Grail; none -saw it before save Parzival, and he asked not. By his question Gawain has -delivered from long waiting and suffering both those which are dead and -those which live. The old man himself and his companions are really dead, -though they seem it not, but the lady and her damsels are living; for -their unstained womanhood God has granted them to have the Grail, and -therewith yearly to feed the old man. All Gawain's adventures latterly -have come from the Grail. Now he has ended all, he is to take as prize of -his knighthood the sword which will help him in every danger. After him no -man shall see the Grail; further concerning it he must not ask, nor may -know more. At daybreak the old man's tale ends, and he with his whole -court vanish, leaving only the lady with her five damsels. [After -releasing Kay, and undergoing other adventures, Gawain returns to Arthur's -court.] - -=The Petit Saint Graal or Didot-Perceval.=[13]--_Prologue._--After the -choosing of Arthur to be King, Merlin comes to the court, and tells how -Arthur is Uther-Pendragon's son, brought up by Antor as his son. All -rejoice at this, especially Gauvain, son of Lot. After dinner the barons -bring Merlin to Arthur, and tell him how he was the prophet of -Uther-Pendragon, and had made the Round Table. Arthur promises to honour -Merlin. The latter calls him apart with Gauvain and Key, and tells him -how, in the time of Uther-Pendragon, the Round Table was made after the -pattern of one Joseph constructed when he separated the good from the -evil. Two Kings of Britain before had been Kings of France, and conquered -Rome; Queen Sibyl and Solomon had prophesied Arthur should be third, and -he, Merlin, was the third to assure him of it. But this could only be if -Arthur established the Round Table as Merlin directed. Now the Grail had -been given Joseph by our Lord himself, and at His command Joseph led a -great folk into the desert. And when evil befell them Joseph, at our -Lord's command, made a table; whereat one place was left empty in -remembrance of Judas. But Moyses, a false disciple, sat therein, but sank -into the abyss, whereout he shall not come until the time of Antichrist. -Our Lord made the first table; Joseph, the second; he, Merlin, the third. -The Grail was given into the keeping of the rich Fisher King; but he was -old, full of sickness, and should not win health till a knight came, -having sat at the Round Table, true man of God and of Holy Church, and the -best knight in the world for feats of arms. He must ask the rich fisher of -what use is the Grail; then the King would be cured of his infirmity, the -enchantments of Britain would cease, and the prophecy be fulfilled. Should -Arthur do this, great good would come of it; he, Merlin, must go, as he -could not often show himself to the people. Whereupon he departs to -Ortoberland, to Blaise, his master, who writes down these things, and by -his writings we know them. The son of Alein le Gros is a child named -Percevaux, and as Alein is dying he hears the voice of the Holy Ghost -saying, Know thou art near thy end, and wilt soon come into the fellowship -of Jesus Christ. Brons, thy father, dwells in these isles of Ireland, and -with him is the Grail. And he may not die until thy son finds him, to whom -he shall commend the grace of the vessel, and teach the secret words -Joseph taught him, then shall he be cured of his infirmities. And I -command thy son that he go to the court of Arthur, where he shall be -taught how he may find the house of his grandfather. Alein dies, and -Percevaux mounts his horse and comes to Arthur's court, and asks arms from -him, and stays there and is much loved. - -(1) Arthur proposes holding a tournament at Easter, the greatest the world -had seen, to honour the Round Table. Perceval at first takes no part in -the tournament; but afterwards, for love of Aleine, niece of Gauvain, who -incites him thereto, and sends him a suit of red armour, he enters the -lists unknown, and overbears all opponents, so that all say he should fill -the empty place at the Round Table. Perceval claims the empty place from -the King, and when refused threatens to return to his land and never visit -the court again. Arthur yields, and Perceval seats himself. Then the rocks -and the earth groan dolorously, and a voice reproaches Arthur with having -disobeyed Merlin's command. Were it not the goodness of Alein le Gros -Perceval had died the death of Moys. Now should Arthur know the vessel our -Lord gave Joseph was in the keeping of the rich fisher, and he was ill and -infirm, and until the best knight in the world should come might not die. -And when that knight should come to the rich fisher and ask concerning the -vessel, then should he be cured, but die within three days after giving -the vessel to that knight, and teaching him the secret words handed down -by Joseph. Thus the enchantments of Britain should cease. (2) Perceval -swears not to lie one night where he had lain the night before till he -find the rich fisher. Gauvain, Sagremors, Beduers, Hurgains, and Erec -swear the same. The knights set forth amid general lamentation. They part -at a chapel, and the story follows Perceval. (3) He comes, after two days, -upon a damsel weeping over a knight, Hurganet, one of the Round Table, who -had gone forth on the Grail Quest. He had delivered her from a giant, and -ridden with her into a tent where they found knights and ladies, who -warned them not to await the owner, the "Orgoillos Delandes," who would -kill him. And whilst speaking a dwarf entered, scourge in hand, who threw -down the tent. The Lord of the Tent then appeared, clad in red armour, and -slew Hurganet. Perceval determines to avenge his death; rides to the tent -with the damsel; is warned of its inmates; is surprised by the dwarf, who -smites the damsel with his scourge, whereupon Perceval fells him to the -ground. The Knight of the Tent appears; after a desperate struggle -Perceval overcomes him and sends him with the damsel to Arthur's court. -She had fain stayed with him, but he thought of other things. (4) Perceval -comes to the finest castle in the world, enters, and finds no inhabitant. -Only a chessboard he finds. He begins to move the pieces, and they play -against him, and he is checkmated three times running. Full of anger he -prepares to throw the chessmen into the castle moat--suddenly a damsel -shows herself and reproaches him. He will abstain if she comes to him. She -consents, and after her squires and maidens have disarmed Perceval he -joins her. Overcome by her beauty he requests her love. She will grant it -him if he capture the white stag of the wood. She lends him her hound, and -recommends him to take the utmost care of it. Perceval chases the stag, -captures it, and, having cut off its head, starts back. But meanwhile an -old woman has carried off the hound. She will only give it up if Perceval -will go to a grave whereunder is a knight painted, and say: "Felon, he -that put you there." Perceval complies; whereupon appears a knight on a -black horse armed in black. They strive, and Perceval overcomes him. But -meantime a second knight has carried off both the stag's head and the -hound from the old woman. Perceval's adversary flees to the tomb, which -closes upon him, and Perceval follows the second knight after a vain -attempt to get help from the old woman. (5) Him he found not; but after -feats longer than I can tell, comes to his father's house, where he was -born. He only finds his sister and a niece. The former tells him -concerning her brother, who went to Arthur's court; whereupon their mother -died of grief. Perceval reveals himself, and is amazed at what she relates -concerning the Grail and its guardian, and asks if he may come to behold -it. She answers, Yes; whereupon he vows not to rest till he have found it. -She attempts to dissuade him, but he remains firm. She then urges him to -go to their uncle, who is a hermit, to whom he may confess the sin of his -mother's death, and who will advise him concerning the Quest. (6) Both -proceed thither. He rejoices to see them, and asks if Perceval has been to -the house of his father, guardian of the vessel named Grail, and, on -hearing that he has not, tells him how at the table which Joseph and -himself had made, the voice of the Holy Ghost had come to them, telling -them to go westward, and ordering the rich fisher, his father, to come to -that land where the sun goes down (_avaloit_), telling him he should not -die till the son of Alein had become the best knight in the world. -Perceval had been chosen to do his Lord's service; he is to slay no knight -nor to lie with any woman, that being luxurious sin. His sins have -prevented his reaching Brons. He is to be careful to keep himself from sin -and felony, being of a race our Lord so loved that He committed His blood -to their keeping. Much else he says, and on the morrow Perceval and his -sister ride forth. (7) They meet a knight who challenges them. Perceval, -thinking of the damsel who had given him the hound, at first pays no -attention, but then overcomes and slays him. Perceval is much grieved at -having so soon broken his uncle's injunction. On the morrow he leaves his -sister, promising to return so soon as he may. (8) He meets a knight, -accompanied by a damsel the most wonderfully ugly nature ever made, -whereat he signs himself and laughs. The knight, indignant, challenges -him, but is overcome and sent with the damsel to Arthur's court. Kay makes -mock of them; but Arthur reproves him and receives them courteously. They -remain at the court, and know that she was the most beautiful woman in the -world! (9) Perceval comes to a ford and is challenged by its guardian, -whom he overcomes. His name is Urban of the Black Thorn; his lady had set -him to guard the ford. Her castle vanishes with a great noise, and she -comes to her lover's aid with her maidens in shape of birds. Perceval -slays one who becomes a woman, and is carried off by the others to -Avallon. (10) Perceval comes to a tree at the crossing of four roads, -among its branches he sees two naked children of seven years old. They -speak to him concerning the Grail, and direct him to take the road to the -right. They vanish, and a voice tells him to heed their counsel. (11) -Perceval comes to a river whereon are three men in a boat, and the master -of the boat bids him go down the stream till he should come to his house. -Perceval rides a whole day without finding it, and curses the fisher. At -last he comes to a castle with lowered drawbridge, enters, and is robed in -scarlet by two squires. Meanwhile four attendants have carried the Fisher -King, father of Alein, and grandfather of Perceval, into the hall. The -King wished to do Perceval what honour he might. They eat, and whilst at -table a squire comes out of a chamber, and brings in both hands a lance, -whence flows a drop of blood. Him follows a damsel bearing two silver -plates and clothes; then a squire with a vessel in which was our Lord's -blood. All bow as he passes, and Perceval had fain asked, but he fears to -displease the King, minding him of the worthy man to whom he had -confessed, and who forbade his speaking too much and enquiring -overmuch--for a man of idle words is displeasing to our Lord. All night -Perceval thinks of the lance and of the Grail, and in the morning, on -waking, finds neither man nor woman. He sets forth to seek some one, but -in vain, and is greatly distressed. (12) He finds a damsel weeping -bitterly, who, seeing him, cries out: "Percevaux le Gallois, be accursed, -unhappier art thou than ever, having been in the house of the rich Fisher -King, and not having asked concerning the Grail. Thy Lord hates thee; and -'tis wonder the earth do not open beneath thee." Had he not seen Grail and -lance pass? Had he asked what one did with them, the King, cured of his -infirmity, would have returned to his youth; our Lord's prophecy to Joseph -been fulfilled, and the enchantments of Britain undone. But Perceval is -neither wise, valiant, nor true man enough to have charge of the blood. -But he shall come again and ask concerning the Grail, and his grandfather -shall be cured. (13) The damsel departs, and Perceval, unable to find his -grandfather's house, rides on and comes to a tree under which a damsel is -sitting, and in whose branches the stag's head, which had been carried off -from him, is hanging. Perceval takes it, and when his hound following a -stag comes up, takes possession of it likewise. But the knight who had -taken them appears. Perceval fights with and overcomes him; learns that he -is the brother of the Knight of the Tomb, who lives therein with his love, -sister of the damsel for whose sake Perceval had hunted the stag. To her -Perceval now returns, gives her hound and stag's head, and then departs -refusing the offer of her love, even to stop one night with her. (14) -Perceval wanders for seven years achieving many feats, and sending more -than one hundred knights prisoners to Arthur; but, not being able to find -his grandfather's house, he falls into such melancholy as to lose his -memory, so that he minds him no more of God, and never enters Church. One -Good Friday, fully armed, he meets a knight and ladies in penitents' -dress, who reproach him for going armed on a day that our Lord was -crucified. Perceval repents; returns to his uncle, the hermit; learns that -his sister is dead, and does penitence. The songmen, in their pleasing -rhymes, say nothing of this; but we tell you of it as we find it in the -tale Merlin made Blaise write down. (15) Perceval rides forth and meets -seven squires of Melianz de Liz, who is going to a tournament at the White -Castle, the damsel of which is to be the victor's prize. All the knights -of the Round Table will be there, having returned that Whitsuntide from -the Quest of the Grail without achieving aught. Perceval leaves the -squires and come to a castle where he puts up. His host urges him to take -part in the tournament. The morrow they ride forth and look on; Melianz -wears the scarf of the lady of the castle; he and Gauvain prove themselves -the best knights, the onlooking ladies know not to whom to award the -prize. The next day, Perceval, having resolved upon taking part, accepts -the scarf of his host's daughter, overcomes all adversaries, and sends -steeds to the lady in return for her scarf. Being asked by his host if he -will not woo the damsel of the White Castle, Perceval answers he may not -take wife. Then appears an old man who reproaches Perceval for going to a -tournament, and with forgetting his vow to sleep no two nights in the same -house till the Quest be accomplished. He is Merlin, come from Hortoblande, -to say that owing to the prayers of Perceval's uncle, our Lord wills that -the latter may have his blood to keep. He is to go to his grandfather. -Perceval asks when he shall get there. "Before a year," is the answer. -"'Tis a long time." "Not so," says Merlin, who leaves him, and tells all -to Blaise, from whose writing we know of it. (16) That same night Perceval -comes to his grandfather's house, is received by the Fisher King, and as -they sit at table the Grail appears, and the relics with it, and when -Perceval sees it he asks to what use is the vessel put? Forthwith the King -is cured, and his being changed. Perceval must say first who he is before -learning such holy things. Upon learning it is his grandson before him, -the King leads him to the Grail, and tells him with this lance Longis -pierced the side of Jesus Christ, whom he knew in the flesh. In this -vessel is the blood, Joseph caught as it ran to the ground. It is called -Grail because it is agreeable to worthy men; none may sin in its presence. -Then Brons, kneeling, prays, and the voice of the Holy Ghost tells him the -prophecy will be fulfilled; and he is to teach Perceval the secret words -our Lord on the cross told Joseph, and Joseph told him. He does, but I -cannot and may not say what these words were. Then angels carry him off; -and Perceval remains, and the enchantments of Britain and of the whole -world cease. And that same day Arthur and his knights sitting at the Round -Table are aware of a great noise, and the seat is made whole again which -had broken under Perceval. Merlin appears to Blaise, tells him his work is -ended, and takes him to Perceval, who was right glad of his company. - -_Epilogue._--Merlin comes to Arthur's court and relates all that had taken -place. The knights, finding the Quest of the Grail is over, and mindful of -Merlin's former words, urge Arthur to invade the continent. He does so, -overcomes Frollo, King of France; refuses tribute to the Emperor of Rome, -overcomes him, but is recalled to England on learning Mordret's treachery. -The latter is slain; but Arthur, wounded mortally, is carried to Avallon -to be healed of Morguen, his sister. Lastly, Merlin tells Perceval how he -will withdraw from the world, and be no more seen of men. And the tale -says no more of Merlin and the Grail. - -=The Mabinogi of Peredur ab Evrawc.=--Evrawc, Earl of the North, has seven -sons, six of whom, like himself, fall in tournaments and combats. His wife -carries off her youngest son, Peredur, to the desert, and forbids horses -or arms being shown to him. He grows up strong and active, and can outrun -his mother's goats and hinds. (1) One day he sees three knights -passing--Gwalchmai, the son of Gwyar, and Geneir Gwystyl, and Owain, the -son of Urien. His mother declares them to be angels; whereupon he -determines to join them. He questions Owain concerning his accoutrements -and the use of his weapons. His mother swoons away at the thought of his -leaving her; but he picks out a horse and saddles it. Before leaving, his -mother counsels him to repeat his paternoster wherever he sees a church; -to take food and drink if none offer them; to aid when any outcry is, -especially a woman's; if he sees a fair jewel to take it and give it to -another; to pay his court to fair women whether they will or no. (2) After -two days and nights Peredur comes to a tent, where he finds a damsel. Half -of the food and drink she has he takes, half leaves to her; asks her for -her ring at leaving, which she gives him. Her lord returning, is jealous, -and sets forth to avenge his supposed wrong. (3) Peredur journeys on to -Arthur's court. A knight has been there before him, and grievously -insulted Gwenhwyvar by dashing a goblet of wine in her face, and carrying -the goblet out, and has dared any to avenge the insult; but all hang their -heads. Peredur enters the hall and demands knighthood. On Kai's protesting -he is too meanly equipped, a dwarf, who, with his female companion has -been a year at Arthur's court without speaking, salutes him as the flower -of knighthood. Kai strikes him for this, and kicks the female dwarf, who -repeats the salutation. Kai bids Peredur seek the knight and win back the -goblet, then shall he have knighthood. Peredur does so, and slays the -knight. Owain, who has followed, shows him how to undo the armour and to -clad himself in it, and bids him back to Arthur. But Peredur refuses, he -will not come back to the court till he have avenged the injury done by -Kai to the dwarf and dwarfess. (4) Peredur overcomes sixteen knights and -sends them to Arthur with the same message. (5) Peredur comes to a castle -by a lake, and sees a venerable man sitting by the lake and his attendant -fishing, and the old man is lame. And Peredur enters the castle, and is -practised in the use of weapons, and learns courtesy and noble bearing; -and the old man is his uncle--his mother's brother. He is to leave his -mother's habits and discourse, and if he sees aught to wonder at, not to -ask the meaning of it. (6) Peredur leaves his uncle and comes to a castle -where dwells a second uncle of his--brother likewise of his mother. His -strength is tested by his having to cut through an iron staple with a -sword. Twice he does it and the broken pieces re-unite, but the third time -neither would unite as before. He has arrived at two-thirds of his -strength, and when he attains his full power none will be able to contend -with him. Whilst talking, two youths enter the hall bearing a mighty spear -with three streams of blood flowing from the point to the ground. All -wail and lament; but as Peredur is not vouchsafed the meaning of what he -sees he forbears to ask concerning it. Then enter two maidens with a -salver in which a man's head swims in blood. The outcry redoubles. Peredur -retires to sleep. (7) On the morrow, with his uncle's permission, he rides -forth, finds a beautiful woman lamenting over the corpse of a knight. She -reveals herself as his foster-sister; calls him accursed for causing his -mother's death by leaving her; and tells him it is her husband she mourns -for, slain by the Knight of the Glade. Peredur meets the latter, overcomes -him, and makes him take his foster-sister in marriage. (8) Peredur comes -to a castle where are eighteen youths and five maidens, and he had never -seen one of so fair an aspect as the chief of the maidens. A flask of wine -and six loaves are brought by two nuns, and that must suffice for all. The -youths press the maiden to offer herself to Peredur as his wife or lady -love. She refuses; but consents when they threaten leaving her to her -enemies. She comes weeping to Peredur and relates how she is besieged by -an earl who seeks her hand. She implores his aid, and offers to place -herself in his hands. Peredur bids her go sleep, he will assist her, The -next day he overthrows the master of the household of the earl. To save -his life the latter must deliver up one-third of the besieged maiden's -lands. The second day it fares the same with the earl's steward; the third -with the earl himself. Peredur thus wins back all his hostess' lands, and -tarries with her three weeks; but for her love he would not have stayed so -long. (9) Peredur next meets the Lady of the Tent, ill-entreated of her -husband concerning him. Him he overcomes, compels to acknowledge her -innocence, and sends both to Arthur. (10) Peredur comes to the castle of a -tall and stately lady, who bids him escape from the sorceresses of -Gloucester, who will attack the castle that night; but he resolves to -remain, and defends one of the watch when overtaken by a sorceress. The -latter hails him by his name. She foreknows she is to suffer harm from -him. If he will go with her he shall learn chivalry and the use of arms. -Peredur consents on her promising to refrain from injuring the countess, -and stays with her three weeks. (11) Peredur comes to a hermit's cell. In -the morning it has snowed. A hawk has killed a fowl in front of the cell, -but is scared away by Peredur's horse; a raven has alighted on the bird. -Peredur likens the blackness of the raven and the whiteness of the snow -and the redness of the blood to the hair and the skin and the two red -spots on the cheeks of the lady he loves best. Whilst thus lost in -thought, Arthur and his household come up with him, but fail to recognise -him. A youth accosts him, but receives no answer; whereupon he thrusts at -Peredur but is struck to the ground. Twenty-four youths essay the same, -and are repulsed in like manner. Kai then comes and speaks angrily, but -Peredur breaks his arms for him. Gwalchmai then approaches him -courteously, learns his name, and brings him to Arthur, who does him -honour. Thus all return to Caerlleon. (12) Peredur solicits the love of -Angharad Law Eurawc, and when she denies him, vows to speak to no -Christian till she loves him. (13) Peredur comes to the castle of a huge -grey man, a heathen, after slaying a lion, his porter. The grey man's -daughter warns him of her father, and at his request brings his horse and -arms to his lodging. Peredur overcomes the vassals, and slays the sons of -the grey man, and sends the whole household to Arthur to be baptized. (14) -Peredur slays a serpent lying upon a gold ring, and wins the ring. For a -long time he speaks to no Christian, and loses colour and aspect through -longing for Arthur and his lady love. He returns to Arthur's court, but -none know him, and he suffers Kai to thrust him through the thigh without -his saying a word. He overcomes many knights, and at length Angharad Law -Eurawc confesses her love for him. He remains at Arthur's court. (15) -Peredur comes to the castle of a huge, black, one-eyed man. The latter's -daughter warns him against her father. But Peredur stays, overcomes the -latter, and learns how he lost his eye. On the Mound of Mourning is a -cairn, in the cairn a serpent with a stone in its tail, the virtue whereof -is to give as much gold to the possessor as he may desire. In fighting the -serpent he had lost his eye. He directs Peredur to the serpent, and is -slain by him. Peredur refuses the love of the maidens of the castle, and -rides forth. (16) He comes to the palace of the son of the King of the -Tortures. Every day the Addanc of the Lake slays them. Whilst at discourse -a charger enters the hall with a corpse in the saddle. They anoint the -corpse with warm water and balsam, and it comes to life. The same happens -with two other youths. The morrow they ride forth anew against the Addanc, -refusing Peredur, who would go with them; but he follows and finds seated -on a mound the fairest lady, who, if he will pledge her his love, will -give him a stone by which he may see the Addanc and be unseen of it. He -promises, and she gives him the stone, telling him to seek her in India. -Peredur passes through a valley wherein is a flock of white sheep, and one -of black, and when they cross the river flowing through the valley they -change colour. He learns of their shepherd the way to the Addanc's cave, -slays it, meets his three companions of the night before, who tell him it -was predicted that he should slay the monster, offers them its head, -refuses their sister whom they proffer him in marriage; accepts the -services of a youth, Etlym Gleddyv Coch, who wishes to become his -attendant, and rides forth. (17) He comes to the court of the Countess of -Achievements, overthrows her three hundred knights; but learning she loves -Etlym resigns her to him. (18) Peredur, accompanied by Etlym, comes to the -Mound of Mourning, slays two out of the three hundred knights he finds -guarding the serpent, slays the latter, repays the remaining hundred -knights all they have spent, gives Etlym the stone and sends him back to -his love. (19) Peredur comes to a valley wherein are many coloured tents, -lodges with a miller, from whom he borrows food and lodging, and learns -that a tournament is forward. He overcomes all the knights present, and -sends their horses and arms to the miller as repayment. The Empress of the -Tournament sends for him, he repels her messengers thrice, the fourth time -he yields. She reveals herself as the lady who had helped him against the -Addanc, and she entertains him for fourteen years. (20) Arthur is at -Caerlleon-upon-Usk, with him his knights, and among them Peredur. There -enters, riding upon a yellow mule, a maiden of hideous aspect. She greets -all save Peredur, to whom she reproaches his silence at the court of the -Lame King; had he asked the meaning of the streaming spear and of the -other wonders the King would have regained health and the dominions -peace--all his misfortunes are due to Peredur. She then tells of a castle -where are five hundred and seventy knights, each with the lady he loves -best--there may fame be acquired; and of a castle on a lofty mountain -where a maiden is detained prisoner, whoso should deliver her should -attain the summit of the fame of the world. Gwalchmai sets forth to -release the imprisoned maiden, Peredur to enquire the meaning of the -bleeding lance. Before they leave a knight enters and defies Gwalchmai to -single combat, for that he had slain his lord by treachery. (21) Gwalchmai -meets a knight who directs him to his own castle, where he is welcomed by -his sister. The steward of the castle accuses him to the knight of being -the slayer of his, the knight's, father. Gwalchmai demands a year to -acknowledge or deny the accusation. (22) Peredur, who, seeking tidings of -the black maiden, but finding none, has wandered over the whole island, -meets a priest who chides him for being in armour on Good Friday. Peredur -dismounts, asks the priest's blessing, and learns of a castle where he may -gain tidings of the Castle of Wonders. (23) Peredur proceeds thither, and -meets the King of the castle, who commends him to his daughter, by whom he -is well received. A little yellow page accuses him to the King of winning -his daughter's love, and advises that he should be thrown into prison. But -the damsel befriends him, and assists him to take part in a tournament, -where, for three days, he overthrows all opponents. The King at last -recognises him, and offers him his daughter; but he refuses and sets forth -for the Castle of Wonders. (24) On arriving there he finds the door open, -and in the hall a chessboard and chessmen playing by themselves. He -favours one side which loses, whereupon he casts the chessboard in the -lake. The black maiden comes in and reproaches him--he may find the -chessboard again at the Castle of Ysbidinongyl, where a black man lays -waste the dominions of the Empress. Him Peredur overcomes, but spares his -life; this the black maiden chides him for, and he slays him; but the -black maiden still refuses him access to the Empress unless he can slay a -stag, swift as the swiftest bird, with one sharp horn in his forehead. She -gives him a little dog belonging to the Empress which will rouse the stag. -With its aid he slays the latter, but a lady, riding by, carries off the -dog, and chides him for slaying the stag. He can only win her friendship -by going to a cromlech which is in a grove, and challenging to fight three -times a man who dwells there. Peredur complies, and fights with a black -man clad in rusty armour; but when he dismounts his adversary disappears. -(25) Peredur, riding on, comes to a castle where sits a lame grey-headed -man, and Gwalchmai by him. A youth enters the hall and beseeches Peredur's -friendship--he had been the black maiden who came to Arthur's court, and -who had chid Peredur concerning the chessboard; he was the youth who came -with the bloody head in the salver, and the head was that of Peredur's -cousin slain by the sorceresses of Gloucester, who also lamed Peredur's -uncle, and he, the speaker, was Peredur's cousin. Peredur seeks aid of -Arthur, and they start against the sorceresses. One of the latter slays -three of Arthur's men; whereupon Peredur smites her, and she flees, -exclaiming this was Peredur, who had learnt chivalry of them, their -destined slayer. She and all her companions are slain. Thus is it related -concerning the Castle of Wonders. - -=The Thornton MS. Sir Perceval.=--(1) PERCYVELLE is son of Percyvelle and -Acheflour, Arthur's sister. His father is slain in a tournament by the Red -Knight whom he had previously overcome in a former tournament. His mother -takes to the woods, brings up her son without instruction till he is -fifteen years, when she teaches him to pray to God. (2) He then meets with -three knights of Arthur's court--Ewayne, Gawayne, and Kay. He takes them -for gods. Learning that they are knights, he determines to go to Arthur's -court and become a knight himself, catches a wild horse, and, returning to -his mother, announces his attention. She counsels him to be always of -measure, to salute knights when he meets them, and at his departure gives -him a ring for token. (3) He sets forth, and finding on his way a house -makes himself free of it, eats, drinks, and finding a lady sleeping on a -bed takes from her her ring, leaving his mother's in its place. (4) Coming -to Arthur's hall he rides into it and up to the King so that his mare -kisses Arthur's forehead. He demands knighthood at Arthur's hands, -threatening to slay him if refused. Arthur sees the likeness to his -father, laments over the latter's untimely fate, and recalls that books -say the son should avenge the father's bane. Percyvelle bids him let be -his jangling and dub him knight. Whilst sitting down to table the Red -Knight comes in, carries off Arthur's cup (five years long had he done so) -none daring to hinder him. At the King's lament Percyvelle engages to slay -the Red Knight, and bring the cup back if knighthood be granted him. The -King promises, Percyvelle follows the ravisher, who scorns him, but is -slain by a dart flung at him. He captures the knight's steed, and not -being able otherwise to remove his armour, and recalling his mother's -injunction "out of the iron burn the tree" kindles a fire to burn the -body. Gawayne, who has followed him, shows him how to unlace the armour; -when that is removed Percyvelle casts the body into the fire to roast. He -refuses to return to Arthur, looking upon himself as great a lord as the -King, but sends the cup back through Gawayne and rides on. (5) He meets an -old witch, mother to the Red Knight, who addresses him as her son; her he -spears and casts into the fire. (6) He meets ten knights, who flee, taking -him for the Red Knight, but on his raising his vizor the oldest knight, -reassured, relates how the Red Knight bore him and his sons enmity, and -how, fifteen years before, he had slain his brother. Learning that -Percyvelle had burnt his enemy, he invites him to his castle. (7) Whilst -at meat a messenger comes in from the Maiden-land begging help from the -Lady Lufamour against a "Sowdane," who would have her to wife. Percyvelle -starts forth with three of the old knight's sons, whom, however, he sends -back each after a mile. Meanwhile, the King at Carebedd, mourning for -Percyvelle, receives Lufamour's messages, gains from him tidings of -Percyvelle, and sets forth with his court to follow him. Percyvelle, -coming to the Sowdane's camp, is set upon by the guard, but slays them -all, and then lays him down to rest under the castle wall. In the morning -Lufamour's men make her aware of the slaughter wrought upon her enemies. -She perceives Percyvelle and sends her chamberlain, Hatlayne, to bid him -to her chamber. Whilst at table together tidings are brought that the -enemy have nearly taken the town. Percyvelle sallies forth alone and soon -leaves not one alive. He is then ware of four knights--Arthur, Ewayne, -Gawayne, Kay. He pricks against them and Gawayne receives his onslaught. -They recognise each other, and all proceed to Lufamour's castle. The next -day the Sowdane challenges all comers; Percyvelle, dubbed knight by -Arthur, slays him, and thereafter weds Lufamour. (8) After a year he -thinks on his mother's loneliness, and sets forth to seek her. Hearing a -damsel lamenting in the wood, he finds her bound to a tree, for that a -year before, while sleeping, a stranger had robbed her of a ring leaving -his own in its stead. Now her ring was of a stone of such virtue that -neither death nor hurt could come to the wearer. He releases her, -overcomes the Black Knight who had bound her, reconciles them and claims -his own ring for the ring he had taken. But the Black Knight has given it -to the lord of the land--a giant. (9) Percyvelle slays the giant, and -claims the ring of the porter. The latter tells him how his master, loving -a fair lady, had offered her that same ring, but she, exclaiming that he -had killed her son, rushed into the forest and was since then bereft of -her senses. Percyvelle puts on a goat's skin, and after nine days search -finds her. A magic drink of the giant's throws her into a three days' -sleep, after which, restored to her right mind, she goes home with her -son. He afterwards goes to the Holy Land, and is there slain. - -=The Queste del Saint Graal.=--[_Furnivall's text (F.) has been taken as -the basis of the present summary. Words and passages not found in the -Welsh translation (W) are italicised; words or passages found in the Welsh -translation instead of those in Furnivall are in parentheses. The variants -from Birch-Hirschfeld's Summary (B. H.) are given in the notes._] - -(1) On Whitsun Eve the companions of the Round Table being assembled at -Camelot, a _damsel_ (youth) comes in great haste, asks for Lancelot and -bids him _from King Pelles_ (for the sake of whatever he loved most) -accompany her to the forest. Notwithstanding Guinevere's opposition he -does so, and comes to a nunnery where he finds his two cousins, Boort and -Lionel. Three nuns then bring Galahad, a child the like of whom might -scarce be found in the world; one asks Lancelot to knight him, he -consents, and on the morrow Lancelot and his companions return to -Camelot; his cousins think the child must be Lancelot's son, but Lancelot -answers no word. (2) At the Round Table the seat of each knight is marked, -but on the Seat Perillous it is written that _four hundred and fifty-four_ -(four hundred and fifty) years have passed since the Lord's Passion, and -that on this Whitsun Day the seat shall find its master. Lancelot covers -these words, and, whilst at Kay's reminding, the court awaits an adventure -before sitting down to meat, a youth tells them of a stone floating on the -water. It is a block of red marble, in which sticks a sword, and upon it -written that none may draw the sword save the best knight in the world. -Lancelot declares that the wonders of the Holy Grail are about to begin, -and refuses to essay the adventure; Gawain, Perceval, and others try, but -fail; they then sit down to table served by twelve kings; an old man -enters, leading a knight in vermeil armour, whom he proclaims the desired -knight, of the seed of David and kin of Joseph of Arimathea, who shall -achieve the adventures of the Holy Grail. He draws near the Seat -Perillous, on which is now written, "This is Galahad's seat," sits himself -therein, dismisses the old man, _and bids him greet_, "_My uncle, King -Pelles, and my grandfather, the rich fisher_."[14] (3) Great honour is -done to the new knight, whom Lancelot recognises as his son, and Bors and -Lionel as the youth begot by Lancelot upon the daughter _of the Fisher -King_ (King Pelles). The Queen is told that the knight is come, and her -ladies say he _shall end the wonders of Great Britain, and through him the -Maimed King shall be healed_. Galahad is then urged by Arthur to essay the -adventure of the sword, consents, easily draws out the sword, and asks for -a shield. (4) A damsel appears, weeps for Lancelot as having lost his -place as the best knight in the world, and tells the King from Nasciens, -the hermit, that on that day he would send the Holy Grail to feed the -companions of the Round Table. A tournament is ordered, in which Galahad -is held the best, as he overthrows all save Lancelot and Perceval. After -vespers the court sits down to table, a clap of thunder is heard, followed -by the brightest of sunbeams, so that all are as if lighted by the Holy -Ghost. None know whence the light comes, and none has power to say a word. -The Holy Grail enters, covered with white samite, but none may see who -carries it; the hall is filled with sweet odours, and as the Grail passes -along the tables each seat is filled with such meat as each one longs for. -Then it departs, none may say how, and those can now speak who before -could say no word. (5) All return thanks to God for the grace vouchsafed -them, and Gawain tells them that heretofore no man had been served with -whatever he might desire save _at the Maimed King's_ (at the court of King -Peleur). But they could not behold the Grail openly, and Gawain declares -he will go on quest of it for a year and a day. The knights of the Round -Table make a like vow. Arthur is much distressed, as he knows many will -die on the quest. The Queen and her ladies weep likewise, and propose to -join their knights, but an old priest tells them from Nasciens, the -hermit, that no knight entering on the quest of the Holy Grail is to have -with him his lady or damsel--the quest is no earthly one. On the morrow, -at King Bandamagus' suggestion, all the questers, Galahad first, swear to -maintain the quest for a year and a day and longer if need be. After the -Queen has taken leave of Lancelot, and Arthur has vainly tried to force a -shield on Galahad, the questers set off together and pass the first night -at Vagan's Castle. On the morrow they ride forth and separate. (6) After -five days Galahad comes to an abbey where he finds King Bandamagus and -Ywain "li aoutres." The abbey contains a shield which no knight save the -destined one may take and go unslain or unhurt. King Bandamagus would take -it, but is overthrown by a White Knight; Galahad then takes it, and his -right to do so is admitted by the White Knight, who tells him as follows -concerning it:--Forty-three years after our Lord's Passion, Joseph of -Arimathea, who took our Lord's body down from the Cross,[15] came to the -city Sarras, where dwelt King Evelac, then a Saracen, who was at war with -his neighbour, Tholomes. Josephes, Joseph's son, warned Evelac against -going forth to battle unprepared, and, in answer to the King's questions -what he should do, told him of the new law and Gospel truth and the -Saviour's death, and fixed on his shield a cross of sandal. He was to -uncover this on the fourth day's fighting, and to call on the Lord. When -he did so he beheld a bleeding, crucified figure. He won the battle, and -on his telling the story his brother-in-law, Nasciens, received baptism. -The shield then restored to a man his lost hand. Evelac was baptized, and -guarded the shield in lordly fashion. Josephes came with his father to -Great Britain, where King Crudel threw them with many other Christians -into prison. Mordrains[16] and Nasciens then invaded Great Britain, -released Josephes and remained with him in the land. When Josephes was on -his deathbed, and Evelac asked him for a remembrance, then he bade King -Mordrains bring his shield, and with the blood streaming from his nose -marked on it a cross; this would always remain red, and no knight should -with impunity unhang the shield till Galahad should come, last of -Nasciens' line. Where Nasciens lay buried, there the shield was to be -kept. (7) Galahad draws near a tomb in the abbey graveyard, whence issues -a voice telling him not to approach and drive it out. But he does so, and -a smoke in man's form comes out; on opening the tomb a dead knight's body -is found lying therein, this is cast out. These things are a symbol: the -hard tombstone signifies the _hard-heartedness of the world_ (the hardship -which Jesus Christ had in this world);[17] the dead body those dead in -sin, and as in Christ's time when they slew Him and were harried out of -their land by Vespasian as a punishment; the smoke was a devil who fled -from Galahad because he was a virgin. (8) On the morrow Galahad rides -forth accompanied by Melians, a youth who had begged to be allowed to -serve him, and whom he had knighted. They separate at a cross road, -Melians takes the left hand road in spite of warning, comes to a tent -where hangs a golden crown, seizes it, meets a strange knight who -overthrows and had slain him but for Galahad coming to the rescue and -overcoming first one, then a second assailant. Melians is taken to an -abbey to be tended, and learns that the two knights who almost overpowered -him were his pride in taking the left hand path, his covetousness in -carrying off the crown of gold. (9) Galahad enters a hermitage to pray -there, and hears a voice bidding him proceed to the Castle of Maidens and -rid it of its bad customs. He encounters on the way seven knights whom he -must overcome, such was the custom of the castle. He forces them to -flight, and an old priest brings him the keys of the castle. He finds -therein numberless maidens, and learns that the former lord of the castle -had been, with his son, slain by the seven knights, who had striven -beforehand to carry off his daughter. She foretold that as they had gained -the castle for a maiden's sake, they would lose it through a maiden, and -be overcome by a single knight, whereupon they determined to make prisoner -every maiden passing that way. Galahad delivers the captives, and puts a -daughter of the former duke in possession of the castle. He learns then -that the seven brothers have been slain by Gawain, Gheriot, and Ywain. -(10) The story now returns to Gawain. He passes by the abbey where Galahad -found the shield, then that where Melians lay ill, is reproached by a -friar with being too sinful to be with Galahad, meets Gheheries, his -brother, meets Ywain on the morrow, meets the seven brothers who attack -them and are slain; then Gawain comes alone to a hermitage, confesses for -the first time since fourteen years, is admonished by the hermit, learns -that the Castle of Maidens signifies hell, the captives the good souls -wrongfully therein confined before Christ's coming, the seven knights the -seven sins. Gawain is pressed, but vainly, to make penitence. (11) The -story returns to Galahad. After wandering for awhile without adventures he -meets Lancelot and Perceval. They do not recognise him, not knowing his -_arms_ (shield),[18] and attack him. He overcomes them, but learning from -the words of a recluse, who sees the combat, that she really knows him, -and, fearing recognition, he hurries off.[19] (12) Perceval stays with the -recluse, and Lancelot starts in pursuit of the Unknown Knight. He comes -in the night to a stone cross near which stands (an old)[20] chapel. He -dismounts and enters, but an iron rail hinders his progress; through it he -sees an altar whereon _burn seven candles_ (a silver candlestick, a wax -taper).[21] He leaves the chapel, unsaddles his horse, and lies down to -sleep by the cross. Then comes a sick knight on a bier drawn by two -horses, dolourously lamenting. He looks at Lancelot, but says no word, -thinking him asleep, nor does Lancelot say aught, but remains half asleep. -And the sick knight laments, "_When may I have solace from the holy vessel -for the pain I suffer for such a small fault_ (was ever so much pain as is -upon me who have done no evil at all)?"[22] But Lancelot says no word, nor -when the candlestick comes towards the cross and the Holy Grail approaches -the sick knight, who prays he may be made whole to join likewise the -quest. Then crawling to the table whereon the vessel stands, and _touching -his eyes with_ (kissing) it, feels relief and slumbers. The Grail -disappears and Lancelot still says never a word, for which aftertimes much -mischance was his. The sick knight arises well, a squire appears and -_arms_ him (with Lancelot's sword and helm),[23] and brings him Lancelot's -steed, and the knight swears never to rest till he knows why the Holy -Grail appears in so many places of the Kingdom of Logres, and by whom it -was brought to England. So he departs, and _his squire carries off -Lancelot's armour_. Lancelot awakes wondering whether what he has seen be -dream or truth. And he hears a voice saying--harder than stone, bitterer -than wood, more despised than the fig tree--he must away, not pollute the -spot where is the Holy Grail. He wanders forth weeping, comes to a hermit, -confesses his great sin, his love for Guinevere, is admonished to tear it -from his heart, when there may still be hope for him. Lancelot promises, -and has the adventure at the chapel explained to him, and stays with the -hermit for penance and instruction. (13) The story now returns to -Perceval. The recluse orders he be well taken care of, she loves him well, -he is her nephew. She dissuades him from fighting Galahad as he wishes, -does he wish to die and be killed as his brothers _for their outrages_ (in -their combats and tournaments)? He and Galahad and Bors will achieve the -Quest. She is his aunt, formerly Queen of the Waste Land. _He asks about -his mother whom he fears he has badly treated, and learns she died when he -went to Arthur's court._[24] He asks further concerning the knight with -the red arms, and is told as follows:--Since Christ's coming were three -chief tables; first, the table at which Christ often ate with his -Apostles; second, the table of the Holy Grail, established in semblance -and remembrance of the first, by which so many miracles were wrought in -this land in the time of Joseph of Arimathea, in the beginning when -Christianity was brought to this country. He came with four thousand poor -companions. One day, wandering in a forest, they had nothing to eat, but -an old woman brought _twelve_ (ten) loaves, these they bought and they -were wroth with one another when they came to divide them. Joseph angry, -took the twelve loaves, made the people sit, and by virtue of the Holy -Grail multiplied the loaves to their need. At that table was a seat where -Josephes, son of Joseph, might sit, but none other, for, as the history -tells, the place was blessed by our Lord himself. Now two brothers, -relatives of Josephes, envied him his leadership, saying they were of as -good seed as he, and one sat in Josephes' seat, and was straightway -swallowed up by the earth, whence the seat was called the Dreaded Seat. -Last came the Round Table, made by Merlin's counsel, to show the roundness -of the world and of the firmament. And Merlin foretold that by companions -of this table should the truth of the Grail be known, and that three -should achieve it, two virgins and one chaste, and the one should surpass -his father as man surpasses wolf, and he should be master, and for him -Merlin made a great and wonderful seat, wherein none might sit unharmed -save he, and it was known as the Seat Perillous. And as at Whitsuntide the -Holy Spirit came to the Apostles in guise of fire, so at Whitsuntide -Galahad came clad in red armour. And on the day he came the questing for -the Grail began, which might not cease till the truth concerning it _and -the lance_ was known. To find Galahad, Perceval must first try Castle -_Gher_ (Goth) where dwells a cousin of Galahad, _and then Castle Corbenic -where dwells the Maimed King_. (14) His aunt then tells how after that her -husband fell in war against King Laban she withdrew into that wild place. -And her son went to serve King Pelles, their relative, and since two years -she only knows of him that he is following tournaments throughout Great -Britain. (15) On the morrow Perceval comes to a monastery, and seeing mass -being performed would enter but cannot, and sees a sick bed with a man or -woman lying on it, whom, as he rises when the body of our Lord is raised, -he sees to be an old man crowned, with his body full of wounds and crying -out, "Father, forget me not." He seems as if he were over _four hundred_ -(one hundred and four) years old. Perceval asks concerning these wonders, -and is told as follows:--When Joseph of Arimathea came to this land, the -Saracen, King Crudel, hearing of the Grail by which he lived, threw him -and his son Josephes and some hundred others into prison for forty days, -and forbade food to be given them. But they had the holy vessel with them. -When Mordrains and his brother-in-law, Seraphe, heard these things, they -assembled their host, landed in Britain, overcame Crudel, and freed -Joseph. On the morrow Evelac, as he was called before he became Christian, -desired to see the Holy Grail plainly, and though warned to desist pressed -forward to do so, and was struck blind and helpless. He accepted his -punishment submissively, but only prayed to Christ that he might survive -till _the good knight should come, the best[25] of his seed_ (the knight -who is to achieve the adventures of the Holy Grail). A voice answered his -prayer should be granted, and then he should receive the light of his eyes -and his wounds should be made whole. This happened _four hundred_ (one -hundred and four) years before, and it was that King Evelac whom Perceval -had seen, and during that while he had fed on nought else save the Lord's -body. (16) Perceval riding forth on the morrow is attacked by twenty -knights, sore pressed, and only rescued by the Red Knight's help, who then -disappears. (17) Perceval, having lost his horse, asks one vainly from a -passing squire, from whom it is shortly afterwards carried off by another -knight, whom Perceval, mounted on the squire's cob, attacks but is -overthrown. (18) At night a woman appears and offers him a horse if he -will do her will--she is, in truth, the enemy. He agrees, she mounts him, -he comes to a river, and, before essaying to ford it, makes the sign of -the cross, whereupon the horse rushes howling into the water. (19) -Perceval, rescued from this peril, finds himself on a wild island -mountain, full of savage beasts; he helps a lion against a snake and wins -its service. He is ill at ease on his island, but he trusts God, and is -not like those men of Wales where sons pull their fathers out of bed and -kill them to save the disgrace of their dying in bed. (20) That night, -sleeping by the lion's side, Perceval dreams of two women visiting him, -one mounted on a lion, the second on a serpent; this one reproaches him -for killing the serpent. On the morrow an old man comes ship-borne, -comforts Perceval with good counsel, and interprets his dream: the dame on -the lion was Christ's new law, she on the serpent the old law. (21) A -damsel then appears, warns Perceval against the old man, prepares for him -a rich banquet with good wine, not British, as in Great Britain they only -drink cervoise and other home-made drinks, and excites his passion. He is -on the point of yielding, but seeing the cross-handled pommel of his sword -crosses himself, and the damsel disappears in flames. Perceval pierces his -thigh with his sword in his contrition. The old man reappears, exhorts, -explains the various features of his temptation, and finally takes him -away with him in his ship. (22) The story now returns to Lancelot. After -three exhortations from the hermit he sets forth, and first meets a -servant, who assails him bitterly as an unfaithful traitorous knight, in -that having openly seen the Holy Grail doing its wonders before him, he -yet moved not from his seat. (23) He comes to a hermit's hut and finds the -hermit lamenting over the dead body of his companion, who, at his nephew, -Agaran's, request, had left the hermitage to aid him against his enemies, -and had been treacherously slain by the latter. These things are told by a -devil, which had entered into the dead hermit's body. Lancelot is -admonished at great length, receives stripes, puts on the dead hermit's -hair shirt, and finally leaves with the advice that he should confess -every week. (24) He meets a damsel who encourages him, but tells him he -will find no lodging for the night. _He dismounts at the foot of a cross -at the cross-ways, and has a vision of a man surrounded with stars, -crowned and accompanied by seven Kings and two knights, who pray to be -taken to heaven; a man descending from heaven orders one of the knights -away, whilst to the other he gives the shape of a winged lion, so that he -flies up to heaven and is admitted._[26] (25) Lancelot meets the knight -who had carried off his arms, and who attacks, but is overthrown by him. -(26) _He comes to a hermitage, confesses, tells his vision, and learns -that it has a great meaning in respect of his lineage, which must be -expounded at much length: forty-two years after the Passion of Christ, -Joseph of Arimathea left Jerusalem, came to Sarras, helped Evelac, who -received baptism at the hands of Josephes, together with his -brother-in-law, Seraphe (who took the name Nasciens), and who became a -pillar of the holy faith, so that the great secrets of the Holy Grail were -opened to him, which none but Joseph had beheld before, and no knight -after save in dream. Now Evelac dreamed that out of his nephew, son of -Nasciens, came forth a great lake, whence issued nine streams, eight of -the same size, and the last greater than all the rest put together; our -Lord came and washed in the lake which King Mordrains thus saw flowing -from Celidoine's belly. This Celidoine was the man surrounded by stars in -Lancelot's vision, and this because he knew the course of the stars and -the manner of the planets, and he was first King of Scotland, and the nine -streams were his nine descendants, of whom seven Kings and two -knights:--first, Warpus; second, Chrestiens;[27] third, Alain li Gros; -fourth, Helyas; fifth, Jonaans, who went to Wales and there took to wife -King Moroneus' daughter; sixth, Lancelot, who had the King of Ireland's -daughter to wife; seventh, Bans. These were the seven Kings who appeared -to Lancelot. The eighth stream was Lancelot himself, the elder of the -knights of the vision. The ninth stream was Galahad, begot by Lancelot -upon the Fisher King's daughter, lion-like in power, deepest of all the -streams._[28] (27) Lancelot comes to a castle with a meadow before it, -whereon a throng of black armoured knights is tourneying against knights -in white armour. Lancelot goes to the help of the former,[29] but is -captured, and on being released rides off lamenting. At night, as he -sleeps, a man comes from heaven and reproaches him with his ill faith. A -hermitess expounds the allegorical meaning of the adventure. The white -knights are those of Eliezer, son of King Pelles, the black those of -Argastes, son of King Helain; this symbolised the Quest, which was a -tournament between the heavenly knights and the earthly ones, and in that -Quest none might enter who was black with sin; and Lancelot though sinful, -having entered thereon had joined the black knights, and his capture by -the others was his overthrow by Galahad, and his lamentation his return -to sin, and it was our Lord who reproached him in his vision; let him not -depart from truth. (28) Lancelot comes to Lake Marchoise, is attacked by a -knight in black armour, who kills his horse and rides off; he lays down on -the shore and awaits trustfully God's help. (29) The story returns to -Gawain. After journeying many days adventureless, he meets Hector de -Mares. Neither has heard aught of Lancelot, Galahad, or Bohors. Travelling -together they come to a deserted chapel, where, passing the night, Gawain -dreams he sees in a meadow one hundred and fifty bulls all spotted, save -three, one being dingy, the two others being pure white. Of the one -hundred and forty-seven who set off to find better pasture many die and -some return, of the three one returns, but two remain between whom strife -arises and they separate. Hector dreams that he and Lancelot, being -companions, are attacked by a man who knocks Lancelot off his horse and -sits him on an ass, after which Lancelot, coming to a fair fountain, would -drink of it, but it vanishes; he, Hector, keeping his horse comes to a -castle, the lord of which refuses him admission for that he is too high -mounted. Whilst telling one another their dreams, a hand with a taper -appears and vanishes, and a voice tells them that, poor of belief as they -are, they cannot attain the Holy Grail. On their way to find a hermit who -may explain these wonders, Gawain is attacked by and kills a knight, -Ywains the Adulterer, son of King Urien. They then come to the hermit, -Nasciens, who explains the bulls as the companions of the Round Table, the -spotted ones those stained by sin, the three unspotted ones are the -achievers, two white, virgins--Galahad and Perceval--one dingy, having -once sinned carnally, Bors. The last part of the dream may not be -explained, as evil might come of it. In Hector's dream the two horses are -Pride and Ostentation. Lancelot's being seated on an ass signifies the -putting off of pride, the fountain is the Holy Grail. Both knights are too -full of sin to continue in the quest of the Grail. They ride forth and -meet with no adventure worth notice. (30) The story returns to Bors. After -first coming to a hermit, who exhorts him to abandon the Quest if he do -not feel himself free from sin, to whom he confesses, from whom he -receives absolution, and to whom he vows to eat nought save bread and -water till the Quest be achieved, he comes to a castle whose mistress is -sore oppressed by her sister, against whose champion, Priadam the Black, -she has vainly sought a defender. Bors promises to come to help. He passes -the night at the castle and will not sleep in the rich bed she offers him, -though in the morning he tumbles it as if he had lain in it. He overcomes -Priadam, and reinstates the lady in her lordship. (31) On the morrow he -meets his brother, naked, bound on a hack, being beaten with thorns by two -knights. At the same moment passes a very fair maiden being carried off by -a knight, and she cries to him for help. He is in anguish, but goes to the -maiden's help, wounds her would-be ravisher, and restores her to her -friends. (32) He then hurries after his brother, but meets a seeming monk -who makes him believe his brother is dead, and gives him an explanation of -dreams he has had. He then comes to a tower and is welcomed by its -inmates. A damsel offers him her love, and when he refuses threatens with -twelve other damsels to throw herself from the tower. Bors is full of -pity, but thinks they had better lose their souls than he his. They fall -from the tower, Bors crosses himself, and the whole vanishes, being a -deceit of the devil. His brother's corpse that had been shown him is also -gone. (33) On the morrow he comes to an abbey, where he learns that his -brother lives, and where all his dreams and adventures are allegorically -explained. He then meets Lionel, his brother, who reproaches him bitterly -for his conduct, and falls upon him with intent to kill. First a hermit, -then a passing knight, Calogrenant, would stop him, but he slays both. -Bors is at length, in spite of prayers and entreaties, compelled to draw -in self defence, but a voice tells him to flee, and a fiery brand comes -from heaven between them. Bors follows the command of the voice directing -him towards the sea, where Perceval awaits him. He comes to a ship covered -with white samite, and finds therein Perceval, who at first does not know -him again, and who tells him all that he has passed through. (34) The -story returns to Galahad. After countless adventures he finds himself one -day opposed to Gawain and Hector de Mares in a tournament; he deals the -former such a blow as knocks him out of his saddle. (35) He is brought to -the ship wherein are Perceval and Bors by a damsel, who accompanies them -until, fourteen days' sail from Logres, they come to a desert isle off -which is another ship, on which is written[30] that those who would enter -should see they were full of faith. The damsel then tells Perceval she is -his sister, _daughter of King Pellehem_. They enter the ship and find a -rich bed with a crown at its head, and at its foot a sword six inches out -of the scabbard, its tip a stone of all the colours in the world, its -handle of the bones of two beasts, the serpent Papagast, the fish -Orteniaus; it is covered with a cloth whereon is written that only the -first of his line would grasp the sword. Perceval and Bors both essay -vainly. Galahad, on being asked, sees written on the blade that he only -should draw who could strike better than others. The damsel tells the -story of the sword as follows:--When the ship came to the Kingdom of -Logres there was war between King Lambar, father to the Maimed King, and -King Urlain, heretofore Saracen, but newly baptised. Once Urlain, -discomfited, fled to the ship, and, finding therein the sword, drew it and -slew King Laban[31] with it, and that was the first blow struck with the -sword in the Kingdom of Logres, and there came from it such pestilence and -destruction in the land of the two kingdoms that it was afterwards called -the Waste Land. When Urlain re-entered the ship he fell down dead. (36) -Galahad, further examining the sword, finds the scabbard of serpent's -skin, but the hangings of poor stuff. On the scabbard is written that the -wearer must surpass his fellows, and the hangings be changed only by a -King's daughter and she a maid; on turning the sword over, the other side -is found black as pitch, and bearing words that he who should praise it -most should blame it most in his greatest need. Perceval's sister explains -this as follows: Forty years after our Lord's Passion, Nasciens, -Mordrains' brother-in-law, came to the Turning Isle, and found this ship, -and therein bed and sword, this last he coveted, but had not the hardihood -to draw it, though he stayed eight days food and drinkless longing for it; -on the ninth day a tempest drove him to another island, where, assailed by -a giant, he drew the sword, and though it snapped in two and thus -fulfilled the inscription, yet he overcame the giant. He afterwards met -Mordrains and told him of these wonders; Mordrains reunited the fragments, -then, in obedience to a voice, they left the ship, but in going Nasciens -was wounded for having dared to draw a sword of which he was not worthy, -thus he who praised it most had most reason to blame it. As for the other -words, _King Pelles,[32] called the Maimed King_ (a lame King who was my, -_i.e._, the damsel's, uncle) once came to this ship on the shore of the -sea over against Ireland, and entering it found the sword, drew but was -wounded through the thighs by a lance, _and might not be healed till -Galahad come_.[33] (37) They then examine the bed and find it has three -spindles; that in front, snow white; that behind, blood red; that above, -emerald green, and lest this be thought a lie the story turns from its -straight path to explain about these spindles. After Eve, yielding to the -devil's advice, had caused Adam to sin, and both knew themselves carnal -and were ashamed, and were driven forth from Paradise, Eve kept the branch -of the Tree of Life which she had plucked, and planted it and it grew to a -tree with branches and leaves white in token that Eve was a virgin when -she planted it. Sitting one day beneath the tree, God commanded them to -know one another carnally, and when they were ashamed to set about such -foul work sent darkness over them. Abel was thus begotten, and the Tree of -Life turned green. Afterwards Cain slew Abel underneath that same tree and -it turned red. At the Deluge it remained unharmed and lasted till -Solomon's time. Whilst the wise King was pondering over the malice of his -wife and of all women, a voice told him a woman of his line should bring -men more joy than her sex had caused sorrow, and that a virgin knight -should be the last of his lineage. His wife, whom he consults as to how he -shall let this knight know he had foreknowledge of his coming, advised the -building of the ship, and the taking of David's sword to be fitted with a -new hilt of precious stones, and a new pommel and scabbard, and placed in -the ship together with Solomon's crown on a rich bed; she furthermore had -three spindles made from the Tree of Life and from trees grown from it. -And when all was ready Solomon saw in dreams angels coming from heaven and -putting the different inscriptions on the sword and ship. (38) The story -speaks now of other things. New hangings had not been put on the sword, -this was to be done by a damsel. Perceval's sister supplies hangings made -of her own hair, and names the sword "The Sword of Strange Hangings," and -the scabbard "Memory of Blood," and Galahad girds on the sword. (39) On -the morrow they set sail and come to Castle Carchelois, in the March of -Scotland, the inmates whereof attack them but are all slain. Galahad is -sorry for those he has killed, but a priest tells him they are heathens, -and he has done the best work in the world, as the three knights who held -the castle had ravished their own sister and wounded their father, Count -Ernous, to death. Before the latter dies he urges Galahad _to go to the -assistance of the Maimed King_ (to undertake other adventures).[34] (40) -On the morrow they meet a white stag led by four lions; these come to a -hermitage, hear mass, the stag becomes a man and sits on the altar, the -lions a man, an eagle, a lion, and an ox, all winged. (41) On the morrow -Perceval takes Galahad's sword, which he will wear from henceforth. They -come to a castle, the inmates of which demand that Perceval's sister -should pay the custom of the castle, which is to give a dishful of blood -from her right arm. The three companions protect Perceval's sister against -overwhelming odds till nightfall, when, learning that the blood is asked -to heal the Lady of the Castle suffering from leprosy, Perceval's sister -sacrifices herself. Before dying she gives directions that her body is to -be put in a ship and buried in the Palace Spiritual in Sarras. Bors then -leaves his two companions to succour a wounded knight pursued by a knight -and a dwarf;[35] and Perceval and Galahad, after seeing the castle they -had thus left destroyed by fire from heaven in vengeance of the blood of -the good maidens which had there been shed, likewise separate. (42) The -story returns to Lancelot. He is at the Water of Marcoise, surrounded by -the forest and high rocks, but he does not lose faith in God; in obedience -to a voice he goes on board a passing ship and finds therein Perceval's -sister, whose story he learns from the letter at her head. After a month's -journeying a knight joins them who proves to be Galahad, and they pass -together half a year achieving marvellous adventures. After Easter, at the -new time when the birds sing their sweet and varied songs, they come to -land, and a knight in white arms bids Galahad leave his father, which he -does. (43) After a month's further wandering on the sea, Lancelot comes to -a castle guarded by two lions,[36] against whom he would at first defend -himself, but is reproved for trusting his strength rather than his -Creator. Entering, he comes to a room wherein are the Holy Vessel, and a -priest celebrating mass; Lancelot is warned not to enter, but when he sees -that the priest about to raise the body of God has a man put into his -hands, he cannot refrain from pressing forward to his aid, but is struck -down by a fiery wind and remains fourteen days dumb, food- and drinkless. -He finds he is in Castle Corbenic, and a damsel tells him his quest is -ended. King Pelles rejoices to see him, at dinner the Holy Grail fills the -tables so that living man could not think of greater plenty; whilst at -dinner Hector de Mares comes to the castle door, but is ashamed to enter, -hearing that Lancelot is within, and rides off pursued by the reproaches -and taunts of those of the castle. Lancelot returns to Arthur's court, -passing on the way the tomb of Bandamagus, whom Gawain had slain. (44) The -story returns to Galahad. He comes to an abbey wherein is King Mordrains, -who knows his approach, and asks that he may die in his arms; Galahad -takes him on his breast, Mordrains dies and all his wounds are found -healed. (45) Galahad cools the boiling fountain by putting his hand in it. -(46) Galahad delivers from the tomb where he had been burning three -hundred and fifty-four years his relative, Symeu, who thus expiated his -sin against Joseph of Arimathea. (47) Galahad rides five years before he -comes to the _house of the Maimed King_ (the court of King Peleur), and -during all the five years Perceval bears him company, and within that time -they _achieve the great adventures of the Kingdom of Logres_ (cast out the -evil adventures of the Island of Britain). (48) One day they met Bors, who -in the five years had not been in bed four times. The three come to -_Castle Corbenic_[37] (the court of King Peleur) _where they are greeted -by King Pelles, and where Eliezer, King Pelles' son, brings the broken -sword with which Joseph had been pierced through the thighs; Bors cannot -rejoin the pieces, Perceval can only adjust them together, Galahad alone -can make the sword whole, and it is then given to Bors_. (50) At -vesper-time a hot wind strikes the palace, and a voice orders all unfit to -sit at Christ's table to depart, as the true knights were to be fed with -Heaven's food. All leave save _King Pelles, Eliezer, his son, and his -niece, the most religious maid on the earth_ (a young maiden); to them -enter nine knights[38] and salute Galahad: three are from _Gaul_ (Wales), -three from Ireland, three from Denmark. _Then four damsels bring in on a -wooden bed a man, crowned, in evil plight, who greets Galahad as his -long-expected deliverer._ A voice orders out of the room him who has not -been a companion of the Quest, and straightway _King Pelles and Eliezer -and_ the damsel depart. From heaven comes a man clad like a Bishop and -borne in a chair by four[39] angels, who place him before the table upon -which stands the Holy Grail. Upon his forehead is written that he was -_Joseph_ (son of Joseph of Arimathea) first Bishop of Christendom, whereat -they wonder, as they know that man lived three hundred years before. He -kneels before the altar and opens the door of the _ark_ (chamber), and -four angels[39] issue, _two bearing burning lights, the third a cloth of -red samite, the fourth a lance bleeding so hard that the drops run into a -box he holds in his other hand_ (two with torches, the third with the -lance, the fourth holding the box into which the blood drops); the candles -are placed on the table, the cloth is placed on the holy vessel so that -the blood fell into it. Joseph then celebrates the Sacrament, and on his -raising the wafer, as it were a child descends from heaven and strikes -itself into the wafer, so that it takes man's form. Joseph then kisses -Galahad and bids him be fed by the Saviour's own hand, and vanishes. But -there comes out of the holy vessel, a man with hands bleeding and feet and -body, and says He will reveal His secrets, and give the high food so long -desired and toiled for. He gives the Sacrament to Galahad and his -companions, and explains that the Grail is the dish of the Last Supper, -and Galahad shall see it more fully in the City of Sarras, whither it is -going, Britain being unworthy of it, and whither he is to follow it with -Perceval and Bors; _but as he must not leave the land without healing the -Maimed King he is to take some of the blood of the lance and therewith -anoint his legs_.[40] Galahad asks why all may not come with him; but -Christ says they are twelve who have eaten as the Apostles were twelve, -and they must separate as the Apostles separated. _Galahad then heals the -Maimed King, who goes into an abbey of white monks._ (51) The three -companions, after sending messages to Arthur's court _through Estrois de -Gariles and Claudius, son of King Claudas_,[41] coming to Solomon's ship, -herein they find the Holy Grail, set sail; on landing bury Perceval's -sister, heal a cripple to help them carry the Grail-table, are cast in -prison by King _Escorant_ for a year, are fed by the Holy Grail; at -_Escorant's_ death Galahad is made King, fashions a tree of gold and -precious stones over the Grail and prays before it every morning as do his -companions. (52) On the anniversary of Galahad's crowning the three see -before the holy vessel a man clad like a Bishop, who begins mass and calls -Galahad to see what he has so longed to see, and at the sight Galahad -trembles very greatly, and he thanks God for letting him see that which -tongue may not describe nor heart think, and he begs that he may pass away -from this earthly life to the heavenly one. The Bishop then gives him the -body of God, and reveals himself as Josephus, son of Joseph of Arimathea. -Galahad kisses Perceval and Bors, and sends greetings to Lancelot through -Bors, his soul then leaves his body and angels take it away. A hand from -heaven then comes to the vessel and takes it and the lance, and bears it -heavenwards, so that since there was no man bold enough to say he has seen -the Holy Grail (except Gwalchmai once). (52) _Galahad's body is buried. -Perceval goes into a hermitage, where Bors stays with him for a year and -two months; Perceval dies, and is buried by Bors in Galahad's tomb; Bors -left alone in a place as strange as Babylon, sets sail for Britain, and -comes to Camelot, when all are greatly joyed to see him; he tells the -adventures of the Holy Grail; they are written down and kept in the Abbey -of Salisbury, and from these Master Walter Map drew to make his book of -the Holy Grail for the love of King Henry his lord, who had the story -translated from Latin into French. The story now is silent and tells no -more concerning the adventures of the Holy Grail._[42] - -=Grand St. Graal.=--(1) The writer salutes all who have faith in the Holy -Trinity. He does not name himself for three reasons: lest his declaration -that he received the story from God Himself be a stumbling block; lest his -friends pay less honour to the book if they know the author; lest if he -have made any blunder all the blame fall upon him. - -(2) In the year 717 after the Passion of Christ, as the writer lies in his -hut in one of the wildest parts of White Britain, on Good Friday Eve and -doubts of the Trinity, Christ appears to him and gives him a little book -not larger than a man's palm, and this book will resolve all his doubts; -He Himself has written it, and only he who is purified by confession and -fasting may read it. On the morrow the writer opens it and finds therein -four sections, headed each as follows: This is the book of thy lineage; -here begins the book of the Holy Grail; here is the beginning of the -terrors; here begin the marvels. As he reads lightning and thunder come -and other wonders. On Good Friday, as he is celebrating the service, an -angel raises him in spirit to the third heaven, and his doubts concerning -the Trinity are set at rest. When his spirit returns to his body he locks -up the book; but on Easter Sunday, when he would read further, finds it -gone; a voice says he must suffer to have the book back again, must go to -the plains of Walescog, follow a wonderful beast to Norway, and there find -what he seeks. He obeys, the beast leads him first to a hermit's, then -past the pine of adventures to a knight's castle, on the third day to the -queen's lake and a nunnery. After exorcising a hermit possessed of the -devil, he finds the book, and on his return Christ commands him to make a -fair copy before Ascension Day. He sets to work at once, on the fifteenth -day after Easter.[43] The book begins as follows: Few believe on Christ -at His crucifixion, among whom is Joseph of Arimathea, as the Holy -Scripture of the Grail testifies. He is in all things a good man. He lives -in Jerusalem with his wife and a son, Josephes (not the same Josephes who -so often quotes the Scripture, but not less learned than he), he it was -who passed his father's kin across sea to White Britain, since called -England, without rudder or sail, but in the fold of this shirt. Joseph, -having much loved the Lord, longs after His death to possess somewhat -having belonged to Him; goes to the house of the Last Supper, and carries -off the dish wherein He had eaten. Having been a knight of Pilate's for -seven years, he craves a boon of him, which is Christ's body. Pilate -grants it; Joseph descends the body from the Cross, places it in a -sepulchre, and, fetching the dish from his house, collects in it the blood -flowing from the body,[44] and finishes laying the body in the tomb. The -Jews hear of this, are angered, seize Joseph, throw him into prison in the -most hideous and dirtiest dungeon ever seen, feed him at first on bread -and water, but when Christ is found to have arisen, Caiaphas, Joseph's -jailor, lets him starve. But Christ brings the holy dish that Joseph had -sent back to his house with all the blood in it. Joseph is overjoyed. -Christ comforts him, and assures him he shall live and carry His name to -foreign parts. Joseph thus remains in prison. Meanwhile his wife, though -often pressed to marry, refuses until she shall have had sure tidings of -her husband; as for his son he will only marry Holy Church. (3) Forty -years go by; after Christ's death Tiberius Caesar reigned ten years, then -Caius, one year; then Claudius, fourteen years; then Noirons, in whose -reign S.S. Peter and Paul were crucified, fourteen years; then Titus, and -Vespasian, his son, a leper. The freeing of Joseph befalls in the third -year of Titus' reign and in this wise: Titus has vainly sought a leech to -heal Vespasian. At last a strange knight from Capernaum promises his help -and tells how he in his youth had been healed of the leprosy by a prophet. -The Emperor on hearing this sent to Judea to seek out that prophet; his -messenger comes to Felix, and orders him to have proclamation made for -aught Christ has touched; hereupon an old woman, Marie la Venissienne, -brings the cloth upon which the Saviour's likeness had painted itself when -she wiped His face. The messenger returns to Rome with this cloth and the -mere sight of it heals Vespasian, who straightway resolves to avenge -Christ's death. He goes to Jerusalem, Joseph's wife appears before him, -accuses the Jews of having made away with her husband; none of the Jews -know where he is save Caiaphas, who reveals the secret on condition that -he is to be neither burnt or slain. Vespasian himself goes down into the -prison and finds it as light as though one hundred candles had burnt in -it. He tells Joseph who he is, whereat the latter wondered, not thinking -he had been longer than from Friday to Sunday, not once had it been dark. -A voice tells Joseph not to fear, and that he will find the Holy Vessel at -his home. Joseph returns to Jerusalem with Vespasian, and points out to -him the abettors of Christ's death, whom Vespasian has burnt. Caiaphas is -set adrift in a boat. (4) The night before Vespasian returns to Rome, -Christ appears to Joseph and commands him to go forth and fill foreign -lands with his seed; he must be baptised, and must go forth without money -or aught but the dish; all heart can want or wish he shall have, all who -accompany him must be baptised likewise. Joseph is baptised by St. Philip, -then Bishop of Jerusalem, as is also Vespasian, concerning whom the story -is now silent. (5) Joseph preaches to his friends and relatives and -converts seventy-five of them. They leave Jerusalem and come to Bethany, -where the Lord appears to Joseph, promises him aid as once to the Jews in -the wilderness, commands him to make a wooden ark for the dish, which he -is to open when he wants to speak to Him, but no one is to touch it save -Joseph and his son Josephes; Joseph does as commanded, his troop is -miraculously fed, and on the eleventh day they come to the town of Sarras, -between Babilone and Salavandre, whence the Saracens have their name, and -not from Sara. (6) Joseph and his seventy-five companions enter the city -and go to the Temple of the Sun, to the seat of judgment, where the -Saracens are assembled with their lord, Evalach the Unknown: he had been a -man of prowess in his youth, but was now old; seven days before, the -Egyptians had beaten his army, and the council is now devising how -vengeance may be taken therefor. Joseph is greatly joyed at these events, -and when the council advises peace assures the King of victory, but he -must destroy his images and believe on Him who died on the Cross. Evalach -asks how one who could not save himself could save another. Joseph, in -answer, tells of Christ's birth, life, death, descent into hell, -resurrection, ascension, and of the sending of the Holy Ghost. Evalach -cannot understand either the Incarnation or the Trinity, and although -Joseph explains that the Virgin conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy -Ghost through her ear, and that her virginity was no more hurt than is -water when a sunbeam enters it, remains stubborn and calls his learned men -to his aid, but Joseph confounds these, and Evalach lodges the Christians -for the night and gives them good beds. (7) Evalach dreams of a tree-stock -whence spring three equal trunks and though three yet are truly one, also -of a room with a secret door of marble, through which a child passes -without opening it; a voice tells him this is a type of the miraculous -conception of Christ. (8) Meanwhile, Joseph, unable to sleep, prays for -comfort and adjures the Lord by all His mercies to help Evalach; he is -told by a voice he shall be sent for to explain the King's dream. Joseph -then goes to sleep with his wife, Helyab, but not as lustful folk do, for -there was nothing between them till the Lord commanded the begetting of -Galahad, and then, so full of love to the Saviour were they that they had -no desire. From Galahad came the high race which honoured the land of -White Britain, now called England. (9) The morrow morning Joseph and his -company worship before the ark (now the place wherein they were had been -called the Spiritual Palace by Daniel) when a soft sweet wind comes and -the Holy Ghost descends and Christ speaks and urges all to love Him; He -tells Josephes to draw near and take charge of His flesh and blood; -Josephes opens the door of the ark and sees a man all in red, and with him -five angels, each six winged, all in red, each with a bloody sword in his -left, and in their rights severally, a cross, nails, lance, sponge, and -scourge; Josephes sees Christ nailed to the Cross, and the blood running -down from His side and feet into the dish; he would enter the ark but -angels restrain him. Joseph, wondering at his son's state, kneels before -the ark and sees therein an altar covered with white cloths, under which -is a red samite one, covering three nails, a lance head all bloody, and -the dish he had brought, and in the middle of the altar an exceeding rich -vessel of gold and precious stones; seven angels issue from the ark with -water and watering pot (2), gold basins and towels (2), and gold censers -(3), an eighth carrying the holy dish, a ninth a head so rich and -beautiful as never mortal eye saw, a tenth a sword, three more with -tapers, lastly Jesus. The company of angels go over the house sprinkling -it with holy water, because it had heretofore been dwelt in by devils. -Christ tells Josephes he is to receive the sacrament of His flesh and -blood, and be made sovran shepherd over His new sheep; bishop's vestments -are brought out of the ark. Josephes is seated in a chair, which -afterwards made a Saracen King's eyes fly out of his head, is consecrated, -an angel keeps the holy oil wherewith all Kings of Britain were anointed -till the time of Uther Pendragon, of whom none of the many that have told -his history have rightly known why he was so called; the meaning of the -episcopal vestments is explained to Josephes, and his duties set forth. -(10) Josephes then goes into the ark and celebrates the sacrament using -Christ's words only, whereat bread and wine become flesh and blood, and in -place of the bread a child, which, though as bidden, he divides into three -parts yet is eaten as one whole; an angel puts patina and chalice into the -dish; Joseph and his company receive the sacrament in the form of a child; -Christ bids Josephes celebrate the sacrament daily; tells him that he and -Joseph are to go with Evalach's messengers now nigh at hand. Leucans, -Josephes' cousin, is appointed guardian of the ark. (11) Joseph and his -son go before the King and overcome all the heathen clerk's objections; -Josephes tells Evalach he will be given over to his enemies for three -days, and shall only escape by believing on Christ; the heathen idols are -smashed by a devil at the compelling of Josephes' two angels. A messenger -brings the news that King Tholomes has entered and is capturing the land, -and he will not rest till he be crowned at Sarras. Josephes tells the King -this ill-hap is to mind him of his lowly origin, he is son of a shoemaker -in an old city of France, Meaux, and was one of a tribute of one hundred -youths and one hundred maidens claimed by Augustus Caesar from France, as -here dwelt a prouder folk than elsewhere, and the two daughters of the -Count of the Town, Sevain, were among the tribute, and Evalach was among -their servants. When Felix was named Governor of Syria by Tiberius he had -taken Evalach with him, and held him in high honour until one day, angry -with Felix's son, Evalach slew him and had to fly, after which he entered -the service of Tholome Cerastre, King of Babylon, who had given him the -land he now ruled. Josephes further explains the King's dreams, and when -the latter declares himself willing to believe, asks for his shield, upon -which he fixes a red cross and tells him to look on it in his need and -pray to God and he shall be saved. (12) Evalach marches with his army -against Tholomes, is joined by his brother-in-law, Seraphe (whom he -thought hated him most of any man in the world) at the Queen's entreaty; -numerous combats ensue between the two armies; Seraphe performs prodigies -of valour; Evalach is taken prisoner, and in his need looks on the shield, -sees thereon Christ crucified, prays to God for help, a White Knight -appears, overcomes Tholomes, who is taken prisoner, and Evalach's army is -victorous. (13) Meanwhile Josephes, remaining in Sarras, has been -counselling Queen Sarraquite, secretly a Christian, since her mother was -cured of a bloody flux, and since Christ appeared to her when she was -afraid of the hermit her mother had led her to for baptism because he had -such a long beard; she dares not avow her faith for fear of her husband. -Josephes tells her of the battle which has taken place and of the White -Knight. (14) Evalach and Seraphe return; the King asks at once after the -Christians, and learns that he owes his victory to the Lord to whom also -Seraphe owed his strength in battle; the shield is uncovered, a man with a -wounded arm is healed by it, and then the cross vanishes; Seraphe turns -Christian, is baptised and receives the name Nasciens, he is straightway -healed of his wounds, exhorts Evalach to believe, and tells of Tholomes' -death. Evalach is baptised, and re-christened Mordrains, or -Slow-of-Belief. After baptising the town and destroying all images, -Josephes leaves three of his companions in charge of the Grail Ark, and -goes with the rest to Orcanz, turns out of an image a devil who had slain -Tholomes, and converts more of the heathen folk. (15) Meanwhile Mordrains -has ordered his people to be baptised or to leave his land; many take the -latter course and are met outside the town by a devil who wounds them -grievously, whereupon Josephes hurries to their aid, but is met by an -angel with a lance and smitten through the thigh for having left his -baptising work to trouble himself about contemners of God's law, and the -mark of the wound should stay with him all his life, and the iron spear -head remain in the wound so that ever after he limped, and he had later to -smart for it, as the tale will show in due season. Many more people are -converted, Bishops are left in the land and holy relics at Sarras. (16) -Josephes brings Mordrains, Sarraquite, and Nasciens to the holy shrine, -and shows them the vessel wherein is Christ's blood. Nasciens thinks he -has never seen aught to match it, and he gives it a name that since it has -never lost. For, says he, nothing he had seen before but somewhat -displeased him (li degraast), but this pleases him (li gree) entirely; he -further tells how once when a young man, hunting, as he stood deep in -thought a voice made itself heard, saying "Thou shall't never accomplish -what thou thinkest on until the wonders of the Grail are disclosed," and -he knows now this must be the Grail as every wish of his heart is -accomplished. And he draws nearer and lifts the vessel's lid and looks -therein, but straightway falls to trembling, feeling he can no longer see. -And he knew that the blindness was to punish his curiosity, and turning to -Josephes tells him that the iron shall not be drawn out of that wound -inflicted by the angel at Orcanz, nor he himself recover his sight until -Josephes, wounded, himself comes to draw out the iron. - -So they stand lost in thought, till a voice is heard, "After my vengeance -my healing" and an angel appears, touches Josephes' thigh with the lance -shaft, whereupon the head comes out, and from it drop great drops of blood -which the angel collects in a vessel, and wherewith he anoints Josephes' -wound, making it whole, and Nasciens' eyes, restoring to him his sight. -And the angel tells them that the meaning of the lance is that of the -beginning of the wonderful adventures which shall befall in lands whither -God purposes leading them; when the true knights should be separated from -the false ones, and the earthly knighthood become a heavenly one. And at -the beginning of those adventures the lance would drop blood as then, but -beforehand none; and then wonders would happen all over the world where -the lance was, great and terrible wonders, in recognition of the Holy -Grail and of the lance; and the marvels of the Grail should never be seen -save by one man alone; and by the lance wherewith Josephes was struck -should but one other man be struck, and he a King of Josephes' kin, and -the last of the good men; he should be struck through the two thighs, and -only healed when the Grail wonders were disclosed to the Good Knight, and -that one should be last of Nasciens' kin. Thus, as Nasciens was the first -to behold the wonders of the Grail, that one should be the last; so saith -the true crucified one, adding, "Upon the first and last of My new -ministers will I spend the vengeance of the adventurous lance in token of -Myself having received the lance stroke whilst on the Cross." And so many -days as Josephes had born the lance head in his wound so many days should -the marvellous adventures last. Now these days (_years_)[45] were -twenty-two. (17) Josephes explains Mordrains' vision, and makes him -destroy the image of a woman he had kept in a secret chamber, known, so he -thought, only to himself. (18) Josephes and his company go forth from -Sarras, but the tale tells nothing of them in this place, but keeps -straight on. On the following night Mordrains dreams that, sitting in -Sarras at table, of a sudden a thunderbolt strikes crown from his head and -the first mouthful from his lips; a great wind carries him up into a far -land where he is fed by a lion and lioness, and after a while an eagle -carries off Nasciens' son to a land whereof the inhabitants bow down -before him, and out of this nephew's belly comes a great lake giving rise -to nine streams, eight of equal breadth and depth, the ninth as wide and -deep as the remainder put together, and rushing and turbulent, and at -first foul and muddy, but afterwards clear and pure as a precious stone; -then comes down from heaven a man in likeness of one crucified, who bathes -hands and feet in the lake and eight streams, but in the ninth his whole -body. (19) Mordrains tells his vision to Nasciens and confesses to former -treacherous and jealous feelings he had against him; they seek counsel of -the priests, but none can expound the vision, and as they sit together a -great tumult is heard and the sound of a horn announcing "the beginning of -dread," and they fall senseless to the ground; but Mordrains is caught up -by the Holy Ghost and borne off. (20) Meanwhile Nasciens is accused by -Kalafier, a Christian-hater, of having made away with Mordrains, and is -cast into prison with Kalafier for gaoler. (21) Meanwhile Mordrains has -been carried off by the Holy Ghost to an island lying between Babylon, -Scotland, and Ireland, a high land from which the western sea can be -looked over as far as Spain; it was once a pirates' lair, but Pompey drove -them thence. To Mordrains comes a noble man who gives his name as -Tout-entour, comforts him, and exhorts him to steadfastness in the faith; -when he leaves a fair woman appears and tempts the King, who luckily does -not pay heed to her, and well for him, as he learns from the noble man -that she is Lucifer in disguise. He is assailed by many temptations; -storm, thunder, and lightning affright him; the wonderful bird Phoenix -attacks him and snatches the bread from his lips; Lucifer again visits him -and shows him Nasciens' dead body, but it is only an invention; finally, -all these trials withstood, the noble man comes again and expounds the -dream of the nine streams: the lake is a son of Nasciens, from whom -descend nine Kings, all good men and true, but the ninth surpassing all in -every virtue; he is the knight to whom the wonders of the Grail shall be -shown, and Christ shall bathe Himself wholly in him. (22) Meanwhile -Nasciens has been kept in prison together with his son, Celidoine -(Heaven-given) by Kalafier. But a miraculous hand appearing from out a -cloud strikes off Nasciens' fetters, and carries him out of the dungeon; -Kalafier pursues but is struck down by the hand; on his death bed he -orders that Celidoine be cast from the battlements, but nine hands bear -him up in mid air, whilst Kalafier, slain by fire from heaven, goes to -eternal death. Sarraquite, overjoyed to hear of her brother's escape, -sends out messengers to meet them. Meanwhile Nasciens' wife, Flegentyne, -has set out in search of her husband accompanied by the old knight, -Corsapias, and his son, Helicoras. (23) Now Nasciens has been carried -fourteen days journey off to the Turning Isle (concerning which many -wonders are told); all of these things are true, as Christ Himself has -written the book of the Holy Grail, and He never wrote aught else save the -Lord's Prayer for the disciples and the judgment upon the woman taken in -adultery. And no man is bold enough to say that since the Resurrection -Christ wrote aught else save this "haute escripture del S. Graal." (24) A -ship comes to Nasciens' isle which he would enter but for words warning -him against it unless he be full of faith. However, crossing himself he -enters [and finds therein the same wonders as those described in Queste, -Inc. 35, 36, 37, viz.:--the sword and the three spindles, precisely the -same story about which is told as in the Queste]. (25) Nasciens deeming -there must be magic in this, the ship splits in twain, and had well nigh -drowned him, but he regains the isle swimming, and on the morrow an old -man comes in a ship and gives him an allegorical explanation of what has -befallen him. (26) Meanwhile Celidoine, carried off by the hands to the -land of the heathen King Label, wins his favour by expounding a dream, -converts him, but at his death is cast adrift by the heathen barons in a -boat with a lion, and after three days comes to Nasciens' island. (27) The -two rejoice on their meeting, and leave the island together in Solomon's -ship, come after four days to another island, where Nasciens, attacked by -a giant, seizes Solomon's sword but it breaks in his hand, nevertheless, -with another sword he overcomes the giant. He chides Solomon's sword, but -Celidoine says it is some sin of his made it break. Thereafter they see a -ship approaching wherein is Mordrains. There is rejoicing between the -three, and much telling of past adventures. Nasciens shows the broken -sword to Mordrains, who, taking it in his hands, joins it together, -whereupon a voice bids them leave the ship; Nasciens, not obeying fast -enough, is wounded in the shoulder by a fiery sword in punishment of his -having drawn Solomon's sword. (28) The messengers sent out by Sarraquite -in search of Nasciens have, meantime, had many adventures, have come -across the daughter of King Label, suffered shipwreck, and been thrown -upon a desert isle formerly the home of the great physician, Ypocras (of -whom a long story is told how he was tricked by a Roman lady), been -tempted in divers fashions, but at last they are led to Mordrains, -Nasciens, and Celidoine. (29) On the third night a priest clad in white -comes walking on the sea, heals Nasciens' wound, and sends off Celidoine -in another ship. The remainder come to land, Mordrains and Sarraquite are -reunited; Nasciens' wife, Flegentyne, is sent for; and Label's daughter is -christened by Petrone, a holy man and kinsman of Joseph. She was after -Celidoine's wife, as my lord Robert of Borron testifies, who translated -this history from Latin into French after the holy hermit to whom our Lord -first gave it. (30) Nasciens sets forth in search of his son, his knights -follow on his track, and two are struck dead for their sins. Nasciens -comes again to Solomon's ship, is tempted by the devil in the shape of a -fair damsel, goes on board the ship and dreams as follows:--Celidoine is -in the promised land with all those who had left Sarras; he, Nasciens, -shall go thence likewise and never depart thence, nor shall the ship until -it take back the last of his line to Sarras, together with the Holy Grail, -and that shall be after three hundred years; and thereafter Celidoine -leads before him nine persons, all in guise of Kings, save the eighth who -was like a dog, and the ninth turns into a lion, and at his death the -whole world mourns over him. And the names of these, Nasciens' -descendants, are: Celidoine, Marpus, Nasciens, Alains li Gros, Ysaies, -Jonans, Lancelot, Bans, Lancelot, like unto a dog until his end, Galahad, -foul at the source, but afterwards clear, in whom Christ shall bathe -Himself wholly, and who shall end all the adventures. On the morrow it is -explained to Nasciens that the eighth of his descendants likens a dog on -account of his sins, and the ninth is foul at the beginning as engendered -in fornication and not as Holy Church wills. (31) The story, after -touching on Flegentyne, who retires to her own land, returns to Joseph, -who, with his son, Josephes, and his companions, has been wandering about. -Joseph is ordered by a voice from heaven to beget a son, whose name shall -be Galaad. At length the company comes to the sea shore and laments that -it has no ships; Joseph rebukes them, and says those may pass who have -kept chaste, whereupon four hundred and sixty come forward to confess -their lechery. Josephes is told to put forward the Grail-bearers, to take -the shirt off his back, and having spread it on the water, all the pure -companions shall find place on it. This happens, and all find place save -Symeu and his son, who are not as they should be, and who sink and are -well nigh drowned. The chosen company arrive on the morrow in Great -Britain, then full of Saracens and infidels. Josephes then prays for the -remainder of the company; a heavenly voice says they shall come in good -time, and that this is the promised land in which they shall multiply and -become the worthiest race anywhere. (32) Meantime Nasciens has been led in -Solomon's ship to those of Joseph's followers who had been left behind, as -the history of the Holy Grail testifies. After being warned against fresh -falling into sin they are brought over to Joseph, and are fed with as much -meat as they could want. But the fifth day the company, not having eaten -for a day, come to the tent of a poor woman, wherein are twelve loaves -about which they dispute. Josephes, referred to, breaks each loaf in -three, and having placed the Holy Grail at the head of the table by its -power the bread suffices for more than five hundred people. (33) Hereafter -the company comes to Castle Galafort, where Celidoine is found disputing -with the Saracen wise men. The Christians are well received by Ganort, and -shortly afterwards he and his people are baptised, one hundred and fifty -who refuse being drowned. Over their bodies a tower is built, the Tower of -Marvels, and thereafter, it is prophesied, a King named Arthur should -reign, and from one blow of a sword adventures should arise, lasting -twelve years, until the last descendant of Nasciens should end them, and -till that time no knight of Arthur's house should enter the tower without -having to fight as good a man as himself; thus should it be till he who -was to end the adventures appeared. So they build the tower, and it lasts -until Lancelot destroys it, as the "Tale of Arthur's Death" relates. (34) -Joseph's wife bears a son, who receives the name of Galahad, of the Castle -of Galafort. (35) The King of Northumberland, hearing of Ganort's -conversion, summons him to the court, and on his refusal attacks him, but -is defeated and slain by the Christians. (36) Josephes, his father, and -one hundred and fifty of the Christians, leaving Galafort, come to -Norgales, and are thrown into prison by King Crudel, who says, "Let them -be for forty days, and see if their vessel will feed them." Our Lord comes -to comfort them, and bids them be of good cheer, He will send an avenger -to slay these dogs. (37) Our Lord, in the likeness of one crucified, then -appears to Mordrains, bids him set forth with wife and children and King -Label's daughter and Nasciens' wife and go to Great Britain, there to -avenge him on King Crudel. Mordrains hearkens, and shortly after sets -forth with all his household, leaving his land in charge of Duke Ganor. On -the way a devil carries off the captain of the ship, who had lusted after -Queen Flegentyne. They arrive in Britain and rejoin their friends; great -is the joy; Nasciens' queen is like to have died of joy, and swoons twelve -times. (38) Mordrains sends word to Crudel to set the Christians free, and -on his refusal marches against, overthrows, and slays him, but is -grievously wounded, though he suffers no pain. Josephes and his companions -are freed, and thanksgivings are made before the Grail. On the morrow, as -Josephes is officiating before the holy vessel, Mordains presses near to -see it, in spite of a warning voice; he loses his sight and the power of -his body; he confesses his folly, but prays he may not die till the Good -Knight's coming, the ninth of Nasciens' descendants. A voice promises him -this, and that when the Good Knight comes he shall recover his sight and -his wounds be healed; but three hear this promise beside Mordrains -himself, Joseph, Josephes, and Nasciens. (39) Mordrains is brought to -Galafort, where Celidoine marries King Label's daughter and begets a son, -Nasciens. Mordrains then, after giving his wife and shield into Nasciens' -keeping, retires to a hermitage, and builds a monastery of the White -Monks, and stays there till Perceval sees him and Galahad, too, as the -"Tale of the Holy Grail" tells. (40) Josephes leaves Galafort, and, coming -to Camelot, converts many of the people, whereat King Agrestes, being -grieved, is baptised with false intent, and after Josephes' departure -persecutes the Christians, and is punished by madness and death. Josephes -returning, buries the martyrs, whose blood had blackened a cross, which -keeps the name of the "Black Cross," till the Good Knight, Lancelot of the -Lake's son comes. (41) Josephes comes to a hill called Hill of the Giant; -'tis a Friday, and Brons is sitting next him at the Grail-table, but -between the two is space for a man to sit, and Brons, Josephes' kinsman, -asks him why he does not invite some one to fill it. Josephes answers, -only he who is a holier man than any present can fill that place, as it -typifies Christ's seat at the Last Supper, and is empty waiting His -coming, or whom He shall send. Such of the company as are in mortal sin -take this saying as presumption and fable, and Moys declares his -willingness to sit in it if his companions will ask Josephes' leave. They -do so, and though Josephes minds them how Moys might hardly come to -Britain, and though he solemnly warns Moys himself, he gives his leave. -Moys takes the seat, and at once seven flaming bands from heaven seize -upon him and carry him off to a far place burning like a dry bush. The -people repent, and, in answer to their enquiries, Josephes tells them the -day shall come when they shall know where Moys is. (42) After the meal -Josephes, at Brons' request, has the latter's twelve sons up before him, -and asks them whether they will be wedded or not. Eleven choose wedding, -but the twelfth virginity and the service of the Holy Grail. Josephes, -overjoyed, having married the other eleven, appoints him guardian of the -Grail at his death, and he might leave the guardianship afterwards to whom -he would. (43) Josephes and his companions pass through Britain converting -the heathen. Now the Grail only gives food to such as are not in sin, and -once as the troop is encamped by a lake, Peter, a kinsman of Josephes', -bears it through the ranks, and all are fed with the best food, save the -sinners; these complain, and beg Josephes to pray for them, whereupon he -bids Brons' youngest son, the same he had chosen as Grail-keeper, Alains -le Gros (not that Alains, Celidoine's son, _he_ was king and wore a crown, -but this one never) take the net from the Grail-table and fish with it in -the pond. Alains does so and catches one fish, a big one, but say they, -'Twill not be enough; however, Alains, having shared it in three, and -having prayed it might suffice, all are fed. Alains is called in -consequence the Rich Fisher, and all the Grail-keepers after him bear this -name, but they were more blessed than he, being crowned Kings whereas he -never wore crown. (44) Joseph, leaving his companions, comes into the -Forest of Broceliande, meets a Saracen who would lead him to his sick -brother, but is himself slain by a lion. Joseph is thrown in prison and -wounded in the thigh by the men of the sick knight's castle, but, -obtaining leave to visit the sick knight, heals him, and brings back to -life the Saracen slain by the lion; both brothers are baptised; a fragment -of the sword remaining in the wound, Joseph draws it out, and laying it -with the remainder of the sword prophecies it shall not be made whole till -he come who shall achieve the adventures of the Holy Grail. (45) Joseph, -returning to his companions, finds them in doubt as to how they shall -cross a great water, they pray for guidance, and a white hart appears, -followed by four stags, and leads them across, all save Chanaan, who -crosses later in a fisherman's boat. Josephes, in answer to Alain and -Pierron, explains the hart and lions as Christ and the Evangelists, and -Christ would appear in that wise afterwards to Arthur, Mordred, and -Lancelot. (46) The Christians come to a house where burns a great fire, -out of which is heard a lamentable voice; it is that of Moys; at Josephes' -prayer rain falls from heaven and quenches half the flames, but he may not -be wholly delivered until the Good Knight, Galahad, come. (47) The -Christians come into the land of King Escos, whence Scotland has its name. -The Holy Grail refuses meat to Chanaan and to Symeu, Moys' father, whereat -enraged, Symeu attacks Pierre and wounds him, and Chanaan slays his -twelve brethren. Symeu is carried off by devils, whilst Chanaan's grave -bursts out in flames, which may not quench till Lancelot come. (48) -Meanwhile Pierre's wound having become worse, he is left behind with a -priest, who leads him to the sea shore, and, at his request, places him in -a boat; this carries him to the isle of the heathen king, Orcanz, whose -daughter finding him on the sea shore dying, has pity on him and tends him -secretly till he is healed. Her father requires a champion, Pierre offers -himself, conquers, converts, and baptises Orcanz, who takes the name -Lamer, and marries his daughter, and King Luces comes to the wedding and -is overjoyed. From him came Gauvain, son of King Lot of Orcanie. Mordred -was no true son of Lot's, but of Arthur's. Gauvain is thus of the seed of -Joseph of Arimathea. (49) Josephes after fifteen years' wanderings comes -back to Galafort, and finds his brother Galahad grown up; by Josephes' -advice the men of Hocelice take Galahad for their king, and he became the -ancestor of Ywain, son of Urien. Once whilst riding he comes to Symeu's -fiery grave, which may not be quenched till Galahad, the Good Knight, -comes. At Galahad's death he is buried in an abbey he founds to allay -Symeu's pains, and the tombstone of his grave may not be lifted until by -Lancelot. (50) Joseph dies shortly after Galahad's crowning, and Josephes, -feeling death near, pays a last visit to Mordrains, who begs for a token -from him. Josephes asks for the king's shield, and with blood gushing from -his nose marks on it a red cross, gives it to Mordrains, and says no one -shall hang it on his neck without rue till Galahad do so; the shield is -placed on Nasciens' tomb. On the morrow Josephes dies; his body is carried -afterwards into Scotland to still a famine, and is buried in the Abbey of -Glays. (51) Before his death he has confided the Grail to Alain. The -latter comes with his brethren, one of whom, Josue, is unmarried, to the -Terre Foraine, converts the King and people, and marries Josue to his -daughter. Here is the resting-place of the Holy Grail; a lordly castle is -built for it, hight Corbenic, which is Chaldee, and signifies "holy -vessel." At Josue's wedding, such is the power of the Holy Grail, that all -present are as filled as if they had eaten the finest meats they could -think of. And that night the King, baptized Alfasem, sleeping in the -castle, beholds the holy vessel covered with crimson samite, and a man all -flaming tells him no mortal may sleep where the Holy Grail rests, and -wounds him through both thighs, and bids others beware of sleeping in the -Palace Adventurous. And afterwards many a knight essayed the adventure, -but lost his life, till Gauvain came, and he, though he kept his life, had -such shame and mischance as he had not had for the Kingdom of Logres' -sake. (58) Alain and Alfasem die; Josue becomes King and Grail-keeper, and -after him Aminadap, Catheloys, Manaal, Lambor, all Kings and known as the -Fisher, and Lambor fighting with his enemy, Bruillant, pursues him to the -sea shore, and Bruillant finds there Solomon's ship and enters it, and -finds the sword with which he slays Lambor, and this was the first blow -struck with that sword in Great Britain, and such great woes sprang -therefrom that no labourers worked, nor wheat grew, nor fruit trees bore, -nor fish was found in the waters, so that the land was known as the Waste -Land. But Bruillant falls dead for drawing the sword. After Lambor, -Pelleans, wounded in the two thighs in a battle of Rome, whence he was -always called the Maimed King, and he might not heal till Galahad the Good -Knight come; and from him descends Pelles, and on his daughter does -Lancelot of the Lake beget Galahad. (59) Nasciens, Flegentyne, and -Sarraquite die on the self-same day. Celidoine reigns, and is followed by -Marpus, he by Nasciens, Alain li Gros, Ysaies, Jonas, Lancelot, Bans, -Lancelot of the Lake. Here the story ends of all the seed of Celidoine, -and returns to speak of Merlin, which my lord Robert of Borron thus -begins.[46] - - In making up the slips, the summary of Borron's poem dropped out. In - order not to disturb the page form, which was fixed before the - omission was noticed, it has been inserted after the Grand St. Graal - with a subpagination. - -=Robert de Borron's Poem: Joseph of Arimathea.=--(1) Before Christ's -coming all folk went to Hell, but He came born of a Virgin that He might -bring them out of Hell. He took flesh what time Judaea was under Rome and -Pilate governed it. Now a soldier of Pilate's loved Christ but dared not -show it. Of Christ's few disciples one was bad, his chamberlain, and he -betrayed Him to the Jews. (2) On Thursday Jesus gathers His disciples; -Judas' question, the washing of the feet, the kiss of betrayal follow. -When the Jews carry off Jesus, one of them takes the very fair vessel -wherein He made His sacrament, and gave it to Pilate, who keeps it till he -learns Jesus' death. (3) Joseph is angry hereat, and claims pay for his -and his five knights five years' free service, and his pay is Christ's -body. Pilate grants it him, and Joseph hastens to the Cross, but the -guards deny him, whereon he complains to Pilate, who sends Nicodemus to -see he obtain it, and also gives Joseph the vessel. (4) Joseph and -Nicodemus descend the body, and wash it, which makes the blood flow -afresh. Joseph puts the blood in the vessel, wraps the body in a fine -cloth and entombs it. The descent into Hell and the Resurrection follow. -(5) The Jews are incensed against Joseph and Nicodemus; the latter -escapes, but Joseph is thrust into a horrible and dark prison. To him -Christ appears with His vessel, in a great light, and instructs Joseph, -telling him for his love to Him he shall have the symbol of His death and -give it to keep to whom he would; He then gives Joseph the great, precious -vessel wherein is His holiest blood. Joseph wonders, having hidden it in -his house. Joseph is to yield the vessel to three persons only, who are to -take it in the name of the Trinity. No Sacrament shall ever be celebrated -but Joseph shall be remembered. But Joseph must be taught concerning the -Sacrament; the bread and wine are Christ's flesh and blood, the tomb is -the Altar; the grave-cloth the Corporal, the vessel wherein the blood was -put shall be called Chalice, the cup-platten signifies the tombstone. All -who see Joseph's vessel shall be of Christ's company, have fulfilment of -their heart's wish and joy eternal. (_The author adds_: I dare not, nor -could not, tell this but that I had the great book wherein the histories -are written by the great clerks, therein are the great secrets written -which are called the Graal.) Christ leaves Joseph, who remains in prison, -no man heeding him (6) until, when Vespasian, the Emperor's son, was a -leper, a pilgrim comes to Rome and tells of Christ's cures, and lays his -head Vespasian could be cured could anything of Christ's be brought to -Rome. The Emperor sends messengers, who hear Pilate's story of the -Crucifixion and about Joseph. The Jews are called together, and one tells -of Verrine, who is brought before the messengers, and she relates how she -wiped Christ's face and thus got the likeness of Him. They take her to -Rome, Vespasian is healed, and sets forth to revenge Christ's death. He -kills many Jews, burning some. One Jew offers to find Joseph, and tells -the story of his imprisonment. Vespasian is let down into the prison and -finds Joseph alive, who, to his amazement, welcomes him by name, and -reads him a lecture on Biblical history and Christian Faith. Vespasian is -converted, and sells the Jews at the rate of thirty for a penny. (7) -Joseph exhorts his kin, among them his sister, Enygeus, and -brother-in-law, Hebron. They agree to believe, and to follow him. He sets -off with them and they dwell for long in far-off lands. For awhile things -go well, but then all the host does turns to naught; 'tis on account of -carnal sin. The host complains to Hebron that they and their children die -of hunger. (8) Hebron reports this to Joseph, who goes weeping and kneels -before the vessel and asks why his followers suffer? A voice from the Holy -Ghost answers he is not in fault, but he is to set the vessel before the -people, and to mind him how He, Christ, had eaten with His disciples, and -how the false disciple was detected. In the name of that table whereat -Christ last ate, Joseph is to prepare another, and then to call his -brother-in-law, Brons, and make him go into the water to catch a fish, and -the first he catches Joseph is to put it on the table, and then to take -the vessel, put it on the table, cover it with a towel, and then place -Hebron's fish opposite it. The people are then to be called, who will soon -see wherein they have sinned. And Joseph is to sit where Christ sat at the -Last Sacrament, with Brons at his right. And Brons is to draw back one -seat, to signify the seat of Judas, and the seat thus left empty is not to -be filled until Enygeus have a child by Brons, her husband, and when that -child is born there shall be his seat. The people is then to be bidden sit -down to the grace of our Lord. Joseph does all this; part of the people -sit, part do not, the sitters are filled with sweetness and the desire of -their heart, the others feel nought. One of the sitters, named Petrus, -asks if they feel nothing, and tells them it is because they are defiled -with sin. The sinners then depart, but Joseph bids them come back day by -day. Thus Joseph detects the sinners, and thus is the vessel first proved. -(9) Joseph tells the sinners it severs them from the others, as it holds -no company with nor has love towards any sinner. The sinners ask the name -of the vessel: it is called _Graal_, as it is agreeable to all who see it. -Now all this is verity, hence we call this the Story of the Grail, and it -shall be henceforth known as the Grail. (10) One sinner remains, Moyses, a -hypocrite (here a gap which can be filled up from the prose versions: -Moyses seats himself in the empty seat, whereupon the earth opens and -swallows him). (11) Joseph prays to Christ that as He came to him in -prison, and promised He would come to his aid when in trouble, so now He -would show him what has become of Moyses. The voice tells Joseph again -about the empty seat, and how that the one at Joseph's table was not to be -filled until the third man come, whom Hebron should beget and Enygeus -bear, and _his_ son should fill the seat. Moyses had stayed behind only to -deceive, he had his deserts, no more should be heard of him in fable or -song until _he_ come who should fill the empty seat. (12) In course of -time Brons and Enygeus have twelve sons and are greatly bothered with -them, and ask Joseph what is to be done with them. Joseph prays before the -vessel; eleven will marry, one remain single; this one is Alain. Joseph -is told by the voice when he consults the vessel about this nephew, to -relate all about Christ's death and about the vessel, to tell Alain that -from him shall issue an heir who is to keep the vessel; Alain is to take -charge of his brethren and sisters and go westwards. An angel will bring a -letter for Petrus to read, telling him to go whither he lists; he will -say: the vale of Avaron; thither shall he go and wait for the son of -Alain, and shall not pass away until that one come, and to him shall -Petrus teach the power of the vessel, and say what has become of Moyses, -and then may he die. (13) All happens as foretold by the voice; the letter -comes for Petrus, who declares his intention of departing for the vale of -Avaron, bidding the host pray God he may never go against His will. Alain -leaves with his brethren, and, as Joseph taught him, preaches the name of -Jesus Christ. (14) Petrus stays one day more; it is, says an angel, the -Lord sends to Joseph, that he may see and hear the things of the vessel. -The angel continues: The Lord knows Brons for a worthy man, and 'twas, -therefore His will he should go fishing; he is to keep the vessel after -Joseph, who must instruct him properly especially concerning the holy -words which God spake to Joseph in the prison, which are properly called -the Secrets of the Grail; Brons is to be called the Rich Fisher from the -fish he caught; all the people are to go westwards; Brons is to wait for -the son of his son, and to give him the vessel, then shall the meaning of -the blessed Trinity be made known; after the vessel has been given to -Brons, Petrus is to go, as he may then truly say he has seen Hebron, the -Rich Fisher, put in possession of the vessel; when all this is done, -Joseph is to go to perfect joy and life pardurable. (15) On the morrow -Joseph tells them the angel's message, save the words of Christ in the -prison, which he tells to the Rich Fisher alone. The latter is then put in -possession of Grail and headship; Joseph stays three days with him, then -the Good Fisher goes away--in the land where he was born--and Joseph -remains.[47] - -Master Robert de Borron should doubtless tell where Alain went, Hebron's -son, and what became of him; what life Petrus led, and what became of him; -what became of the long-lost Moyses; where the Rich Fisher went, and where -he stayed. It were well to assemble these four things, but this no man -could do save he had first heard tell the greatest history of the Grail, -which is all true; and in this time I tell it to my Lord Walter, never had -the great history of the Grail been told by mortal man. If God gives me -strength I will assemble these four parts if I can find them in a book, -meanwhile I must go on to the fifth and forget the four. (Then follows the -Merlin). - -=Robert de Borron's Poem: Merlin.=--(In order to give all the materials -for the discussion of Birch-Hirschfeld's theory of the Grail legend in the -next chapter, a brief summary of the Merlin is added. A full one may be -found in Birch-Hirschfeld, pp. 166, _et seq._) - -The devil, incensed at Christ's victory over him, in revenge begets by -fraudful malice upon a virgin, a son, who is to be the wisest of mankind, -and to oppose Christ's teaching. This is Merlin, who at eighteen months is -able to save his mother, threatened with the doom of unchastity. -Afterwards he is brought to King Vortigern, to whom he expounds the -mystery of the unfinished tower. Vortigern is driven from his throne by -Pendragon, with whom Merlin stands in high honour; equally so with his -successor, Uter Pendragon, for whom he builds the Round Table, leaving one -place empty to be filled in the time of Uter's successor. He then helps -the King to satisfy his passion for Yguerne, and takes charge of Arthur, -their son. When the latter grows up to be a youth he fulfils the adventure -of the sword in the anvil, and is proclaimed King. "And I, Robert of -Borron, writer of this book, may not speak longer of Arthur till I have -told of Alain, son of Brons, and how the woes of Britain were caused; and -as the book tells so must I what man Alain was, and what life he led, and -of his seed and their life. And when I have spoken of these things I will -tell again of Arthur." - -(Then follows in one solitary MS., the Didot-Perceval summarised above, p. -28. As will be seen, it does not tell what man Alain was, nor does it -refer to him at all save in the most passing way). - - - - -CHAPTER III. - - The legend formed of two portions: Early History of Grail, Quest--Two - forms of each portion distinguished--Grouping of the various - versions--Alternative hypotheses of development--Their bearing upon - the alleged Celtic origin of the Grail--Closer examination of the - various accounts of the Grail: The first use made of it and its first - possessor; its solace of Joseph; its properties and the effect - produced by it; its name; its arrival in England; the Grail-keeper and - his relationship to the Promised Knight--Three different stages in the - development of the Queste--The work and the qualification of the - Promised Knight--Conclusions: Priority over Early History of - Quest--Chronological arrangement of the versions. - - -The information afforded by the summaries enables us to take a general -view of the legend as a whole, and to attempt a more accurate -chronological classification of its varying forms. It will have been seen -that the legend is formed of two distinct portions: the one dealing with -the origin and wanderings (Early History) of the Grail, the other with its -Quest. The two portions are found combined in the Joseph and -Didot-Perceval and in the Grand St. Graal and Queste considered each as -one organic whole. Versions A, Chrestien and his continuators; C, -Didot-Perceval taken by itself; D, Queste; F, Wolfram, and G, Perceval le -Gallois, treat only of the Quest. Versions B, Metrical Joseph, and E, -Grand St. Graal, only of the Early History. But in nearly all the -versions, no matter of which portion, references are to be found to the -other, and when the versions are carefully examined, it is found that of -each portion there exist two entirely different forms. Taking the Early -History first, versions A, B, C, D, E, and G, in so far as they deal with -it at all, relate much as follows: the Grail is the vessel which our Lord -used at the Last Supper, which, given by Pilate to Joseph, served the -latter to receive the blood flowing from the body of the dead Christ, -sustained him miraculously during his captivity, was, after his release, -used by him to test the faith of his followers, and was brought to England -by Joseph (A, D, E), by Brons (B, C), and was finally confided by Joseph -to his brother-in-law, Brons, to be kept until the coming of the latter's -grandson (versions B and C), or was left in charge of Alain, son of Brons, -from whom it passed to his brother Josue, in whose line it remained until -the Good Knight should come (version E). But F, Wolfram makes the Grail a -vessel of "lapsit exillit" (_i.e._, lapis herilis, or lapsus ex coelis, or -lapis electrix), which, after the fall of the rebel angels, was given in -charge to Titurel and his dynasty, and by them preserved in the Grail -Castle, Montsalvatch, guarded by a sacred order of Knighthood whom it -chooses itself. So far, therefore, as the Early History is concerned all -the versions, save one, are in the main of the same class, the differences -between them being, apparently, ones of development and not of origin. - -Turning now to the Quest, two classes are likewise to be distinguished: in -the first the hero is Perceval, in the second there are three heroes, -Galahad, Perceval, and Bors, chief of whom is Galahad. To the first class -belong versions A, Chrestien, etc., C, Didot-Perceval; F, Wolfram; and G, -Perceval le Gallois; whilst D, Queste, alone of the versions which recount -the Quest only, belongs to the other class. It is followed, however, by E, -Grand St. Graal, in so far as the latter has any reference to the Quest. -In the other Early History version, namely B, Metrical Joseph, the name of -the hero who is to achieve the Quest is not mentioned, but the indications -concerning him agree more closely with the march of the story in C, -Didot-Perceval, than with those of D, Queste; it must therefore be ranged -in the first class. The main incident in the versions of this class is the -hero's visit to the castle of a sick king, his beholding there the Grail -in company with other relics, his neglect on the first visit to ask the -meaning of what he sees, his punishment, second visit to the Grail Castle, -and attainment of his end, whether healing of the Sick King or winning of -the Grail kingship. The two versions, H, Peredur, and I, Sir Perceval, -which belong to the Grail cycle, though they do not mention the Grail, and -although I, Sir Perceval, does not contain the above-mentioned incident, -must likewise be placed in this class, as must also the Gawain episodes -of Diu Crone. In the second class this main incident is missing, though -several of its less important features are present in altogether different -connection. The story in D, Queste, is largely made up of adventures -tallying often detail for detail with those in the Early History version, -E, Grand St. Graal, with which it shares similarity in the Quest form. - -Whilst each portion of the legend exists in two forms, the great majority -of versions in both cases belong to one form. Looking for the moment upon -D and E as one whole, there is in both cases only one minority-version, -viz., for the Early History, F, Wolfram, for the Quest D-E, Queste, Grand -St. Graal. And each of these is only in a minority as far as one portion -of the legend is concerned, D-E, agreeing with the majority in the Early -History, and F in the Quest. Taking the average of all the versions there -results what may be called the _Joseph of Arimathea form_ as the type of -the Early History; the _Perceval form_ as the type of the Quest. As a -rule, it may be confidently assumed that the larger number of versions -represent an older form, an assumption strengthened so far as the Early -History is concerned by the fact that the minority version, F, Wolfram, -can historically be proved to be one of the latest in date of all the -versions, and, so far as the Quest is concerned, by the following -considerations:--The minority version, D-E, has three heroes, of whom -Perceval is second in importance only to the chief hero, Galahad, indeed -he occupies as large a space in the narrative. This position can be due -only to his being the original achiever of the Quest. It is obviously -inadmissible that seven or eight versions should have conspired to pick -out one only, and that one the second, of the three heroes of the Queste, -and should have made him the sole hero, whilst it is easy to understand -that the author of D, Queste, dissatisfied for certain reasons with the -older forms of the story, yet not daring to alter it so far as to entirely -burke the original hero, should have taken the course he did. - -Two alternative hypotheses now naturally suggest themselves. The two parts -of the legend may really form one organic whole, although more frequently -found asunder than combined, or the one part may be an explanatory and -supplementary after-thought. If the first hypothesis be accepted, it is -natural to look upon the Metrical Joseph and the Didot-Perceval as the -first and last parts of a trilogy, which, as presenting the legend in its -fullest and most orderly shape, has a claim to being the oldest form of -the story, and the main, if not the only, source of all other versions. -If, on the other hand, the second hypothesis be exact, if one part of the -legend be later than the other, and has been artificially welded into one -with it, that version in which this fusion is most perfect, instead of -being the earliest is, with greater likelihood, one of the latest forms. -How do these alternative hypotheses affect the special object of these -studies--the investigation of the alleged Celtic element in the Grail -romances? In this way. If the Early History be an integral part of the -romance, the probabilities in favour of a purely Christian legendary -origin for the Grail itself are immensely increased, and the utmost the -Celtic partisan could hope to show was that a Christian legend had somehow -or other been strongly influenced by Celtic popular traditions. But if the -reverse be true the probabilities are at once in favour of the Christian -legendary element being the intruding one, and the chief aim of the Celtic -partisan will be to disengage the present versions of the Quest from the -traces left upon them by the Early History, and to accumulate as many -parallels as possible between the residuum and admittedly genuine Celtic -tradition. It by no means follows, however, that the acceptance of the -second hypothesis involves the acceptance of the Celtic origin of the -Grail. The romance as we have it--Quest, Early History--may be the fusion -of two elements, one of which, the Christian legendary, may claim _all_ -that is connected with the mystic vessel. Were it otherwise our task would -be greatly simplified. For the mere fact that what may be called the -non-Grail members of the cycle, _i.e._, H, Peredur, and I, Sir Perceval, -know nothing of the Early History, gives no uncertain hint as to which -portion of the romance is the original, and which the accretion. Two -points have then to be investigated--the relationship one to the other of -Early History and Quest; and, if the Quest is found to be the older -portion, whether the Grail really belongs to it, or whether its presence -in the various forms of the story as we now have them may not be due to -the Early History. An examination of the various passages in which the -Grail is mentioned will furnish material towards settling the first point. -Such an examination may profitably omit all reference to Wolfram, to the -prose Perceval le Gallois, from which little is apparently to be gained -respecting the oldest forms of the legend, and to Heinrich von dem -Tuerlin's version of the Gawain episodes. It must also neglect for the -nonce the two non-Grail members of the cycle (the Mabinogi and Sir -Perceval) as their testimony is either of little or of the highest value -according as the Quest is or is not found to be the oldest portion of the -romance. With these exceptions all the versions furnish elements of -comparison, though little is to be got, as far as the point under -discussion is concerned, from what is apparently the latest section of the -Conte du Graal, Gerbert's poem. - -The consideration of the second point will necessitate comparison of the -various Quest forms among themselves, and the examination of numerous -Celtic stories which present analogies with them. - - -_The Grail: the first use made of it and its first Possessor._ - -We learn nothing from Chrestien respecting the early history of the Grail, -nor is Gautier more communicative if the Mons MS. version be followed. The -intercalation, A IIA, however, and Manessier give full details. According -to the former: - - ... c'est icel Graal por voir - Que nostre Sires tant ama - Que de son saint sanc l'anora - Au jor que il fu en croix mis. (16-19) - -According to the latter: - - C'est li vassiaus, ce sacies-vous, - U ens li sains sans presious - Nostre Segnor fu receus - Quant de la lance fu ferus. (35,017-20) - -We learn from the former that "Josep le fist fere" (v. 22), and that he -used it to collect the blood that flowed from each foot of our Lord as He -hung on the Cross (verses 30-39), whilst the latter leaves it uncertain -who the first possessor was, and who held the Grail to receive our Lord's -blood. The information given in versions B, is as might be expected, much -fuller. B I, Metr. Jos., which calls it "un veissel mout gent," tells how -Christ used it, He "feisoit son sacrement" in it; how it was found by a -Jew, who delivered it up to Pilate, by whom it was given to Joseph, and by -him used to receive the blood which bursts forth again from Christ's -wounds when the body has been taken down from the Cross.--C, -Didot-Perceval: Brons, after relating how Longis pierced the Lord's body -as it hung on the Cross, says of the Grail, "en cest vessel gist le sanc -que Joseph recueilli qui decoroit par terre" (p. 483).--E, Grand St. -Graal: Joseph himself finds the vessel out of which Christ had eaten, -takes it home, and when he has received the body from Pilate, fetches the -vessel and collects in it all the blood flowing from the wound he can (I, -pp. 23, 24). Curiously enough, the very MS. which gives this version has -an illustration of Joseph sitting under the Cross and collecting the blood -as it drops from the wounds in side and feet. Three different accounts of -how the Grail came into Joseph's possession and to what use he put it thus -exist:-- - - (1) The Grail is the vessel in which Christ's blood was received as He - hung upon the Cross (Pseudo-Gautier, Manessier, Didot-Perceval, and an - illustration in a MS. of the Grand St. Graal); Joseph had had it made - (Pseudo-Gautier). - - (2) The Grail is the vessel which had been used by Christ at the Last - Supper. It is used as a receptacle for the blood of Christ after His - body has been taken down from the Cross (Metr. Jos.). - - (3) Same as No. 2, with minor alterations, such as that it was Joseph - who found the holy vessel himself (Grand St. Graal). - - -_The Grail: its Solace of Joseph._ - -Chrestien and Gautier are again silent, but from A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, we -learn that Joseph was wont to pray before the Grail, that he was, in -consequence, imprisoned in a high tower by the Jews, delivered thence by -the Lord, whereupon the Jews resolve to exile him with Nicodemus, and -that sister of his who had a likeness of Christ (verses 60-110). -Manessier, in the Mons MS. version, passes this over, but A IIIA, has the -following important passage:-- - - En une charte orrible et lede - Fu mis Joseph sanz nul arreste; - - * * * * - - XL ans ilecques estut - C'onques ne menja ne ne but; - Mais Damediex li envoioit - Le Saint Graal que il veoit - II foiees ou III le jor; (V. pp. 153-4.) - -In the B versions this episode is one of capital importance. B I., Joseph -is put into prison, because the Jews suspect him of having stolen away -Christ's body. To him in the dungeon, "qui estoit horrible et obscure" (v. -703), appears Christ, who hands him the Grail, whereat he is surprised, as -he had hidden it in a house where none knew of it (v. 860), and addresses -him as follows:-- - - En ten povoir l'enseigne aras - De ma mort et la garderas - Et cil l'averunt a garder - A cui tu la voudras donner. (847-50) - -These will be three-- - - Joseph, bien ce saras garder, - Que tu ne le doiz commander - Qu'a trois persones qui l'arunt. - Ou non dou Pere le penrunt - Et dou Fil et dou Saint-Esprit (871-75) - -The offices Joseph rendered to Christ's body were symbolical of the -Sacrament: the sepulchre is the altar; the sheet in which the body was -wrapped the corporal; the vessel in which the blood was received shall be -called chalice; and by the patina upon which it rests is signified the -tombstone (v. 901-912). Finally Christ promises Joseph that:-- - - Tout cil qui ten veissel verrunt, - En ma compeignie serunt; - De cuer arunt emplissement - Et joie pardurablement. (917-20) - -The prose versions repeat this account in the main, but with some -important additions, thus: B II, Cange MS., adds after Christ's last -words, "Lors li aprant Jhesu Christ tex paroles que ja nus conter ne -retraire ne porroit," etc. (I, 227); when Christ hands the vessel to -Joseph, "Tu tiens lou sanc as trois personnes en une deite, qui degota des -plaies de la char au fil," etc. (I, 225-26); after the description of the -Grail, "lou Graal c'est a dire sor lou caalice."... In C, Didot-Perceval, -the Holy Ghost, speaking to Brons, commands him to reveal to Perceval, -"icelles paroles segroies qu'il (_i.e._, Christ) aprist a Joseph en la -prison," which, adds the narrator, "je ne vous puis dire ne ne doi" (I, -483). E, Grand St. Graal: The Jews, angry at Joseph's having taken -Christ's body down from the Cross, throw him into "la plu hideuse chartre -qui onques fust veue" and when they hear of the Lord's resurrection -propose to starve him; but Christ comes to him, brings him for comfort "la -sainte esceuele que ostoie en sa maison a tot le sanc qu'il Auoit -requelli," and comforted him much, and assured him that he should not die -in prison but come out safe and sound, and his name be glorified. And -Joseph "fu en la prison ... tant qu'il demoura xlii ans" (pp. 25-26).[48] -Here again are three distinct accounts:-- - - (1) That of Pseudo-Gautier, which merely mentions Joseph's devotions - to the Grail, and does not connect that devotion with any solace - during his captivity. - - (2) That of the B versions, in which Christ Himself brings the holy - vessel to the captive, and connects it with certain promises and - recommendations which He makes to him; the vessel shall remain with - his seed, but it is to be in charge of three persons, a symbol of the - Trinity. The services rendered by Joseph to Christ's body are - connected with the Mass. The late (prose) drafts of this version - insist still more upon the sacramental nature of the Grail. - - (3) The Grand St. Graal and Pseudo-Manessier introduce a fresh - element--the Grail is the material means by which Joseph is sustained - (forty years according to the one, forty-two years according to the - other version) without food or drink. - -The great importance of the incident in the B versions is most remarkable -when contrasted with the comparative indifference displayed by the other -versions, and notably by the Grand St. Graal, which, at the first blush, -looks so like a mere amplification of B, still more remarkable the -agreement between the prose versions of B, with C, Didot-Perceval, -respecting Christ's words to Joseph against B I, Metr. Jos. It is -difficult to decide which of the two versions is the older; B I, after -Christ's words, has the following important passage:-- - - Ge n'ose conter ne retreire, - Ne je ne le pourroie feire, - Neis, se je feire le voloie, - Se je le grant livre n'avoie - Ou les estoires sunt escrites, - Par les granz clers feites et dites: - La sunt li grant secre escrit - Qu'en numme le Graal et dit. - -which may either have been the reason why the prose versions, followed by -the Didot-Perceval, speak as they do about the secret words, or may be the -versifier's excuse for giving those secret words themselves, _i.e._, the -explanation of the mysteries of the Grail in its relation to the -Sacrament, in which case the verse would be later than the prose -forms.[49] Finally, it would seem that Pseudo-Manessier, A IIIA, and the -Grand St. Graal drew their information one from the other or from a common -source. - - -_Properties and Effect of the Grail._ - -In Chrestien these seem to be of a purely physical nature; the Grail is -borne uncovered through the hall at every meal (4,470-79), it feeds the -Fisher King's father-- - - D'une seule oiste li sains hom - Quant en ce Greal li aporte - Sa vie sostient et conforte - Tant sainte cose est li Graaus. (7,796-99) - -the most direct testimony in Chrestien to its sacred nature. In Gautier, -likewise, the physical properties are insisted upon in the following -passages:-- - - Lors vit parmi la sale aler - La rice Greail ki servoit - Et mist le pain a grant esploit. (20,114-16) - - Moult mangierent a grant loisir; - Adonques veissies servir - Le Greail moult honestement. (20,142-43) - -but in verses 28,078-81 a remarkable spiritual effect is attributed to -it-- - - Car li diables ne decoit - Nul homme ki le jor le voie, - Ne ne le met en male voie - Por faire pecie creminal. - -In A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, the physical side alone is insisted upon-- - - Et de quanqu'il lor ert mestiers - Les fornissoit a tel plente - Com s'il n'eust neant couste; (12-14) - - Et li Graaux par tot aloit - Et pain et vin par tot portoit - Et autres mes a grant plante. (171-74) - -Manessier makes no special reference to the properties of the Grail. - -In the B versions it is the spiritual power of the Grail which is dwelt -upon. Christ's words to Joseph have already been quoted (_supra_, p. 71), -and the use which the latter puts the Grail to, and which is specially -indicated to Joseph by the Holy Ghost, is in accordance with them. The -Grail is to serve him as a touchstone to distinguish the sinners of his -company-- - - Car il n'a a nul pecheour - Ne compaignie ne amour; (2,629-30) - -whereas to those who have not defiled themselves with sin it brings - - La douceur, l'accomplissement - De leur cueurs tout entierement; (2,565-67) - -so that according to them-- - - ... Cuers ne pourroit, - A pourpenser ne soufiroit - Le grant delit que nous avuns - Ne la grant joie en quoi nous suns. (2,609-12) - -This testing power of the Grail is especially brought into play when the -vessel is placed on the table in connection with the fish which Brons -caught, and which won him the name of the Rich Fisher. - -C, Didot-Perceval, has only one reference, "ne il ne covient mie en sa -compagnie pechier" (I, 483), agreeing with B and with Gautier's lines -28,079-80. - -In D, Queste, we revert to the physical gifts of the Grail. "And as soon -as it entered the door of the hall the whole court was filled with -perfumes ... and it proceeded to every place in the hall. And as it came -before the tables it filled them with every kind of meat that a man would -wish to have." When it comes in, "Every one looked at each other, and -there was not one that could say a single word;" when it goes out, "Every -one recovered his speech" (D II, pp. 442-43). There is no allusion to a -gathering at which the Grail is used to test the state of grace of its -devotees. E, Grand St. Graal, shows a curious mixture of the two ideas; -the Grail feeds its worshippers, but only those who are "de sainte vie," -to them it bring "toutes le boines viandes ke cuers d'omme pourroit -penser," but "li pecheour n'auoient ke mangier." This version shows itself -here, as in so many other passages, one of the latest in date, embodying -and reconciling as it does the conceptions of the older -versions--conceptions which it is difficult to derive, either from a -common source or from one another. If it were not for the solitary phrase -of Gautier's, lines 28,079, etc. (a passage which affords the strongest -proof against the homogeneity of that part of the Conte du Graal which -goes under Gautier's name), there would be an unbroken chain of testimony -as to the food-giving power of the Grail on the part of the earlier A -versions, supported by the Queste in opposition to the spiritual gifts -insisted on by the B and E, Grand St. Graal, forms. It is in any case -difficult to believe that if the writer of the Queste, with his strong -tendency to mystic allegory, had had before him the highly spiritual -presentment of the Grail-power found in B, he would have neglected it in -favour of the materialistic description he uses. In one point this version -differs from all others, the dumbness with which the Grail strikes those -to whom it appears.[50] - - -_Name of Grail._ - -Whilst the majority of versions afford no explanation of the name of the -Grail, B and C attach a curious punning meaning to it, thus B I, Metr. -Jos.: - - Par droit Graal l'apelera; - Car nus le Graal ne verra, - Ce croi-je, qu'il ne li agree; (2,659-61) - -and C, Didot-Perceval, "Et por ce l'anpelon-nos Graal, qu'il agree as -prodes homes" (p. 483). E, Grand St. Graal, seems to follow these versions -in Nasciens' words, "Car tout mi pense sont accompli, puis ke ie voi chou -qui en toutes choses me plaist et m'agree" (I, 212). Is such a punning -explanation more consonant with the earliness or the lateness of the -versions in which it is found? If the meaning of "Greal" as cup or vessel -was a perfectly well-established one, it is difficult to see why in the -first treatment of the subject it should have been necessary to explain -the word at all. - - -_Arrival of the Grail in England._ - -Neither A I, Chrestien, nor A II, Gautier, give any indication how the -Grail came to England; not until we come to A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, do we -learn anything on the subject. It is there related (v. 139-48) how Joseph -and his companions take ship and sail till they come to the land promised -Joseph by God--the White Isle, namely, a part of England; and how (v. -161-66) Joseph, finding that "sa vitaille li falloit," prays God to lend -him that Grail in which he had collected the holy blood. The prayer is -granted and the Grail appears and feeds the company. A III, Manessier, -simply says that Joseph, after leaving Sarras, carried the Grail about -with him, then in a singularly enigmatic passage (the Fisher King is -speaking):-- - - Et, quant il furent departis, - Il s'en ala en son pais, - Et tout partout u il aloit - La loi Jhesucrist essaucoit. - Puis vint en cest pais manoir, - Od lui le saint Greal, por voir. - Josep qui en Dieu se fia - Icest pais edefia. (35,123-30) - -The B versions account is much more elaborate, and demands the most -careful analysis. In B I, Metr. Jos., the first mention of the West is -found in Christ's words to Joseph concerning his nephew, Alain, who is to -keep the Grail, to take charge of his brothers and sisters, and - - Puis s'en ira vers occident - Es plus loiteins lius que pourra; (3,100-01) - -further that Petrus is likewise to go "es vaus d'Avaron" (3,123), it being -added that-- - - Ces terres trestout vraiement - Se treient devers occident. (3,125-26) - -Effectively we learn (v. 3,262, etc.) that Alain leads his brothers into -strange lands. But the Grail remains behind, and in v. 3,353, etc., an -angel declares it necessary that all the people should go to the West, -that Brons should have the vessel, that he should go straight to the West, -and that Petrus, after seeing the Grail safe in Brons' keeping, is to go -likewise. Joseph follows the angel's command, and three days after he has -committed the Grail to Brons' hands. - - Ainsi Joseph se demoura. - Li boens Pescherres s'en ala - (Dont furent puis meintes paroles - Contees, ki ne sunt pas foles) - En la terre lau il fu nez, - Et Joseph si est demourez. (3,455-60) - -A puzzling passage, as it is difficult to be sure whether line 3,459 -refers to the Fisher or to Joseph, a point of obvious importance, as in -the latter case it would indicate that Joseph in this version does not go -West. On turning to the prose versions, some remarkable variations are -found in the corresponding passages; thus B II, Cange MS. (I, 265) after -relating how Brons finds wives for his children, adds, "Mais ancor estoit -la crestientez moult tenue et moult novele en ce pais que l'an apeloit la -bloe Bretaigne que Joseph avoit novellement convertie a la creance de -Jhesu-Christ," words which would seem to indicate that the writer imagined -Joseph and his company _already_ in England. The corresponding passage to -v. 3,445-60 runs thus: Ensinc se departirent, si s'en ala li riches -peschierres dont maintes paroles furent puis, en la grant Bretaigne et -ensinc remest Joseph et fina en la terre et ou pais ou il fu envoiez de -par Jhesu-Crist (275). B III, Didot MS, accentuates the punning reference -to Avalon in the angel's message to Joseph, "Come li monde ... va en -avalant covient-il que toute ceste gent se retraie en occident" (p. 330). -The final passage runs thus: "Eynsi se despartirent Joseph et Bron: et -Joseph s'en ala en la terre et el pais ou il fust nez et ampris la terre" -(p. 332). Thus the testimony of these versions favours the application of -v, 2,459 in Metr. Jos. to Joseph. From C, Didot-Perceval, we obtain an -account similar in parts to that of the B versions, the most direct -reference being in the speech of the hermit, Perceval's uncle, "Biaus -nies, saches que a la table la ou Joseph fist et je meismes oimes la voiz -de saint esperit qui nos comenda venir en loingteines terres en occident, -et comenda le riche pecheor mon pere que il venist en cestes parties, la -ou li soleil avaloit" (449-50), where the punning reference to Avalon is -again prominent, and where, apparently, the passage of Joseph himself to -England is not indicated. An entirely different form of the legend is -found in D and E. In the former (D II, 450) it is briefly stated, "And -afterwards it happened to Joseph, and Joseph his father, and a number of -his family with them, to set out from the city of Sarras, and they came as -far as Great Britain"; again, p. 467, Perceval's aunt relates how when -Joseph of Arimathea came, and his son Joseph with him, to Great Britain, -there came with them about 4,000 people, all of whom are fed by ten -loaves, placed on the table, on the head of which is the Grail. E, Grand -St. Graal, dwells specially upon Josephe; he is referred to in I, p. 22, -as having passed "le lignage ioseph son pere outre mer iusqu'en la bloie -bertaigne qui ore a nom engleterre," and II, 123, etc., gives a full -account of how the passage is effected; how the Grail-bearers are sent -first, and supported through the water by its power; how, when Josephe -takes off his shirt, and his father Joseph puts his foot upon it, it -swells until it holds 250 persons. These two accounts agree better with -that of A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, than with any of the others; indeed, a -passage in the latter (v. 125-29), which tells how Joseph committed the -portrait of our Lord, made by Verrine, to the mercy of the sea, may have -given the hint for the miraculous shirt story of the Grand St. Graal. In -this version, too, as in D, Queste, we first hear of the passage to -England, and then the Grail appears at the miraculous feeding of the -travellers. The versions thus fall into two clearly-defined groups, Joseph -being the Grail-bearer in the one, Brons in the latter. The latter class -is represented by the Metrical Joseph and the Didot-Perceval alone, if we -except the Berne MS. form of a portion of the Conte du Graal, which, in -its finish, has obviously copied the Metrical Joseph. To the former class -belong all the other versions. Nay, more, one of the prose forms of -Borron's poems is interpolated, so as to countenance the Joseph-account of -the bringing of the Grail to England. Moreover, Borron's account of the -whole transaction is ambiguous and obscure; at first Alain is the destined -hero, long passages being devoted to him, and the keeping of the mystic -vessel being expressly reserved to him. Yet he leaves, quite quietly, -nothing more being heard of him, and the same machinery of angelic -messages is set in motion for Brons, to whom, henceforth, the chief _role_ -is assigned. Does not this show that there were from the outset two -accounts of the evangelisation of Britain, one, attributing it to Joseph, -of wider popularity, and followed solely by the majority of the romances, -whilst Borron, who gave greater prominence to the other account, has -maladroitly tried to fuse the two into one? In any case it would be -remarkable were the legend of purely Christian origin, and were the -Metrical Joseph its earliest form, and source of the other forms, that its -testimony on such an important point should be contradicted by nearly -every other version. - -Do the foregoing facts throw any light upon the question whether the two -sections of the romance are originally independent, and which is the -earlier? It is the later forms of the Quest alone which mention Joseph. -But if he be really the older of the two personages to whom, in the Early -History, the evangelisation of Britain is attributed, this would of itself -go a long way to proving that the two portions of the romance only came -into contact at a late stage of their development, and that the Quest is -the older. It is otherwise if Brons be looked upon as the original -Grail-bringer; the same causes which led to his exclusion from the other -versions of the Early History might have kept him out of most versions of -the Quest, and his presence in one Quest version could be claimed as a -proof of the homogeneity of the romance. For the present, it is sufficient -to mark the fact that what may be called the Brons form of the Early -History is in a minority. - - -_The Grail-Keeper and his relationship to the Promised Knight._ - -In the A versions the Grail-keeper is the Fisher King, uncle to the hero -of the Quest, Perceval. The relationship is first plainly put in -Chrestien, where the hermit, speaking to Perceval of the Grail, says-- - - Cil qui l'en sert, il est mes frere - Ma soeur et soie fu ta mere, - Et del rice Pesceour croi - Que il est fius a celui roi - Qui del Graal servir se fait. (7,789-94) - -The origin of his name is fully explained in the passage (v. 4,685-98), -which tells of his being wounded in battle by a lance-thrust through his -two thighs, of his sufferings, and of his only solace being fishing from -a boat. How the Grail came into his possession C does not say. Gautier has -no occasion to mention these facts, but from Manessier we learn that -Joseph, having converted the land, died therein; that the Fisher King is -of his seed, and that if God wills the Grail will never have its dwelling -elsewhere than with him (35,130-36); that he, the Fisher King, had a -brother, Goon Desert, treacherously slain by Partinal, who broke his sword -in the murderous act. Goon's body and the fragments of the sword being -brought by his niece to the Fisher King, he wounds himself with them, -"parmi les gambes en traviers," and may not be healed until a knight -should come to weld the fragments together and avenge his brother's death. - -Pseudo-Gautier tells how Joseph, dying, prays that the Grail may remain -with his descendants-- - - Si fist il, c'est verite fine, - Qu' apres sa mort n'en ot sesine - Nus hom, tant fust de son lignage - Se il ne fu del haut parage. - Li riches Pescheor, por voir, - En fu estret et tuit si oir - Et des suens fu Greloguevaus - Ausi en refu Percevaus. (183-90) - -Manessier disagrees, it will have been noticed, with Chrestien respecting -the cause of the Fisher King's wound, and neither he nor the other -continuators of Chrestien make any mention of that enigmatic personage the -Fisher King's father, so casually alluded to by Chrestien (v. 7,791-99). -Perceval according to them is a direct descendant of Joseph, Brons being -as entirely ignored here as in the transport of the Grail to England. - -In the B versions the Grail-keeper is Brons, and the Promised Knight is -his son or grandson, for a close examination again shows that two varying -accounts have been embodied in one narrative. In the passage where the -Holy Ghost, speaking to Joseph, tells him of the empty place to be left at -the table he is to make, the following lines occur:-- - - Cil lius estre empliz ne pourra - Devant qu' Enygeus avera - Un enfant de Bron sen mari, - Que tu et ta suer amez si; - Et quant li enfes sera nez, - La sera ses lius assenez; (2,531-37) - -followed closely by the prose versions: B II, Cange MSS., "ne icil leux ne -pourra estre ampliz tant que le filz Bron et Anysgeus ne l'accomplisse" -(I, 254); B III, Didot MS., "Cist leus ne porra mie estre ampliz devant ce -que li fist Bron l'ampleisse" (I, 316). But afterwards a fresh account -appears; in the second message of the Holy Ghost, Joseph is told: - - Que cist luis empliz ne sera - Devant que li tierz hons venra - Qui descendra de ten lignage - Et istera de ten parage, - Et Hebruns le doit engenrer - Et Enygeus ta sueur porter; - Et cil qui de sen fil istra, - Cest liu meismes emplira. (2,789-96) - -In the corresponding passages both B II and III have the following -significant addition, "et I. autre (_i.e._, place) avoc cestui qui el nom -de cestui sera fonde" (I, 261), "raemplira ce leu et I. autre qui en leu -decestu isera fondez" (I, 322), which effectually disposes of M. Hucher's -attempt (I, 254, note) to harmonise the two accounts by the remark that in -the first one "il ne s'agit pas de la Table ronde ou c'est Perceval qui -remplit le lieu vide." Henceforth the legend follows the second account. -To Alain, son of Brons, is revealed that - - ... de lui doit oissir - Un oir malle, qui doit venir. (3,091-92) - -Petrus is to wait for "le fil Alein," Brons is to wait for "le fil sen -fil," and when he is come to give him the vessel and Grail (3,363-67). B -II, Cange MS., again makes a characteristic addition to the promise to -Alain "et si li di que de lui doit issir un oirs masles, a cui la grace de -mon veissel doit repairier" (I, 267). - -C, Didot-Perceval, follows the second account of B. Perceval is son to -Alain li Gros, grandson to Brons, the rich Fisher King, "et cil rois -pecheors est en grant enfermetez, quar il est vieil home et plains de -maladies" (I, 418), and nephew to the hermit, "un des fiz Bron et frere -Alein" (I, 448), though curiously enough when he tells Brons that he knows -him to be father of his father, the latter addresses him as "bieaux nies" -(I, 483). In any case whether B and C do or do not afford proof of a -nearer relationship than that of grandson and grandfather between the -Grail-keeper and the achiever of the Quest, the chronology which bridges -over 400 years in two generations is equally fantastic. - -In D, Queste, no less than three different accounts are to be -distinguished, corresponding certainly to three stages in the development -of this version due to the influence of other versions of the legend. The -earliest is that preserved in D II, the Welsh translation of a now lost -French original. The Promised Knight is Galahad, son of Lancelot, -grandson, on the mother's side, of King Pelles (ch. iv). The Grail is kept -at the court of King Peleur (ch. lxvii), the name of which is apparently -Corbenic (ch. lxiv). The Lame King is mentioned by Perceval's sister (ch. -xlix), as a son of King Lambar, who fought with King Urlain and slew him, -and in consequence of that blow the country was wasted; afterwards (ch. -l.) his lameness is set down to his folly in attempting to draw the magic -sword, for which, though there was not in Christendom a better man than -he, he was wounded with a spear through the thigh. She also speaks of him -here as her uncle. The Grail quest is not connected in any way with the -healing of this Lame King. In the text printed by Furnivall, Galahad is -first introduced as Lancelot's son and Pelles' grandson, but when he comes -to Arthur's court he bids his returning companion, "salues moi tous chiaus -del saint hostel et mon _oncle le roi pelles_ et mon _aioul le riche -pescheour_." Guinevere's ladies, according to this version, prophesy that -Galahad will heal the Lame King. A long account, missing in D I, is given -by the hermit to Lancelot of his ancestry as follows (p. 120):--Celidoine, -son of Nasciens, had nine descendants, Warpus, Crestiens, Alain li Gros, -Helyas, Jonaans, Lancelot, Ban, Lancelot himself, Galahad, in whom Christ -will bathe himself entirely. Perceval is son of a King Pellehem (p. 182). -The Lame King is Pelles, "que l'on apiele lo roi mehaignie" (p. 188); he -is at Corbenic when Lancelot comes there. When Galahad and his companions -arrive at his court a sick man wearing a crown is brought in, who blesses -Galahad as his deliverer. After the appearance of the Grail, Galahad heals -him by touching his wound with the spear. The third account, from the -version of the Queste printed with the Lancelot and the Mort Artur in -1488, at Rouen, by Gaillard le Bourgeois,[51] makes Galahad send greetings -to the Fisher King and to his _grandfather, King Pelles_; it adds to -Perceval's sister's account of how Pelles was wounded, the words, "he was -Galahad's grandfather;"[52] it adds to the account of Lancelot's visit to -the Grail Castle, the words, "this was Castle Corbenic, where the Holy -Grail was kept." Before discussing these differences it is advisable to -see what the Grand St. Graal says on these points. Here Alain, the Fisher -King, son of Brons, is a virgin, and when Josephe commits the Grail to his -care he empowers him to leave it to whom he likes (II, 360--39.) In -accordance with this Alain leaves the Grail to his brother Josue, with the -title of Fisher King. Josue's descendants are Aminadap, Catheloys, Manaal, -Lambor (who was wounded by Bruillans with Solomon's sword, whence arose -such a fierce war that the whole land was laid desert).[53] Pelleans, -wounded in battle in the ankle, whence he had the name Lame King, Pelles, -upon whose daughter Lancelot begets Galahad, who is thus, on the mother's -side, ninth in descent from Brons, brother to Joseph. Galahad's descent is -likewise given from Celidoine, son of Nasciens, as follows: Marpus, -Nasciens, Alains li Gros, Ysaies, Jonans, Lancelot, Bans, Lancelot, -Galahad, who in thus counting Celidoine is tenth in descent from Nasciens, -Joseph's companion, (vol. ii, ch. xxxix.) So far the story is fairly -consistent, although there is a difference of one generation between -father's and mother's genealogy. But ch. 17, in a very important passage, -introduces a different account. The angel is expounding to Josephe and -Nasciens the marvels of the lance; to Josephe he says, "de cheste lance -dont tu as este ferus; ne sera iamis ferus ke vns seus hom. Et chil sera -rois, et descendra de ton lignaige, si serra li daerrains des boins. Chil -en sera ferus parmi les cuisses ambedeus," and will not be healed till the -Good Knight come, "et chil ... serra li daerrains hom del lignaige -nascien. Et tout ausi com nasciens a este li premiers hom qui les -meruelles du graal a veues; autresi sera chil li daerrains qui les -verra.[54] Car che dist li urais crucefis. 'Au premier home du precieus -lignaige, et au daerrain, ai iou deuise a demonstrer mes meruelles.' Et si -dist enchore apres. 'Sour le premier et sour le daerrain de mes menistres -nouuiaus qui sont enoint et sacre a mon plaisir, espanderai iou la -venianche de la lanche auentureuse'" (I, 216-17), _i.e._, the last of -Josephe's line shall be the only man wounded by the lance, the last of -Nasciens' line shall be the deliverer. But according to Galahad's -genealogy, given above, it is _not_ the last of Josephe's line -(represented by his cousin Josue) who is the Wounded King, for Galahad -himself is as much the last in descent from Josephe as from Nasciens, and -even if we take the words to apply only to the direct male descendants of -Josue, there is still a discrepancy, as not Pelles, but Pelleant, his -father, is the "roi mehaignies." If the Wounded King were really the last -of Josephe's line, _i.e._, Pelles, Galahad would be his grandson, as -Percival is to Brons. Taking the two versions D. and E. together, some -idea may be gathered from them of the way in which the legend has grown, -and of the shifts to which the later harmonisers were put in their -attempts to reconcile divergent accounts. In the first draft of the -Queste, Galahad has nothing to do with the Lame King, the latter remains -Perceval's uncle, the very relationship obtaining in Chrestien. Galahad -has supplanted Perceval, but has not stepped into the place entirely. The -second draft of the Queste endeavours to remedy this by clumsily -introducing the Lame King and his healing, missing in the first draft, -into the great Grail scene at the end, an idea foreign to the original -author of the Queste, who, having broken with Perceval as chief hero, also -broke with the distinctive Quest incident as far as the chief hero is -concerned. But a strange blunder is committed; the second draft, anxious -to make Galahad's grandfather both Fisher and Lame King, actually speaks -of Pelles as Galahad's uncle, in direct contradiction to its own -indication. The third draft corrects this mistake, and tries by different -explanatory interpolations to confirm the relationship of Galahad to the -Lame King, and the identity of his castle with the Grail Castle. The -author of the Grand St. Graal now appears on the scene, appropriates the -story about King Lambar, father to the Lame King, Percival's uncle, makes -him an ancestor of Galahad, and gives a name to his son, Pelleant (which -name creeps back into the second draft of the Queste as that of Perceval's -father), and thus derives Galahad on the mother's side from Brons, -although it escapes him that he thus gives the lie to the prophecy which -he puts in the angel's mouth, that it is the last of Josephe's seed who is -to be lamed by the lance, and that he has not given his Lambor fictitious -ancestors enough to equalize the genealogies. - -We are thus led back to the relationship of uncle and nephew as the -earliest subsisting between the Grail King and the achiever of the Quest, -and we find in those versions which supplant Perceval by Galahad a story -told of the former's great uncle, King Lambar, by no means unlike that -told of his uncle in the A versions, and that there, as here, the cause of -the woe brought upon the hero's family is one of the magic talismans which -the hero is in quest of and by means of which he is to achieve his quest. -We further notice that in so far as the Early History influences the Quest -forms, it is the later versions in which its influence is apparent, and it -is the Joseph, not the Brons form, which exercises this influence. Not -until we come to the Grand St. Graal, an obvious and bold attempt to -embody previous versions in one harmonious whole, does the Brons form make -itself felt. - - -_Work of the Promised Knight._ - -In Chrestien we can only guess at what the results of the successful -achievement of the Quest would have been by the reproaches addressed to -the hero upon the failure of his first visits to the Grail Castle; he -would have mended all things, and-- - - Le bon roi ki est mehaignies; - Que tous eust regaengnies - Ses membres, et tiere tenist, - Et si grans bien en avenist; (4,763-67) - -many evils will flow from his failure, and the cause of it is the sin he -has committed in leaving his mother, who thereupon died of grief -(4,768-71); again the Loathly Damsel reproaches him that the Rich King -would have been healed of his wound, he would have kept in peace his land, -which he never may again, for now - - Dames en perdront lor maris - Tieres en seront essilies, - Et pucieles deconsellies; - Orfenes, veves en remanront - Et maint Chevalier en morront. (6,056-60) - -Gautier de Doulens gives a vivid description of the effect of Gawain's -partially successful visit to the Grail King; the character of the -landscape changes at once-- - - N'estoit pas plus que mienuis, - Le soir devant, que Dex avoit - Rendu issi com il devoit - As aiges lor cors el pais; - Et tout li bos, ce m'est avis, - Refurent en verdor trove, - Si tos com il ot demande - Por coi si sainnoit en l'anstier - La lance; si devoit puplier - Li regnes; mais plus ne pupla - Por tant que plus ne demanda. (20,344-55) - -All the country folk both bless and curse Gawain. - - Sire, mors nous as et garis, - Tu dois estre lies et maris; - Car grant aise nos as done, - S'en devons tout mercier De; - Et si te devons moult hair - Pour con que nel vosis oeir - Le Greail, por coi il servoit, - Ne de la joie ki devoit - La venir ne poroit nus dire, - Si en doit avoir duel et ire. (20,357-66) - -In Manessier, when Perceval has finally accomplished the Quest by the -slaying of Partinal, and has come for the third time to the Grail Castle -(though even then he only reaches it after long wanderings and lights upon -it by chance), news whereof is brought to the King;-- - - Li rois, a grant joie et grant feste - Est maintenant salis en pies - Et se senti sain et haities. (44,622-24) - -Perceval is crowned King after his uncle's death, and reigns for seven -years. - -Thus, in the A versions, the healing of the Maimed King, and the -consequent restoration to fertility and prosperity of his land, such are -the tasks to be achieved by the hero of the Quest. In the B versions an -entirely different series of conceptions is met with. Brons, the Fisher -King, is to wait for his grandson, and to hand him the vessel which he -received from Joseph. When this is done the meaning of the Trinity is to -be known--[55] - - Lors sera la senefiance - Accomplie et la demonstrance - De la benoite Trinite, - Qu'avons en trois parz devisee. (3,371-74) - -Besides this, the Promised Knight is to visit Petrus, who may not pass -away till he comes, and from whom he is to learn the power of the vessel, -and the fate of Moys (v. 3,127-36). Finally, when he comes he is to fill -the empty seat, and to find Moys, of whom it is said-- - - De lui plus ne pallera-on - Ne en fable ne en chancon, - Devant que cil revenra - Qui li liu vuit raemplira: - Cil-meismes le doit trouver. (2,815-19) - -Here the only indication which can possibly be tortured into a hint of the -waiting of a sick king for his deliverer is the reference to Petrus. It is -not a little remarkable that when the latter is leaving for England, he -asks for the prayers of the company that he may not fall into sin, and -lose the love of God (v. 3320-35) Does this presuppose a version in which -he _does_ sin, and is consequently punished by disease, from which only -the Promised Knight may heal him? - -On turning to C, a totally distinct account of what the Quest achiever is -to do presents itself. He seats himself, it is true, in the empty seat, -but it goes nigh with him that he suffers the fate of Moys, from which he -is only preserved by the great goodness of his father, Alain (p. 427). He -does not find Moys; Petrus is not once mentioned by name, nor does -Perceval visit anyone who may not die till he come, and from whom he -learns the power of the vessel, saving always the Fisher King, for the -references to whom see _supra_, p. 83. This Fisher King is "veil home et -plains de maladies, ne il n'aura james sante devant un chevalier que ya a -la Table ronde aserra, sera prodons vers Deu et vers sainte eglise et ait -fait tant d'armes que il soit le plus alosez del monde. Et lors vendra a -la maison au riche roi pecheor et quant il aura demande de quoi li Graus -sert, tantost sera li roi gariz de de sa'nfermete et cherront li -enchentement de Bretaigne et sera la prophetic accomplie" (p. 419). Again, -p. 427 "li riches rois pecheors est cheuz en grant maladie et en grant -enfermete, ne il peust morir devant que uns de XXX chevalier, qui ci sunt -asis, ait tant fait d'armes et de chevalerie qu'il soit li mieudres -chevalier del monde." Again, p. 427, "Et quant il (_i.e._, the Fisher -King) sera gariz, si ira, dedanz li III jorz, de vie a mort, et baillera a -celui chevalier, le vesseau et li aprendra le segroites paroles qui li -aprist Joseph; et lors ampliz de la grace du Sainct Esprit et cherront li -enchentement de la Bretaigne et les afaires." Again, when Perceval has -come for the second time to the Fisher King's, and has asked the question -and learnt the secret words, he remained there "et moult fust prodons et -cheirent les enchentement de la terre de Bretaigne et par tout le monde." -Here, then, are the Sick King, the mysterious question, the healing, and -the effect upon the land (note how the enchantments of Britain are -insisted upon), as in the A versions. The only points of contact with B -are that Brons is like Petrus in not being able to die till Perceval come, -and that his infirmity seems to be ascribed mainly to his age, and not to -a wound, which at first sight seems to agree better with the vague -indications of B than with the positive statement of A. - -Two accounts, each fairly definite and consistent, are thus forthcoming -respecting the object of the Quest, the one represented by A and C, the -other by B. What light is thrown upon the matter by the remaining -versions, and which of these two accounts do they support? Neither from -the Queste, D, nor from the Grand St. Graal, E, can any clear conception -of the Quest be gathered. Both have a great deal to say about the -adventures and the wonders of the Grail, but absolutely nothing comes of -the achievement so far as the Grail itself, or as Galahad and his two -companions are concerned. It goes to the East, they with it, they become -hermits and die. But in proportion as the main object of the Quest becomes -less definite, the number of secondary objects increases. In D, Queste, -Galahad is to achieve the adventure of the Seat Perillous (ch. iii, iv); -he is to wear the shield left by Joseph to Mordrains (ch. x); he is to -release from life Mordrains himself, struck with blindness for approaching -too near the Grail (ch. xxiii); he (according to the second draft of the -Queste), is to release King Pelles (his grandfather, according to draft -3), wounded through both ankles for trying to draw the sword; he is to -release Simei, burning in a fiery grave for that he once sinned against -Joseph of Arimathea (ch. lxvi). To this sufficiently long list the Grand -St. Graal adds the resoldering of the sword broken by Joseph--"Ha espee, -iamais ne sera resaudee deuant ke chil te tenra qui les hautes auentures -del Saint Graal devra asoumir" (II, 264); the delivery of Moys from out -the furnace where he burns, not for always "ains trouuera enchore merchi -et pardon. Mais che qu'il a mesfait, espanira il en tel maniere qu'il en -sera en fu iusc' a tant ke li boines chiualiers uenra" (II, 277). Moys -likewise speaks of Galahad as one who "achieura les auentures de la grant -bertaigne" (II, 279-80). Finally, Pelleur wounded (mehaignies de ii -cuisses) "en vne bataille de rome" is to be released, "il ne peut garir de -la plaie deuant ke galaad, li tres boins chiualers, le vint visiter. Mais -lors sans faille gari il" (II, p. 373). - -The Queste knows nothing of Petrus, but in the Grand St. Graal he turns -up at the end in the same casual way as Brons, and converts King Luces -(II, 3356-3), _i.e._ is thus brought into connection with Geoffrey of -Monmouth's form of the conversion of Britain legend. - -The foregoing statement confirms all that has previously been urged as to -the lateness of both Queste and Grand St. Graal. The author of the former -again shows himself a daring, but not over skilful, adapter of older -legends, the author of the latter an unintelligent compiler, whose sole -aim it is to lengthen out his story by the introduction of every incident -he can lay his hands upon. But although late, they may nevertheless throw -light upon the question which, of the two strongly differentiated accounts -of the object of the Grail quest which have been noted, has the better -claim to be looked upon as the older one. The Conte du Graal and the -Didot-Perceval agree, as has been seen, against the Metrical Joseph, in -making the main object of the Grail-seeker the healing of a maimed or the -release from life of a supernaturally old King. This _motif_, it is not -too much to say, is the pivot upon which in the Conte du Graal all turns; -in the Metrical Joseph it is barely hinted at. - -The Queste, if looked at closely, is found to bear witness to the Conte du -Graal form. As is seen from the summary (_supra_, p. 41, Inc. 12) it has -the very incident upon which so much stress is laid in Chrestien's poem, -the visit to the Sick King, the omitted question, the consequent -misfortune. True, all this has been transferred from the original hero, -Perceval, to the father of the new hero Galahad, and, true, the final -object which the Queste proposes, in so far as it proposes any definite -object, to its Grail-seeker is of a different character. But the fact that -this object is not stated in the same way as in the Metrical Joseph, -whilst that found in the Conte du Graal _is_ embodied though in a -different connexion, points unmistakably to what may be called the healing -_motif_ as the older one. Here, again, the Metrical Joseph is in a -minority, and it is not even followed by that very version, the -Didot-Perceval, which has been ascribed to the same author, and claimed as -an integral portion of the same trilogy.[56] - - -_Qualifications of the Promised Knight._ - -Neither Chrestien, Gautier, nor Manessier lay any stress upon special -qualifications in the quest-hero for the achievement of his task. In -Chrestien, as already stated, (_supra_, p. 87), it is exclusively the sin -of which Perceval has been guilty in leaving his mother which prevents his -achieving the Quest at his first visit to the Grail Castle (v. 4,768-71 -and 7,766-74), whilst the continuator makes no attempt at any explanation -of the hero's repeated failures. Not until Gerbert does a fresh _motif_ -show itself in the poem, but then it is a remarkable one; if Perceval has -been hitherto unable to attain the goal he has so long striven for, it is -because he has been unfaithful to his first love, Blanchefleur (VI, p. -182); he must return and wed her before he is fit to learn the full secret -of the Grail.[57] - -The other Quest versions are on this point in striking contrast to -Chrestien. The words of C, Didot-Perceval, have already been noted, -(_supra_, p. 89). Again the damsel, reproaching the hero after his first -failure, addresses him thus:--"Mes je sai bien por quoi tu l' as perdu, -por ceque tu ni es pas si sage ne si vaillant, ne n'as pas fet tant -d'armes; ne n'ies si prodons que tu doies avoir le sanc nostre (sire) en -guarde" (p. 467). - -It is significant to note in this connection that it is only after -Perceval has overcome all the best knights of the Round Table, including -Gawain (the companion hero, as will be shown later, of the oldest form of -the story), and thereby approved himself the best knight of the world, -that Merlin appears and directs him to the Grail Castle.[58] The talk -about Holy Church would seem to be an addition, and the original ideal a -purely physical one. - -In the Queste the qualification of the hero has become the main feature -of the legend, the pivot upon which everything turns. The one thing -necessary is that the hero should be a virgin, and the story is one long -glorification of the supreme virtue of chastity. Yet even here the warlike -deeds of Galahad are dwelt upon in a way that points to a different ideal. -Traces, though slight ones, may be found in C, Didot-Perceval, of the -importance attached to the chastity of the hero; thus his hermit uncle -admonishes him, "ne vous chaille de gesir aveuc fame, quar cest un peche -luxurious et bien sachiez, que la pichie que vous avez fait, vous ont neu -a trover la maison Bron," and in the adventure with the damsel of the -hound, although he had (p. 440) solicited her favours, and she had -promised them if he brought her the head of the white stag, yet (p. 470) -when he returns to her and she offers herself to him, he pleads his quest -as a reason for not even passing one night with her. In Gautier de -Doulens, on the contrary, everything passes in accordance with the -orthodox custom of the day--when knights were as punctual in demanding as -ladies scrupulous in granting the fulfilment of such bargains. But here, -again, references to chastity seem to be additions, and rather unskilful -ones, whilst in the Queste they are the vital spirit of the story. - -What results from the foregoing is much as follows:-- - -The Perceval form of the Quest is certainly the older of the two, and -underlies in reality the Galahad form. When cleared from the admixture of -Christian mystic elements it appears as a coherent and straightforward -story, in which nothing necessarily presupposes the Early History. The -influence of the latter is, however, distinctly traceable. As far as -Chrestien himself is concerned, nothing can be asserted with certainty as -to the origin, extent, and nature of that influence; in the case of his -continuators it can be definitely referred to that form of the Early -History which is represented by the Queste and the Grand St. Graal (save -in the solitary instance of the Berne fragment of Gautier de Doulens). The -later in date the sections of the Conte du Graal, the more strongly marked -is the influence of the Early History, and _pari passu_ the increasing -prominence given to the Christian mystic side of the Grail. - -Of the Early History two forms can be distinguished. In the one, Joseph -and the group of persons whom he converts in the East are made the means -of bringing Christianity to Britain. The Grail is dwelt upon almost solely -in its most material aspect. This form is closely connected with the -Galahad Quest, and its chronology has been elaborately framed to correctly -bridge over the difference in time between the Apostolic and Arthurian -ages. It has also affected, as remarked above, the later versions of the -Perceval Quest. The second or Brons form knows nothing of the companions -of Joseph, who is only indirectly the means of the conversion of Britain, -the real evangelists being kinsmen of his who bear decided Celtic names. -These kinsmen are related as grandfather and father (or simply father or -uncle), to a hero whose exploits are to be dealt with in a sequel. There -is strong insistence upon the spiritual character of the Grail, which is -obviously intended to play an important part in the promised sequel. No -traces of this form are to be found in any version (saving always the -above-mentioned fragment of Gautier), until we come to the Grand St. -Graal, with which such portions as do not conflict with the Joseph form -are embodied. - -The Didot-Perceval, although formally in contact with the Brons Early -History, is not really the sequel announced in that work. It differs -profoundly from it in the most essential feature of the story, the nature -of the task laid upon the hero. Upon examination this appears to be of the -same nature as that of the Conte du Graal, with a seasoning of the -Christian mystic element. It was, however, _intended_ for a sequel to the -Metrical Joseph, a fact which may be taken as a proof that Borron never -completed his plan of a Joseph-Merlin-Grail trilogy of which we possess -the first two parts. - -The first of the two points marked for investigation at the outset of this -chapter may thus be considered settled. The Quest is originally -independent of and older than the Early History. And although in no -instance can the versions of the former be said to be entirely free from -the influence of the latter, yet in the older forms the traces are such as -to be easily separated from the primitive elements of the story. - -The versions which have been examined may now be arranged in the following -order:-- - - (1) Chrestien's portion of the Conte du Graal. The oldest form of the - Perceval Quest, but presupposing an Early History. - - (2) Gautier de Doulens followed Chrestien, in all probability, almost - immediately. Even less can be gathered from him than from Chrestien - respecting the earliest form of the Early History, but this is - probably represented by - - (3) Pseudo-Gautier, which in all likelihood gives the outline of the - work made use of by Queste and Grand St. Graal. Pseudo-Gautier is - almost certainly some years later than Gautier, as the Berne MS. - scribe found it necessary to seek for information in - - (4) Borron's poem, probably written towards the end of the twelfth - century, but which for some reason remained unknown for a time, - although it afterwards, as evidenced by the number of MSS., became - popular. There is every reason to believe that Borron knew nothing of - any other Early History. His work, as we have it, is abridged and - arranged. Meanwhile - - (5) Queste had appeared. The author probably used the same Early - History as Pseudo-Gautier. He knew the Conte du Graal, and wrote in - opposition to it with a view to edification. He certainly knew nothing - of Borron's poem, or he could not have failed, with his strong - mystical tendencies, to dwell upon the spiritual and symbolic - character of the Grail. - - (6) The Grand St. Graal, an earlier draft of the work, now known under - that title. Probably an enlarged version of the hypothetical original - Early History; wanting all the latter portions relating to Brons and - his group, which were added to it when Borron's poem became known. - This work must have appeared before 1204 (in which year it is referred - to by Helinandus), and, as Chrestien wrote his poem about 1189-90, it - follows that at least half-a-dozen works belonging to the Grail cycle - came out in the last twelve years of the twelfth century. - - (7) Manessier and - - (8) Gerbert brought out independent endings to the Conte du Graal from - 1216 to 1225. It was probably shortly after this time that Borron's - poem became known, and that it was incorporated with the Grand St. - Graal, which assumed the shape under which it has come down to us. - - (9) The Didot-Perceval is probably the latest in date of all the - members of the cycle. - -Before proceeding to examine our second point, which is whether the Grail -itself really belongs to the original form of the Quest, or has been -introduced into the Quest versions from the Early History, it will be -advisable to summarise the opinions and researches of previous -investigators. Light will thus be thrown upon many points of interest -which have not received special examination in these pages. A theory of -the origin and development of the cycle, which is in many respects -directly opposed to the conclusions we have reached, will also be fully -set forth, and an opportunity will thus be given for testing by adverse -criticism the soundness of our method of investigation, and of the results -to which it has led us. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -SKETCH OF THE LITERATURE CONNECTED WITH THE GRAIL CYCLE. - - Villemarque--Halliwell--San Marte (A. Schulz)--Simrock--Rochat-- - Furnivall's reprint of the Grand St. Graal and of Borron--J. F. - Campbell--Furnivall's Queste--Paulin Paris--Potvin's Conte du - Graal--Bergmann--Skeat's Joseph of Arimathea--Hucher: Grail Celtic, - date of Borron--Zarncke, Zur Geschichte der Gralsage; Grail belongs - to Christian legend--Birch-Hirschfeld develops Zarncke's views: Grand - St. Graal younger than Queste, both presuppose Chrestien and an - earlier Queste, the Didot-Perceval, which forms integral part of - Borron's trilogy; Mabinogi later than Chrestien; various members of - the cycle dated--Martin combats Birch-Hirschfeld: Borron later than - Chrestien, whose poem represents oldest stage of the romance, which - has its roots in Celtic tradition--Hertz--Criticism of - Birch-Hirschfeld. - - -Monsieur Th. de la Villemarque's researches form a convenient starting -point, both on account of the influence they exercised upon later -investigation, and because he was the first to state with fulness and -method the arguments for the Celtic origin of the legend. They appeared -originally in the volume entitled "Contes populaires des anciens Bretons -precedes d'un essai sur l'origine des epopees chevaleresques de la Table -Ronde" (Paris, 1842), and comprising a French translation of the -Mabinogion of Geraint and Peredur, with introductory essays and detailed -explanatory notes. The translation of Peredur is preceded by a study of -Chrestien's poem, in which the following conclusions are stated: The Grail -is Celtic in origin, the French term being equivalent to the Welsh _per_, -and having a like meaning, basin. It is the Druidic basin alluded to by -Taliessin, the same which figures in the Mabinogi of Branwen, which -appears in the oldest folk-tales of Brittany, and which is sought for in -the twelfth century Mabinogi by Peredur, _i.e._, the Basin-Seeker. The -original occult character of the Druidic basin, and of the lance, the -bardic symbol of undying hatred to the Saxon, disappears in the Mabinogi, -the tone and character of which are purely romantic. Composed among a -people comparatively unused to the chivalrous ideal, it breathes, however, -a rude and harsh spirit. But such as it is, it forms the groundwork of -Chrestien's poem. Comparison between the two demonstrates the simple -character of the Welsh romance, and shows how the French poet sought to -transform it by an infusion of feudal courtliness and religious mysticism. -In its last stage of development the story reverts to its pristine, -occult, and mystic character. - -Much of what M. de la Villemarque says is sound and telling; but, -unfortunately, although well aware that the French poem is the work of -three men and not of one, he yet treats it as an organic whole, and thus -deprives the larger part of his comparison of all value. Moreover, he -supports his thesis by arguments based upon a Breton poem (the story of -which is similar to that of Perceval's youth), ascribed without the shadow -of evidence to the end of the tenth century. - -In 1861 M. de la Villemarque reprinted his work with extensive additions, -under the title of "Les Romans de la Table Ronde et les Contes des Anciens -Bretons." The section summarised above remained substantially unaltered, -but considerable extension was given to the author's views concerning the -mode of development of the romances. The points chiefly insisted upon are: -the similarity of metre between the Welsh poem and the French metrical -romances; the delight of the Plantagenet kings in the Welsh traditions and -the favour showed them; and the early popularity of the Welsh and Breton -singers. Villemarque's last word upon the subject is that the Welsh -storytellers received from the ancient bards a pagan tradition, which, -changed in character and confounded with the Mystery of the Sacrament, -they handed on to the romance writers of Northern France and Germany, who -gave it a fresh and undying life. - -Villemarque's views were worked up by Mr. Baring Gould in his essay on the -Sangreal ("Curious Myths of the Middle Ages," 1867) and in this form or in -their original presentment won wide acceptance as the authoritative -exposition of the Celtic origin of the cycle. - -In England, Mr. Halliwell, when editing, in 1844, the Thornton Sir -Perceval, derived it from Chrestien and his continuators, in spite of the -omission of Lance and Grail, on account of the sequence of incidents being -the same. The Mabinogi is alluded to as an adaptation of Chrestien. The -supposition that Perceval's nick-name, "le Gallois," implies the Welsh -origin of the story is rejected as absurd. - -In Germany the Grail-cycle formed the subject of careful investigation on -the part of San Marte (A. Schulz) for some years prior to 1840. From 1836 -to 1842 he brought out a modern German translation of Wolfram von -Eschenbach's Parzival, accompanied by an elaborate essay on the genesis of -the legend, and in 1841, "Die Arthur-Sage und die Maehrchen des rothen -Buchs von Hergest." In the latter work a careful analysis of the Mabinogi -leads to the following conclusions:--Locale and persons are purely Welsh; -tone and character are older than the age of the Crusades and Knighthood; -it may be looked upon with confidence as the oldest known source of the -Perceval _sage_. In comparing the Mabinogi with Kiot's (_i.e._, Wolfram's) -version, stress is laid upon the task imposed upon Peredur, which is held -to be different in character and independent in origin from the Grail -Quest in Kiot. The Thornton Sir Perceval is claimed as the representative -of an early Breton _jongleur_ poem which knew nothing of the Grail story. -In the former work Wolfram von Eschenbach's poem is accepted, so far as -its framework is concerned, as a faithful echo of Kiot's, the Provencal -origin of which is proved by its Oriental and Southern allusions. The -Provencals may have obtained the Peredur _sage_ direct from Brittany, they -at any rate fused it with the Grail legend. Their version is an artistic -whole, whereas the North French one is a confused string of adventures. -Chrestien's share in the latter is rightly distinguished from that of his -continuators, and these are dated with fair accuracy. Robert de Borron is -mentioned, but as a thirteenth century adapter of earlier prose versions; -the Grand St. Graal is placed towards the middle of the thirteenth -century. In analysing the Joseph of Arimathea form of the legend, the -silence of the earlier British historians concerning Joseph's -evangelisation of Britain is noted, and 1140 is given as the earliest -date of this part of the legend. The captivity of Joseph arises probably -from a confusion between him and Josephus. There is no real connection -between the Joseph legend and that of the Grail. Wolfram's Templeisen -agree closely with the Templars, one of the main charges against whom was -their alleged worship of a head from which they expected riches and -victuals, and to which they ascribed the power of making trees and flowers -to bloom.[59] - -San Marte's translation of Wolfram was immediately (1842) followed by -Simrock's, whose notes are mainly directed against his predecessor's views -on the origin and development of the Grail legend. The existence of Kiot -is contested; the _differentia_ between Wolfram and Chrestien are unknown -to Provencal, but familiar to German, poetry. The Grail myth in its oldest -form is connected with John the Baptist. Thus in the Mabinogi the Grail is -represented by a head in a platter; the head the Templars were accused of -worshipping has probably the same origin; the Genoese preserved the Sacro -Catino, identified by them with the Grail, in the chapel of St. John the -Baptist; Chrestien mentions with especial significance, St. John's Eve -(Midsummer Eve). The head of St. John the Baptist, found, according to the -legend, in the fourth century, was carried later to Constantinople, where -in the eleventh century it is apparently used to keep an emperor from -dying (even as of the Grail, it is told, no one could die the day he saw -it). If Wolfram cuts out the references to the Baptist, _en revanche_ he -brings Prester John into the story. The essential element in the Grail is -the blood in the bowl, symbol of creative power as is the Baptist's head, -both being referable to the summer equinox. Associated with John the -Baptist is Herodias, who takes the place of an old Germanic goddess, -Abundia, as John does of Odin or Baldur.[60] The essence of the myth is -the reproductive power of the blood of the slain god (Odin-Hackelberend, -Baldur, Adonis, Osiris). As the Grail may only be seen by those to whom -God's grace is granted, so in the German folk-tale the entrance to the -hollow mounds wherein lies treasure or live elves is only visible to -Sunday children or pure youths. Thus, too, no man may find the grave of -Hackelberg (Odin). Such caves, when entered, close upon the outgoing -mortal as the Grail Castle portcullis closes upon Parzival. Many of -Gauvain's adventures appear in German folk-tradition. As to Parzival's -youth "it cannot be doubted that we have here a variation of the Great -Fool folk-tale (Dummling's Maerchen) found among all people. It is hard to -say what people possessing this tale brought it into contact, either by -tradition or in writing, with the Grail story, but that people would have -the first claim among whom it is found in an independent form." The -Mabinogi explanation of the Grail incident is unacceptable, and the -Mabinogi itself is later than Chrestien, as is shown by its foolish -invention of the witches of Gloucester, and by its misrendering the -incident of the dwarves greeting Peredur. In the original folk-tale the -ungainly hero was _laughed at_, not greeted. The Thornton Sir Perceval may -possibly contain an older version of Perceval's youth than any found -elsewhere. Wolfram's poem represents, however, the oldest and purest form -of the Grail myth, which, originally pagan, only became fully -Christianised in the hands of the later North French poets. - -Simrock's speculations, though marred by his standing tendency to claim -over much for German tradition, are full of his usual acute and ingenious, -if somewhat fanciful, learning. His ignorance of Celtic tradition -unfortunately prevented his following up the hint given in the passage -quoted above which I have adopted as one of the mottoes of the present -work. - -In 1855 Rochat published ("Ueber einen bisher unbekannten Percheval li -Gallois," Zurich) selections from a Berne MS. containing part of Gautier -de Doulens' continuation of Chrestien (v. 21,930 to end, with thirteen -introductory and fifty-six concluding original lines, _cf._ p. 19), and -entered at some length into the question of the origin and development of -the Grail legend. The Mabinogi, contrary to San Marte's opinion, is placed -after Chrestien. Villemarque's ballad of Morvan le Breiz is the oldest -form of the Perceval _sage_, then comes the Thornton Sir Perceval, a -genuine popular production derived probably from a Welsh original. In -spite of what San Marte says, the Grail incident is found in the Mabinogi, -and it might seem as if Chrestien had simply amplified the latter. On San -Marte's theory of the (Southern) origin of the Grail myth, this, however, -is impossible, and the fact that the Mabinogi contains this incident is a -proof of its lateness. - -Up to 1861 all writers upon the Grail legend were under this disadvantage, -that they had no complete text of any part of the cycle before them,[61] -and were obliged to trust largely to extracts and to more or less -carefully compiled summaries. In that year Mr. Furnivall, by the issue for -the Roxburghe Club of the Grand St. Graal, together with a reprint of -Robert de Borron's poem (first edited in 1841 by M. Franc. Michel), -provided students with materials of first-rate importance. His -introductory words are strongly against the Celtic origin of the story, -and are backed up by a quotation from Mr. D. W. Nash, in which that -"authority who really knows his subject" gives the measure of his critical -acumen by the statement that the Mabinogi of Peredur can have nothing to -do with the earliest form of the legend, because "in Sir T. Malory, -Perceval occupies the second place to Galahad." In fact, neither the -editor nor Mr. Nash seems to have tried to place the different versions, -and their assertions are thus of little value, though they contributed, -nevertheless, to discredit the Celtic hypothesis. San Marte, in an essay -prefixed to the first volume, repeated his well-known views respecting the -source of Wolfram's poems, and, incidentally, protested against the idea -that the Mabinogi is but a Welshified French romance. - -In 1862 the accomplished editor of the "Popular Tales of the West -Highlands," Mr. J. F. Campbell, published in his second volume (p. 152) -some remarks on the Story of the Lay of the Great Fool, which ended thus, -"I am inclined ... to consider this 'Lay' as one episode in the adventures -of a Celtic hero, who, in the twelfth century became Perceval le -chercheur du basin. He too, was poor, and the son of a widow, and half -starved, and kept in ignorance by his mother, but, nevertheless ... in the -end he became possessed of that sacred basin, le Saint Graal, and the holy -lance, which, though Christian in the story, are manifestly the same as -the Gaelic talismans which appear so often in Gaelic tales, and which have -relations in all popular lore--the glittering weapon which destroys, and -the sacred medicinal cup which cures." I have taken these words as a motto -for my studies, which are, indeed, but an amplification of Mr. Campbell's -statement. Had the latter received the attention it deserved, had it, for -instance, fallen into the hands of a scholar to whom Simrock's words -quoted on p. 101 were familiar, there would, in all probability, have been -no occasion for the present work. - -The publication of texts was continued by Mr. Furnivall's issue, in 1864, -for the Roxburghe Club, of the Quete del Saint Graal from a British Museum -MS. The opening of twelve MSS. from the Bibliotheque Nationale is likewise -given, and shows substantial unity between them and Mr. Furnivall's text. -In 1868 Mons. Paulin Paris published, in the first volume of his "Romans -de la Table Ronde," a general introduction to the Round Table cycle, and a -special study upon the Metrical Joseph and the Grand St. Graal. A large -share of influence is assigned to Celtic traditions through the medium of -Breton _lais_. The Early History of the Grail is a British legend, and -embodies the national and schismatic aspirations of the British Church. -The date given in the prologue to the Grand St. Graal, and repeated by -Helinandus, is accepted as the genuine date of a redaction of the legend -substantially the same as that found later in the Grand St. Graal. The -word "Grail" is connected with the Latin _gradale_, modern gradual, and -designated the book in which the tradition was first written down. The -Grand St. Graal is anterior to Chrestien's poem, and Robert de Borron's -poem in the first draft preceded the Grand St. Graal, and was written -between 1160 and 1170, but he subsequently revised it towards 1214, as is -shown by his alluding, l. 3,490, "O mon seigneur, Gauter _en peis_" (where -the underlined words are equivalent to the Latin _in pace_) to Gautier of -Montbeliard in the past tense. From 1868 to 1870 M. Potvin brought out -his edition of the Conte du Graal, and of the prose Perceval le Gallois -from Mons MSS. In the after-words priority is claimed for the latter -romance over all other members of the cycle, and three stages are -distinguished in the development of the legend--Welsh national--militant -Christian--knightly--the prose romance belonging to the second stage, and -dating substantially from the eleventh century. The lance and basin are -originally pagan British symbols, and between the lines of the Grail -legend may be read a long struggle between heretic Britain and orthodox -Rome. The Perceval form of the Quest is older than the Galahad one. The -Joseph of Arimathea forms are the latest, and among these the Grand St. -Graal the earliest. - -Conclusions as paradoxical as some of these appear in Dr. Bergmann's "The -San Greal, an Enquiry into the Origin and Signification of the Romance of -the S. G.," Edinburgh, 1870. The idea of the Grail is due entirely to -Guyot, as also its connection with the Arthurian cycle. Chrestien followed -Guyot, but alters the character of the work, for which he is reproved by -Wolfram, who may be looked upon as a faithful representative of the -earlier poet. Chrestien's alterations are intended to render the poem more -acceptable in knightly circles. On the other hand Walter Map found Guyot -too secular and heretical, and wrote from a purely ecclesiastical -standpoint the Latin version of the legend in which the Grail is -associated with Joseph of Arimathea. This version forms the basis of -Robert de Borron, author of the Grand St. Graal and of the continuators of -Chrestien. Although Bergmann denies the Celtic origin of the Grail itself, -he incidentally accepts the authenticity of the Mabinogi of Peredur, and -admits that the whole framework of the story is Celtic. - -In the endeavour to prove the paradox that one of the latest, most highly -developed, and most mystic of all the versions of the legend (viz., -Wolfram's) really represents the common source of them all, Bergmann is -compelled to make the most gratuitous assumptions, as a specimen of which -may be quoted the statement that the _roi-pecheur_ is originally the -_sinner_ king, and that it is by mistake that the North French _trouveres_ -represent him as a _fisher_. - -Bergmann's views passed comparatively unnoticed. They are, indeed, -alluded to with approval in Professor Skeat's edition of Joseph of -Arimathea, a fourteenth century alliterative abridgement of the Grand St. -Graal (E. E. Text Soc., 1871). In the editor's preface the Glastonbury -traditions concerning the evangelisation of Britain by Joseph are taken as -a starting point, two parts being distinguished in them, the one -_legendary_, tallying with William of Malmesbury's account, and, perhaps, -of considerable antiquity, the other _fabulous_, introducing the -personages and incidents of the romances and undoubtedly derived from -them. Some twenty years after the publication of the "Historia Britonum" -Walter Map probably wrote a Latin poem, from which Robert de Borron, the -Grand St. Graal, and, perhaps, the other works of the cycle were derived. -"Grail" is a bowl or dish. Chrestien may have borrowed his Conte du Graal -from Map; the "Quest" is probably an after-thought of the romance writers. - -Speculations such as these were little calculated to further the true -criticism of the Grail cycle. Some few years later, in 1875, the then -existing texts were supplemented by M. Hucher's work, so often quoted in -these pages. In an introduction and notes displaying great research and -ingenuity, the following propositions are laid down:--The Grail is Celtic -in origin, and may be seen figured upon pre-Christian Gaulish coins. -Robert de Borron's poem may be called the Petit St. Graal, and its author -was a lord of like-named territory near Fontainebleau, who between 1147 -and 1164 made large gifts to the Abbey of Barbeaux, which gifts are -confirmed in 1169 by Simon, son of said Robert. About 1169 Robert came to -England, met Walter Map, and was initiated by him into the knowledge of -the Arthurian romance, and of the legend of the Holy Grail. Between 1170 -and 1199 he entered the service of Walter of Montbeliard and wrote (in -prose) the Joseph of Arimathea and the Merlin. At a later period he -returned to England, and wrote, in conjunction with Map, the Grand St. -Graal. This is shown by MS. 2,455 Bibl. Nat. (of the Grand St. Graal): "Or -dist li contes qui est estrais de toutes les ystoires, si come Robers de -Borons le translatait de latin en romans, a l'ayde de maistre Gautier -Map." But Helie de Borron, author of the Tristan and of Guiron le -Courtois, calls Robert his friend and kinsman. Helie has been placed -under Henry III, who has been assumed to be the Henry to whom he dedicates -his work; if so can he be the friend of Robert, who wrote some fifty years -earlier? Helie should, however, be placed really under Henry II. Robert -wrote originally in prose; the poem contains later etymological and -grammatical forms, though it has occasionally preserved older ones; -besides in v. 2,817 etc. (_supra_, p. 83) it refers to the deliverance of -Moys by the Promised Knight, and thus implies knowledge of the Grand St. -Graal; this passage is omitted by most of the prose versions, thus -obviously older. Then the poem is silent as to the Christianising of -Britain mentioned by one prose version (C.). We may accept Borron's -statement as to his having dealt later with the histories of Moys and -Petrus, and as to his drawing his information from a Latin original. -Merlin is the pivot of Borron's conception. In comparing the third part of -his trilogy (Joseph of Arimathea, Merlin, Perceval) with Chrestien it must -be born in mind that Chrestien reproduces rather the English -(Joseph--Galahad), than the French (Brons--Perceval) form of the Quest, -and this, although the framework of Chrestien and Robert's Perceval is -substantially the same. Chrestien's work was probably preceded by one in -which the Peredur story as found in the Mabinogi was already adapted to -the Christianised Grail legend. There are frequent verbal resemblances -between Robert and Chrestien (_i.e._, Gautier, Hucher never distinguishing -between Chrestien and his continuators) which show a common original for -both. It is remarkable that Chrestien should never mention Brons, and that -there should be such a difference in the stories of the Ford Perillous and -the Ford Amorous. It is also remarkable that Robert, in his Perceval, -should complain that the _trouveres_ had not spoken of the Good Friday -incident which is to be found in Chrestien. - -M. Hucher failed in many cases to see the full significance of the facts -he brought to light, owing to his incorrect conception of the development -of the cycle as a whole, and of the relation of its component parts one to -the other. He made, however, an accurate survey of the cycle possible. The -merit of first essaying such a survey belongs to Zarncke in his admittedly -rough sketch, "Zur Geschichte der Gralsage," published in the third -volume (1876) of Paul and Braune's Beitraege.--The various forms may be -grouped as follows: (1) Borron's poem, (2) Grand St. Graal, (3) Quete, (4) -Chrestien, (5 and 6) Chrestien's continuators, (7) Didot MS. Perceval, (8) -Prose Perceval li Gallois. Neither the Spanish-Provencal nor the Celtic -origin of the legend is admissible; it has its source wholly in the -apocryphal legends of Joseph of Arimathea, in which two stages may be -distinguished; the first represented by the Gesta Pilati and the Narratio -Josephi, which tell how Christ appeared to Joseph in prison and released -him therefrom; the second by the Vindicta Salvatoris, which combines the -legends of the healing of Tiberius with that of Titus or Vespasian. Joseph -being thus brought into contact with Titus, the space of time between the -two is accounted for by the forty years captivity, and the first hint was -given of a miraculous sustaining power of the Grail. Borron's poem is -still purely legendary in character; the fish caught by the rich fisher is -the symbol of Christ; the incident of the waiting for the Promised Knight -belongs, however, not to the original tradition but to a later style of -Christian mysticism. The Grand St. Graal and the Quete extend and develop -the _donnee_ of the poem, whilst in Chrestien tone, atmosphere, and -framework are profoundly modified, yet there is no reason to postulate for -Chrestien any other sources than Nos. 1-3, the differences being such as -he was quite capable of deliberately introducing. As for No. 7 (the -Didot-Perceval) it is later than Chrestien and his continuators, and has -used both. Wolfram von Eschenbach had only Chrestien for his model, Kiot's -poem being a feigned source. The legend of the conversion of Britain by -Joseph is no genuine British tradition; William of Malmesbury's account of -Glastonbury is a pamphlet written to order of the Norman Kings, and -incapable of serving as a representative of Celtic tradition. The passages -therein relating to Joseph are late interpolations, disagreeing with the -remainder of his work and disproved by the silence of all contemporary -writers. - -Zarncke's acute article was a praiseworthy attempt to construct a working -hypothesis of the growth of the cycle. But it is full of grave -misconceptions, as was, perhaps, inevitable in a hasty survey of such an -immense body of literature. The versions are "placed" most incorrectly. -The argumentation is frequently marred by _a priori_ reasoning, such as -that Chrestien, the acknowledged leading poet of the day, could not have -copied Kiot, and by untenable assertions, such as that Bran, in the -Mabinogi of Branwen, the daughter of Llyr, is perhaps a distant echo of -Hebron in Robert de Borron's poem. He had, however, the great merit of -clearing the ground for his pupil, A. Birch-Hirschfeld, and urging him to -undertake what still remains the most searching and exhaustive survey of -the whole cycle: "Die Sage vom Gral," etc. As Birch-Hirschfeld's analysis -is at present the only basis for sound criticism, I shall give his views -fully:--The Grand St. Graal, as the fullest of the versions dealing with -the Early History of the Grail, is the best starting-point for -investigation. From its pronounced religious tone monkish authorship may -be inferred. Its treatment of the subject is not original as is shown by -(1) the repetition _ad nauseam_ of the same motive (_e.g._, that of the -lance wound four times), (2) the pedigrees, (3) the allusions to -adventures not dealt with in the book, and in especial to the Promised -Knight. The testimony of Helinand (see _supra_, p. 52), which is of -first-rate importance, does not allow of a later date for the Grand St. -Graal than 1204. On turning to the Queste it is remarkable that though -sometimes found in the MSS. in conjunction with the Grand St. Graal it is -also found with the Lancelot, and, when the hero's parentage is -considered, it seems more likely that it was written to supplement the -latter than the former work. This supposition is adverse to any claim it -may lay to being held the earliest treatment of the subject, as it is -highly improbable that the Grail legend occupied at the outset such an -important place in the Arthurian romance as is thus accorded to it. Such a -claim is further negatived by the fact that the Queste has three heroes, -the second of whom is obviously the original one of an older version. In -estimating the relationship between the Grand St. Graal and the Queste it -should be borne in mind that the latter, in so far as it deals with the -Early History, mentions only Joseph, Josephe, Evelach (Mordrain) and -Seraphe (Nascien), from whom descends Galahad; that it brings Joseph to -England, and that it does not give any explanation of the nature of the -Grail itself. It omits Brons, Alain, the explanation of the name "rich -fisherman," the name of Moys, although his story is found in substantially -the same shape as in the Grand St. Graal, and is silent as to the origin -of the bleeding lance. If it were younger than and derived from the Grand -St. Graal alone, these points, all more important for the Early History -than the Mordrain episodes would surely have been dwelt upon. But then if -the Grand St. Graal is the younger work, whence does it derive Brons, -Alain, and Petrus, all of whom are introduced in such a casual way? There -was obviously a previous Early History which knew nothing of Josephe or of -Mordrain and his group, the invention of the author of the Queste, whence -they passed into the Grand St. Graal, and were fused in with the older -form of the legend. There is, moreover, a positive reference on the part -of the Grand St. Graal to the Queste (vol. ii., p. 225). The author of the -Queste introduced his new personages for the following reasons: He had -already substituted Galahad for the original hero, and to enhance his -importance gives him a fictitious descent from a companion of Joseph. From -his model he learnt of Joseph's wanderings in the East, hence the Eastern -origin of the Mordrain group. In the older form the Grail had passed into -the keeping of Joseph's nephew, in the Queste the Promised Knight descends -from the nephew of Mordrain; Brons, as the ancestor of the original Quest -hero necessarily disappears in the Queste, and his place is in large -measure taken by Josephe. The priority of the Queste over the Grand St. -Graal, and the use of the former by the latter may thus be looked upon as -certain. But if Mordrain is the invention of the Queste, what is the -meaning of his illness, of his waiting for the Promised Knight, of the -bleeding lance, and of the lame king whom it heals? These seem to have no -real connection with the Grail, and are apparently derived from an older -work, namely, Chrestien's Conte du Graal. - -Chrestien's work, which ended at v. 10,601, may be dated as having been -begun not later than 1189 (_vide_ _supra_, p. 4). Its unfinished state -accounts for its having so little positive information about the Grail, as -Chrestien evidently meant to reserve this information for the end of the -story. But this very freedom with which the subject is handled is a proof -that he had before him a work whence he could extract and adapt as he saw -fit; moreover we have (Prologue, v. 475, etc.) his own words to that -effect. With Chrestien's account of the Grail--a bowl bejewelled, of -wondrous properties, borne by a maiden, preceded by a bleeding lance, -accompanied by a silver plate, guarded by a king wounded through both -ankles (whose only solace is fishing, whence his surname), ministering to -the king's father, sought for by Perceval, nephew to the fisher king, its -fate bound up with a question which the seeker must put concerning it--may -be compared that of the Queste, in which nothing is known of a question by -which the Grail kingship may be obtained (although it relates the same -incident of Lancelot), which knows not of one wounded king, centre of the -action, but of two, both of secondary importance (though possibly -Chrestien's Fisher King's father may have given the hint for Mordrain), in -which the lance is of minor importance instead of being on the same level -as the Grail. Is it not evident that the Queste took over these features -from Chrestien, compelled thereto by the celebrity of the latter's -presentment? The Queste thus presupposes the following works: a Lancelot, -an Early History, a Quest other than that of Chrestien's, and finally -Chrestien as the lame king and lance features show. It thus falls between -1189 (Chrestien begun) and 1204 (Grand St. Graal ended). - -With respect to the three continuators of Chrestien it would seem that -Gautier de Doulens' account of the Grail, as found in the Montpellier MS., -knowing as it does only of Joseph, and making the Fisher King and Perceval -descendants of his, belongs to an older stage of development than that of -Manessier and Gerbert, both of whom are familiar with the Mordrain group, -and follows that of the original version upon which both the Queste and -the Grand St. Graal are based. There is nothing to show that Gautier knew -of the Queste, whilst from Gautier the Queste may have possibly have taken -Perceval's sister and the broken sword. Gautier would thus seem to have -written immediately after Chrestien, and before the Queste, _i.e._, about -1195. As for the date of the other two continuators, the fact of their -having used the Queste is only one proof of the lateness of their -composition (as to the date of which see _supra_, p. 4). It must be noted -that whilst in their account of the Grail Chrestien's continuators are in -substantial accord with the Queste versions, and yet do not contradict -Chrestien himself, they add considerably to his account of the lance. This -is readily explained by the fact that as Chrestien gave no information -respecting the origin of either of the relics, they, the continuators, had -to seek such information elsewhere; they found all they could wish -respecting the Grail, but nothing as to the lance, the latter having been -first introduced by Chrestien, and the Queste versions knowing nothing -respecting it beyond what he told. Thus, thrown upon their own resources, -they hit upon the device of identifying the lance with the spear with -which Jesus was pierced as He hung on the Cross. This idea, a most natural -one, may possibly have been in Chrestien's intent, and _may_ have been -suggested to him by the story of the discovery of the Holy Lance in -Antioch half a century before. It must, however, be admitted that the -connection of the lance with the Grail legend in its earliest form is very -doubtful, and that Celtic legends may possibly have furnished it to -Chrestien, and indicated the use to which he intended putting it. The -analysis, so far, of the romances has resulted in the presupposition of an -earlier form; this earlier form, the source or basis of all the later -versions of the legend, exists in the so-called Petit St. Graal of Robert -de Borron. Of this work, found in two forms, a prose and a poetic one, the -poetic form, _pace_ Hucher, is obviously the older, Hucher's proofs of -lateness going merely to show that the sole existing MS. is a recent one, -and has admitted new speech-forms;[62] moreover the prose versions derive -evidently from one original. The greater simplicity of the poem as -compared with the Grand St. Graal proves its anteriority in that case; -Paulin Paris' hypothesis that the poem in its present state is a second -draft, composed after the author had made acquaintance with the Grand St. -Graal, is untenable, the poem's reference (v. 929 etc.) to the "grant -livre" and to the "grant estoire dou Graal," written by "nul home qui -fust mortal" (v. 3,495-6) not being to the Grand St. Graal, but having, -on the contrary, probably suggested to the writer of the latter his -fiction of Christ's being the real author of his work. The Grand St. Graal -used the poem conjointly with the Queste, piecing out the one version by -help of the other, and thereby entirely missing the sequence of ideas in -the poem, which is as follows: Sin, the cause of want among the people; -the separation of the pure from the impure by means of the fish (symbol of -Christ) caught by Brons, which fish does not feed the people, but, in -conjunction with the Grail, severs the true from the false disciples; -punishment of the self-willed false disciple; reward of Brons by charge of -the Grail. In the Grand St. Graal, on the contrary, the fish is no symbol, -but actual food, a variation which must be laid to the account of the -Queste. In a similar way the two Alains in the Grand St. Graal may be -accounted for, the one as derived from the poem, the second from the -Queste. As far as conception is concerned, the later work is no advance -upon the earlier one. To return to Borron's work, which consists of three -sections; there is no reason to doubt his authorship of the second, -Merlin, or of the third, Perceval, although one MS. only of the former -mentions the fact, and it is, moreover, frequently found in connection -with other romances, in especial with the Lancelot; as for Perceval, the -silence of the unique MS. as to Borron is no argument, as it is equally -silent in the Joseph of Arimathea section. All outward circumstances go to -show that Borron divided his work into three parts, Joseph, Merlin, -Perceval. But, if so, the last part must correspond in a fair measure to -the first one; recollect, however, that we are dealing with a poet of but -little invention or power of giving unity to discordant themes, and must -not expect to find a clearly traced plan carried out in every detail. Thus -the author's promise in Joseph to speak later of Moses and Petrus seems -not to be fulfilled, but this is due to Borron's timidity in the invention -of new details. What _is_ said of Moses does not disagree with the Joseph, -whereas a later writer would probably follow the Grand St. Graal account; -as for Petrus he is to be recognised in the hermit Perceval's uncle. There -may be some inconsistency here, but Borron _can_ be inconsistent, as is -shown by his treatment of Alain, who at first vows to remain virgin, and -afterwards marries. But a graver argument remains to be met; the lance -occurs in Perceval--now _ex hypothesi_ the first introduction of the lance -is due to Chrestien. The lance, however, only occurs in two passages, both -obviously interpolated. The identity of authorship is evident when the -style and phraseology of the two works are compared; in both the Grail is -always _li graaux_ or else _li veissel_, not as with the later versions, -_li saint graaux_; both speak of _la grace dou graal_; in both the Grail -is _bailli_ to its keeper, who has it _en guarde_; the empty seat is _li -liu vit_, not the _siege perilleux_. The central conception, too, is the -same--the Trinity of Grail-keepers symbolising the Divine Trinity. The -secret words given by Christ with the Grail to Joseph in prison, by him -handed on to Brons, are confided at the end of the Perceval by Brons to -the hero--and there is no trace of the Galahad form of the Quest, as would -inevitably have been the case had the Perceval been posterior in date to -the Queste. As the Perceval is connected with the Joseph, so it is equally -with the Merlin; it is remarkable that neither Merlin nor Blaise play a -prominent part in the Queste versions, but in Borron's poem Merlin is the -necessary binding link between the Apostolic and Arthurian ages. Again the -whole character of the Perceval speaks for its being one of the earliest -works of the cycle; either it must have used Chrestien and Gautier or they -it; if the former, is it credible that just those adventures which were -necessary to supply the ending to the Joseph could have been picked out? -But it is easy to follow the way in which Chrestien used the Perceval; -having the three-part poem before him he took the third only for his -canvas, left out all that in it related to the first two parts, all, -moreover, that related to the origin and early history of the Grail; the -story of the childhood is half indicated in the Perceval, and Chrestien -may have had Breton lays with which to help himself out; all relating to -the empty seat is left out as reaching back into the Early History; the -visit to Gurnemanz is introduced to supply a motive for the hero's conduct -at the Grail Castle; the wound of the Fisher King is again only an attempt -of Chrestien's to supply a more telling motive; as for the sword Chrestien -invented it; as he also did the Grail-messenger, whose portrait he copied -from that of Rosette la Blonde. The order of the last episodes is altered -by Chrestien sensibly for the better, as, with him, Perceval's doubt comes -first, then the Good Friday reproof, then the confession to and absolution -by the hermit; whereas in the Perceval the hero after doubt, reproof, and -absolution rides off again a-tourneying, and requires a second reproof at -Merlin's hands. It is easy to see here which is the original, which the -copy. Chrestien thus took with clear insight just what he wanted in the -Perceval to fit out his two heroes with adventures.[63] As for Borron's -guiding conception, his resolve to have nothing to do with the Early -History made him neglect it entirely; he only cared to produce a knightly -poem, and we find, in consequence, that he has materialised all the -spiritual elements of his model. Gautier de Doulens' method of proceeding -was much simpler: he took over all those adventures that Chrestien -purposely left out, and they may be found brought together (verses -22,390-27,390) with but few episodes (Perceval's visit to Blanchefleur, -etc.) entirely foreign to the model amongst them.[64] The Perceval cannot -be later than Gautier, as otherwise it could not stand in such close -relationship to the Joseph and Merlin; it must, therefore, be the source -of the Conte du Graal, and a necessary part of Borron's poem, which in its -entirety is the first attempt to bring the Joseph of Arimathea legend into -connection with the Arthur _sage_. The question as to the origin of the -Grail would thus seem answered, the Christian legendary character of -Borron's conception being evident; but there still remains the possibility -that that conception is but the Christianised form of an older folk-myth. -Such a one has been sought for in Celtic tradition. The part played by -Merlin in the trilogy might seem to lend colour to such an hypothesis, but -his connection with the legend is a purely artificial one. Nor is the -theory of a Celtic origin strengthened by reference to the Mabinogi of -Peredur. This knows nought of Merlin, and is nearer to Chrestien than to -the Didot-Perceval, and may, indeed, be looked upon as simply a clumsy -retelling of the Conte du Graal with numerous additions. A knowledge of -the Didot-Perceval on Chrestien's part must be presupposed, as where could -he have got the Fisher King and Grail Castle save from a poem which dealt -with the Early History of the Grail, a thing the Mabinogi does not do. -But, it may be said, Chrestien used the Mabinogi conjointly with Borron's -poem. That the Welsh tale is, on the contrary, only a copy is apparent -from the following considerations:--It mixes up Gurnemanz and the Fisher -King; it puts in the mouth of Peredur's _mother_ an exclamation about the -knights, "Angels they are my son," obviously misread from Perceval's -exclamation to the same effect in Chrestien's poem; _Perceval's_ -love-trance over the three blood drops in the snow is explained in -Chrestien by the hero's passion for Blanchefleur, but is quite -inexplicable in the Mabinogi; again, in the Welsh tale, the lance and -basin episode is quite a secondary one, a fact easily explained if it is -looked upon as a vague reminiscence of Chrestien's unfinished work; -moreover the Mabinogi lays great stress upon the lance, which has already -been shown to belong to a secondary stage in the development of the -legend. Again the word Graal occurs frequently in old Welsh literature, -and invariably in its French form, never translated by any equivalent -Welsh term. As for the name Peredur, it is understandable that the Welsh -storyteller should choose the name of a national hero, instead of the -foreign name Perceval; the etymology Basin-Seeker is untenable. There is -no real analogy between the Grail and the magic cauldron of Celtic fable, -which is essentially one of renovation, whereas the Grail in the second -stage only acquires miraculous feeding, and in the third stage healing -powers. It is of course not impossible that such adventures in the -Mabinogi, as cannot be referred directly to Chrestien, may belong to a -genuine Peredur _sage_. - -The question then arises--was Robert de Borron a simple copyist, or is the -legend in its present form due to him, _i.e._, did _he_ first join the -Joseph of Arimathea and Grail legends, or had he a predecessor? Now the -older Joseph legends know nothing of his wandering in company of a -miraculous vessel, Zarncke having shown the lateness of the one commonly -ascribed to William of Malmesbury. Nor is it likely Borron had before him -a local French legend as Paulin Paris (Romania, vol. i.) had supposed; -would he in that case have brought the Grail to England, and left Joseph's -fate in uncertainty? The bringing the Grail to England is simply the -logical consequence of his conception of the three Grail-keepers (the -third of British blood), symbolising the Trinity, and of the relation of -the Arthurian group to this central conception; where the third -Grail-keeper and the third of the three wondrous tables were, there the -Grail must also be. What then led Borron to connect the sacramental vessel -with the Joseph legend? In answering this question the later miraculous -properties of the Grail must be forgotten, and it must be remembered that -with Borron it is only a vessel of "grace;" this is shown in the history -of (Moys) the false disciple, which obviously follows in its details the -account of the Last Supper, and of the detection of Judas by means of the -dish into which Jesus dips a sop, bidding the betrayer take and eat. -Borron's first table being an exact copy of the Last Supper one, _his_ -holy vessel has the property of that used by Christ. In so far Borron was -led to his conception by the story as told in the canonical books; what -help did he get from the Apocrypha? His mention of the Veronica legend and -certain details in his presentment of Vespasian's vengeance on the Jews -(_e.g._, his selling thirty for a penny) show him to have known the -Vindicta Salvatoris, in which Joseph of Arimathea appears telling of his -former captivity from which Christ Himself had delivered him. Thus Borron -knew of Joseph's living when Vespasian came to Jerusalem. From the Gesta -Pilati he had full information respecting the imprisonment of Joseph; he -combined the accounts of these two apocryphal works, substituting a simple -visit of Christ to Joseph for the deliverance as told in the Gesta Pilati, -and making Vespasian the deliverer, whereto he may have been urged by -Suetonius' account of the freeing of _Josephus_ by Vespasian (Vesp. ch. -v.). But why should Joseph become the Grail-keeper? Because the fortunes -of the vessel used by the Saviour symbolise those of the Saviour's body; -as _that_ was present at the Last Supper, was brought to Pilate, handed -over to Joseph, was buried, and after three days arose, so with the Grail. -Compare, too, Christ's words to Joseph (892, etc.) in which the symbolical -connection of the laying in the grave and the mass is fully worked out. -Thus Joseph who laid Christ's body in the grave is the natural guardian of -the symbol which commemorates that event, thus, too, the Grail is the -natural centre point of all the symbolism of mass and sacrament, and thus -the Grail found its place in the Joseph legend, ultimately becoming its -most important feature. Need Perceval's question detain us? May it not be -explained by the fact that as Joseph had to apply twice for Christ's body, -so his representative, the Grail-seeker, had to apply twice for the symbol -of Christ's body, the Grail? But it is, perhaps, best to consider the -question and the Fisher King's weakness as inventions of Borron's, -possibly derived from Breton sources, the ease with which the hero fulfils -a task explained to him beforehand favouring such a view. Borron, it must -be noticed, had no great inventive power; in the Joseph he is all right so -long as he has the legend to follow; in the Merlin and the Perceval he -clings with equal helplessness to the Breton sagas, confining himself to -weaving clumsily the adventures of the Grail into the regular Arthur -legend. - -The question as to the authorship of the Grand St. Graal and the Queste, -the latter so confidently attributed to W. Map, may now profitably be -investigated. Map, who we know flourished 1143-1210 (see _supra_, p. 5), -took part in all the political and social movements of his time. If we -believe the testimony of the MSS. which ascribe to him the authorship of -the following romances: (1) the Lancelot, in three parts; (2) the Queste; -(3) the Mort Artur; (4) the Grand St. Graal, he would seem to have shown a -literary activity quite incompatible with his busy life, when it is -remembered how slow literary composition was in those days. Nor can it be -reconciled with the words of Giraldus Cambrensis,[65] although Paulin -Paris (Rom. i. 472) has attempted such a reconciliation by the theory that -the words _dicere_ and _verba dare_ referred to composition in the -vernacular, and that Map was opposing not his _oratorical_ to Gerald's -_literary_ activity, but his _French_ to Gerald's _Latin_ works. Against -this initial improbability and Gerald's positive testimony must be set, it -is true, the witness of writers of the time and of the MSS. The most -important is that of Helie de Borron in his prologue to Guiron le -Courtois.[66] After telling how Luces de Gast was the first to translate -from the Latin book into French, and he did part of the story of Tristan, -he goes on: "Apries s'en entremist maistre Gautiers Map qui fu clers au -roi Henry et devisa cil l'estoire de monseigneur Lancelot du Lac, que -d'autre chose ne parla il mie gramment en son livre. Messiers Robers de -Borron s'en entremist apres. Je Helis de Borron, par la priere monseigneur -de Borron, et pour ce que compaignon d'armes fusmes longement, en -commencai mon livre du Bret." Again in the epilogue to the Bret,[67] "Je -croi bien touchier sor les livres que maistres Gautiers Maup fist, qui fit -lou propre livre de monsoingnour Lancelot dou Lac; et des autres granz -livres que messires Robert de Berron fit, voudrai-je prendre aucune flor -de la matiere ... en tel meniere que li livres de monsoingnour Luces de -Gant et de maistre Gautier Maapp et ciz de monsoingnour Robert de Berron -qui est mes amis et mes paranz charnex s'acourderont au miens livres--et -je qui sui appelex Helyes de Berron qui fui engendrez dou sanc des gentix -paladins des Barres qui de tous tens ont ete commendeour et soingnor -d'Outres en Romenie qui ores est appelee France." Now Helie cannot -possibly belong to the reign of Henry II (+ 1189) as asserted by Hucher -(p. 59), as he speaks of Map in the past tense (_fu_ clers), and Map -outlived Henry, moreover the mention of Romenie proves the passage to have -been written after the foundation of the Latin Empire in 1304. Helie's -testimony is thus not that of an immediate contemporary, and it only shows -that shortly after Map's death the Lancelot was ascribed to him. It is, -moreover, in so far tainted, that he speaks with equal assurance -respecting the great Latin book which of course never existed; nor can we -believe him when he says that he was the comrade of Robert de Borron, as -this latter wrote before Chrestien, and must have been at least thirty -years older than Helie, who in the Guiron (written about 1220) calls -himself a young man. How is it with the testimony of the MSS.? Those of -the Lancelot have unfortunately lost their colophon, owing to the Queste -being almost invariably added; those of the Queste show as a rule a -colophon such as the one quoted by Paulin Paris from the Bibl. Nat., MS. -6,963 (MSS. Franc II., p. 361): "Maistre Gautiers Map les estrait pour son -livre faire dou Saint-Graal, pour l'amor del roy Henri son seignor, qui -fist l'estore translater dou latin en francois." A similar statement -occurs in a MS. of the Mort Artur (Bib. Nat. 6,782.). Both are equally -credible. Now as the King can only be Henry II (+ 1189) and as the Queste -preceded the Mort Artur it must be put about 1185, and Chrestien's Conte -du Graal about 1180, an improbably early date when it is recollected that -the Conte du Graal is Chrestien's last work. The form, too, of these -colophons, expressed as they are in the third person, so different from -the garrulous first person complacency with which Luces de Gast and Helie -de Borron announce their authorship, excites the suspicion that we have -here not the author's own statement, but that of a copyist following a -traditional ascription. Whether or no Map wrote the Lancelot, it may -safely be assumed that he did not write the Queste, or _a fortiori_ the -Grand St. Graal. The tradition as to his authorship of these romances may -have originated in Geoffrey's mention of the Gualterus archidiaconus -Oxenfordensis, to whom he owed his MS. of the Historia Regum Britanniae. A -similar instance of traditional ascription on the part of the copyist may -be noted in the MSS. of the Grand St. Graal, the author of which is -declared to be Robert de Borron. The ordinary formulae (quoted _supra_, p. -5) should be compared with Borron's own words in the Joseph (_supra_, p. -5) and the difference in form noted. What proves these passages to be -interpolations is that the author of the Grand St. Graal especially -declares in his prologue that his name must remain a secret. The colophons -in question are simply to be looked upon as taken over from the genuine -ascription of Borron's poem, and there is no positive evidence as to the -authorship of either the Queste or the Grand St. Graal; both works are -probably French in origin, as is shown by the mention of Meaux in the -Grand St. Graal. As for the date of Borron's poem, a _terminus ad quem_ is -fixed by that of the Conte du Graal (1180); and as the poem is dedicated -to Gautier of Montbeliard, who can hardly have been born before 1150, and -who must have attained a certain age before he could become Robert's -patron, it must fall between the years 1170 and 1190. - -The results of the investigation may be summed up as follows: the origin -of the Grail romances must be sought for in a Christian legend based -partly upon the canonical, partly upon the uncanonical, writings. This -Christian legend was woven into the Breton sagas by the author of the -oldest Grail romance; the theories of Provencal Spanish, or Celtic origin -are equally untenable, nor is there any need to countenance the fable of a -Latin original. Chronologically, the versions arrange themselves thus:-- - - (1) Between 1170 and 1190 (probably about 1183) Robert de Borron wrote - his trilogy: Joseph of Arimathea--Merlin--Perceval. Sources: Christian - legend (Acta, Pilati, Descensus Christi, Vindicta Salvatoris) and - Breton sagas (Brut?). Here the Grail is simply a vessel of grace. - - (2) About 1189 Chrestien began his Conte du Graal, the main source of - which was the third part of Borron's poem. Marvellous food properties - attributed to the Grail; introduction of the bleeding lance, silver - dish, and magic sword. - - (3) Between 1190 and 1200 Gautier de Doulens continued Chrestien's - poem. Main sources, third part of (1) and first part of same for Early - History--introduction of broken sword. - - (4) Between 1190 and 1200 (but after Gautier?) the Queste du St. Graal - written as continuation to the Lancelot. Sources (1) and (2) (for - lance) and perhaps (3). New personages, Mordrain, Nascien, etc., - introduced into Early History. - - (5) Before 1204 Grand St. Graal written, mainly resting upon (4) but - with use also of first part of (1). - - (6) Between 1214 and 1220. Manessier's continuation of the Conte du - Graal. For the Early History (5) made use of. - - (7) Before 1225 Gerbert of Montreuil's additions to Manessier. Both - (4) and (5) used. - - (8) About 1225 Perceval li Gallois; compiled from all the previous - versions.[68] - -That part of Birch-Hirschfeld's theory which excited the most attention in -Germany bore upon the relationship of Wolfram to Chrestien (see _infra_, -Appendix A). In other respects his theory won very general acceptance. The -commendatory notices were, however, of a slight character, and no new -facts were adduced in support of his thesis. One opponent, however, he -found who did more than rest his opposition upon the view of Wolfram's -relationship to Chrestien. This was E. Martin, who ("Zeitschrift fuer d. -Alterthumskunde," 1878, pp. 84 etc.) traversed most of Birch-Hirschfeld's -conclusions. Whilst accepting the priority of Queste over Grand St. Graal -he did not see the necessity of fixing 1204 as a _terminus ad quem_ for -the latter work as we now have it, as Helinandus' statement might have -referred to an older version; if the Grand St. Graal could not be dated -neither could the Queste. As for the Didot-Perceval there was nothing to -prove that it was either Borron's work or the source of Chrestien and -Gautier. Birch-Hirschfeld's arguments to show the interpolation of the -lance passages were unsound; it was highly improbable either that -Chrestien should have used the Perceval as alleged, or that Borron, the -purely religious writer of the Joseph, should have changed his style so -entirely in the Perceval. Moreover, Birch-Hirschfeld made Borron dedicate -a work to Gautier of Montbeliard before 1183 when the latter must have -been quite a young man, nor was there any reason to discredit Helie de -Borron's testimony that he and Robert had been companions in arms, a fact -incredible had the one written forty years before the other. The work of -Chrestien and his continuators must be looked upon as the oldest we had of -the Grail cycle. It was likely that older versions had been lost. A Latin -version might well have existed, forms such as Joseph de Barimaschie -(_i.e._, ab Arimathea) pointed to it. Martin followed up this attack in -his "Zur Gralsage, Untersuchungen," Strasburg, 1880. A first section is -devoted to showing that Wolfram must have had other sources than -Chrestien, and that in consequence such portions of his presentment as -differ from Chrestien's must be taken into account in reconstructing the -original form of the romance. The second and third sections deal with -Heinrich von dem Tuerlin's "Die Crone," and with the earliest form of the -tradition. Gawain's second visit to the Grail Castle, as told of by -Heinrich (_supra_, p. 26) has features in common with the widely-spread -traditions of aged men slumbering in caves or ruined castles, unable to -die until the right word is uttered which breaks their spell. This -conception differs from the one found in all the other versions inasmuch -as in them the wonder-working question releases, not from unnaturally -prolonged life, but from sore disease. Can a parallel be found in Celtic -tradition to this sufferer awaiting deliverance? Does not Arthur, wounded -well nigh to death by his nephew Modred, pass a charmed life in Avalon, -whither Morgan la Fay carried him for his healing, and shall he not return -thence to free his folk? The original conception is mythic--the summer god -banished by the winter powers, but destined to come back again. The _sage_ -of Arthur's waiting, often in some subterranean castle, is widely spread, -two of the earliest notices (those of Gervasius of Tilbury, in the "Otia -Imperialia," p. 12 of Liebrecht's edition, and of Caesarius of -Heisterbach) connect it with Etna--the tradition had followed the Norman -Conquerors of Sicily thither--and from Sicily it would seem to have -penetrated to Germany, being first found in German tradition as told of -Frederick II. Again Gerald (A.D. 1188) in the "Itinerarium Cambriae" -(Frankfort, 1603, p. 827, L. 48) tells of a mountain chain in the -South-East of Wales: "quorum principalis Cadair Arthur dicitur i. Cathedra -Arthuri, propter gemina promontorii cacumina in cathedrae modum se -praeferentia. Et quoniam in alto cathedra et in ardua sita est, summo et -maximo Britonum Regi Arthuro vulgari nuncupatione est assignata." The -Eildon Hills may be noted in the same connection, "in which all the -Arthurian chivalry await, in an enchanted sleep, the bugle blast of the -adventurer who will call them at length to a new life" (Stuart Glennie, -"Arthurian Localities," p. 60). If the Grail King is Arthur, the bleeding -lance is evidently the weapon wherewith he was so sorely wounded. And the -Grail? this is originally a symbol of plenty, of a joyous and bountiful -life, hence of Avalon, that land of everlasting summer beyond the waves, -wherein, as the Vita Merlini has it, they that visit Arthur find -"planitiem omnibus deliciis plenam." Of those versions of the romance in -which the Christian conception of the Grail is predominant, Robert de -Borron's poem (composed about 1200) is the earliest, and in it, _maugre_ -the Christianising of the story, the Celtic basis is apparent: the Grail -host go a questing Avalonwards; the first keepers are Brons and Alain, -purely Celtic names, the former of which may be compared with Bran; the -empty seat calls to mind the _Eren stein_ in Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's -Lanzelot, whereof (verse 5,178) _ist gesaget daz er den man niht vertruoc -an dem was valsch oder haz_. Admitting the purely Christian origin of the -Grail leads to this difficulty: the vessel in which Christ's blood was -received was a bowl, not an open or flat dish like that used in -commemoration of the Last Supper. Evidently the identification of the -Grail with the Last Supper cup is the latest of a series of -transformations. Nor can the Christian origin of the legend be held proved -by the surname of Fisher given to the Grail-keeper. True, neither -Chrestien nor Wolfram explains this surname, whilst in Borron's poem there -is at least a fish caught. But if the fish had really the symbolic meaning -ascribed to it would not a far greater stress be laid upon it? In any case -this one point is insufficient to prove the priority of Borron, and it is -simpler to believe that the surname of Fisher had in the original Celtic -tradition a significance now lost. Birch-Hirschfeld's theory supposes, -too, a development contrary to that observed elsewhere in mediaeval -tradition. The invariable course is from the racial-heathen to the -Christian legendary stage. Is it likely that in the twelfth century, a -period of such highly developed mystic fancy, an originally Christian -legend should lose its mystic character and become a subject for minstrels -to exercise their fancy upon? In the earlier form of the romance there is -an obvious contrast between the task laid upon the Grail quester and that -laid upon Gawain at Castle Marvellous. The first has suffered change by -its association with Christian legend; but the second, even in those -versions influenced by the legend, has retained its primitive Celtic -character. The trials which Gawain has to undergo may be compared with -those imposed on him who seeks to penetrate into the underworld, as -pictured in the Purgatorium S. Patricii, in the Visio Tnugdali, etc. This -agrees well with the presentment of Castle Marvellous, an underworld realm -where dwell four queens long since vanished from Arthur's court, and -which, according to Chrestien (verse 9,388), Gawain, having once found, -may no longer leave. One of these queens is Arthur's mother, whom a -magician had carried off, a variant it would seem of the tradition which -makes Arthur's father, Uther, win Igerne from her husband by Merlin's -magic aid. Many other reminiscences of Celtic tradition may be found in -the romances--Orgeleuse, whom Gawain finds sitting under a tree by a -spring, is just such a water fairy as may be met with throughout the whole -range of Celtic folk-lore, and differs profoundly from the Germanic -conception of such beings. - -W. Hertz, in his "Sage vom Parzival und dem Gral" (Breslau, 1882) -following, in the main, Birch-Hirschfeld, lays stress upon the two -elements, "_legend_" and "_sage_" out of which the romance cycle has -sprung. He does not overlook many of the weak points in Birch-Hirschfeld's -theory, _e.g._, whilst fully accepting the fish caught by Bron as the -symbol of Christ, he notices that the incident as found in Robert de -Borron, whom he accepts as the first in date of the cycle writers, is not -of such importance as to justify the stress laid upon the nickname "rich -fisher," by all the _ex hypothesi_ later writers. The word "rich" must, he -thinks, have originally referred to the abundant power of conversion of -heathen vouchsafed to the Grail-keeper, but even Robert failed to grasp -the full force of the allusion. Against Birch-Hirschfeld he maintains that -the connection of Joseph with the conversion of Britain in all the -versions shows that the legend must have assumed definite shape first on -British soil, and he looks upon the separatist and anti-papal tendencies -of the British Church as supplying the original impulse to such a legend. -The Grail belongs originally wholly to the "Legend;" only in the later -versions and in Wolfram, owing to the latter's ignorance of its real -nature, does it assume a magic and popular character. The lance, on the -other hand, is partly derived from the Celtic _sage_. The boyhood of -Perceval is a genuine folk-story, a great-fool tale, and had originally -nothing to do with the Grail, as may plainly be seen by reference to the -Thornton Sir Perceval, the most primitive form of the story remaining, the -Mabinogi, and the modern Breton tale of Peronnik, deriving directly or -indirectly from Chrestien. As for the question, although it presented much -that seemed to refer it to folk-tradition, as for instance in Heinrich von -dem Tuerlin's version, where Gawain's putting the question releases the -lord of the castle and his retainers from the enchantment of -life-in-death, yet the form of the question, "Je vos prie que vous me diez -que l'en sert de cest vessel," shows its original connection with the -Grail cultus, and necessitates its reference to the "Legend." Existing -versions fail, however, to give any satisfactory account of the question. -It is a matter of conjecture whether in the earliest form of the legend -(which Hertz assumes to have been lost) it was found in the same shape as -in the Didot-Perceval. - -Birch-Hirschfeld's theory has already been implicitly criticised in -Chapter III. The considerations adduced therein, as well as Martin's -criticisms and Hertz's admissions, preclude the necessity of examining it -in further detail. Formally speaking, the theory rests upon the assumption -that we have Borron's work substantially as he wrote it, an assumption -which, as shown by the difference in _motif_ between the Metrical Joseph -and the Didot-Perceval, is inaccurate. Again, the theory does not account -for the silence of all the other versions respecting Brons and that -special conception of the Grail found in Borron's poem. Nor does it offer -any satisfactory explanation of the mysterious question which -Birch-Hirschfeld can only conjecture to have been a meaningless invention, -_eine harmlose Erfindung_, of Borron's. In fact, only such, portions of -the cycle are exhaustively examined as admit of reference to the alleged -originating idea, and a show of rigorous deduction is thus made, the -emptiness of which becomes apparent when the entire legend, and not one -portion only, is taken into account. Despite the learning and acuteness -with which it is urged, Birch-Hirschfeld's theory must be rejected, if it -were only because, as Martin points out, it postulates a development of -the legend which is the very opposite of the normal one. We cannot admit -that this vast body of romance sprang from a simple but lofty spiritual -conception, the full significance of which, unperceived even by its -author, was totally ignored, not only, were that possible, by Chrestien -and his continuators, but by the theologising mystics who wrote the Grand -St. Graal and the Queste--aye, and even by the latest and in some respects -the most theologically minded of all the writers of the cycle, the author -of the Prose Perceval le Gallois and Gerbert. We must say, with Otto Kuepp -(Zacher's Zeitschrift, XVII, 1, p. 68), "die jetzt versuchte christliche -Motivierung ist ganz ungluecklich geraten und kann in keiner Weise -befriedigen." - -The field is thus clear for an examination of the Quest with a view to -determining whether the Grail really belongs to it or not. The first step -is to see what relationship exists between the oldest form of the Quest -and what have been called the non-Grail members of the cycle--_i.e._, the -Mabinogi of Peredur ab Evrawc and the Thornton MS. Sir Perceval. As -preliminary to this inquiry, an attempt must be made to determine more -closely the relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du -Graal--whether it be wholly derived from the latter, or whether it may -have preserved through other sources traces of a different form of the -story than that found in Chrestien.[69] - - - - -CHAPTER V. - - Relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du Graal--The former - not the source of the latter--Relationship of the Conte du Graal and - the Mabinogi--Instances in which the Mabinogi has copied - Chrestien--Examples of its independence--The incident of the blood - drops in the snow--Differences between the two works--The machinery of - the Mabinogi and the traces of it in the Conte du Graal--The - stag-hunt--The Mabinogi and Manessier--The sources of the Conte du - Graal and the relation of the various parts to a common original--Sir - Perceval--Steinbach's theory--Objections to it--The counsels in the - Conte du Graal--Wolfram and the Mabinogi--Absence of the Grail from - the apparently oldest Celtic form. - - -In examining the relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du Graal, -the sequence of the incidents is of importance. This is shown in the -subjoined table (where the numbers given are those of the incidents as -summarized, chapter II), in which the Didot-Perceval sequence is taken as -the standard. - - --------------------------------------------------------------- - DIDOT-PERCEVAL. | CHRESTIEN. | - --------------------------------|-----------------------------| - Inc. |Inc. | - 2. Perceval sets forth in |11. Only after the reproaches| - quest of the rich fisher. | of the loathly damsel | - | does Perceval first set | - | forth in quest of the | - | Grail. | - | | - 3. Finds a damsel weeping over | 8. In so far as finding a | - a knight. Adventure with | damsel weeping over a | - dwarf and the Orgellos | dead knight, and (9) for | - Delande. | overcoming the Orgellous | - | de la Lande. | - | | - 4. Arrival at the Chessboard | ... ... ... ... | - Castle. Adventure of the | | - stag hunt and loss of the | | - hound. | | - | | - 5. Meeting with sister; | ... ... ... ... | - instruction concerning the | | - Grail; vow to seek it. | | - | | - 6. Meeting with, confession |15. _After_ the Good Friday | - to, and exhortation from | incident. | - hermit uncle. | | - | | - 7. Disregard of uncle's | ... ... ... ... | - exhortations (slaying a | | - knight), through thinking | | - of damsel of the | | - Chessboard. | | - | | - 8. Meeting with Rosette and | ... ... ... ... | - Le Beau Mauvais (the | | - loathly damsel). | | - | | - 9. Adventure at the Ford with | ... ... ... ... | - Urbains. | | - | | - 10. The two children in the | ... ... ... ... | - tree. | | - | | - 11. First arrival at Grail | 7. ... ... ... ... | - Castle. | | - | | - 12. Reproaches of the wayside | 8. In so far as in both the | - damsel. | hero is reproached by a | - | wayside damsel. | - | | - 13. Meeting with the damsel who | ... ... ... ... | - had carried off the stag's | | - head and hound, and second | | - visit to Castle of the | | - Chessboard. | | - | | - 14. Period (7 years) of despair |15. ... ... ... ... | - ended by the Good Friday | | - incident. | | - | | - 15. Tournament at Melianz de |13. But told of Gawain not | - Lis. Merlin's reproaches. | of Perceval. | - | | - 16. Second arrival at Grail | ... ... ... ... | - Castle Achievement of Quest.| | - --------------------------------------------------------------- - - --------------------------- - GAUTIER DE DOULENS. - --------------------------- - Inc. - ... ... ... ... - - - - - - 9. In so far as a damsel - is foundlamenting over - a knight. - - - - 7 and 8. - - - - - 12. - - - - 12. - - - - 12. In so far as a knight - is slain, but _before_ - the meeting with the - hermit. - - - 11. - - - - 9. Ford Amorous; _entirely - different adventure_. - - 20. _One_ child. - - - ... ... ... ... - - - ... ... ... ... - - - - 13 and 18. Many adventures - being intercalated. - - - - - ... ... ... ... - - - - ... ... ... ... - - - 22. - - --------------------------- - -The different sequence in the Didot-Perceval and Chrestien may be -explained, as Birch-Hirschfeld explains it, by the freedom which Chrestien -allowed himself in re-casting the work; but why should Gautier, who, _ex -hypothesi_, simply took up from Chrestien's model such adventures as his -predecessor had omitted, have acted in precisely the same way? If the -theory were correct we should expect to find the non-Chrestien incidents -of the Didot-Perceval brought together in at least fairly the same order -in Gautier. A glance at the table shows that this is not the case. In one -incident, moreover, the Didot-Perceval is obviously right and Gautier -obviously wrong, namely, in his incident 12, where the slaying of the -knight before the hero's meeting the hermit takes away all point from the -incident. An absolutely decisive proof that that portion of the Conte du -Graal which goes under Gautier's name (though it is by no means clear that -all of it is of the same age or due to one man), cannot be based upon the -Didot-Perceval as we now possess it, is afforded by the adventure of the -Ford Amorous or Perillous, which in the two versions is quite dissimilar. -This incident stands out pre-eminent in the Didot-Perceval for its wild -and fantastic character. It is a genuine Celtic _maerchen_, with much of -the weird charm still clinging to it that is the birthright of the Celtic -folk-tale. It is inadmissible that Gautier could have substituted for this -fine incident the commonplace one which he gives. - -If, then, it is out of the question that Gautier borrowed directly from -the Didot-Perceval, how are the strong resemblances which exist in part -between the two versions to be accounted for? Some of these resemblances -have already been quoted (_supra_, p. 75), the remainder may be usefully -brought together here.[70] - -First arrival at the Castle of the Chessboard-- - - DIDOT-PERCEVAL. GAUTIER. - - Li plus biaux chasteaux del monde Le bel castiel que je vos dis - et vit le pont abeissie et la . . . . . - porte defferme (p. 439). Et vit si bieles les entrees - Et les grans portes desfremees - (22,395, etc.); - -The damsel exhorts him not to throw the chessman into the water-- - - Votre cors est esmeuz a grant Car cou serait grans vilonie (22,503). - vilainie faire (p. 440). - -Perceval having slain the stag, sees its head carried off-- - - Si vint une veille sor un palestoi Une puciele de malaire - grant aleure et prist le brachet Vint cevaucant parmi la lande - et s'en ala or tot (p. 442). Voit le braket, plus ne demande - Par le coler d'orfrois le prist - . . . . . . - Si s'en aloit grant aleure - (22,604, etc.). - -On Perceval threatening to take it away from her by force she answers-- - - Sire Chevalier, force n'est mie Force a faire n'est mie drois - droit et force me poez bien Et force me poes vos faire (22,640). - faire (p. 443). - -In the subsequent fight with the Knight of the Tomb, he, overcome-- - - Se torna vers le tonbel grant Que fuiant vait grant aleure - aleure et li tombeaux s'enleva Vers l'arket et la sepouture - contre moultet chevalier s'en Si est entres plus tost qu'il pot - feri enz (p. 444). (22,723, etc.). - -In the description of Rosette (the loathly damsel)-- - - Ele avoit le col et les mains plus Le col avoit plus noir que fer - noires et le vier, que fer... (25,409). - (p. 453). - -When the loathly damsel and her knight come to Arthur's court, Kay jests -as follows:-- - - Lors pria (_i.e._, Kay) le chevalier Biaus sire, - par la foi que il devoit, le roi, Dites moi, si Dex le vos mire, - qui li deist ou il l'avoit prise et Si plus en a en vostre terre, - si en porroit une autre tele avoir, Une autele en iroie querre - si il l'aloit querre (p. 457). Si jou le quidoie trover - (25,691 etc.). - -These similarities are too great to be accidental. It will be noticed, -however, that they bear chiefly upon two adventures: that of the -chessboard and stag hunt, and that of the loathly maiden. As to the -latter, it is only necessary to allude to Birch-Hirschfeld's idea that -Rosette is the original of the damsel who reproaches Perceval before the -court with his conduct at the Grail Castle, a theory to state which is to -refute it. The former adventure will be closely examined in the following -section. There is no need to suppose direct borrowing on the part of one -or the other versions to account for the parallel in these two incidents; -a common original closely followed at times by both would meet the -requirements of the case. It is difficult to admit that the author of the -Didot-Perceval used Gautier's continuation and not Chrestien's original, -especially when the following fact, strangely overlooked by both -Birch-Hirschfeld and Hucher, is taken into account: Perceval on his first -arrival at the Grail Castle keeps silence (as will be seen by a reference -to the summary, _supra_, p. 31), because, "li souvenoit du prodome qui li -avoit deffandu que ne fust trop pallier," etc. As a matter of fact, the -"prodome" had forbidden nothing of the sort, and this casual sentence is -the first allusion to the motive upon which Chrestien lays so much stress -as explaining his hero's mysterious conduct at the Grail Castle. Evidently -the Didot-Perceval, which, to whoever considers it impartially, is an -obvious abridgment and piecing together of material from different -sources, found in one of its sources an episode corresponding to that of -Gonemans in Chrestien. But its author, influenced probably by the Galahad -version of the Quest, substituted for the "childhood" opening of this -hypothetical source the one now found in his version, and the Gonemans -episode went with the remainder of that part of the story. When the hero -comes to the Grail Castle, the author is puzzled; his hero knows -beforehand what he has to do, sets out with the distinct purpose of doing -it, and yet remains silent. To account for this silence the author uses -the motive belonging to a discarded episode, but applies the words to his -hermit, forgetting that he had put no such words into his mouth, and that, -attributed to him, the injunction to keep silence became simply -meaningless. Is the model treated in this way by the Didot-Perceval -Chrestien's poem? Hardly, for this reason. After the Good Friday incident -occurs the remarkable passage, quoted (_supra_, p. 31), as to the silence -of the _trouveres_ respecting it. Chrestien gives the incident in full, -and the author of the Perceval could have had no reason for his stricture, -or could not have ventured it had he been using Chrestien's work. Two -hypotheses then remain; the unknown source may have been a version akin to -that used by Chrestien and Gautier, or it may have been a summary -abridgment of the Conte du Graal, in which, _inter alia_, the Good Friday -incident was left out. In either case the presence of the passage in the -Perceval is equally hard of explanation; but the first hypothesis is -favoured by the primitive character of the incident of the Ford Perillous, -and several other features which will be touched upon in their place. The -Didot-Perceval would thus be an attempt to provide an ending for Borron's -poem by adapting to its central _donnee_ a version of the Perceval _sage_ -akin to that which forms the groundwork of the Conte du Graal, its author -being largely influenced by the Galahad form of the Quest as found in the -_Queste_. If this view be correct, the testimony of Perceval (wherever not -influenced by Borron's poem or the _Queste_) is of value in determining -the original form of the story, the more so from the author's evident want -of skill in piecing together his materials. It will, therefore, be used in -the following section, which deals with the relationship of the Conte du -Graal and the Mabinogi of Peredur ab Evrawc. - -_Relationship of the Conte du Graal and the Mabinogi._--As was seen in -Chapter IV, opinion began with Monsieur de Villemarque by accepting the -Mabinogi as the direct source of the Conte du Graal, and has ended with -Zarncke and Birch-Hirschfeld in looking upon it as a more or less direct -copy. The most competent of living scholars in this matter, M. Gaston -Paris, has expressed himself in favour of this opinion in his recent -article on the Lancelot story (Romania, 1886).[71] Before dealing with the -question as presented in this form, Simrock's view, differing as it does -from that of all other investigators, deserves notice. He, too, looks upon -the Mabinogi as derived from Chrestien, and yet bases his interpretation -of the myth underlying the romance upon a feature, the bleeding head in -the dish, found only in it. But if the Mabinogi have really preserved here -the genuine form of the myth, it must represent an older version than -Chrestien's, and if, on the other hand, Chrestien be its only source, the -feature in question cannot belong to the earliest form of the story. -Simrock's theory stands then or falls in this respect by the view taken of -the relationship between the two versions, and need not be discussed until -that view has been stated. - -To facilitate comparison, the incidents common to the two stories are -tabulated as under, those of the Mabinogi being taken as the standard:-- - - MABINOGI. CONTE DU GRAAL. - - Inc. Inc. _Chrestien._ - 1. Encounter with the knights. 1. - - 2. Adventure with the damsel of 2. - the tent. - - 3. Avenging of the insult to 3 and 4. - Guinevere; incident of the - dwarves; departure from Court. - - 5. Arrival at house of first uncle 5. Gonemans. - (found fishing); instruction in - arms. - - 6. Arrival at house of second uncle 7. Uncle found fishing; - (Grail Castle). First sight of talismans, Grail and lance. - the talismans (head in basin and - lance). - - 7. Reproaches of foster-sister whom 8. Reproached by his cousin; also - he finds lamenting over a dead instructed by her about the - knight. magic sword. - - 8. Adventure with the damsel of the 6. Blanchefleur, Gonemant's - besieged castle who offers niece. - herself to hero. - - 9. Second meeting with the lady of 9. - the tent. - - 10. First encounter with the - sorceresses of Gloucester, who - are forced to desist from - assailing hero's hostess. - - 11. Adventure of the drops of blood 10. - in the snow. - - 20. Reproaching of Peredur before 11. - the Court by the loathly damsel. - - 21. Gwalchmai's adventure with the 14. - lady whose father he had slain. - - 22. Peredur's meeting the knight on 15. Hermit, hero's uncle. - Good Friday, and confession to - priest. - _Gautier._ - 24. Arrival at the Castle of Wonders Inc. 7, 8, and partly 13 and 18. - (Chessboard Castle); stag hunt; - loss of dog; fight with the - black man of the cromlech. - - 25. Second arrival at the (Grail) 22. In so far as Gautier ends his - castle; achievement of the Quest part of the story here with - by destruction of sorceresses of the hero's second arrival at - Gloucester. "Thus it is related the Grail Castle, but no - concerning the Castle of similarity in the incidents. - Wonders." - -The sequence is thus exactly the same in the Mabinogi and in Chrestien, -with the single exception of the Blanchefleur incident, which, in the -French poem precedes, in the Welsh tale follows, the first visit to the -Grail Castle. The similarity of order is sufficient of itself to warrant -the surmise of a relation such as that of copy to original. If the -Mabinogi be examined closely, much will be found to strengthen this -surmise. Thus, Birch-Hirschfeld has pointed out that when Peredur first -sees the knights, and on asking his mother what they may be, receives the -answer, "Angels, my son"; this can only be a distorted reminiscence of -Perceval's own exclamation, - - ... Ha! sire Dex, Merchi! - Ce sont angle que je voi ci! (1,349-50). - -as the hero's mother would be the last person to describe thus the knights -whom she has done her best to guard her son from knowledge of. Again, -Simrock has criticised, and with reason, the incident of Peredur's being -acclaimed by the dwarf on his arrival at Arthur's court as the chief of -warriors and flower of knighthood. In the corresponding incident in -Chrestien, the hero is told laughingly by a damsel that he should become -the best knight in the world, and she had not laughed for ten years, as a -fool had been wont to declare. This is an earlier form than that of the -Mabinogi, and closer to the folk-tale account. Thus, to take one instance -only, in Mr. Kennedy's Giolla na Chroicean Gobhar (Fellow with the -Goat-skin) [Fictions of the Irish Celts, p. 23], the hero comes to the -King of Dublin, as Peredur to Arthur, clad in skins and armed with a club. -"Now, the King's daughter was so melancholy that she didn't laugh for -seven years, but when she saw Tom of the Goat-skin knock over all her -father's best champions, then she let a great sweet laugh out of her," and -of course Tom marries her, but not until he has been through all sorts of -trials, aye, even to Hell itself and back. In Chrestien, the primitive -form is already overlaid; we hear nothing further of the damsel moved to -laughter nor of the prophetic fool; and in the Mabinogi it seems obvious -that the hailing of the hero, added in Chrestien to the older laughter, -has alone subsisted. Birch-Hirschfeld takes exception likewise to the way -in which Peredur's two uncles are brought upon the scene, the first one, -corresponding to Gonemans in Chrestien, being found fishing instead of the -real Fisher King, the lord of the Castle of the Magic Talismans, whilst at -the latter's, Peredur has to undergo trials of his strength belonging -properly to his stay at the first uncle's. Evidently, says -Birch-Hirschfeld, there has been a confusion of the two personages. Again, -when Peredur leaves his second uncle on the morrow of seeing the bleeding -head and spear, it is said, "he rode forth with his uncle's permission." -Can these words be a reminiscence of Chrestien's? - - Et trueve le pont abaiscie, - Con li avoit ensi laissie - Por ce que rien nel detenist, - De quele eure qu'il venist - Que il ne passat sans arriest (4,565-69). - -We shall see later on that in the most primitive form of the unsuccessful -visit to the Castle of the Talismans the hero finds himself on the morrow -on the bare earth, the castle itself having vanished utterly. The idea of -permission being given to leave is diametrically opposed to this earliest -conception, and its presence in the Mabinogi seems only capable of -explanation by some misunderstanding of the story-teller's model. - -The Blanchefleur incident shows some verbal parallels, "The maiden -welcomed Peredur and put her arms around his neck." - - Et la damosele le prent - Par le main debonnairement (3,025-26) - Et voit celi ajenouillie - Devant son lit qui le tenoit - Par le col embraciet estroit (3,166-68). - -Can, too, the "two nuns," who bring in bread and wine, be due to the "Il -Abeies," which Perceval sees on entering Blanchefleur's town? It may be -noticed that in this scene the Welsh story-teller is not only more chaste, -but shows much greater delicacy of feeling than the French poet. Peredur's -conduct is that of a gentleman according to nineteenth century standards. -Chrestien, however, is probably nearer the historical reality, and the -conduct of his pair-- - - S'il l'a sor le covertoir mise - - * * * * - - Ensi giurent tote la nuit. - -is so singularly like that of a Welsh _bundling_ couple, that it seems -admissible to refer the colouring given to this incident to Welsh sources. -Another scene presenting marked similarities in the two works is that in -which the hero is upbraided before the court by the loathly damsel. In the -Mabinogi she enters riding upon a _yellow_ mule with _jagged thongs_: in -Chrestien-- - - Sor une _fauve mule_ et tint - En sa main destre une escorgie (5,991-2). - -"Blacker were her face and her two hands than the blackest iron covered -with pitch." - - Ains ne veistes si noir fer - Come ele ot les mains et le cor (5,998-99). - -"And she greeted Arthur and all his household except Peredur." - - Le roi et ses barons salue - Tout ensamble comunalment - Fors ke Perceval seulement (6,020-3). - -In the Mabinogi, Peredur is reproached for not having asked about the -streaming spear; in Chrestien "la lance qui saine" is mentioned first -although the Grail is added. Had Peredur asked the meaning and cause of -the wonders, the "King would have been restored to health, and his -dominions to peace." - - Li rices rois qui moult s'esmaie - Fust or tos garis de sa plaie - Et si tenist sa tiere en pais (6,049-51). - -Whereas now "his knights will perish, and wives will be widowed, and -maidens will be left portionless"-- - - Dames en perdront lor maris, - Tieres en seront essilies, - Et pucieles desconsellies; - Orfenes, veves en remanront - Et maint chevalier en morront (6,056, etc.). - -In the "Stately Castle" where dwells the loathly damsel, are five hundred -and sixty-six knights, and "the lady whom he loves best with each," in -"Castle Orguellos" five hundred and seventy, and not one "qui n'ait s'amie -avoeques lui." "And whoever would acquire fame in arms and encounters and -conflicts, he will gain it there if he desire it." - - Que la ne faut nus ki i alle, - Qui la ne truist joste u batalle; - Qui viout faire chevalerie, - Si la le quiert, n'i faura mie (6,075, etc.). - -"And whoso would reach the summit of fame and honour, I know where he may -find it. There is a castle on a lofty mountain, and there is a maiden -therein, and she is detained a prisoner there, and whoever shall set her -free will attain the summit of the fame of the world." - - Mais ki vorroit le pris avoir - De tout le mont, je quie savoir - Le liu et la piece de terre - U on le porroit mius conquerre; - - * * * * - - A une damoisiele assise; - Moult grant honor aroit conquise, - Qui le siege en poroit oster - Et la puciele delivrer (6,080, etc.). - -In this last case certainly, in the other cases probably, a direct -influence, to the extent at least of the passages quoted, must be -admitted. But before concluding hastily that the Welsh story-teller is the -copyist, some facts must be mentioned on the other side. Thus the incident -of the blood drops in the snow, which Birch-Hirschfeld sets down as one of -those taken over by the Mabinogi, with the remark that the Welsh story -contains no trace of a passion as strong as Perceval's for Blanchefleur, -has been dealt with by Professor H. Zimmer in his "Keltische Studien," -vol. ii, pp. 200. He refers to the awakening of Deirdre's love to Noisi by -similar means, as found in the Irish saga of the Sons of Usnech (oldest -MS. authority, Book of Leinster, copied before 1164 from older MSS.) as -evidence of the early importance of this _motif_ in Celtic tradition. The -passage runs thus in English: "As her foster-father was busy in winter -time skinning a calf out in the snow, she beheld a raven which drank up -the blood in the snow; and she exclaimed, 'Such a man could I love, and -him only, having the three colours, his hair like the raven, his cheeks -like the blood, his body like the snow.'" - -Now the Mabinogi says, almost in the same words--the blackness of the -raven and the whiteness of the snow, and the redness of the blood he -compared to the hair and the skin and the two red spots upon the cheek of -the lady that best he loved. In Chrestien there is no raven, and the whole -stress is laid upon the _three_ drops of blood on the snow, which put the -hero in mind of the red and white of his lady's face. As Zimmer justly -points out, the version of the Mabinogi is decidedly the more primitive -of the two; and that, moreover, as the incident does not figure at all in -what Birch-Hirschfeld presumes to be Chrestien's source, the -Didot-Perceval, the following development of this incident must, _ex -hypothesi_, have taken place. In the Didot-Perceval the hero is once upon -a time lost in thought. To explain this, Chrestien invents the incident of -the three drops of blood in the snow; the Mabinogi, copying Chrestien, -presents the incident in almost as primitive a form as the oldest known -one! Here, then, the Mabinogi has preserved an older form than Chrestien, -alleged to have been its source in all those parts common to both. Nor is -it certain that the fact of Peredur's undergoing the sword-test in the -Talisman Castle _does_ show, as Birch-Hirschfeld maintains, that the Welsh -story-teller confused the two personages whom he took over from Chrestien, -Gonemans and the Fisher King. The sword incident will be examined later -on; suffice here to say that no explanation is given in the Conte du Graal -of the broken weapon; whereas the Mabinogi does give a simple and natural -one. But these two instances cannot weaken the force of the parallels -adduced above. In determining, however, whether these may not be due to -Chrestien's being the borrower, the differences between the two versions -are of even more importance than the similarities. - -What are these? The French romances belonging to the Perceval type of the -Grail quest give two versions of the search for the magic talismans, that -of the Conte du Graal and that of the Didot-Perceval. The latter -pre-supposes an early history which, as already shown, cannot be looked -upon as the starting point of the legend without postulating such a -development of the latter as is inadmissible on _a priori_ grounds, and as -runs counter to many well-ascertained facts. The former is not consistent -with itself, Manessier's finish contradicting Chrestien's opening on such -an essential point as the cause of the maimed king's suffering. Still the -following outline of a story, much overlaid by apparently disconnected -adventures, may be gathered from it. A hero has to seek for magic -talismans wherewith to heal an uncle wounded by his brother, and at the -same time to avenge him on that brother. What, on the other hand, is the -story as told in the Mabinogi? A hero is minded by talismans to avenge -the death of a cousin (and the harming of an uncle); it is not stated that -the talismans pass into his possession. It is difficult to admit that -either of these forms can have served as direct model to the other. If the -Mabinogi be a simple copy of the Conte du Graal, whence the altered -significance of the talismans? whence also the machinery by means of which -the hero is at last brought to his goal, and which is, briefly, as -follows? The woe which has befallen Peredur's kindred is caused by -supernatural beings, the sorceresses of Gloucester; his ultimate -achievement of the task is brought about by his cousin, who, to urge him -on, assumes the form (1) of the black and loathly damsel; (2) of the -damsel of the chessboard, who incites him to the Ysbydinongyl adventure, -reproves him for not slaying the black man at once, and then urges him -into the stag hunt; (3) of the lady who carries off the hound and sends -him to fight against the black man of the cromlech; "and the cousin it was -who came in the hall with the bloody head in the salver and the lance -dripping blood." The whole of the incidents connected with the Castle of -the Chessboard, which appear at such length in both the Conte du Graal and -the Didot-Perceval, but without being in any way connected with the main -thread of the story, thus form in the Mabinogi an integral portion of that -main thread. Would the authors of the Conte du Graal have neglected the -straight-forward version of the Welsh tale had they known it, or could, on -the other hand, the author of the Mabinogi have worked up the disconnected -incidents of his alleged model into an organic whole? Neither hypothesis -is likely. Moreover the Conte du Graal and the Didot-Perceval, if examined -with care, show distinct traces of a machinery similar to that of the -Welsh story. Thus in Chrestien, Perceval, on arriving at the Fisher -King's, sees a squire bringing into the room a sword of such good steel -that it might break in but one peril, and this the King's niece (_i.e._, -Perceval's cousin) had sent her uncle to bestow it as he pleased; and the -King gives it to the hero for-- - - ... biaus frere ceste espee - Vous fu jugie et destinee (4,345-6). - -After Perceval's first adventure at the Grail Castle it is his "germaine -cousine" (4,776) who assails him with her reproaches; she knows all about -the sword (4,835-38) and tells him, how, if it be broken he may have it -mended (4,847-59). So far Chrestien, who furthermore, be it noted, makes -Blanchefleur Perceval's lady-love, likewise his cousin, she being niece to -Gonemans (3,805-95). A cousin is thus beloved of him, a cousin procures -for him the magic sword, a cousin, as in the Mabinogi, incites him to the -fulfilment of the quest, and gives him advice which we cannot doubt would -have been turned to account by Chrestien had he finished his poem. Turning -now to Gautier, in whose section of the poem are to be found the various -adventures growing out of the chessboard incident, this difference between -the Mabinogi and himself may be noted. In the former, these adventures -caused by Peredur's cousin serve apparently as tests of the hero's -strength and courage. The loss of the chessboard is the starting-point of -the task, and the cousin reappears as the black maiden. Nothing of the -sort is found in Gautier. True, the damsel who reproaches Perceval is in -so far supernatural, as she is a kind of water-nix, but it is love for her -which induces the hero to perform the task; she it is, too, who lends him -the dog, and she is not identified with the "pucelle de malaire" who -carries it off (22,604, etc.). But later on Perceval meets a knight who -tells him that a daughter of the Fisher King's (thus also a cousin of -Perceval) had related to him how a knight had carried off a stag's head -and hound to anger another good knight who had been at her father's court, -and had not asked as he should concerning the Grail, for which reason she -had taken his hound and had refused him help to follow the robber knight -(23,163, etc.). This makes the "pucelle de malaire" to be Perceval's -cousin, and she plays the same _role_ as in the Mabinogi. True, when later -on (Incident 13) Perceval finds the damsel, nothing is said as to her -being the Fisher King's daughter; on the contrary, as will be seen by the -summary, a long story is told about the Knight of the Tomb, brother to her -knight, Garalas, and how he lived ten years with a fay. She is here quite -distinct from the lady of the chessboard to whom Perceval returns later. -The version found in the Didot-Perceval agrees with the Mabinogi as -against Gautier in so far that the hero is in love with the mistress of -the castle, and not with the damsel who reproaches him for throwing away -the chessmen. This reproaching damsel is not in any way identified with -the lady who carries off the hound, who is described as "une vieille," and -of whom it is afterwards told "elle estoit quand elle voloit une des plus -belles damoiselles du monde. Et est cele meismes que mon frere (the -brother of the Knight of the Tomb, who here, as in Gautier, is the lover -of a fay) amena a la forest," _i.e._, she is the fay herself, sister to -the lady of the Chessboard Castle, who hated her and wished to diminish -her and her knight's pride (p. 469). Here, again, a connection can be -pieced out between the various personages of the adventure; and it appears -that the hero is driven to his fight against the Knight of the Tomb by a -fair damsel transformed into a mysterious hag.[72] The Mabinogi thus gives -one consistently worked-out conception--transformed hag = Peredur's -cousin--which may be recovered partly from that one of the two discordant -versions found in Gautier which makes the pucelle de malaire to be the -Fisher King's daughter, hence Perceval's cousin, and connects the stag -hunt with the Grail incident, partly from the Didot-Perceval, which tells -how the same pucelle de malaire is but playing a part, being when she -wills one of the fairest maids of the world. Now we have seen that the -stag hunt is just one of those portions of the story in which are found -the closest verbal similarities between Gautier de Doulens and the -Didot-Perceval. It is, therefore, perplexing to find that there is not -more likeness in the details of the incident. But the similarities pointed -out concern chiefly the first part of the incident, and are less prominent -in the latter part (the hero's encounter with the Knight of the Tomb). -This, taken together with the difference in the details of the incident -just pointed out, strengthens the opinion expressed above, that the -Didot-Perceval and Gautier are not connected directly but through the -medium of a common source, the influence of which can be seen distinctly -in certain portions of either story, and that when this source fails they -go widely asunder in their accounts. That such an hypothesis is not -unreasonable is shown by the fact that Gautier has two contradictory forms -of this very story, one of which, that which makes the hound-stealing -damsel a daughter of the Fisher King, is on all fours with the Mabinogi, -whilst the other is more akin to, though differing in important respects -from, that of the Didot-Perceval. In this case, at least, Gautier must -have had two sources, and if two why not more? - -It may be urged in explanation of the similarities between Gautier and the -Mabinogi, that the author of the latter used Gautier in the same free way -that he did Chrestien, but that getting tired towards the close of his -work he abridged in a much more summary fashion than at first. If the -comparison of the versions of the stag hunt found in either work be not -sufficient to refute this theory, the following consideration may be -advanced against it: if the Mabinogi derives entirely from the Conte du -Graal, how can the different form given to the Grail episode be accounted -for?--if it only knew Chrestien, where did it get the chessboard adventure -from, and if it knew Gautier as well as Chrestien why did it not finish -the Grail adventure upon the same lines as it began, _i.e._, partly in -conformity with its alleged model? - -Is Manessier any nearer than Gautier to the Mabinogi in the later portion -of the tale? The chief points of the story told by him may be -recapitulated thus:--The Grail damsel is daughter of the Fisher King, the -damsel of the salver, daughter of King Goon Desert, his brother (_i.e._, -both are cousins to Perceval); Goon Desert, besieged by Espinogre, defeats -him, but is treacherously slain by his nephew Partinal, the latter's sword -breaking in the blow. Goon's body is brought to the Fisher King's castle, -whither the broken sword is likewise brought by Goon's daughter to be kept -until a knight should come, join together the pieces, and avenge Goon's -death. In receiving the sword the Fisher King wounds himself through the -thighs, and may not be healed until he be avenged on Partinal. Perceval -asks how he may find the murderer, the blood vengeance (faide = O.H.G. -Fehde) being on him. Perceval fights with Partinal, slays him, cuts off -his head as token of his victory, returns to the Fisher King's castle, -lighting upon it by chance, heals the Fisher King by the mere sight of the -head, which is fixed on a pike on the highest battlements. At the death of -his uncle Perceval succeeds him as King of the Grail Castle. Here, then, -as in the Mabinogi, the story turns definitely upon a blood feud; the same -act which brings about the death of one relative of the hero, also causes, -indirectly, it is true, the laming of another, even as in the Mabinogi the -same supernatural beings kill Peredur's cousin and lame his uncle; the -cousin reappears again, bringing the magic sword by whose aid alone the -hero can accomplish the vengeance, and uttering the prediction the -fulfilment of which will point out the destined avenger. Finally, if the -Mabinogi seems to lay special stress upon the head of the murdered man, -Manessier lays special stress upon the head of the murderer. Now it is -quite evident that the Mabinogi cannot have copied Manessier. It has been -alleged that the Welsh story-teller, adapting Chrestien to the taste of -his fellow countrymen, substituted a blood feud for the Grail Quest, but -what reason would he have had for thus dealing with Manessier? He had -simply to leave out the Christian legendary details, which in Manessier -are, one can hardly say, adapted to the older form of the story, to find -in that older form a clear and straightforward account with no admixture -of mystical elements. It is impossible to explain the strong general -similarity of outline with the equally marked divergences of detail -(Sorceresses of Gloucester instead of Partinal, etc.,) except by saying -that both, though going back to a common legendary source, are unconnected -one with another. - -The facts thus dealt with may be recapitulated as follows:--There is -marked similarity in general outline between the Mabinogi and the Conte du -Graal in the adventures common to both; in that portion of the Conte du -Graal due to Chrestien there occur, moreover, many and close verbal -parallels, and the corresponding part of the Mabinogi is told at greater -length than the remainder of the incidents common to both works. That -which answers in the Mabinogi to the Grail Quest forms a clear and -straightforward whole, the main features of which may be recovered from -the Conte du Graal, but in varying proportions from the various sections -of that work. Thus the indications of this Mabinogi talisman quest, the -central intrigue, as it may be called, of the tale, are in Chrestien of -the slightest nature, being confined to passing hints; in Gautier they are -fuller and more precise, though pointing to a version of the central -intrigue different, not only in details but in conception, from that of -the Mabinogi; in Manessier alone is there agreement of conception, -although the details still vary. Finally, those portions of the Mabinogi -which are in closest verbal agreement with Chrestien contain statements -which cannot easily be reconciled with this central intrigue. - -These facts seem to warrant some such deductions as these. Bearing in mind -that the Mabinogi is an obvious piecing together of all sorts of incidents -relating to its hero, the only connecting link being that of his -personality, its author may be supposed, when compiling his work, to have -stretched out his hand in all directions for material. Now a portion of -the Peredur _sage_ consisted of adventures often found elsewhere in the -folk-tale cycles of the Great Fool and the Avenging Kinsman--cycles which, -in Celtic tradition, at least, cover almost the same ground as the one -described by J. G. von Hahn under the title, "Die Arische Aussetzung und -Rueckkehr-Formel." In the original of the Mabinogi this portion probably -comprised the childhood and forest up-bringing, the visit to Arthur with -the accompanying incidents, the training by the uncle (who _may_ have been -the Fisher King), the arrival at the (bespelled) castle, where the hero is -to be minded of his task by the sight of certain talismans and of his -cousin's head, the reproaches of the loathly damsel, her subsequent -testing of the hero by the adventures of the chessboard, stag hunt, etc., -the hero's final accomplishment of the task, vengeance on his kindred's -enemies, and removal of the spells. There would seem to have been no such -love story as that frequently found in stories of the Great Fool class, -_e.g._, in the Irish one (_supra_, p. 134). This original was probably -some steps removed from being a genuine popular version; the incidents -were presented in a way at once over-concise and confused, and some which, -as will be seen in the next chapter, the living folk-tale has preserved -were left out or their significance was not recognized. What more natural -than that the author of the Mabinogi in its present form, knowing -Chrestien, should piece out his bare, bald narrative with shreds and -patches from the Frenchman's poem? The moment Chrestien fails him, he -falls back into the hurried concision of his original. His adaptation of -Chrestien is done with singularly little skill, and at times he seems to -have misunderstood his model. He confines his borrowing to matters of -detail, not allowing, for instance, Chrestien's presentment of the Grail -incident to supersede that of his Welsh original. In one point he may, -following Chrestien, have made a vital change. It seems doubtful whether -the Welsh source of the Mabinogi knew of a maimed king, an uncle to be -healed through the hero's agency; the sole task may have been the avenging -the cousin's death. True the "lame uncle" appears at the end, but this may -be due to some sudden desire for consistency on the arranger's part. But -whether or no he was found in the Welsh story preserved in the Mabinogi, -he certainly played no such leading part as in the Conte du Graal. The two -stories deal with the same cycle of adventures, but the object of the hero -is not the same in both, and, consequently, the machinery employed is not -quite the same. The present Mabinogi is an unskilful fusion of these two -variations upon the one theme.[73] - -Light is also thrown by this investigation upon the question of -Chrestien's relationship to his continuators. Birch-Hirschfeld's theory -that the Didot-Perceval was the source of Chrestien and Gautier has -already been set aside. Apart from the reasons already adduced, the fact -that it does not explain from whence Manessier got his ending of the story -would alone condemn it. It must now be evident that Chrestien and two of -his continuators drew from one source, and this a poem of no great length -probably, the main outlines of which were nearly the same as those of the -Welsh proto-Mabinogi given above, with this difference, that the story -turned upon the healing of the uncle and not the avenging the cousin's -death. This poem, which seems also to have served, directly or indirectly, -as one of the sources of the Didot-Perceval, had probably departed from -popular lines in many respects, and _may_, though this would be an -exceedingly difficult question to determine, have begun the incorporation -of the Joseph of Arimathea legend with its consequent wresting to purposes -of Christian symbolisms of the objects and incidents of the old folk-tale. - -Such an incorporation had almost certainly begun before Chrestien's time, -and was continued by him. There can be little doubt that he dealt with his -model in a free and daring spirit, altering and adding as seemed best to -him. This alone explains how Manessier, slavishly following the common -original, tells differently the cause of the lame king's wound. Gautier, -who lacked Chrestien's creative power, though he often equals him in the -grace and vivacity of his narrative, seems to have had no conception of a -plan; the section of Conte du Graal which goes under his name is a mere -disorderly heap of disconnected adventures brought together without care -for consistency. But for this very reason he is of more value in restoring -the original form of the story than Chrestien, who, striving after -consistency, harmony, and artistic development of his tale, alters, adds -to, or retrenches from the older version. Gautier had doubtless other -sources besides the one made use of by Chrestien. This does not seem to be -the case with Manessier, who, for this portion of the story, confined -himself to Chrestien's original, without taking note of the differences in -_motif_ introduced by his predecessor. What is foreign to it he drew from -sources familiar to us, the Queste and Grand S. Graal, from which more -than two-thirds of his section are derived. - -In working back to the earliest form of the Perceval-_sage_, Mabinogi and -Conte du Graal are thus of equal value and mutually complementary. Both -are second-hand sources, and their testimony is at times sadly corrupt, -but it is from them chiefly that information must be sought as to the -earlier stages of development of this legendary cycle. They do not by -themselves give any satisfactory explanation of the more mysterious -features of the full-blown legend, but they do present the facts in such a -way as to put out of court the hypothesis of a solely Christian legendary -origin. Before proceeding further it will be well to see if the English -Sir Perceval has likewise claims to be considered one of the versions -which yield trustworthy indications as to the older form of the story. - -This poem, described by Halliwell as simply an abridged English version of -the Conte du Graal, has, as may be seen by reference to Ch. IV, been -treated with more respect by other investigators, several of whom, struck -by its archaic look, have pronounced it one of the earliest versions of -the Perceval _sage_. It has quite lately been the object of elaborate -study by Paul Steinbach in his dissertation: "Uber dem Einfluss des -Crestien de Troies auf die altenglische literatur," Leipzig, 1885. The -results of his researches may be stated somewhat as follows: the two works -correspond incident for incident down to the death of the Red Knight, the -chief differences being that Perceval is made a nephew of King Arthur, -that the death of his father at the hands of the Red Knight is explained -as an act of revenge on the part of the latter, that Arthur recognizes his -nephew at once, and tells him concerning the Red Knight, and that the -burning of the Red Knight, only hinted at in Chrestien's lines-- - - Ains auroie par carbonees. - Trestout escarbellie le mort, etc. (2,328-9). - -is fully told in the English poem. After the Red Knight incident the -parallelism is much less close. The English poem has incidents to itself: -the slaying of the witch, the meeting with the uncle and nine cousins, the -fight with the giant for the ring, the meeting with and restoring to -health the mother. Of the remaining incidents, those connected with -Lufamour are more or less parallel to what Chrestien relates of his hero's -adventure with Blanchefleur, and that of the Black Knight, with that of -the Orgellous de la Lande in Chrestien. Of the 2,288 verses of the English -poem the greater part may be paralleled from Chrestien, thus:-- - - P. of G. Cr. - 1-160 485-940 - 161-188 941-1,206 - 189-256 1,207-82 - 257-320 1,283-1,554 - 321-432 1,555-1,828 - 433-80 1,829-1,970 - 481-600 2,091-2,170 - {2,055-90 - 601-56 {2,135-59 - {2,171-2,225 - 657-740 2,268-2,312 - 741-820 2,313-2,398 - 1,061-1,108 4,000-4,060 - 1,109-1,124 5,511-553 - 1,381-1,540 5,600-5,891 - 953-1,012} - 1,125-1,380} {2,900-3,960 - 1,541-1,760} {4,088-94 - 1,761-1,808 4,095-4,150 - 1,809-1,951 4,865-5,375 - -the incidents comprised v. 821-952 and 1,953-2,288, being the only one -entirely unconnected with Chrestien. This general agreement between the -two works shows the dependence of the one on the other. But while -evidently dependent, the English poem, as is shown by the differences -between it and its French original, belongs at once to a less and to a -more highly developed stage of the Perceval _sage_. The differences are -thus of two kinds, those testifying to the writer's adherence to older, -probably Breton, popular traditions and those due to himself, and -testifying to the skill with which he has worked up his materials and -fitted portions of Chrestien's poem into an older framework. Of the first -kind are: the statement that Perceval meets with three knights instead of -five as in Chrestien, the English poem agreeing here with the Mabinogi; -the mention of his riding on a _mare_ and of his being clad in goat-skins, -the English poem again agreeing rather with the Mabinogi than with -Chrestien, and showing likewise points of contact with the Breton ballads -about Morvan lez Breiz, printed by Villemarque in the Barzaz Breiz. The -combat with the giant may likewise be paralleled from the Lez Breiz cycle -in that hero's fight with the Moorish giant. These points would seem to -indicate knowledge on the author's part of popular traditions concerning -Perceval forming a small cycle, of which the departure from, and return to -the mother were the opening and closing incidents respectively. This form -of the story must have been widely spread and popular to induce the author -to leave out as much as he has done of Chrestien's poem in order to bring -it within the traditional framework. He accomplished his task with much -skill, removing every trace of whatever did not bear directly upon the -march of the story as he told it. In view of this skill differences which -tend to make the story more consequent and logical may fairly be ascribed -to him. Such are: the making Perceval a nephew of Arthur, the mention of a -feud between the Red Knight and Perceval's father, the combat with the -witch arising out of Perceval's wearing the Red Knight's armour, and the -other adventures which follow eventually from the same cause, the feature -that the ring taken by Perceval from the lady in the tent is a magic one, -endowing its wearer with supernatural strength, the change made between -this ring and his mother's which prepares the final recognition, etc. The -original poem probably ended with the reunion of mother and son, the last -verse, briefly mentioning the hero's death, being a later addition. To sum -up, Sir Perceval may be looked upon as the work of a folk-singer who -fitted into the old Breton framework a series of adventures taken partly -from Chrestien, partly from the same Breton traditions which were -Chrestien's main source, and with remarkable skill avoided all such -incidents as would not have accorded with the limits he had imposed upon -himself. - -Against this view of Steinbach's it might be urged that a writer as -skilful as the author of Sir Perceval is assumed to be could easily have -worked Chrestien's Grail episode into his traditional framework. A more -plausible explanation, assuming the theory to be in the main correct, -might be found in the great popularity in this country of the Galahad form -of the Quest, and the consequent unwillingness on the author's part to -bring in what may have seemed to him like a rival version. Steinbach has -not noticed one curious bit of testimony to the poem's being an abridgment -of an older work, more archaic in some respects than Chrestien. When the -hero has slain the Red Knight he knows not how to rid him of his armour, -but he bethinks him-- - - ... "My moder bad me - Whenne my dart solde brokene be, - Owte of the irene brenne the tree, - Now es me fyre gnede" (749-52). - -Now the mother's counsel, given in verses xxv-vi are solely that he should -be "of mesure," and be courteous to knights; nothing is said about burning -the tree out of the iron, nor does any such counsel figure either in -Chrestien or in the Mabinogi, which in this passage has copied, with -misunderstandings, the French poet.[74] The use of Chrestien by the author -of Sir Perceval seems, however, uncontestable; and, such being the case, -Steinbach's views meet the difficulties of the case fairly well. It will -be shown farther on, however, that several of the points in which the -German critic detects a post-Chrestien development, are, on the contrary, -remains of as old and popular a form of the story as we can work back to. -Accepting, then, the hypothesis that Sir Perceval, like the Mabinogi, has -been influenced by Chrestien, what is the apparent conclusion to be drawn -from the fact that the former omits the Grail episode altogether, whilst -the latter joins Chrestien's version to its own, presumably older one, so -clumsily as to betray the join at once? May it not be urged that -Chrestien's account is obviously at variance with the older story as he -found it? may not the fact be accounted for by the introduction of a -strange element into the thread of the romance? This element would, -according to Birch-Hirschfeld, be the Christian holy-vessel legend, and it -would thus appear that the Grail is really foreign to the Celtic -tradition. Let me recapitulate briefly the reasons already urged against -such a view. The early history of the Grail, that part in which the -Christian element prevails, must certainly be regarded as later than the -Quest, to which it could not have given rise without assuming such a -development of the romance as is well nigh incredible--the Quest versions, -moreover, all hang together in certain respects, and point unmistakably to -Celtic traditions as their source. These traditions must then be examined -further to see if they contain such traces of the mystic vessel as are -wanting in the Mabinogi and the English poem, and as may have given rise -to the episode as found in the French romances. As Perceval is the oldest -hero of the Quest, and as the boyhood of Perceval, forming an integral -part of all the oldest Quest versions presents the strongest analogies -with the folk-tale of the Great Fool, it is this tale which must now be -examined. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - - The Lay of the Great Fool--Summary of the Prose Opening--The Aryan - Expulsion and Return Formula--Comparison with the Mabinogi, Sir - Perceval, and the Conte du Graal--Originality of the Highland - tale--Comparison with the Fionn legend--Summary of the Lay of the - Great Fool--Comparison with the stag hunt incident in the Conte du - Graal and the Mabinogi--The folk-tale of the twin brethren--The fight - against the witch who brings the dead to life in Gerbert and the - similar incident in the folk-tale of the Knight of the Red - Shield--Comparison with the original form of the Mabinogi--Originality - of Gerbert. - - -One of the most popular of the poetic narratives in the old heroic -quatrain measure still surviving in the Highlands is the "Lay of the Great -Fool" (Laoidh an Amadain Mhoir), concerning which, according to Campbell, -vol. iii., p. 150, the following saying is current:--"Each poem to the -poem of the Red; each lay to the Lay of the Great Fool; each history to -the history of Connal" (is to be referred as a standard). This Lay, as -will be shown presently, offers some remarkable similarities with the -central Grail episode of the quest romances, but before it is investigated -a prose opening often found with it must be noticed. This prose opening -may be summarised thus from Campbell, vol. iii., pp. 146, _et seq._ - -There were once two brothers, the one King over Erin, the other a mere -knight. The latter had sons, the former none. Strife broke out between the -two brothers, and the knight and his sons were slain. Word was sent to the -wife, then pregnant, that if she bore a son it must be put to death. It -was a lad she had, and she sent him into the wilderness in charge of a -kitchen wench who had a love son. The two boys grew up together, the -knight's son strong and wilful. One day they saw three deer coming towards -them; the knight's son asked what creatures were these--creatures on which -were meat and clothing 'twas answered--it were the better he would catch -them, and he did so, and his foster-mother made him a dress of the deer's -hide. Afterwards he slew his foster-brother for laughing at him, caught a -wild horse, and came to his father's brother's palace. He had never been -called other than "Great fool," and when asked his name by his cousin, -playing shinty, answered, "Great Fool." His cousin mocked at him, and was -forthwith slain. On going into the King's (his uncle's) presence, he -answered in the same way. His uncle recognised him, and reproaching -himself for his folly in not having slain the mother with the father, went -with him, as did all the people. - -In my article on the Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula among the Celts -("Folk-Lore Record," vol. iv.), I have shown that this tale is widely -distributed in the Celtic Heldensage as well as in the Celtic folk-tale. -Before noticing the variants, a word of explanation may be necessary. The -term, Arische Aussetzungs-und Rueckkehr-Formel, was first employed by J. G. -v. Hahn in his Sagwissenschaftliche Studien (Jena, 1876), to describe a -tale which figured in the heroic literature of every Aryan race known to -him. He examined fourteen stories, seven belonging to the Hellenic -mythology, Perseus, Herakles, Oedipus, Amphion and Zethos, Pelias and -Neleus, Leukastos and Parrhasius, Theseus; one to Roman mythic history, -Romulus and Remus; two to the Teutonic Heldensage, Wittich-Siegfried, -Wolfdietrich; two to Iranian mythic history, Cyrus, Key Chosrew; two to -the Hindu mythology, Karna, Krishna. I was able to recover from Celtic -literature eight well-defined variants, belonging to the Fenian and -Ultonian cycles of Irish Heldensage (heroes, Fionn and Cu-Chulaind); to -Irish mythic history, Labraidh Maen; to the folk-tale still living in the -Highlands, Conall and the Great Fool; to the Kymric Heldensage, -Peredur-Perceval, Arthur, and Taliesin. An examination of all these tales -resulted in the establishing of the following standard formula, to the -entirety of which it will of course be understood none of the tales -answer:-- - - I. Hero born-- - (_a_) Out of wedlock. - (_b_) Posthumously. - (_c_) Supernaturally. - (_d_) One of twins. - - II. Mother, princess residing in her own country. - - III. Father-- - (_a_) God } - (_b_) Hero } from afar. - - IV. Tokens and warning of hero's future greatness. - - V. He is in consequence driven forth from home. - - VI. Is suckled by wild beasts. - - VII. Is brought up by a (childless couple), or shepherd, or widow. - - VIII. Is of passionate and violent disposition. - - IX. Seeks service in foreign lands. - - IXA. Attacks and slays monsters. - - IXB. Acquires supernatural knowledge through eating a fish, or other - magic animal. - - X. Returns to his own country, retreats, and again returns. - - XI. Overcomes his enemies, frees his mother, seats himself on the - throne. - -I must refer to my article for a full discussion of the various Celtic -forms of this widely-spread tale, and for a tabular comparison with the -remaining Indo-European forms analysed by J. G. von Hahn. Suffice to say -here that the fullest Celtic presentment of the _motif_ is to be found in -the Ossianic Heldensage, the expelled prince being no other than Fionn -himself. The Celtic form most closely related to it is that of the Great -Fool summarised above, the relationship of Peredur-Perceval with which is -evident. In both, the father being slain, the mother withdraws or sends -her son into the wilderness; in both he grows up strong, hardy, ignorant -of the world. Almost the same instances of his surpassing strength and -swiftness are given; in the Mabinogi by celerity and swiftness of foot he -drives the goats and hinds into the goat-house; in the Highland folk-tale -he catches the wild deer, and seeing a horse, and learning it is a beast -upon which sport is done, stretches out after it, catches and mounts it; -in Sir Perceval he sees-- - - ... A fulle faire stode - Offe coltes and meres gude, - Bot never one was tame (v. xxi.). - -and "smertly overrynnes" one.--The Great Fool then comes to his uncle, in -whom he finds the man who has killed his father. Sir Perceval likewise -comes to his uncle, and gets knowledge from him of his father's slayer; in -Chrestien and the Mabinogi no relationship is stated to exist between -Arthur and the hero. The manner of the coming deserves notice. In the -Conte du Graal, entering the hall the hero salutes the King twice, -receives no answer, and, turning round his horse in dudgeon, knocks off -the King's cap. - -In the English poem-- - - At his first in comynge, - His mere withowtenne faylynge, - Kiste the forehevede of the Kynge, - So nerehande he rade (v. xxxi.). - -He then demands knighthood or-- - - Bot (unless) the Kyng make me knyghte, - I shall him here slaa (v. xxxiii.). - -In the Great Fool the horse incident is wanting, but the hero's address to -his uncle is equally curt: "I am the great fool ... and if need were it is -that I could make a fool of thee also." The incident then follows of the -insult offered to Arthur by the Red Knight. Here, be it noted, the -Mabinogi version is much the ruder of the three, "the knight dashed the -liquor that was in the goblet upon her (Gwenhwyvar's) face, and upon her -stomacher, and gave her a violent blow in the face, and said," &c.; in -Chrestien the incident is not directly presented, but related at -second-hand, and merely that the discourteous knight took away the goblet -so suddenly that he spilt somewhat of its contents upon the queen, and -that she was so filled with grief and anger that well nigh she had not -escaped alive; in Sir Perceval the knight takes up the cup and carries it -off. Now it is a _lieu commun_ of Celtic folk-tales that as a King is -sitting at meat, an enemy comes in mounted, and offers him an insult, the -avenging of which forms the staple of the tale. A good instance may be -found in Campbell's lii., "The Knight of the Red Shield." As the King is -with his people and his warriors and his nobles and his great gentles, one -of them says, "who now in the four brown quarters of the Universe would -have the heart to put an affront on the King?"--then comes the rider on a -black filly, and, "before there was any more talk between them, he put -over the fist and he struck the King between the mouth and the nose." It -is noteworthy that this tale shows further likeness to the Mabinogi-Great -Fool series, generally, in so far as it is the despised youngest who out -of the three warriors that set off to avenge the insult succeeds, even as -it is the despised Peredur who slays the Red Knight, and specially in what -may be called the prophecy incident. With the exception of the opening -incidents, this is the one by which the "formula" nature of the Perceval -_sage_ is most clearly shown. In the Mabinogi it is placed immediately -after the hero's first encounter with the sorceresses of Gloucester: "by -destiny and foreknowledge knew I that I should suffer harm of thee," says -the worsted witch. The Conte du Graal has only a trace of it in the Fisher -King's words as he hands the magic sword to Perceval-- - - ... Biaus frere, ceste espee - Vous fu jugie et destinee (4345-6), - -whilst in Sir Perceval a very archaic turn is given to the incident by -Arthur's words concerning his unknown nephew-- - - The bokes say that he mone - Venge his fader bane (v. xxxvi.). - -This comparison is instructive as showing how impossible it is that -Chrestien's poem can be the only source of the Mabinogi and Sir Perceval. -It cannot be maintained that the meagre hint of the French poet is the -sole origin of the incident as found in the Welsh and English versions, -whilst a glance at my tabulation of the various forms of the Aryan -Expulsion and Return formula ("Folk-Lore Record," vol. iv.) shows that the -foretelling of the hero's greatness is an important feature in eight of -the Celtic and five of the non-Celtic versions, _i.e._, in more than -one-third of all the stories built up on the lines of the formula. It is -evident that here at least Mabinogi and Sir Perceval have preserved a -trait almost effaced in the romance. In the above-mentioned Highland tale -the incident is as follows: the hero finds "a treasure of a woman sitting -on a hill, and a great youth with his head on her knee asleep"; he tries -to wake the sleeper, even cuts off his finger, but in vain, until he -learns how it was in the prophecies that none should rouse the sleeping -youth save the Knight of the Red Shield, and he, coming to the island, -should do it by striking a crag of stone upon his breast. This tale, as -already remarked, shows affinity to the Perceval saga in two incidents, -and is also, as I have pointed out ("Folk-Lore Record," vol. v., -Mabinogion Studies), closely allied to a cycle of German hero and -folk-tales, of which Siegfried is the hero. Now Siegfried is in German -that which Fionn is in Celtic folk-lore, the hero whose story is modelled -most closely upon the lines of the Expulsion and Return formula. We thus -find not only, as might be expected, affinity between the German and -Celtic hero-tales which embody the formula, but the derived or allied -groups of folk-tales present likewise frequent and striking -similarities.[75] - -Another Highland tale (Campbell, lviii., The Rider of Grianaig) furnishes -a fresh example of this fact. Here, also, the deeds to be done of the hero -were prophesied of him. But these deeds he would never accomplish, save he -were incited thereto and aided therein by a raven, who in the end comes -out as a be-spelled youth, and a steed, a maiden under spells, and the -spells will not go off till her head be off. Even so Peredur is urged on -and helped by the bewitched youth. In other respects, there is no likeness -of plan and little of detail[76] to the Mabinogi, certainly no trace of -direct influence of the Welsh story upon the Highland one. - -It may, however, be asserted that all of these tales are derived more or -less directly from the French romance. This has been confidently stated of -the Breton ballad cycle of Morvan le Breiz (Barzaz Breiz) and of the -Breton Maerchen, Peronik l'idiot (Souvestre, Foyer Breton), and I have -preferred making no use of either. In the matter of the Scotch and Irish -tales a stand must be made. The romance, it is said, may have filtered -down into the Celtic population, through the medium of adaptations such as -the Mabinogi or Sir Perceval. Granted, for argument sake, that these two -works are mere adaptations, it must yet follow that the stories derived -from them will be more or less on the same lines as themselves. Is this -so? Can it be reasonably argued that the folk-tale of the Great Fool is a -weakened copy of certain features of the Mabinogi, which itself is a -weakened copy of certain features of the French poem? Is it not the fact -that the folk-tale omits much that is in the Mabinogi, and on the other -hand preserves details which are wanting not alone in the Welsh tale but -in Chrestien. If other proof of the independent nature of these tales were -needed it would be supplied by the close similarity existing between the -Great Fool opening and the Fionn legend. This is extant in several forms, -one of which, still told in the Highlands (Campbell's lxxxii.), tells how -Cumhall's son is reared in the wilderness, how he drowns the youth of a -neighbouring hamlet, how he slays his father's slayer, and wins the magic -trout the taste of which gives knowledge of past and to come, how he gets -back his father's sword and regains his father's lands, all as had been -prophesied of him. Another descendant of the French romance it will be -said. But a very similar tale is found in a fifteenth century Irish MS. -(The Boyish Exploits of Finn Mac Cumhall, translated by Dr. J. O'Donovan -in the Transactions of the Ossianic Society, vol. iv.); Cumhall, slain by -Goll, leaves his wife big with a son, who when born is reared by two -druidesses. He grows up fierce and stalwart, overcomes all his age-mates, -overtakes wild deer he running, slays a boar, and catches the magic salmon -of knowledge. An eighteenth century version given by Kennedy ("Legendary -Fictions," p. 216) makes Cumhall offer violence to Muirrean, daughter of -the druid Tadg, and his death to be chiefly due to the magic arts of the -incensed father. It will hardly be contended that these stories owe their -origin to adaptations of Chrestien's poem. But in any case no such -contention could apply to the oldest presentment of Fionn as a formula -hero, that found in the great Irish vellum, the Leabhar na h'Uidhre, -written down from older materials at the beginning of the twelfth century. -The tract entitled "The cause of the battle of Cnucha" has been translated -by Mr. Henessey ("Revue Celtique," vol. ii., pp. 86, _et seq._). In it we -find Cumhall and Tadhg, the violence done to the latter's daughter, the -consequent defeat and death of Cumhall, the lonely rearing of Fionn by his -mother, and the youth's avenging of his father. I must refer to my paper -in the "Folk-Lore Record" for a detailed argument in favour of the L.n.H. -account being an euhemerised version of the popular tradition, represented -by the Boyish Exploits, and for a comparison of the Fionn _sage_ as a -whole with the Greek, Iranian, Latin, and Germanic hero tales, which like -it are modelled upon the lines of the Expulsion and Return formula. I have -said enough, I trust, to show that the Fionn _sage_ is a variant (a far -richer one) of the theme treated in the boyhood of Perceval, but that it, -and _a fortiori_ the allied folk-tales are quite independent of the French -poem. It then follows that this portion of Chrestien's poem must itself be -looked upon as one of many treatments of a theme even more popular among -the Celts than among any other Aryan race, and that its ultimate source is -a Breton or Welsh folk-tale. - -The genuine and independent nature of the Great Fool prose opening being -thus established, it is in the highest degree suggestive to find in the -accompanying Lay points of contact with the Grail Legend as given in -Chrestien. Three versions of this Lay have been printed in English, that -edited by Mr. John O'Daly (Transactions of the Ossianic Society, vol. vi., -pp. 161, _et seq._); Mr. Campbell's (West Highland Tales, vol. iii. pp. -154, _et seq._) and Mr. Kennedy's prose version (Bardic Stories of -Ireland, pp. 151, _et seq._). O'Daly's, as the most complete and -coherent, forms the staple of the following summary, passages found in it -alone being italicised.[77] - -_Summary of the Lay of the Great Fool._--(1) There was a great fool who -subdued the world by strength of body; (2) _He comes to the King of -Lochlin to win a fair woman, learns she is guarded by seven score heroes, -overthrows them, and carries her off_; (C. and K. plunging at once _in -medias res_, introduce the Great Fool and his lady love out walking); (3) -The two enter a valley, are meet by a "Gruagach" (champion, sorcerer), in -his hand a goblet with drink; (4) The Great Fool thirsts, and though -warned by his lady love drinks deep of the proffered cup; the "Gruagach" -departs and the Great Fool finds himself minus his two legs; (5) The two -go onward, and ("swifter was he at his two knees than six at their -swiftness of foot;" C.) A deer nears them followed by a white hound, the -Great Fool slays the deer and seizes the hound; (6) whose owner coming up -claims but finally yields it, and offers the Great Fool food and drink -during life; (7) The three fare together (the glen they had passed through -had ever been full of glamour) till they come to a fair city filled with -the glitter of gold, dwelt in solely by the owner of the white hound and -his wife, "whiter than very snow her form, gentle her eye, and her teeth -like a flower"; (8) She asks concerning her husband's guests, and, -learning the Great Fool's prowess, marvels he should have let himself be -deprived of his legs; (9) The host departs, leaving his house, wife, and -store of gold in the Great Fool's keeping, he is to let no man in, no one -out should any come in, nor is he to sleep; (10) Spite his lady love's -urgings the Great Fool yields to slumber, when in comes a young champion -and snatches a kiss from the host's wife, ("She was not ill pleased that -he came," C.); (11) The Great Fool's love awakening him reproaches him for -having slept--he arises to guard the door, in vain does the intruder offer -gold, three cauldrons full and seven hundred townlands, he shall not get -out; (12) _At the instigation of the host's wife_ the intruder restores -the Great Fool's legs, but not then even will the hero let him go--pay for -the kiss he must when the host returns; threats to deprive him of his legs -are in vain, as are likewise the entreaties of the host's wife (All this -is developed with great prolixity in O'Daly, but there is nothing -substantial added to the account in C.); (13) Finally the intruder -discloses that he himself is the host, and he was the Gruagach, whose -magic cup deprived the Great Fool of his legs, and he is, "_his own gentle -brother long in search of him, now that he has found him he is released -from sorcery_." The two kiss (C. and K. end here). (14) The two brothers -fare forth, encounter a giant with an eye larger than a moon and an iron -club, wherewith he hits the Great Fool a crack that brings him to his -knees, but the latter arising closes with the giant, kills him and takes -his club, the two then attack four other giants, three of whom the Great -Fool slays with his club, and the fourth yields to him. The brothers take -possession of the giant's castle and all its wealth. - -There are obvious similarities between the Lay and the story found in the -Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal. A stag hunt is prominent in both, and -whilst engaged in it the hero falls under "illusion," in both too the -incident of the seizure of the hound appears, though in a different -connection. Finally in the Lay, as in the Mabinogi, the mover in the -enchantment is a kinsman whose own release from spells depends upon the -hero's coming successfully out of the trials to which he exposes him. But -while the general idea is the same, the way in which it is worked out is -so different that it is impossible to conceive of the one story having -been borrowed from the other. What can safely be claimed is that the -Great Fool, counterpart of Peredur-Perceval in the adventures of his youth -and up-bringing, is also, to a certain extent, his counterpart in the most -prominent of his later adventures, that of the stag hunt. It is thus -fairly certain that all this part of the Conte du Graal is, like the -_Enfances_, a working up of Celtic folk-tales. The giant fight which -concludes the Lay may be compared with that in Sir Perceval and in Morvan -le Breiz, and such a comparison makes it extremely likely that the -incident thus preserved by independent and widely differing offshoots from -the same folk-tale stem, belongs to the oldest form of the story. - -The analogies of the Lay with the Perceval _sage_ are not yet exhausted. -In virtue of the relationship between the two chief characters, the Lay -belongs to the "twin-brother cycle." This group of folk-tales, some -account of which is given below,[78] is closely related on the one hand -to the "dragon slayer" group of _maerchen_, on the other hand to the -Expulsion and Return formula tales. In many versions of the latter (the -most famous being that of Romulus and Remus) the hero is one of twins, -and, after sharing for a while with his brother, strife breaks out between -them. In the folk-tale this strife leads to final reconciliation, or is -indeed a means of unravelling the plot. In the hero-tale on the other hand -the strife mostly ends with the death or defeat of the one brother. It -would seem that when the folk-tale got associated with a definite hero -(generally the founder and patron of a race) and became in brief a -hero-tale, the necessity of exalting the race hero brought about a -modification of the plot. If this is so the folk-tale group of the "two -brothers" must be looked upon as older than the corresponding portion of -the Expulsion and Return hero-tales, and not as a mere weakened echo of -the latter. To return to the twin-brother features. The Peredur-Perceval -_sage_ has a twin-sister, and is parallel herein to the Fionn _sage_ in -one of its forms ("How the Een was set up"), though curiously enough not -to the Great Fool folk-tale (otherwise so similar to "How the Een was set -up"), which, as in the Lay, has a brother. But beyond this formal -recognition of the incident in the Perceval _sage_, I am inclined to look -upon the Perceval-Gawain dualism as another form of it. This dualism has -been somewhat obscured by the literary form in which the _sage_ has been -preserved and the tendency to exalt and idealise _one_ hero. In the -present case this tendency has not developed so far as to seriously -diminish the importance of Gawain; _his_ adventures are, however, left in -a much more primitive and _maerchenhaft_ shape, and hence, as will be shown -later on, are extremely valuable in any attempt to reach the early form of -the story.[79] - -If Simrock's words quoted on the title page were indeed conclusive--"If -that race among whom the 'Great Fool' folk-tale was found independent of -the Grail story had the best claim to be regarded as having wrought into -one these two elements"--then my task might be considered at an end. I -have shown that this race was that of the Celtic dwellers in these -islands, among whom this tale is found not only in a fuller and more -significant form than elsewhere, but in a form that connects it with the -French Grail romance. But the conclusion that the Conte du Graal is in the -main a working up of Celtic popular traditions, which had clustered round -a hero, whose fortunes bore, in part, a striking resemblance to those of -Fionn, the typical representative of the Expulsion and Return formula -cycle among the Celts, though hardly to be gainsaid, does not seem to help -much towards settling the question of the origin of the Grail itself. The -story would appear to be Celtic except just the central incident upon -which the whole turns. For the English Sir Perceval, which undoubtedly -follows older models, breathes no word of search for any magic talisman, -let alone the Grail, whilst the Mabinogi, which is also older in parts -than the Conte du Graal, gives a different turn to and assigns a -different _motif_ for the hero's conduct. The avenging of a kinsman's harm -upon certain supernatural beings, and the consequent release from -enchantment of another kinsman, supply the elements of a clear and -consistent action to which parallels may easily be adduced from -folk-tales, but one quite distinct from the release of a kinsman through -the medium of certain talismans and certain magic formulae. Numerous as -have been the points of contact hitherto established between Celtic folk -belief and the French romance, the parallel would seem to break down at -its most essential point, and the contention that the Grail is a foreign -element in the Celtic legend would still seem to be justified. Before, -however, this can be asserted, what I have called the central episode of -the romance requires more searching and detailed examination than it has -had, and some accessory features, which, on the hypothesis of the -Christian legendary origin of the Grail, remain impenetrable puzzles must -be commented upon. And another instructive point of contact between -romance and folk-tale must be previously noticed, connected as it is with -stories already dealt with in this chapter. - -In the latest portion of the Conte du Graal, the interpolation of Gerbert, -the following incident occurs:--The hero meets four knights carrying their -wounded father, who turns out to be Gonemans, the same who armed him -knight. He vows vengeance upon Gonemans' enemies, but his efforts are at -first of no avail. As fast as in the daytime he slays them, at night they -are brought back to life by "Une vieille" who is thus described:-- - - La poitrine ot aguee et seche; - Ele arsist ausi come une esche - Si on boutast en li le fu.[80] - - * * * * - - La bouche avoit grant a merveilles - Et fendue dusqu'as oreilles, - Qu'ele avoit longues et tendans; - Lons et lez et gausnes les dans - Avoit. (Potvin vi., 183, 184.) - -She carries with her - - II. barisiax d'ivoire gent; - -containing a "poison," the same whereof Christ made use in the Sepulchre, -and which serves here to bring the dead back to life and to rejoin heads -cut off from bodies. She goes to work thus:-- - - A la teste maintenant prise, - Si l'a desor le bu assise; - -then taking the balm - - Puis en froie celui la bouche - A cui la teste avoit rajointe; - Sor celui n'ot vaine ne jointe - Qui lues ne fust de vie plaine. - -Perceval stops her when she has brought back three of her men to life; she -recognises in him her conqueror: - - Bien vous connois et bien savoie - Que de nului garde n'avoie - Fors que de vous; car, par mon chief - Nus n'en peust venir a chief - Se vous non ... - -So long as she lives, Perceval shall be powerless to achieve his Quest. -She wars against Gonemant by order of the King of the Waste City, who ever -strives against all who uphold the Christian faith, and whose chief aim it -is to hinder Perceval from attaining knowledge of the Grail. Perceval gets -possession of somewhat of the wonder-working balm, brings to life the most -valiant of his adversaries, slays him afresh after a hard struggle, in -which he himself is wounded, heals his own hurt, and likewise Gonemant's, -with the balsam. Compare now Campbell's above-cited tale, the Knight of -the Red Shield. The hero, left alone upon the island by his two -treacherous companions, sees coming towards him "three youths, heavily, -wearily, tired." They are his foster-brothers, and from the end of a day -and a year they hold battle against the Son of Darkness, Son of Dimness, -and a hundred of his people, and every one they kill to-day will be alive -to-morrow, and spells are upon them they may not leave this (island) for -ever until they kill them. The hero starts out on the morrow alone -against these enemies, and he did not leave a head on a trunk of theirs, -and he overcame the Son of Darkness himself. But he is so spoilt and torn -he cannot leave the battle-field, and he lays himself down amongst the -dead the length of the day. "There was a great strand under him below; and -what should he hear but the sea coming as a blazing brand of fire, as a -destroying serpent, as a bellowing bull; he looked from him, and what saw -he coming on the shore of the strand, but a great toothy carlin ... there -was the tooth that was longer than a staff in her fist, and the one that -was shorter than a stocking wire in her lap." She puts her finger in the -mouth of the dead, and brings them alive. She does this to the hero, and -he bites off the finger at the joint, and then slays her. She is the -mother of the Son of Darkness, and she has a vessel of balsam wherewith -the hero's foster-brothers anoint and make him whole, and her death frees -them from her spells for ever.[81] This "toothy carlin" is a favourite -figure in Celtic tradition. She re-appears in the ballad of the -Muilearteach (probably Muir Iarteach, _i.e._, Western Sea), Campbell, -iii., pp. 122, _et seq._, and is there described as "the bald russet one," -"her face blue black, of the lustre of coal, her bone tufted tooth like -rusted bone, one deep pool-like eye in her head, gnarled brushwood on her -head like the clawed-up wood of the aspen root." In another version of the -ballad, printed in the Scottish Celtic Review, No. 2, pp. 115, _et seq._, -the monster is "bald red, white maned, her face dark grey, of the hue of -coal, the teeth of her jaw slanting red, one flabby eye in her head, her -head bristled dark and grey, like scrubwood before hoar."[82] The editor -of this version, the Rev. J. G. Campbell, interprets the ballad, and -correctly, no doubt, "as an inroad of the Personified Sea." There is no -connection, save in the personage of the "toothy carlin," between the -ballad and the folk-tale.[83] - -It is impossible, I think, to compare Gerbert's description of the witch -with that of the Highland "Carlin" without coming to the conclusion that -the French poet drew from traditional, popular Celtic sources. The wild -fantasy of the whole is foreign in the extreme to the French temperament, -and is essentially Celtic in tone. But the incident, as well as one -particular feature of it, admits of comparison: the three foster-brothers -of the Highland tale correspond to the four sons of Gonemant, who be it -recollected, represents in the Conte du Graal, Peredur-Perceval's uncle in -the Mabinogi; in both, the hero goes forth alone to do battle with the -mysterious enemy; the Son of Darkness answers to the King of the Waste -City; the dead men are brought back to life in the same way; the release -of the kinsman, from spells, or from danger of death, follows upon the -witch's discomfiture. And yet greater value attaches to the incident as -connected with the Mabinogi form of the story; in Gerbert, as in the -Mabinogi, the hero's uncle is sick to death, his chief enemy is a -monstrous witch (or witches), who foreknows that she must succumb at the -hero's hands.[84] Something has obviously dropped out from the Mabinogi. -May it not be those very magic talismans, the winning of which is the -chief element of the French romances, and may not one of the talismans -have been the vessel of life-restoring balsam which figures in Gerbert and -the Highland tales?[85] The study of subsidiary versions and incidents may -thus throw upon the connection of the Grail with the Perceval romance a -light which the main Celtic forms of the latter have not hitherto yielded. - -The Thornton MS. Sir Perceval differs in this incident from both Manessier -and Gerbert. As in Gerbert and the Highland Tale the hero meets his uncle -and cousins; there is the same fight with the mother of the enemy of his -kin, the hideous carlin, but it precedes, as does also the slaying of that -enemy, the meeting of uncle and nephews. There is thus no room for the -healing _motif_ for which the unconscious avenging of the father's death -is substituted. These differences bear witness both to the popular and -shifting nature of the traditions upon which the romances are based, and -to the fact that the avenging of a blood feud was the leading incident of -its earliest form. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - - The various forms of the visit to the Grail Castle in the - romances--Conte du Graal: Chrestien; Gautier-Manessier; - Gautier-Gerbert--Didot-Perceval--Mabinogi--Conte du Graal: Gawain's - visit to the Grail Castle--Heinrich von dem Tuerlin--Conte du Graal: - Perceval's visit to the Castle of Maidens--Inconsistency of these - varying accounts; their testimony to stories of different nature and - origin being embodied in the romances--Two main types: feud quest and - unspelling quest--Reasons for the confusion of the two types--Evidence - of the confusion in older Celtic literature--The Grail in Celtic - literature: the gear of the Tuatha de Danann; the cauldron in the - Ultonian cycle; the Mabinogi of Branwen; vessel of balsam and glaive - of light in the contemporary folk-tale--The sword in Celtic - literature: Tethra; Fionn; Manus--Parallels to the Bespelled Castle; - the Brug of Oengus, the Brug of Lug, the Brug of Manannan Mac Lir, - Bran's visit to the Island of Women, Cormac Mac Art, and the Fairy - Branch; Diarmaid and the Daughter of King Under the Waves--Unspelling - stories: The Three Soldiers; the waiting of Arthur; Arthur in Etna; - the Kyffhaeuser Legend, objections to Martin's views concerning - it--Gawain's visit to the Magic Castle and Celtic parallels; The Son - of Bad Counsel; Fionn in Giant Land; Fionn in the House of Cuana; - Fionn and the Yellow Face--The Vanishing of the Bespelled - Castle--Comparison with the Sleeping Beauty cycle--The "Haunted - Castle" form and its influence on Heinrich's version--The Loathly - Grail Messenger. - - -The analysis of the various versions has shown that the Conte du Graal is -the oldest portion of the vast body of French romance which deals with the -Grail, and that it presents the earliest form of the story. The -examination of the theories put forward to explain the genesis and growth -of the legend has shown how untenable is that hypothesis which makes the -Christian legend the starting point of the cycle. The comparison of the -Conte du Graal with Celtic legends and folk-tales has shown that the -former is in the main a North French retelling of tales current then, as -now, among the Celtic peoples of Britain, and probably of Brittany. One -thing alone remains unexplained, the mysterious Grail itself. Nor has any -light been thrown from Celtic sources upon the incident of the hero's -visit to the Castle of Talismans, his silence, and the ensuing misfortune -which overtakes him. Where this incident does appear in a Celtic version, -the Mabinogi, it is not brought in connection with the Grail, and it bears -obvious traces of interpolation. The utmost we have been able to do is to -reconstruct from scattered indications in different Celtic tales a -sequence of incidents similar to that of the French romance. Let us, then, -return to what may be called the central incident of the Grail legend in -its older and purer form. And let us recall the fact that the hypothesis -which finds a Christian origin for the whole legend has no explanation to -offer of this incident. Birch-Hirschfeld can merely suggest that -Perceval's question upon which all hinges is "eine harmlose Erfindung -Borron's," a meaningless invention of Borron's. It is, indeed, his failure -to account for such an essential element of the story that forms one of -the strongest arguments against his hypothesis. - -In the first place it must be noticed that the incident of a hero's visit -to a magic castle, of his omission whilst there to do certain things, and -of the loss or suffering thereby caused, occurs not once, but many times; -not in one, but in many forms in the vast body of Grail romance, as is -seen by the following list, which likewise comprises all the occasions on -which one or other of the questers has come near to or succeeded in seeing -the Grail:-- - - (1) CHRESTIEN: (Inc. 7). Perceval's first visit to the Grail Castle. - Question omitted. - - (2) GAUTIER: (Inc. 22). Perceval's second visit to the Grail Castle. - Question put-- - - _Incident breaks off in middle, and is continued in one version by_:-- - - (2A) MANESSIER, who sends off the hero on a fresh quest, which is - finished in - - (3) MANESSIER: (Inc. 21). Perceval's third visit to Grail Castle. - The question is not mentioned. Hero's final success. - - _In another version by_:-- - - (4) GERBERT: (Inc. 1-3). Perceval is sent forth anew upon Quest. He - has half put the question and been partially successful. - - (5) GERBERT: (Inc. 21). Perceval's third visit to Grail Castle. - Question not mentioned. Hero's success. - - _Besides these forms of the episode in the Conte du Graal of which - Perceval is the hero, we have_:-- - - (6) GAUTIER: (Inc. 3). Gauvain's first visit according to one, second - visit according to another version. Question half put, partial - success. - - _And finally a somewhat similar incident of which Perceval is the hero - in_:-- - - (7) GAUTIER: (Inc. 12). Visit to the Castle of Maidens. Untimely sleep - of hero. - - So far the Conte du Graal. Of the versions closely connected with it - we have: - - (8 & 9) WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH: Two visits of Perceval to Grail - Castle. Question omitted at first, put in second, and crowned with - success. - - (10 & 11) MABINOGI OF PEREDUR: (Inc. 6-25). Two visits of hero to - Grail Castle. Question omitted at first. Second visit successful. No - mention of question. - - (12 & 13) DIDOT-PERCEVAL: (Inc. 11-16). Two visits of Perceval to - Grail Castle. Question omitted at first, put at second, and crowned - with success. - - In a German romance, which presents many analogies with that portion - of the Conte du Graal which goes under Gautier's name: - - (14) HEINRICH VON DEM TUeRLIN: Gawain's first visit to Grail Castle. - Question put. Success. Allusion to previous unsuccessful visit of - Perceval. - - Finally in the QUESTE versions we have four variants of the incident-- - - (15) QUESTE: (Inc. 12). Lancelot at the cross-road, omission to ask - concerning the Grail. - - (15) QUESTE: (Inc. 15). Perceval heals Mordrains. - - " (Inc. 43). Lancelot comes to Grail Castle. Partial - fulfilment of his Quest. - - " (Inc. 48). The three questers come to the Grail Castle. - -On looking at the list we notice that the Conte du Graal knows of three -visits on the part of the principal hero to the Castle of Talismans: 1, 2, -3, or 1, 2-4, 5, and of one visit (or two) of the secondary hero; whilst -Wolfram, the Mabinogi, and the Didot-Perceval know of two only. Heinrich -von dem Tuerlin gives only one visit to _his_ chief hero, though he -mentions a former one by the secondary hero. In Wolfram, and the -Didot-Perceval, the incident may be compared in the Conte du Graal with 1 -and 2; in the Mabinogi with 1 and 5; in Heinrich with 6. The Queste forms -of the incident are obviously dependent upon those of the Conte du Graal, -although they have been strongly modified. As for 7, it would seem to be a -form of the incident which has been entirely unaffected by the Christian -symbolism which has influenced all the others. - -It will be advisable to recapitulate the leading features of the incident -as found in the different versions. Where the summaries in Chapter II -afford detailed information about it, the recapitulation will be brief, -but it will be necessary to give at least one version at much greater -length than heretofore. - -In the Conte du Graal (1) the hero finds a King fishing, who directs him -to his castle. Just as he deems the fisher has deceived him the castle -bursts upon his sight. He enters, is led into a square room wherein is a -bed sitting on which is an old man wrapped in sables; before him is a -great fire of dry wood; 400 men might sit in the hall. The King rises to -greet him; as they sit, a squire enters with a sword which had but two -fellows, sent by the King's niece for the hero to whom it was destined. -The hall is light as it may be. A squire enters holding a lance by the -middle; all can behold the drop of blood which flows from the point upon -the holder's hand. There follow him two squires with candlesticks, each -with ten candles, in either hand; a damsel holding a Grail, which gives -out a light as greater than that of the candles as the sun outshines the -stars; and another damsel with a plate of fine gold. The procession passes -from one into the other room. The hero refrains from asking who is served -by the Grail. After playing at chess with the King they dine, and again -the Grail passes, uncovered, at each dish. The hero would fain ask what -was done with it, and is about to do so, but puts off the question. On the -morrow he sees no one in the castle, the doors of the rooms he had been in -the eve before are shut, no one answers; and, mounting his horse, which he -finds ready saddled, he sets forth over the drawbridge, which closes of -itself behind him, without learning why lance bleeds or whither the Grail -is borne. (2) At the second visit the hero comes into a magnificent room, -ornamented with fine gold and stars of silver, wherein on a vermeil couch -the rich King is sitting. The hero is fain forthwith to ask about Grail -and bleeding lance, but must sit him down by the rich King and tell of his -adventures, about the chapel in which lay the dead Knight, and the black -hand, the child in the tree and the tree full of candles. The King makes -him eat before answering his questions. Whilst at meat a damsel, fairer -than flowers in April, enters with the Holy Grail, another with the lance, -a squire with the broken sword. The hero asks about these talismans. But -first the King answers the questions about the earlier wonders; the -talismans he will tell of after meat. The hero insists to know about the -sword. The King bids him put it together--can he do so he will learn about -the Knight in the Chapel, and after that about the talismans. Save for one -flaw the hero succeeds, whereupon the King says he knows no one in the -world better than he, embraces him, and yields him up all in his house. -The squire who brought the sword returns, wraps it in a cendal, and -carries it off. - - 2A. The King bids the hero eat. 4. The hero would hold it sin if - Lance and Grail, and a fair silver he did not ask concerning the - dish pass before them, the latter Grail. The King first submits him - held by a damsel. The hero sighs to the sword test.[86] The - and begs to learn about these existence of the flaw is - three. He is told about lance, apparently held to constitute - Grail, Grail-bearing damsel, failure, due to the hero's sin in - dish-bearing damsel, and in quitting his mother so abruptly. - answer to further questions, In the night the hero has a - learns the history of the broken vision, which warns him to hasten - sword, and of the chapel haunted to his sister's aid. On the morrow - by the black hand. After sleeping the Grail Castle has vanished. - in a splendid bed[87] he sets Mounting his horse, which stands - forth on the morrow on the sword ready saddled, he rides forth. - quest (the slaying of Partinal). After a vain essay to gain - entrance to a magnificent castle, - 3. Having accomplished which, and in which he breaks his sword, and - lighted chancewise upon the Grail thereby loads upon himself seven - Castle, the King, apprised by a further years of adventure, but - squire and forthwith healed, meets learns how the sword may be made - the hero who shows him head and whole again, he finds the land - shield. At table lance and Grail which the day before was waste - pass, borne by two maidens; fertile and peopled. The peasants - delectable meats fill the dishes-- hail him: the townsmen come forth - all are filled and satisfied who in his honour--for through him the - behold the Holy Grail and the lance folk have won back lands and - that bleeds. Thereafter enters a riches. A damsel tells him how: at - squire holding a silver dish the Court of the Fisher King he - covered with red samite; the had asked about the Grail. At her - talismans pass thrice; the King castle he has his sword mended. - thanks the hero for having slain (Later the hero learns that his - his enemy and thereby rid him of failure to win the Grail comes - great torment. Asks his name, from his not having wedded his - learns that he is his nephew, and lady-love). - offers him his kingdom. - 5. Hero is directed by a cross to - the Court of the Fisher King. The - latter makes him sit by his side - and tell his adventures, when he - would fain learn about the Grail. - The same procession then passes - as in (2), save that sword instead - of being broken is simply - described as not resoldered. The - hero says he has been twice before - with the King, and reproaches him - for not having answered his - questions, although he had - resoldered the sword to the King's - great joy. The King then bids him - shake the sword, which he does, - and the flaw disappears. The King - is overjoyed, and the hero is now - worthy of knowing everything.[88] - -In comparing with these versions of the incident that found in the -Didot-Perceval, we find that the hero at his first visit is welcomed by -the squires of the castle, clad in a scarlet cloak, and placed upon a -rich bed, whilst four sergeants apprise Brons of his arrival, and the -latter is carried into the hall where sits the hero, who rises to greet -him. Brons questions him before they sit down to meat. The mystic -procession is formed by squire with lance bleeding, damsel with silver -dish, squire with the vessel holding our Lord's blood. On the morrow the -hero sees no one, and finds all the doors open. At his second visit there -is no mention of difficulty in finding the castle. This time the King -rises to greet him; they talk of many things and then sit down to meat. -Grail and worthy relics pass, and the hero asks who is served by the -vessel which the squire holds in his hands. Straightway the King is healed -and changed; overjoyed he first asks the hero who he is, and, on learning -it, tells him concerning lance and Grail, and afterwards, at the bidding -of a heavenly voice, the secret words which Joseph taught him, Brons. - -In the Mabinogi the castle lies on the other side of a meadow. At his -first visit the hero finds the gates open, and in the hall a hoary-headed -man sits, around whom are pages who rise to receive the hero. Host and -guest discourse and eat, seated beside one another. The sword trial -follows, and the hero is declared to have arrived at two-thirds of his -strength. The two youths with the dripping spear enter, amid the -lamentation of the company, are followed by the two maidens with the -salver wherein is a man's head, and the outcry redoubles. On the morrow -the hero rides forth unmolested. - -At the second visit the castle is described as being in a valley through -which runs a river. The grey-headed man found sitting in the hall with -Gwalchmai is described as lame. - -So far we have recapitulated the leading features of Perceval's dealings -at the Talismans Castle in the Conte du Graal and in the most closely -allied versions. But Perceval, the chief hero, has, as we have already -seen, an under-study in Gauvain. And the Gauvain form of the incident -deserves as close examination as the Perceval form. - -(6) Gauvain has met a knight, stranger to him, with whom he travels to -Caerleon. Whilst in his company the stranger is slain by a dart cast by -whom no one knows. Before dying he bids Gauvain take his arms and his -horse; he knows not why he has been slain, he never harmed anyone. Gauvain -suspects and accuses Kex, upon whom he vows to prove the murder, and sets -forth to learn the unknown's name. After affronting the adventure of the -black hand[89] in the chapel and long wanderings, he finds himself one -evening at the opening of a dark, tree-covered road at whose further end -he spies a light. Tired and fasting he lets his horse go at its will, and -is led to a castle where he is received with great honour as though he -were expected. But when he has changed his dress the castle folk see it is -not he whom they thought. In the hall is a bier whereupon lie cross and -sword and a dead knight. Canons and priests raise a great lamentation over -the body. A crowned knight enters and bids Gauvain sit by his side. Then -the Grail goes through the room, serving out meats in plenty, and acting -the part of a steward, whereat Gauvain is astounded. He next sees a lance -which drips blood into a silver cup. From out the same room whence come -the talismans, the King issues, a sword in his hand, the sword of the dead -knight, over whom he laments--on his account the land languishes. He bids -Gauvain essay to make the sword whole, but Gauvain cannot, and is told his -quest may not be accomplished. After his toils and wanderings Gauvain is -sleepy, but he struggles against sleep, and asks about bleeding lance and -sword and bier. Whilst the King is answering him he goes to sleep. On -awakening he is on the sea shore, arms and steed by his side.[90] He then -meets with the peasantry, and is told of the changed condition of the -land in a passage already quoted (p. 87). Had he asked about the Grail -"por coi il servoit," the land had been wholly freed. - -Heinrich von dem Tuerlin's account of Gauvain's visit to the Grail Castle -differs, as will be seen by the Summary, p. 27, which it is unnecessary to -repeat, more from that of Gautier than from the Perceval visit of the -Conte de Graal, with which it has the common feature, that the person -benefitted by the transaction is the Lord of the Magic Castle. As will -already have been noticed it stands alone in the conception that the -inmates of the castle are under the enchantment of death-in-life from -which the question frees them. - -There still remains to be noticed (7) the incident of Perceval's visit to -the Castle of Maidens, so closely analogous in certain details to the -Grail Castle visit, and yet wholly disassociated from it in the conduct of -the story. Perceval, wandering, sees across a river in fair meadow land a -rich castle built of marble, yellow and vermeil. Crossing a bridge he -enters, and the door at once closes behind him. No one is in the hall, in -the centre of which is a table, and hanging to it by a steel chain a -hammer. Searching the castle he still finds no one, and no one answers to -his call. At length he strikes upon the table three blows with the hammer. -A maiden appears, reproaches him, and disappears. Again he waits, and -again he strikes three blows. A second damsel appears, and tells him if he -strike afresh the tower will fall, and he be slain in its fall. But as he -threatens to go on, the damsel offers to open the door and let him forth. -He declares he will stay till morning, whereupon the damsel says she will -call her mistress. The hero bids her haste as he is not minded to wait -long, and warns her that he still holds the hammer. Other damsels then -show themselves, disarm and tend the hero, and lead him through a splendid -hall into a still more splendid one, wherein a hundred fair and courteous -maidens, all of like age and mien, and richly dressed, rise at his -approach and hail him as lord. The hero deems himself in paradise, and -"sooth 'tis to be in paradise to be with dames and maids; so sweet they -are, the devil can make naught of them, and 'tis better to follow them -than to hearken to sermons preached in church for money." The dame of the -castle bids the hero sit him down by her. "White she is as a lily, rosier -than on a May morn a fresh blown rose when the dew has washed it." She -asks him his name, and on hearing how he had wandered lonely three days -ere meeting with the castle, tells him he might have wandered seven ere -finding where to partake of bread and meat. He is well feasted. In reply -to his questions about the castle, and how is it no man may be seen in it, -he learns he is in the Maidens' Castle, all the inmates of one kin and -land, of gentle birth; no mason put his hand to the castle, no serf toiled -at it. Four maids built it, and in this wise: Whatever knight passed, and -entering, beheld the door closed, and no man meeting him--if craven he -struck no blow with the hammer, and on the morrow he went forth unheeded; -but if wise and courteous he struck the table, and was richly entertained. -As the lady tells this tale the hero, overcome with much journeying, falls -asleep and is laid to bed by the maidens. On the morrow he wakes beneath a -leafy oak, and never a house in sight. - -It is surely superfluous to point out that the foregoing recapitulation of -the various forms under which this incident has come down to us gives the -last blow to the theory which makes Christian symbolism the starting -point, and the Didot-Perceval the purest representative of the legend. We -should have to admit not only that the later romance writers entirely -misunderstood the sense of their model, but that, whilst anxiously casting -about in every direction for details with which to overlay it, they -neglected one of its most fertile hints--that of the secret words handed -down through Joseph from Christ Himself to the successful Grail quester. -What a mine of adventures would not Gautier, Gerbert, and all the other -unknown versifiers, who added each his quota to the Conte, have found in -those "secret words?" Nay, more, we must admit that so much in love were -they with this incident they misunderstood, that they repeated it in -half-a-dozen varying forms, and finally eliminated from it every trace of -its original element. There are theories which ask too much and which must -be set on one side, even if one has nothing equally ingenious and -symmetrical to set in their place. - -Three things strike one in considering this incident apart from the other -adventures with which it is associated; the want of consistency in those -versions which, formally, are closely related, an inconsistency which we -have already noted in dealing with the legend as a whole; the repetition -of the same incident with almost similar details, but with a different -animating conception; and the fact that some of the secondary forms -testify to that same thread of story which we have already extracted from -the comparison of the Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal in their entirety. -Not only is the conception of the Quest different in Chrestien and -Manessier or Chrestien-Gerbert, but the details are different, the centre -of interest being shifted from the omitted question to the broken sword. -In Manessier the _denoument_ is brought about without any reference to the -question, in Gerbert the reference is of the most perfunctory kind. Again -we find the same machinery of Grail, lance, and other talismans, which in -Chrestien-Manessier serves to bring about the hero's vengeance on his -uncle's murderer, in Chrestien-Gerbert the re-union of the lovers and the -winning of the Grail Kingship, used in the Gawain quest with the evident -object of compassing vengeance upon the slayer of the unknown knight. And, -thirdly, this secondary form is in close agreement with the -Mabinogi--here, as there, the sword test takes place at the Fisher King's; -here, as there, it immediately precedes the passing of the talismans; -here, as there, it is only partially successful; here, as there, is a -tangible reminder of the object of the quest, in the dead body of the -unknown knight in the one case, in the head swimming in blood in the -other. And here we may note that of the two forms in which the _Queste_ -reproduces this incident, the one which holds the more prominent position -in the narrative, the one of which Lancelot is the hero, closely resembles -that secondary form in the Conte du Graal which is connected with Gawain. -The wounded knight whom Lancelot beholds at the crossways borne into the -chapel upon a bier, and clamouring for the succour of the Grail, recalls -forcibly the dead knight of the Gawain quest. It is, perhaps, still more -significant that when the Queste does reproduce the Perceval form, it is -only in its externals, and the mystic vessel, which in the older version -is obviously a means of achieving the quest, has, in the later one, -become the end of that quest. - -It seems impossible to resist the following conclusions:--The many forms -of the incident found in the Grail romances are not variants of one, and -that an orderly and logical original; they testify to the fact that in the -body of popular tradition which forms the basis of these romances the -incident of the visit to a magic castle was a common one, that it entered -into the thread of stories, somewhat similar in outline and frequently -centered in the same hero, but differing essentially in conception, and -that the forms in the romances which are most likely to keep close to the -traditional model are those secondary ones with which the innovating -spirit, whether due to the genius of the individual artist, or to -intruding Christian symbolism, has least concerned itself. There is -apparently but one case in the Conte du Graal, that of Perceval's visit to -the Castle of Maidens, which has been modified by neither of these -influences. - -To accept these conclusions is to clear the ground. If we rid our minds of -the idea that there is _a Grail legend_, a definite fixed sequence of -incidents, we need not be discouraged if we fail to find a prototype for -it in Celtic tradition or elsewhere. We shall be prepared to examine every -incident of which the Grail is a feature upon its own merits, and -satisfied if we can find analogies to this or that one. And by so doing we -are more likely to discover the how and why of the development of the -legends as we find them in the romances. - -Leaving subsidiary details out of account, we may bring all the instances -in which the Grail appears under two formulas: that of the kinsman -avenging a blood feud by the means of the three magic talismans, sword and -lance and vessel; and that of the visit to the Bespelled Castle, the -inmates of which enjoy, thanks to the magic vessel, a supernaturally -prolonged life, from which they are released by the hero's question -concerning that vessel. The one we may call the feud quest, the other the -unspelling quest. The Proto-Mabinogi belonged, as we have already seen -(_supra_, p. 139), to the first class, and accordingly we find that all -relating to the question is obviously interpolated from Chrestien. -Chrestien's model belonged, in all probability if not wholly, chiefly to -the first class, and accordingly we find that Manessier, certainly more -faithful than Chrestien to that original, lays no stress upon the -question. But in Chrestien himself there is a mixture of the two formulas; -the question and the food-producing qualities of the magic vessel have -been incorporated in the feud formula. Once started upon this track the -legend continues to mingle the formulas. The mystic procession, which -probably owes its form to Chrestien, is repeated with monotonous sameness -by his continuators; the machinery of the feud quest almost invariably -doubles that of the visit to the Bespelled Castle, and _vice versa_. Thus -Heinrich von dem Tuerlin, along with the most archaic presentment of the -unspelling quest, has that procession of the talismans which properly -belongs to the feud quest; and, to complete his conception, we must turn -to incidents at present set in the framework of the other formula. For the -effect upon the land produced by the hero's action at the Castle of -Talismans is obviously analagous to, though of directly contrary nature -to, that produced upon the inmates of the Bespelled Castle. They are dead -though they seem quick, the land is full of life though it seems waste. -The question which frees the one from the spell of life-in-death, frees -the other from the spell of death-in-life.[91] The Didot-Perceval has the -complete conception. Perceval's question not only releases Brons, who may -not die until then, but it also ends the enchantment of Britain. - -The identity of hero in stories originally dissimilar was one reason for -the confusion between the two formulas; the nature of the Grail was -another. Its attributes were in all probability not very clearly defined -in the immediate models of the French romance writers; these found it -enveloped in mysterious haze, which simple story-tellers, such as Gautier, -did not try to clear up, and which gave free play to the mystic -imaginings of those writers who used romance as a vehicle for edification. -The one tangible thing about it in stories of the one class, its food -producing-power, has left its trace upon every one of the romances. But we -shall also find in our survey of Celtic literature that this attribute, as -well as that of healing or restoring to life, is found indifferently in -stories of both the classes, to the fusion of which we refer the Grail -legends in their present form. Another link between the two formulas is -formed by the sword. It is almost invariably found associated with the -healing vessel of balsam in task stories connected with the feud quest of -the Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal; it is also a frequent feature in the -legend of the unsuccessful visit to the Bespelled Castle.[92] Finally, the -most important reason for running into one the stories derived from these -two formulas, and the one which could hardly fail to lead to the fusion, -is to be found in the identity of the myth which underlies both -conceptions. The castle to which the avenger must penetrate to win the -talismans, and that to which the hero comes with the intent of freeing its -lord, are both symbols of the otherworld. - -Bearing in mind this double origin of the Grail, and reviewing once more -the entire cycle, we note that, whilst it is that presentment of the magic -vessel due to the second formula which is most prominent in the romances, -the feud quest has furnished more and more varied sequences of incident, -and is the staple of the oldest literary Celtic form (the Proto-Mabinogi) -and of those North French forms which are most closely akin to it. Here -the magic vessel is at best one of three equally potent treasures; as a -matter of fact its _role_ in this section of the romances is, as we have -seen, inferior to that of the sword. Obviously intended to be the -immediate cause of restoration to life or health of the hero's kinsman, -its functions have been minimised until they have been forgotten. If this -is so already in the Proto-Mabinogi and in the model of the Conte du -Graal, we may expect to find that elsewhere in Celtic tradition the magic -vessel is of less account than sword or lance. - -We should likewise misconceive the character of popular tradition if we -expected to find certain attributes rigidly ascribed to the mystic vessel -in this or that set of stories. The confusion we have noted in the -romances may be itself derived from older traditions. Certain it is that -in what maybe looked upon as the oldest account of the vessel[93] in -Celtic literature (although the form in which it has reached us is -comparatively modern), there is a vessel of abundance associated with -three other talismans, two of them being sword and lance. The Tuatha de -Danann (the race of fairies and wizards which plays a part in Irish -tradition analogous to that of Gwydion ap Don, Gwynn ap Nudd, and their -kin in Welsh) so runs the tradition preserved by Keating in his History of -Ireland (Book I, ed. by Joyce, Dublin, 1880, p. 117), had four treasures: -The Lia Fail, the stone of Fate or Virtue ("now in the throne upon which -is proclaimed the King of the Saxons," _i.e._, the stone brought by Edward -I., from Scone); the sword that Lug[94] Lamhfhada (Lug the Longhanded) was -wont to use; the spear the same Lug used in battle; the cauldron of the -Dagda, "_a company used not ever go away from it unsatisfied_." Keating -followed old and good sources, and although the passage I have underlined -is not to be found in all MSS. of his work (_e.g._, it is missing in that -translated by Halliday), and although the verse which he quotes, and which -probably goes back to the eleventh century, whilst the traditions which -it embodies may be regarded as a couple of centuries older, does not -mention this property of the Dagda's[95] Cauldron, it may, I think, be -assumed that the tradition here noticed is genuine, and that a vessel akin -to the Grail, as well as talismans akin to those that accompany the Grail, -formed part of the gear of the oldest Celtic divinities.[96] - -This conclusion appears no rash one when we consider the further -references to the cauldron in Middle Irish Literature. The Battle of Magh -Rath, a semi-historical romance relating to events which took place in the -seventh century, is ascribed by its editor, Dr. J. O'Donovan, to the -latter half of the twelfth century. It relates (pp. 51, _et seq._) how the -sons of the King of Alba sought to obtain from their father the "Caire -Ainsicen" so called, because "it was the caire or cauldron which was used -to return his own proper share to each, and no party ever went away from -it unsatisfied, for whatever quantity was put into it there was never -boiled of it but what was sufficient for the company according to their -grade or rank." The mediaeval story-teller then goes on to instance similar -cauldrons to be met with in the older history of Ireland. These may nearly -all be referred to the oldest heroic Irish cycle, the Ultonian, of which -Cuchulainn is the most prominent figure. This cycle, in its origin almost -if not wholly mythic, was at an early date (probably as early as the -eighth century) euhemerised, and its gods and demi-gods made to do duty as -historical personages living at the beginning of the Christian era. It is, -indeed, not improbable that actual historical events and personages of -that period may have coloured and distorted the presentment of the myth; -and it is highly probable that the substance of these stories does go back -to that age, as they are almost entirely free from any admixture of -Christian elements, and such admixture as there is can be readily detected -as the handiwork of the tenth and eleventh century monks by whom these -tales were written in MSS. which have for the most part come down to us. -The cauldron is found with the same properties as those set forth in the -Battle of Magh Rath, in two of the most celebrated tales of this cycle, -the Toghail Bruighne da Derga, and the Tale of Mac Datho's pig. - -Turning from Irish to Welsh literature we may note that the Grail has -frequently been compared with the cauldron of Bran in the Mabinogi of -Branwen, the daughter of Llyr. I have dealt with this tale fully -(Folk-Lore Record, Vol. V.), and see no reason to depart from the -conclusion I then arrived at; namely, that it goes back in the main to the -eleventh or tenth century. Here, the revivifying power of the vessel is -dwelt upon, "The property of it is that if one of thy men be slain to-day, -and be cast therein, the morrow he will be as well as ever he was at his -best, except that he will not regain his speech." We cannot fail to recall -that in the Queste which, as far as the Grail itself is concerned, must be -referred on the whole to the feud quest formula, when the sacred vessel -appears the assembled company is struck dumb.[97] - -Later Celtic folk-literature has followed the Mabinogi rather than the -older Irish legend in its account of the mystic vessel. Where it appears -in the folk-tale its function is to heal or to bring back to life. We may -leave out of account for the present the references in the Welsh "bardic" -literature to the cauldron of Ceridwen, chief among which is that in the -Mabinogi of Taliesin. I am far from thinking that this literature deserves -the wholesale condemnation that has been passed upon it, but it has been -too little and too uncritically studied to afford, as yet, a firm basis -for investigation. We are on surer ground in dealing with the living -folk-tale. Thus the tale of Fionn's Enchantment, although belonging more -properly to the other formula, may be noticed here as containing a cup of -balsam, the washings of which restore the maimed Fionn to complete health. -Mr. Campbell, who has noted the tale, remarks that the cup of healing is -common in all the Fenian stories, which is what we should naturally -expect, seeing the close connection between Fionn and Peredur (Rev. Celt. -I., p. 194). Other instances have already been given in Chapter VI. of the -appearance of the vessel of balsam in connection with the glaive of light, -and of its use in bringing back to life the hero's enemies. And here it -maybe noted that almost the very mode in which it is introduced in the -folk-tales may be paralleled from the romances. The Grail appears to -Perceval and Hector, lying well nigh dead upon the field of battle, and -makes them whole, even as the vessel of balsam revivifies the dead -warriors whom Conall Gulban has just slain, and heals the latter. It is, -perhaps, only a coincidence that the angel in the one, the Carlin in the -other case, appear in a great flashing of light. But, as a rule, in those -task-stories which otherwise present such close similarities to the feud -quest of the Proto-Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal, the mystic vessel has -dropped out altogether, and the sword is the chief if not the only -talisman. This is the case in Campbell, I., the young King of Easaidh -Ruadh, and in XLVI. Mac Iain Direach. In one instance the glaive of light -is met with outside the task group, in Campbell XLI., the Widow and her -Daughters, variant ii (a Bluebeard story), and here it is found associated -with the vessel of balsam. In the folk-tales, then, as in one section of -the Conte du Graal, the healing vessel is decidedly of less account than -the avenging or destroying weapon. This, as the sword, plays such an -important part in the French romances that an examination of its _role_ in -Celtic literature will repay examination. - -Besides the already quoted instances in which the sword of light -accompanies the vessel of balsam as one of the treasures which reward the -hero's quest, but in which it does not otherwise affect the march of the -story, we find others in which the sword is either that weapon which -causes the woe, the subject of the story, or else is the one means of -testing the hero's fitness for his quest. In either case it is parallel to -the sword of the Grail romances. Apart from these special instances there -are general references in the oldest Irish literature to the -quasi-supernatural nature attributed to the sword. Thus the Leabhar -Gabhala, or Book of Invasions, the tenth and eleventh century tract in -which Irish mythology was euphemerised into an historical relation of the -pre-Christian invasion of Ireland, has a passage relating to the sword of -Tethra, King of the Fomori,[98] which spake, and, adds the Christian -scribe, the ancient Irish adored swords.[99] This is borne out by a -passage in the Seirglige Conculainn, a story belonging to the Ultonian -cycle, which Mr. Whitley Stokes has translated (Rev. Celt. I., 260). The -men of Ulster, when showing their trophies, had their swords upon their -thighs, "for their swords used to turn against them where they made a -false trophy." - -The Christian transcriber notes that it was reasonable for the pagan Irish -to trust their swords "because demons used to speak from out them." To -return to the sword of Tethra. The most famous battle of Irish mystic -history is that of Mag-Tured, in which the Tuatha de Danann, the gods of -light and life, overcome their enemies the Fomori. Ogma, the champion of -the Tuatha de Danann, wins the sword of Tethra, and as he cleans it it -tells him the many and great feats it had wrought. - -It is, however, in the second of the great heroic cycles of the ancient -Irish, the Fenian or Ossianic, that we find the sword put to a use which -strongly recalls that of the romances. Not until the hero is able to wield -the weapon so that it break not in his hand, or to weld it together so -that no flaw appears,[100] is he fit to set forth on the quest. In -Campbell's LXXVII., "How the Een was set up," Fionn applies for his sword -to Ullamh Lamhfhada[101] (Ullamh the Longhanded), who gives him the most -likely sword and the best he found. The hero takes it, shakes it, casts it -out of the wooden handle and discards it. Thrice is this repeated, and -when the right weapon is in Fionn's hand, he quells utterly all he -sees.[102] Now how had Fionn obtained this sword originally? By slaying -black Arcan, his father's slayer. It may, I think, be looked upon as -certain that in an earlier form of the story, the weapon in question would -turn out to be the one with which the treacherous deed was done, and -Fionn, a counterpart of Peredur in his bringing up, would also be his -counterpart in this incident.[103] For the sword with which Partinal slew -Goon Desert is treasured up for the use of Perceval, but only after a -repeated essay is he held worthy of it.[104] - -The sword incident reappears in a tale of Campbell's, Manus (Vol. III.), -which presents some very remarkable analogies with the romances. Manus is -driven into various adventures by his aunt; an armourer of his -grandfather offers to get him a sword; but all given to him he breaks save -the armourer's old sword, and it beat him to break that. The armourer then -gives him a cloth, "When thou spreadest it to seek food or drink, thou -wilt get as thou usest." Subsequently, helped by a lion, he achieves many -feats. He comes to the help of the White Gruagach by fetching the blood of -a venemous horned creature belonging to the King over the Great World, by -which alone the White Gruagach could be restored to life when the magic -trout with which his life was bound up had been slain. Afterwards he -accompanies him against his enemy the Red Gruagach, who is slain, and his -head stuck on a stake. This Red Gruagach is apparently the father of the -aunt who so persecutes Manus.[105] - -This examination of the sword incident shows that the Mabinogi has -preserved the original form of the story, and links afresh this portion of -the Conte du Graal with the other Celtic stories belonging to the -Expulsion and Return formula group, with which it has so much else in -common. In all the formula-stories, except those of the Conte du Graal and -the Proto-Mabinogi, the hero has to avenge his father, not his uncle; and -it is highly suggestive that at least one version of the Perceval cycle -(the Thornton romance) follows suit. With this remark we may take leave of -the feud quest. - -Many and interesting as have been the parallels from the older Celtic -literature to the feud quest, they are far outweighed by those which that -literature affords to the second formula--the visit to the Bespelled -Castle--which we have noted in the romances. - -From the recapitulation (_supra_, pp. 173, _et. seq._) we may learn -several things. The castle lies, as a rule, on the other side of a river; -the visitor to it is under a definite obligation; he must either do a -certain thing, as, _e.g._, in Perceval's visit to the Castle of Maidens, -strike on the table three blows with the hammer, or he must put a certain -question, or again he must abstain from certain acts, as that of falling -asleep (Perceval and Gawain) or drinking[106] (Gawain, in Heinrich von dem -Tuerlin). Disregard of the obligation is punished in various ways. In the -case of the Castle of Maidens the craven visitor is allowed to fare forth -unheeded without beholding the marvels of the castle; but, as a rule, the -hero of the adventure finds himself on the morrow far away from the -castle, which has vanished completely. The inmates of this castle fall -into two classes--they are supernatural beings like the maidens, who have -apparently no object to gain from their mortal visitor, but who love -heroism for its own sake, and are as kindly disposed towards the mortal -hero in the folk-lore and mythology of the Celts as gods, and especially -goddesses, are in the mythic lore of all other races; or they suffer from -an over-lengthened life, from which the hero alone can release them. This -latter feature, seen to perfection only in Heinrich von dem Tuerlin, is -apparent in the Didot-Perceval, and has, in the Conte du Graal, supplied -the figure of the old man, father to the Fisher King, nourished by the -Grail. - -These features sufficiently indicate that the Magic Castle is the realm of -the other world. The dividing water is that across which lies Tir-na n-Og, -the Irish Avalon, or that Engelland dwelt in by the shades which the -inhabitants of the Belgian coast figured in the west.[107] In Celtic lore -the earliest trace of this realm is found, as is the earliest trace of -Grail and sword, in connection with the Tuatha de Danann, that race of -dispossessed immortals which lives on in the hollow hill sides, and is -ever ready to aid and cherish the Irish mythic heroes. The most famous -embodiment of this conception in Irish myth is the Brug na Boine, the -dwelling place of Oengus,[108] son of the Dagda, and the earliest account -of it is that contained in the Book of Leinster, the second of the two -great Irish vellums written down in the twelfth century. It is a land of -Cockayne; in it are fruit trees ever loaded with fruit, on the board a pig -ready roasted which may not be eaten up, vessels of beer which may not be -emptied, and therein no man dies.[109] But Oengus is not the only one of -the Tuatha de Danann who has such a fairy palace. The dwelling place of -Lug is of the same kind, and in the story of the Conception of -Cuchulainn,[110] which tells how the god carried off Dechtire, sister of -Conchobor, and re-incarnated himself in her as the great Ulster hero, we -learn that when Conchobor and his men go in search of Dechtire and her -fifty maidens, they first come to a small house wherein are a man and -woman; the house suddenly becomes a splendid mansion,[111] therein are the -vanished maidens in the shape of birds (and all sorts of goods, and dishes -of divers sorts, known and unknown; never did they have a better night, in -the morning they found themselves houseless, birdless in the east of the -land, and they went back to Emain Macha).[112] Although no prohibition is -mentioned the similarity in parts of this story, which, it must be -repeated, is older than the introduction of Christianity in Ireland, to -the romances is evident. Another famous Brug of the Tuatha de Danann is -that of Manannan Mac Lir. Among the visitors was Bran, the son of Febal, -whose story may be found in the Leabhar na h' Uidhre, the oldest of the -great Irish vellums.[113] One day as he was alone in his palace there came -to him soft, sweet music, and he fell asleep. When he awoke a silver -branch, covered with flowers, was at his side. A short while after, as he -was in the midst of his kinsfolk, his chiefs, and his nobles, an unknown -damsel appeared, and bid him to her in the land of _Sidhe_, and then -vanished, and with her the branch. Bran set sail, and with him thirty men. -After two days' wandering they met Manannan Mac Lir. They continued their -journey until they came to an island dwelt in solely by women; their queen -it was who had sent for Bran. He stayed with her a while, and then came -back to Ireland. - -But the most famous of the visits to the Brug of Manannan is that of -Cormac Mac Art, whom the Irish legendary annals place in the third century -of our era, and bring into connection with Fionn. The story, though only -known to us from later MSS., can be traced back to the tenth century at -least, as the title of it figures in a list preserved in the Book of -Leinster, and as it is apparently alluded to by the eleventh century -annalist, Tighernach.[114] The following summary is from a version, with -English translation by Mr. Standish Hayes O'Grady, in the third volume of -the Ossianic Society's publications. - -Of a time that Cormac was in Liathdruim he saw a youth having in his hand -a glittering fairy branch, with nine apples of red gold upon it.[115] And -this was the manner of that branch, that when any one shook it, men -wounded and women with child would be lulled to sleep by the sound of the -very sweet fairy music which those apples uttered, and no one on earth -would bear in mind any want, woe, or weariness of soul when that branch -was shaken for him. Cormac exchanged for this branch his wife and son and -daughter, overcoming their grief by shaking the branch. But after a year, -Cormac went in search of them. And he chanced upon a land where many -marvels were wrought before his eyes, and he understood them not. At -length he came to a house wherein was a very tall couple, clothed in -clothes of many colours, and they bade him stay. And the man of the house -brought a log and a wild boar, and if a quarter of the boar was put under -a quarter of the log, and a true story was told, the meat would be cooked. -At Cormac's request the host told the first story, how that he had seven -swine with which he could feed the world, for if the swine were slain, and -their bones put in the sty, on the morrow they would be whole again; and -the hostess the second, how that the milk of her seven white kine would -satisfy the men of the world. Cormac knew them for Manannan and his wife, -and then told his story how he had lost and was seeking for wife and -children. Manannan brought in the latter, and told Cormac it was he who -gave him the branch, that he might bring him to that house. Then they sat -down to meat, and the table-cloth was such that no food, however delicate, -might be demanded of it, but it should be had without doubt; and the -drinking cup was such that if a false story was told before it, it went in -four pieces, and if a true one, it came whole again, and therewith was the -faith of Cormac's wife made evident. And Manannan gave branch and cloth -and goblet to Cormac, and thereafter they went to slumber and sweet sleep. -Where they rose upon the morrow was in the pleasant Liathdruim. - -The foregoing examples have been akin to the incident of the Maiden -Castle. We have seen the race of immortals caring for the sons of men, -signalling out and alluring to themselves the brave and wise hero. In the -tales we are now about to examine the benefit conferred by the visitor -upon the inmates of the Magic Castle is insisted upon. But we must first -notice a tale which presents many of the incidents of the Grail romances, -without actually belonging to the same story group as they. In Campbell's -No. LXXXVI, the Daughter of King Under the Waves, Diarmaid, the fairest -and bravest of the Fenian heroes, weds a fay who, as her description -indicates, belongs to the same order of beings as the damsels who lure -away Connla and Bran, the son of Febal. She comes to him in loathly guise, -and the other heroes shrink from her; but Diarmaid, courteous as he is -brave, gives her the shelter of tent and bed and has his reward. She -builds for him such a castle as the fay mistress of the Knight of the -Black Tomb (_supra_, p. 17) builds for her lover. But she warns him that -after a threefold reproach as to how he found her she would have to leave -him. Through the cunning of Fionn he is led to break the taboo and "it was -in a mosshole he awoke on the morrow. There was no castle, or a stone left -of it on another." Diarmaid sets forth to seek his wife, he finds her -ailing to death, and to be cured she must have three draughts from the cup -of the King of the Plain of Wonder. Helped by a little russet man, he gets -the talisman, as was prophesied of him; but, advised by the little russet -man, he gives the maiden to drink out of a certain well, which changes -their love into aversion, and he returns to the light of day. - -This last feature should be noted as characteristic. The mortal lover -always tires sooner than the fay mistress. Oisin cannot stay in Tir-na -n-Og. Perceval gives but one night to the Lady of the Chessboard. - -We now come to the "unspelling" stories, and I will cite in the first -place one which is the most striking testimony I know of to the influence -of this formula upon Celtic mythic lore. There is a widely spread -folk-tale of a hero robbed of three magic gifts and getting them back -thus; by chance he eats some fruit or herb which changes him into an ass, -causes his nose to grow, sets horns upon his head, or produces some -equally unpleasant result. Another herb he finds heals him. Armed with -specimens of either, he wins back his talismans. In Grimm it is No. 122, -Der Krautesel, and in Vol. III., p. 201, variants are given. In one the -hero is one of three soldiers, and he receives the gifts from a little -grey man. But neither here nor in the variants given by Dr. R. Koehler -(Orient und Occident, II., p. 124) is the opening the same as in -Campbell's No. X.--The Three Soldiers. - -The three come to a house in the wilderness dwelt in by three girls who -keep them company at night, but disappear during the day. In the house is -a table, overnight they eat off it, and when they rise the board is -covered, and it would not be known that a bit had ever come off it. At the -first night's close one soldier gets a purse never empty; at the second, -the next one a cloth always filled with meat; and the third, the youngest -(the hero), a transporting whistle. But as they leave he must needs ask -them who they are, and they burst out crying, "They were under charms till -they could find three lads who would spend three nights with them without -putting a question--had he refrained they were free." - -In one variant the time of probation lasts a year, and the talismans are: -a cup that empties not, and a lamp of light, the table-cloth of meat, and -a bed for rest. In another the damsels are swanmaids,[116] and the -visitors are bidden "not to think nor order one of us to be with you in -lying down or rising up."[117] - -There can, I think, be little doubt that this last variant represents the -oldest form of the story, and that the swanmaid damsels belong to the -otherworld, as do the daughter of King Under the Waves and the maiden who -fetches Connla. There is nothing surprising in swanmaids being the object -of a taboo, this is so invariably the case in myth and folk-lore that it -is needless to accumulate instances; what is unique to my knowledge, I -speak under correction, is the fact of these damsels being in possession -of the talismans, one of which is so obviously connected with the Grail. -It may be noted that the obligation laid upon the hero is the direct -opposite of that in the Grail romances, in the one case a question must -not be asked, in the other it must. In this respect Campbell's tale of -course falls into line with all the widely spread and varying versions of -the Melusine legend. The supernatural wife always forbids her husband some -special act which, as is perhaps natural, he can never refrain from doing. - -The next form of the Bespelled Castle legend is one which has attained far -greater celebrity than any other on account of its traditional association -with historical personages. It pictures the inmate of the castle as a -King, with his warriors around him, sunk into magic sleep, and awaiting a -signal to come forth and free his folk. To many English readers this -legend will be more familiar in connection with Frederick Barbarossa[118] -or with Holger the Dane than with any Celtic worthy. Yet the oldest -historic instance is that of Arthur.[119] I have quoted (_supra_, p. 122) -Gerald's words relating to the mountain seat of Arthur. A more definite -tradition, and one closely resembling the episode in the Grail romances, -is the one noted by Gervasius of Tilbury[120] (c. 1211 A.D.). A groom of -the Bishop of Catania, following a runaway horse even to the summit of -Mount Etna, found himself in a far reaching plain, full of all things -delightful. A marvellous castle rose before him, wherein lay Arthur on a -royal bed, suffering from the wound inflicted upon him by Modred his -nephew, and Childeric the Saxon, and this wound broke out afresh each -year. The King caused the horse to be given to the groom, and made him -many rich presents.[121] - -This tradition of Arthur in Sicily raises some very interesting questions. -For one thing it is a fresh example of the tremendous and immediate -popularity of the Arthurian legend. It also shows with what rapidity a -tradition, however remote in its origin from a particular spot, may -associate itself with that. Of more immediate interest to us is the -question whether this tradition has any direct connection with the Grail -romances, whether it has shaped or been shaped by them. Martin refers the -Maimed King of the romances to the same myth-root as the wounded Arthur -waiting in Etna or in Avalon till his wound be healed and he come forth. -It seems to me more likely that in so far as the wound is concerned there -is a coincidence merely between the two stories, and that the Wounded King -belongs properly to the feud quest. I do not, however, deny that the fact -of the Lord of the Bespelled Castle, of the otherworld, being sometimes -pictured as suffering from an incurable wound, may have aided that fusion -of the two strains of legend which we find in the romances. - -It is not my purpose to examine here in detail the innumerable versions of -this widely-spread tradition[122], the more so as I have been able to -trace no exact parallel to that presentment of the story found in Heinrich -von dem Tuerlin and in the Didot-Perceval. No other version of this form of -the legend, to my knowledge, pictures the Bespelled King as awaiting the -deliverance of death at the hands of his visitor. Before endeavouring to -find a reason for the singularity of Heinrich's account, I will first -quote one variant of the common form of the legend which has not been -printed before save by myself in the Folk-Lore Journal, Vol. I., p. -193.[123] King Arthur sleeps bespelled in the ruins of (Richmond) Castle. -Many have tried to find him but failed. One man only, Potter Thompson by -name, wandering one night among the ruins chanced upon the hall wherein -sat the King and his men around a table upon which lay a horn and a sword. -Terrified, he turned and fled, and as he did so a voice sounded in his -ears-- - - "Potter Thompson, Potter Thompson, - Had'st thou blown the horn, - Thou had'st been the greatest man - That ever was born." - -for then he would have freed Arthur from his magic sleep. Never again -could he reach that hall. - -This version, besides being practically inedited has the merit of -exemplifying that association of the sword with the Lord of the Bespelled -Castle to which I have already alluded. - -The instances of the visit to the otherworld which have thus far been -collected from Celtic mythic literature, and which have been used as -parallels to the unspelling quest of the romances, are more closely akin -to one example of this incident, Perceval's visit to the Castle of -Maidens, than to that found in Heinrich and the Didot-Perceval. None, -indeed, throw any light upon that death-in-life which is the special -feature in these two works. All are of one kind in so far as the -disposition of the inmates towards the visitor is concerned; he is -received with courtesy when he is not actually allured into the castle, -and the trials to which he is subjected are neither painful nor -humiliating. But it will not have escaped attention that the Conte du -Graal contains another form of the visit, one which I have hitherto left -unnoticed, in Gawain's visit to the Magic Castle. A new conception is here -introduced: the Lord of the Castle[124] is an evil being, who holds -captive fair dames and damsels; they it is, and not he, whom the hero must -deliver, and the act of deliverance subjects him to trial and peril -(_supra_, p. 14, Chr. Inc. 17). Let us see if this form affords any -explanation of the mysterious features of Heinrich's version. This -incident may, it is easily conceivable, be treated in two ways; the hero -may be a worthy knight and succeed, or a caitiff and fail. A story of this -latter kind may throw some light upon Gawain's adventures at the Magic -Castle. The story in question (The Son of Bad Counsel) is ascribed by -Kennedy, Legendary Fictions, pp. 132, _et seq._, to an author of the -early eighteenth century, Brian Dhu O'Reilly, and traced back to an older -Ossianic legend--Conan's delusions in Ceash, of which Kennedy prints a -version, pp. 232, _et seq._ The hero of the story comes to the Castle of a -Gruagach, named the Giant of the Unfrequented Land, and his wife, daughter -to the King of the Lonesome Land. The name of the castle is the Uncertain -Castle. Very fair is their daughter, and she is proffered to the hero for -his promised aid against other fairy chieftains. After playing at -backgammon with the Gruagach, the hero lays himself to bed. He is -assailed, as he fancies, by great dangers from which he hastens to flee, -and, waking, finds himself in a ridiculous plight with his lady-love, and -the other folk of the castle laughing at him. In the morning he awakes, -"and his bed was the dry grass of a moat." - -The names of the personages in the story at once recall those of the -romances--the Waste Land or Forest, the Castle Perillous, and the -like--and one of the trials, the being shot at with fairy darts, is the -same as that to which Gawain is exposed in the Conte du Graal. But it is -interesting chiefly as being a version of a wide-spread tale of how gods -or heroes penetrating to the other world are made mock of by its inmates. -In Scandinavian mythology the story is well-known as Thor's visit to -Utgarth Loki. It is equally well-known in the Fionn saga, and, considering -the many points of contact we have hitherto found between Fionn and the -Grail hero, the Fenian form claims our notice. The oldest preserved form -of the story, that in the Book of Leinster, has been printed with -translation by Mr. Whitley Stokes, Revue Celt., Vol. VII., pp. 289, _et -seq._--Fionn comes at nightfall with Cailte and Oisin to a house he had -never heard of in that glen, knowing though he was. A grey giant greets -them; within are a hag with three heads on her thin neck, and a headless -man with one eye protruding from his breast. Nine bodies rise out of a -recess, and the hideous crew sing a strain to the guests; "not melodious -was that concert." The giant slays their horses; raw meat is offered them, -which they refuse; the inmates of the house attack them; they had been -dead had it not been for Fionn alone. They struggle until the sun lights -up the house, then a mist falls into every one's head, so that he was dead -upon the spot. The champions rise up whole, and the house is hidden from -them, and every one of the household is hidden.--In the later Fenian saga -(later that is as far as the form in which it has come down to us is -concerned) the story closely resembles Thor's visit. Kennedy (Bardic -Stories, pp. 132, _et seq._) has a good version.[125]--Fionn and his -comrades follow a giant, on his shoulders an iron fork with a pig -screeching between the prongs, behind him a damsel scourging him. They -follow them to a house wherein is an aged hoary-headed man and a beautiful -maid, a rough giant cooking the hog, and an old man having twelve eyes in -his head, a white-haired ram, and a hag clad in dark ash coloured garment. -Two fountains are before the house: Fionn drinks of one which at first -tastes sweet, but afterwards bitter to death; from the other, and though -he never suffered as much as while drinking, when he puts the vessel from -his lips he is as whole as ever he was. The hog is then shared; the ram -left out of count revenges itself by carrying out the guest's share, and -smite it with their swords as they may, they cannot hurt it. The hag then -throws her mantle over the guests, and they become four withered -drooping-headed old men; on the mantle being removed they resume their -first shape. These wonders are explained. The giant is _sloth_, urged on -by _energy_; the twelve-eyed old man is the _world_; and the ram the -_guilt of man_; the wells are _truth_ and _falsehood_; the hag _old age_. -The warriors sleep and in the morning find themselves on the summit of -Cairn Feargaill with their hounds and their arms by them. - -This tale betrays its semi-literary origin at once; and, though there is -no reason to doubt that the Irish Celts had a counterpart to Thor's -journey to Giantland, I am inclined to look upon the version just -summarised as influenced by the Norse saga. Certain it is that the popular -version of Fionn's visit to Giantland is much more like the eleventh -century poem, preserved in the Book of Leinster, than it is like the -mediaeval, "How Fionn fared in the House of Cuana." I have already alluded -(_supra_, p. 186) to one feature of the tale of Fionn's enchantment, but -the whole tale is of interest to us.--As Fionn and his men are sitting -round the fire boasting of their prowess in comes a slender brown hare and -tosses up the ashes, and out she goes. They follow her, a dozen, to the -house of the Yellow Face, a giant that lived upon the flesh of men. A -woman greets them, and bids them begone before the Face returns, but Fionn -will not flee. In comes the Face and smells out the strangers. Six of the -Fenians he strikes with a magic rod, "and they are pillars of stone to -stop the sleety wind." He then cooks and devours a boar, and the bones he -throws to the Fenians. They play at ball with a golden apple, and the Face -puts an end to Fionn's other comrades. Hereafter he wrestles with Fionn, -and the griddle is put on the fire till it is red hot, and they all get -about Fionn and set him on the griddle till his legs are burnt to the hips -('twas then he said, "a man is no man alone"), and stick a flesh-stake -through both his hams, so that he could neither rise nor sit, and cast him -into a corner. But he manages to crawl out and sound his horn, and -Diarmaid hears it and comes to his aid, and does to the Face as the Face -did to Fionn, and with the cup of balsam which he wins from him makes -Fionn whole.--It is not necessary to dwell on the parallel between -Diarmaid healing his uncle Fionn, wounded with a stake through the two -thighs, by winning the cup of balsam, and Perceval healing his uncle -(mehaignie des II cuisses) by the question as to the Grail. This, alone, -would be sufficient to show us what _role_ the Grail played in the oldest -form of the feud quest before the latter was influenced by the visit to -the Bespelled Castle. - -If we look at the stories we have just summarised, we shall easily -understand the meaning of the Magic Castle vanishing at dawn. As sleep is -brother to death, so are night and its realm akin to the otherworld; many -phantoms haunt them and seem quick and strive with and often terribly -oppress the mortal wanderer through this domain, but with the first gleam -of sunlight they vanish, leaving no trace behind them, and the awakening -hero find himself in his own place. The conditions of the visit to the -otherworld are thus partly determined by man's nightly experience in that -dreamland which he figures to himself as akin to, if not an actual -portion of the land of shades. This visit, as we have seen, is conceived -of in several ways. Its object is almost invariably to win precious -talismans; all we have comes to us from our forefathers, and it is natural -to suppose that in the world whence they came, and whither they go back, -is to be found all that man seeks here, only in a form as more wonderful -than earthly objects as the dwellers in the otherworld are mightier and -cleverer than man. At times the talismans are held by beneficent beings, -who either gladly yield them to the mortal visitor, or from whom they may -be won by the exhibition of valour and magnanimity; at times by evil -monsters with whom the mortal must strive. In either case the visitor -arrives at nightfall and in the morning awakes to the life of this earth. - -The secondary or Gawain form of the myth, as found in the Conte de Graal, -may help us to understand Heinrich's version. It is to free imprisoned -damsels that Gauvain undergoes the trials of the Magic Castle. Now the -effect of his visit in the German poem is to free the sister of -Gansguoter, who, with her maidens, remains when the other inmates of the -castle, released by the question, have utterly vanished.[126] But what -means the death-in-life condition of the King and his men? Is it merely an -expedient to account for their sudden vanishing at daylight? I rather see -here the influence of another form of the unspelling myth, one that mixed -with Christian elements has powerfully impressed the popular imagination, -and is in many European countries the only one in which this old myth -still lives on.[127] - -The inmates of the Magic Castle or house are in this form figured as men -doomed for some evil deed to haunt that particular spot, until some mortal -is bold enough to win their secret and bring them rest. One would think -that under the circumstances they would be as amiable as possible to any -visitor. But the older form of the story persists, and they have not -terrors or trials enough for the man who is to be their deliverer. I will -only quote one version, from Irish sources.[128] - -A youth engages to sleep in a haunted castle. If he is alive in the -morning he will get ten guineas and the farmer's daughter to wife. At -nightfall he goes thither, and presently three men in old-fashioned dress -come down in pieces through a hole in the ceiling, put themselves -together, and begin playing at football. Jack joins them, and towards -daybreak he judges they wish him to speak, so he asks them how he can give -them rest if rest they want. "Them is the wisest words you ever spoke," is -answered to him. They had ground the poor and heaped up wealth evilly. -They show him their treasure, and tell him how to make restitution. As -they finish, "Jack could see the wall through their body, and when he -winked to clear his sight the kitchen was as empty as a noggin turned -upside down." Of course Jack does as he is told, and has the daughter to -wife, and they live comfortably in the old castle.[129] - -We have here, it seems to me, the last echo of such a story as one of -those which enter into the Grail romances. In Heinrich's version, as -elsewhere in these romances, different story types can be distinguished, -different conceptions are harmonised. Many, indeed, are both the early -conceptions and the varying shapes in which they embodied themselves, to -be traced in the complex mass of the romances. That a kinsman is bound to -avenge a blood feud, and that until he does so his kin may suffer from -ailment or enchantment and their land be under a curse; that the -otherworld is a land of feasting and joyousness and all fair things; that -it contains magic treasures which he who is bold may win; that it is -peopled with beings whom he may free by his courage; that it is fashioned -like dreamland--all these ideas find expression. - -If the foregoing exposition be accepted we have a valuable criterion for -the age of the immediate originals of the romances. That famous version of -the legend which pictured the dwellers in the otherworld as Kings, spell -bound, awaiting the releasing word to come forth and aid their folk, to -which special circumstances gave such wide popularity in the later middle -ages, causing it to supplant older tales of gods dwelling in the hollow -hills, this version has left no trace upon the romances. These must, -therefore, be older than the full-blown Arthurian legend. One or two minor -points may be briefly noticed. The ship in which is found the magic sword -which wounds all bold enough to handle it save the destined Knight may be -thought to have taken the place of an older island. The loathly Grail -messenger shows the influence of the two formulas: as coming from the -Bespelled Castle,[130] type of the otherworld, she should be radiantly -fair; as the kinswoman of the destined avenger, under spells until the -vengeance be accomplished, she is hideous in the last degree. - -But before we take leave of this incident we must examine two features -upon which, as yet, no light has been thrown, the meaning of the epithet -the _Fisher_ King, and the hero's silence upon his first visit to the -Castle of Talismans. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - - The Fisher King in the Conte du Graal, in the Queste, and in Borron - and the Grand St. Graal--The accounts of latter complete each - other--The Fish is the Salmon of Wisdom--Parallel with the Fionn - Saga--The nature of the Unspelling Quest--The Mabinogi of Taliesin and - its mythological affinities--Brons, Bran, Cernunnos--Perceval's - silence: Conte du Graal explanation late; explanation from the Fionn - Saga--Comparison of incident with _geasa_; nature of latter; - references to it in Celtic folk-tales and in old Irish literature, - Book of Rights, Diarmaid, Cuchulainn--_Geasa_ and _taboo_. - - -The Conte du Graal, as we have seen, offers no satisfactory explanation of -the Fisher King. By Chrestien he is represented on Perceval's first -meeting with him as angling from a boat steered by his companion (v. -4,187); he directs Perceval to his castle. Perceval is afterwards informed -that, being wounded and consequently unable to mount on horseback, fishing -is his only solace, whence the name applied to him (vv. 4,681, _et seq._). -This is practically all the Conte du Graal has to say about him, as the -continuators, whilst repeating the epithet, add no fresh details. Indeed -in none of the after-visits of Perceval is the King represented as -fishing, or is there the slightest reference to, let alone insistence -upon, this favourite occupation of his. It is another proof of the -inadequacy of Birch-Hirschfeld's theory of the development of the legend, -that it represents Chrestien, who, _ex hypothesi_, divested Borron's poem -of its religious character, as retaining this feature due wholly to -religious symbolism, whilst the continuators with their obvious fondness -for such symbolism entirely neglected it. The Queste, which in so far as -the quest portion is concerned is formally connected with the Conte du -Graal, says nothing about the Fisher, nor does that section of the Grand -St. Graal which presents the same Early History as the Queste. In -Borron's poem, on the other hand, and in that later section of the Grand -St. Graal which agrees with it, an explanation is given of the epithet. -According to Borron, Brons catches a fish at Joseph's bidding; Joseph, -having placed the vessel on the table and covered it with a towel, takes -the fish and lays it opposite the vessel; the people are then called -together, and it is possible to distinguish the sinners from the righteous -(vv. 2,500-2,600). Joseph is afterwards told by an angel, that, as Brons -was a good man, it was the Lord's will he should catch the fish (vv. -3,310, _et seq._), and he is to be called the Rich Fisher (v. 3,348). In -the Grand St. Graal (Vol. II., pp. 248, _et seq._) not Brons but his son -Alain is bidden by Joseph to fish, and this with a view to providing food -for the sinners of the company whom the Holy Vessel leaves unsatisfied. -Alain fishes from a boat with a net. He catches but one fish, and there -are at first murmurs, but Joseph, by virtue of Alain's prayers, multiplies -the fish so that it feeds the host, and thus Alain wins the name of Rich -Fisher. - -These accounts complete each other. Chrestien dwells upon the continued -act of fishing which, for aught to the contrary we learn from him or his -continuators, is always fruitless. Borron and the Grand St. Graal dwell -upon the one successful haul, and especially upon the miraculous -properties of the one fish caught. Reading the two accounts together, we -find that the Fisher King passes his life seeking for a fish which, when -caught, confers upon him the power of distinguishing good from evil, or -enables him to furnish an inexhaustible meal to his men. - -The Conte du Graal has been shown to derive more of its substance from the -feud quest--the Didot-Perceval from the unspelling quest. Borron's poem, -as far as its primitive Celtic elements are concerned, is probably to be -ranged with the Didot-Perceval, to which many links unite it. We may, -therefore, turn to Celtic stories belonging to either of these formulas -for parallel features. The inexhaustible nature of the fish at once -recalls the pigs of Manannan Mac Lir (_supra_, p. 194); they, too, can -feed a multitude. But it is in stories formally connected with the feud -quest that we find what I venture to suggest is an adequate explanation of -the nature of the Fisher King and of the fish. The latter is, I think, -the Salmon of Wisdom,[131] which appears so often and so prominently in -Irish mythic lore; and the former is that being who passes his life in -vain endeavours to catch the wonderful fish, and who, in the moment of -success, is robbed of the fruit of all his long toils and watchings. I am -prepared to admit that the incident as found in Borron's poem has been -recast in the mould of mediaeval Christian symbolism, but I think the older -myth can still be clearly discerned and is wholly responsible for the -incident as found in the Conte du Graal.[132] - -Let us first look at the Irish story. This is found in an account, to -which allusion has already been made, of the Boyish Exploits of Finn Mac -Cumhail.[133] It is there told how Finn seeks his namesake, Finn-eges, to -learn poetry from him, as until then he durst not stay in Ireland for fear -of his foes. Now Finn-eges had remained seven years by the Boyne, watching -the salmon of Linn-Feic, which it had been foretold Finn (himself as he -thought) should catch and know all things afterwards. Finn, who conceals -his name, takes service with him and the salmon is caught. Finn is set to -watch it while it roasts, but warned not to eat of it. Inadvertently he -touches it with his thumb, which he burns, and carries to his mouth to -cool. Immediately he becomes possessed of all knowledge, and thereafter he -had only to chew his thumb to obtain wisdom. Finn-eges recognises that the -prophecy has been fulfilled, and hails his pupil as Finn. - -It is needless to dwell upon the archaic features of this tale, which -represents the hero seeking service of a powerful magician, from whom he -hopes to learn the spells and charms that may guard him against his foes. -Here, as in many other portions of the Ossianic saga, Fionn is strikingly -like a Red Indian medicine man, or the corresponding wizard among other -savage tribes. It is more to our purpose to note that this tale contains -the fullest presentment of Fionn as hero of the Expulsion and Return -Formula, and that a similar incident is to be found in the lives of other -heroes of the formula (notably Siegfried: the Adventure with Mimir.) Now, -as we have already seen that Peredur-Perceval is a formula hero, there is -nothing remarkable in finding an analogous incident in his _sage_. A -formal connection is thus at once made out. But we must look into the -matter a little closer, as the incident found in the romances is but a -faint echo, and that in part distorted by alien conceptions, of the -original story. - -The unspelling quest in one form resolves itself ultimately into the -hero's search for riches, power, or knowledge, in prosecution of which he -penetrates to the otherworld. This is figured in the Grail romances both -by Brons' or Alain's (who here answers to Fionn) catching the wonderful -fish, and by Peredur-Perceval coming to the house of Brons, the Fisher -King (who here answers to Finn-eges), winning from him the mysterious -vessel of increase, and learning the secret words which put an end to the -enchantments of Britain. In the Grail romances the idea of wisdom is not -associated with the Grail, the vessel, at all; it is either bound up with -the fish, as in the Irish tale, or is the possession of the Fisher King as -the wonder-working spells are the possession of Finn-eges. - -But in the Welsh tradition which corresponds to that of Fionn and the -salmon, it is the vessel, the cauldron, or rather the drink which it -holds, which communicates the gift of wisdom and knowledge. I allude, of -course, to the story of Gwion, set by Ceridwen to watch the cauldron of -inspiration, inadvertently tasting its contents, becoming thereby filled -with knowledge, pursued by Ceridwen, who swallows him, and in whom he -re-incarnates himself as Taliesin, the Allwise Bard. Campbell had already -(Vol. IV., p. 299) drawn attention to the similarity of the two stories, -and equated Fionn, father of Oisin, with Gwion, father of Taliesin; and, -as Professor Rhys has now (Hibbert Lectures, p. 551) given the equation -his sanction, it may be accepted as philologically sound. - -I have hitherto refrained in the course of these studies from making any -use of the Mabinogi of Taliesin, or of references to the cauldron of -Ceridwen of a like nature with those contained in that tale; but it will, -I think, be admitted now that the Welsh Mabinogi, however late in form, -and however overlaid it may be with pseudo-archaic bardic rubbish, does go -back to a primitive stratum of Celtic mythology. - -In connection with this myth the name Brons is of high import. This -catcher of the fish, this lord of the Grail, at once suggests Bran, who is -also a guardian of the magic cauldron. Professor Rhys (pp. 85-95) shows -reason for looking upon Bran (as he is presented in the Mabinogi of -Branwen) as the representative of an old Celtic god, Cernunnos, that -Celtic Dis from whom, as Caesar reports, the Gauls claimed descent, and -who, as god of the otherworld and the shades was also god of knowledge and -riches. We are thus brought back again to the fundamental conception of -the Grail quest. - -It is to this tale that I would turn for one of the possible explanations -of Perceval's silence at the Court of the Fisher King. That the romance -writers did not understand this incident is evident from the explanation -they give. - -Gonemans' moral advice to his nephew on the evil of curiosity may have its -foundation in a possible feature of the original, about which I shall -speak presently; or it may simply be an expedient of Chrestien's or of his -immediate model. In either case its present form is obviously neither old -nor genuine. The silence of Perceval may, perhaps, be referred to the same -myth-root as Fionn's concealment of his name whilst in the service of -Finn-eges.[134] This prohibition might extend not only to the disclosing -of his name by the mortal visitor to the realm of the shades, but to the -utterance of any words at all. As he might not eat or drink in the -underworld, so he might not speak lest he lose the power to return to the -land of the living. One tale we have seen (_supra_, p. 195) does contain -this very injunction to say no word whilst in company of the dwellers in -the Bespelled Castle. In this case we should have to assume that two -varying redactions of the theme have been maladroitly fused into one in -the romances--that, namely, which bids the visitor to the otherworld -abstain from a certain act, and that which, on the contrary, bids him -perform a certain act, failure of compliance with the injunction being -punished in either case. The positive injunction of one form of the story -is used as an explanation of the hero's failure in another. - -An alternative hypothesis is that whilst the hero's unreadiness of speech, -the cause of his want of success at his first visit, comes wholly from the -unspelling quest, the motive by which the romances seek to account for -that unreadiness comes from the feud quest. The latter, as has been shown, -is closely akin to many task-stories; and it is a frequent feature in such -stories, especially in the Celtic ones, that the hero has to accomplish -his quest in spite of all sorts of odd restrictions which are laid upon -him by an enemy, generally by a step-mother or some other evil-disposed -relative. In the language of Irish mythic tradition Perceval would be -under _geasa_ to ask no questions, and Gonemans' advice would be the last -faint echo of such an incident. The form which such prohibitions take in -Celtic folk-tales is very curious. The _gess_ is generally embodied in a -magical formula, the language of which is very old and frequently -unintelligible to the narrators themselves. As a rule, the hero, by advice -of a friendly supernatural being, lays a counterspell upon his enemy. -Thus, in "How the Great Tuairsgeul was put to Death" (Scot. Celt. Rev. I., -p. 70) the magician "lays it as crosses and charms that water leave not -your shoe until you found out how the Great Tuairsgeul was put to death." -The hero retorts by laying the same charms that the magician leave not the -hillock until he return. In Campbell, No. XLVII., Mac Iain Direach, the -stepmother, "sets it as crosses, and as spells, and as the decay of the -year upon thee; that thou be not without a pool of water in thy shoe, and -that thou be wet, cold, and soiled until, etc.;" and the hero bespells -her, "that thou be standing with the one foot on the great house and the -other foot on the castle: and that thy face be to the tempest whatever -wind blows, until I return back." The formula in Campbell, No. LI, the -Fair Gruagach is very archaic. "I lay thee under spells, and under -crosses, under holy herdsmen of quiet travelling, wandering woman, the -little calf, most feeble and powerless, to take thy head and thine ear and -thy wearing of life from off thee if thou takest rest by night or day; -where thou takest thy breakfast that thou take not thy dinner, and where -thou takest thy dinner that thou take not thy supper, in whatsoever place -thou be, until thou findest out in what place I may be under the four -brown quarters of the globe." - -These instances will suffice to show the nature of the _gess_ in Celtic -folk-lore, but some references to older Irish literature are necessary to -show its great importance in the social and religious life of the race. -O'Donovan (Book of Rights, p. xlv.) explains the word _geasa_ as "any -thing or act forbidden because of the ill luck that would result from its -doing;" also "a spell, a charm, a prohibition, an interdiction or -hindrance." This explanation occurs in the introduction to a poem on the -restrictions (_geasa_) and prerogatives (_buada_) of the Kings of Eire, -found in the Book of Ballymote (late fourteenth century) and Book of Lecan -(early fifteenth century). The poem is ascribed to Cuan O'Lochain (A.D. -1024), and, from the historical allusions contained in it, O'Donovan looks -upon it as in substance due to that poet, and as embodying much older -traditions. Some of these _geasa_ may be quoted. For the King of Eire, -"that the sun should rise upon him on his bed in Magh Teamhrach;" for the -King of Leinster, "to go round Tuath Laighean left hand-wise on -Wednesday;" for the King of Munster, "to remain, to enjoy the feast of -Loch Lein from one Monday to another;" for the King of Connaught, "to go -in a speckled garment on a grey speckled steed to the heath of Luchaid;" -for the King of Ulster, "to listen to the fluttering of the flocks of -birds of Luin Saileach after sunset."[135] Even these instances do not -exhaust the force or adequately connote the nature of this curious -institution. In the Irish hero-tales _geasa_ attach themselves to the hero -from his birth up, and are the means by which fate compasses the downfall -of the otherwise invincible champion; thus it is a _gess_ of Diarmaid that -he never hunt a swine, and when he is artfully trapped into doing it by -Fionn he meets his death; it is a _gess_ of Cuchulainn's that he never -refuse food offered him by women, and as he goes to his last fight he -accepts the poisoned meal of the witches though he full well knows it will -be fatal to him.[136] But, besides this, _geasa_ may also be an appeal to -the hero's honour as well as a magic charm laid upon him, and it is -sometimes difficult to see by which of the two motives the hero is moved. -Thus Graine, wife of Fionn, lays _geasa_ upon Diarmaid that he carry her -off from her husband, and though he is in the last degree unwilling he -must comply.[137] - -Enough has been said to show that we have in the _geasa_ a cause quite -sufficient to explain the mysterious prohibition to ask questions laid -upon Perceval, if the first explanation I have offered of this prohibition -be thought inadequate. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - - Summing up of the elements of the older portion of the - cycle--Parallelism with Celtic tradition--The Christian element in the - cycle: the two forms of the Early History; Brons form older--Brons and - Bran--The Bran conversion legend--The Joseph conversion legend: Joseph - in apocryphal literature--Glastonbury--The head in the platter and the - Veronica portrait--The Bran legend the starting point of the Christian - transformation of the legend--Substitution of Joseph for - Bran--Objections to this hypothesis--Hypothetical sketch of the growth - of the legend. - - -I have now finished the examination of all those incidents in the Grail -Quest romances which are obviously derived from some other sources than -Christian legend, and which are, indeed, referred by pronounced adherents -of the Christian-origin hypothesis to Celtic tradition. I have also -claimed a Celtic origin for features hitherto referred to Christian -legend. This examination will, I trust, convince many that nearly all the -incidents connected with the Quest of the Grail are Celtic in their -origin, and that thus alone can we account for the way in which they -appear in the romances. The latter are, as we have seen, in the highest -degree inconsistent in their account of the mystic vessel and its -fortunes; the most cursory examination shows the legend to be composed of -two parts, which have no real connection with each other; the older of -these parts, the Quest, can easily be freed from the traces of Christian -symbolism; this older part is itself no homogeneous or consistent tale, -but a complex of incidents diverse in origin and character. These -incidents are: the rearing of the hero in ignorance of the world and of -men; his visit to the court of the King, his uncle; his slaying of his -father's murderer, the trial made of him by means of the broken sword; his -service with the Fisher King; his quest in search of the sword and of the -vessel by means of which he is to avenge the death or wounding of his -kinsman; his accomplishment of this task by the aid of a kinsman who is -under spells from which he will not be loosed until the quest be ended; -the adventure of the stag-hunt, in which the bespelled kinsman tests the -hero's skill and courage; the hero's visit to the Castle of Talismans; the -prohibition under which he labours; his failure to accomplish certain -acts; the effects of his failure; his visit to the Magic Castle, the lord -of which is under the enchantment of death-in-life; his visit to the -Castle of Maidens; his visit to the Castle Perillous; and his deliverance -of the captive damsels by means of the trials which he successfully -undergoes. To one and all of these incidents Celtic parallels have been -adduced; these have in each case been drawn from stories which present a -general similarity of outline with the Grail romances, or share with them -similar guiding conceptions, whilst at the same time they are so far -disconnected with them that no hypothesis of borrowing can account for the -features they have in common. The inconsistencies of the romances have -been explained by the fusion into one of two originally distinct groups of -stories, and this explanation is confirmed by the fact that traces of this -fusion may readily be found in the parallel Celtic tales. These latter, -when studied by scholars who never thought of comparing them with the -Grail romances, have been found to contain mythical elements which other -scholars had detected independently in the romances. Those features of the -romances which have perplexed previous students, the Fisher King and the -omitted question, have been explained from the same group of Celtic -traditions, and in accordance with the same scheme of mythical -interpretation which have been used to throw light upon the remainder of -the cycle. Finally, the one Celtic version of the Grail Quest, the -Mabinogi, which presents no admixture of Christian symbolism, has been -shown, when cleared of certain easily distinguishable interpolations, to -be genuine in character, and to present the oldest form of one of the -stories which enters into the romances. - -I have tried not to force these parallels, nor to go one step beyond what -the facts warrant. I have also tried to bear in mind that a parallel is of -no real value unless it throws light upon the puzzling features in the -development of the romances. I thus rest my case, not so much upon the -accumulative effect of the similarities which I have pointed out between -the romances and Celtic tradition, as upon the fact that this reference of -the romances to certain definite cycles of Celtic myth and legend makes us -understand, what otherwise we cannot do, how they came by their present -shape. It now remains to be seen if this reference, can in any way explain -the Christian element in the legend, which I have hitherto left almost -entirely out of account. Birch-Hirschfeld's hypothesis is condemned, in my -opinion, by its failure to account for the Celtic element; although I do -not think an explanation of a late and intruding feature is as incumbent -upon me as that of the original Celtic basis of the legend is upon him, I -yet feel that an hypothesis which has nothing to say on such a vital point -can hardly be considered satisfactory. It is the Christian transformation -of the old Celtic myths and folk-tales which gave them their wide vogue in -the Middle Ages, which endowed the theme with such fascination for the -preachers and philosophers who used it as a vehicle for their teaching, -and which has endeared it to all lovers of mystic symbolism. The question -how and why the Celtic tales which I have tried, not unsuccessfully I -trust, to disentangle from the romances were ever brought into contact -with Christ and His disciples, and how the old mystic vessel of healing, -increase, and knowledge became at last the sacramental cup, must, -therefore, be faced. The hypotheses set forth in the preceding page might -be accepted in their entirety, and the merit of this transformation still -be claimed, as Birch-Hirschfeld claims it, for the North French poets, to -whom we owe the present versions of the romances. On first reading -Birch-Hirschfeld's book, I thought this claim one of the flaws in his -argument, and, as will be seen by reference to Chapter IV., other -investigators, who accept the Christian origin of the larger part of the -legend, hold that it has been shaped in these islands, or in accordance -with Celtic traditions now lost. I think we can go a step farther. A -number of myths and tales have been used to illustrate the romances. In -them may be found the personages through whom probably took place the -first contact between Celtic mythic tradition and Christian legend. - -We must revert for one moment to the results obtained in Chapter III. by -an examination of the way in which the Grail and its fortunes are -mentioned in the romances. We there distinguished two forms of the -distinctively Christian portion of the legend, the Early History. In both -Joseph is the first possessor and user of the holy vessel, but in one its -farther fortunes are likewise bound up with him or with his seed. He, or -his son, it is who leads the Grail host to Britain, who converts the -island, and by whom the precious vessel is handed down through a chosen -line of kings in anticipation of the promised Knight's coming. In the -other form, on the contrary, Joseph has nothing to do with Britain, which -is converted by Brons and his son, Alain; Brons is the guardian of the -holy vessel, and, in one version, the fisher of the mystic fish, whilst in -another his son takes this part. There is repeated insistence upon the -connection between the Grail host and Avalon. Finally Brons is the -possessor of "secret words," and may not die until he has revealed them to -his grandson. - -This account is, we saw, later in form than the Joseph one. As we have it, -it was written after the greater portion of the Conte du Graal, after that -redaction of the Early History made use of by the author of the Queste and -of the first draft of the Grand St. Graal. Its influence only makes itself -felt in the later stages of development of the legend. But none the less -it clearly represents an older and purer form of the Early History than -that of the Queste and of Chrestien's continuators. It has not been -doctored into harmony with the full-blown Arthurian legend as the Joseph -Early History has. It is still chiefly, if not wholly, a legend, the main -purport of which is to recount the conversion of Britain. - -Such a legend is surely more likely to have been shaped by Welsh or Breton -monks than by North French _trouveres_. And when we notice the Celtic -names of the personages, and their connection with the Celtic paradise, -Avalon, there can remain little, if any, doubt respecting the first home -of the story. We may thus look upon Brons, owner of a mystic vessel, -fisher of a mystic fish, as the hero of an early conversion legend. But -the name Brons has at once suggested to most students of the cycle that of -Bran. The latter is, as we saw in the last Chapter, the representative of -an old Celtic god of the otherworld. He is the owner of the cauldron of -renovation. He is also the hero in Welsh tradition of a conversion legend, -and is commonly known as Bran the Blessed. Unfortunately the only -explanation we have of this epithet occurs in a late triad, to which it is -not safe to assign an earlier date than the fourteenth century. He is -described therein as son of Llyr Llediath, "as one of the three blissful -Rulers of the Island of Britain, who first brought the faith of Christ to -the nation of the Cymry from Rome, where he was seven years a hostage for -his son Caradawc."[138] But if late in form this triad may well embody an -old tradition. It gives the significant descent of Bran from Llyr, and -thereby equates him with Mannanan Mac Lir, with whom he presents otherwise -so many points of contact. It is quite true that the Bran legend, as is -pointed out to me by Professor Rhys, is mentioned neither in the earliest -genealogies nor in Geoffrey. But it should be noted that the Grand St. -Graal does bring one member of the Brons group, Petrus, into contact with -King Luces, the Lucius to whom Geoffrey ascribes the conversion. Again, -the epithet "blessed" is applied to Bran in the Mabinogi of Branwen, -daughter of Llyr. I have placed this tale as a whole as far back as the -eleventh-tenth centuries, and my arguments have met with no opposition, -and have won the approval of such authorities as Professor Windisch and -Monsieur Gaidoz. But the Mabinogi, as we have it, was written down in the -fourteenth century; the last transcriber abridged it, and at times did not -apparently understand what he was transcribing. By his time the full-blown -Bran legend of the triad was in existence, and it may be contended that -the epithet was due to him and did not figure in his model. On the other -hand, Stephens (Lit. of the Cymry, p. 425) quotes a triad of Kynddelw, a -poet of the twelfth century, referring to the three blessed families of -the Isle of Britain, one of which is declared by a later tradition to be -that of Bran.[139] Again, the triads of Arthur and his Warriors, printed -by Mr. Skene, Four Ancient Books, Vol. II., p. 457, from MS. Hengwrt, 566, -of the beginning of the fourteenth century, and probably at least fifty -years older, mentions the "blessed head of Bran."[140] On the whole, in -spite of the silence of older sources, I look upon the epithet and the -legend which it presupposes as old, and I see in a confusion between Bran, -Lord of the Cauldron, and Bran the Blessed, the first step of the -transformation of the Peredur _sage_ into the Quest of the Holy Grail. In -the first capacity Bran corresponds to the Lord of the Castle of -Talismans. From the way in which the fish is dwelt upon in his legend, it -may, indeed, be conjectured that he stood to Peredur in some such relation -as Finn-eges to Fionn. As hero of a conversion legend he came into contact -with Joseph. We do not know how or at what date the legend of the -conversion of Britain by Joseph originated. It is found enjoying wide -popularity in the latter half of the twelfth century, the very time in -which the romances were assuming their present shape. Wuelcker (Das -Evangelium Nicodemi in der abendlaendischen Literatur, Paderborn, 1872) -shows that the legend is not met with before William of Malmesbury; and -Zarncke, as already stated (_supra_, p. 107), has argued that the passage -in William is a late interpolation due to the popularity of the -romances.[141] But to accept Zarncke's contention merely shifts back the -difficulty. If William did not first note and give currency to the -tradition, the unknown predecessor of Robert de Borron and of the authors -of the Queste and Grand St. Graal did so; and the question still remains -how did he come by the tradition, and what led him to associate it with -Glastonbury. Birch-Hirschfeld, it is true, makes short work of this -difficulty. The fact that there is no earlier legend in which Joseph -figures as the Apostle of Britain is to him proof that Borron evolved the -conception of the Grail out of the canonical and apocryphal writings in -which Joseph appears, and then devised the passage to Britain in order to -incorporate the Arthurian romances with the legend he had invented. It is -needless to repeat that this theory, unacceptable on _a priori_ grounds, -is still more so when tested by facts. - -But Joseph under other aspects than that of Apostle of Britain is worthy -of notice. The main source whence the legend writers drew their knowledge -of him was the Evangelium Nicodemi, the history of which has been -investigated by Wuelcker. The earliest allusion in western literature to -this apocryphal gospel is that of Gregory of Tours (Wuelcker, p. 23), but -no other trace of its influence is to be met with in France until we come -to the Grail romances, and to mystery-plays which relate Christ's -Harrowing of Hell. In Provence, Italy, and Germany the thirteenth and -twelfth centuries are the earliest to which this gospel can be traced. In -England, on the contrary, it was known as far back as the latter quarter -of the eighth century; Cynewulf based upon it a poem on the Harrowing of -Hell, and alludes to it in the Crist; the ninth century poem, "Christ and -Satan," likewise shows knowledge of it, and there is a West-Saxon -translation dating from the early eleventh century. - -Whence this knowledge and popularity of the gospel in England several -centuries before it entered prominently into the literature of any other -European people? Wuelcker can only point by way of answer to the early -spread of Christianity in these Islands, and to the possibility of this -gospel having reached England before it did France or Germany. He also -insists upon the early development of Anglo-Saxon literature. - -Whether the fact that the apocryphal writings which told of Joseph were -known here when they were unknown on the Continent be held to warrant or -no the existence of a specifically British Joseph legend, they at all -events prove that he was a familiar and favourite legendary figure on -British soil. It would be rash to go any farther, and to argue from the -inadequacy of the reasons by which Wuelcker seeks to account for the early -knowledge of the Evangelium Nicodemi in England, that Joseph enjoyed -particular favour among the British Christians, and that it was from them -the tidings of him spread among their Saxon conquerors. - -The legendary popularity of Joseph in these islands, though not in any -special capacity of Apostle of Britain, is thus attested. Let us admit for -argument's sake that the conversion legend did first take shape in the -twelfth century, is it not more likely to have done so here, where the -apocryphal writings about him were widely spread, than in France, where -they were practically unknown? And why if Borron, or any other French -poet, wanted to connect the Holy Vessel legend which he had imagined with -Arthur, should he go out of his way to invent the personages of Brons and -Alain? The story as found in the Queste would surely have been a far more -natural one for him. And why the insistence upon Avalon? We have plain -proof that Borron did not understand the word, as he explains it by a -ridiculous pun (_supra_, p. 78).[142] - -These difficulties are met in a large measure if we look upon Bran -(Brons) as the starting point of the Christian transformation of the -legend. In any case we may say that a conversion legend, whether -associated with Joseph or anyone else, would almost inevitably have -gravitated towards Glastonbury, but there are special reasons why this -should be the case with a Bran legend. Avalon is certainly the Welsh -equivalent of the Irish Tir na n-Og, the land of youth, the land beyond -the waves, the Celtic paradise. When or how this Cymric myth was localised -at Glastonbury we know not.[143] We only know that Glastonbury was one of -the first places in the island to be devoted to Christian worship. Is it -too rash a conjecture that the Christian church may have taken the place -of some Celtic temple or holy spot specially dedicated to the cult of the -dead, and of that Lord of the Shades from which the Celts feigned their -descent? The position of Glastonbury, not far from that western sea beyond -which lie the happy isles of the dead, would favour such an hypothesis. -Although direct proof is wanting, I believe that the localisation is old -and genuine: Bran, ruler of the otherworld, of Avalon, would thus come -into natural contact with Glastonbury; and if, as I assume, Joseph took -his place in the conversion legend the association would extend to him. -The after development of the legend would then be almost a matter of -course. Bran, the ruler in Avalon, would pass on his magic gear (cauldron, -spear, and sword, as in the case of the Tuatha de Dannan) to Bran the -Blessed, who would in his turn transfer them to Joseph. And once the -latter had entered into the legend, he would not fail to recall that last -scene of the Lord's life with which he was so closely associated, not by -any pseudo-gospel but by the canonical writings themselves, and thus the -gear of the old Celtic gods became transformed into such objects as were -most prominent in the story of the Passion and of the scene that -immediately preceded it. The spear became that one wherewith Christ's side -was pierced. As for the vessel, the sacramental nature is the last stage -of its Christian development; its original object was merely to explain -the sustenance of Joseph in prison, and to provide a miraculous -refreshment for the Grail host, as is shown by the Early History portion -of the Conte du Graal and by the Queste. In a dim and confused way the -circumstances of the Resurrection helped to effect the change of the pagan -resuscitation-cauldron into a symbol of the risen Lord. And some now lost -feature of the original legend--some insistence upon the _contents_ of the -vessel, some assimilation of them to blood--may have suggested the use to -which the vessel was first put. - -This hypothesis assumes many things. It assumes a Bran conversion legend, -of which the only evidence of anything like the same date as the romances -is a single epithet; it assumes that the hero of this legend was -originally an old Celtic divinity; it assumes a Joseph conversion legend, -for which there is really no other evidence than that of the romances; it -assumes the amalgamation of the two legends, and that Joseph took over in -a large measure the _role_ and characteristics of Brons. And when it is -recollected that the primary assumption, the identification of the two -Brans, rests in a large measure upon the appearance of the fish in the -Brons legend, that this fish is nowhere in Celtic tradition associated -with Bran, that it is associated on the other hand with a being, Fionn, -whom we have compared with Peredur, but that it is absent from the -Peredur-saga, the hypothesis must be admitted to be of a tentative nature. -I fully appreciate the force of the objections that can be urged against -it; at the same time it has the merit of accounting for many puzzling -features in the legend. When in the same story two personages can be -distinguished whose _role_ is more or less of the same nature, when the -one personage is subordinated in one version and has disappeared -altogether from the other, it is quite legitimate to conclude that two -originally independent accounts have become blended, and that one has -absorbed the other. The hypothesis is on safe ground so far. It thus -explains the presence of Brons in the legend, as well as his absence from -some versions of it; it has something to say in explanation of the -connection with Glastonbury; it explains in what way the Celtic traditions -were started on their path of transformation; and it provides for that -transformation taking the very course it did. There is nothing to be urged -against it on _a priori_ grounds; once admit the premisses, and the rest -follows easily and naturally. Its conjectural character (the main -objection to it) is shared in an even higher degree by the other -hypotheses, which have essayed to account for the growth and origin of the -legend, and _they_ have the disadvantage of being inherently impossible. - -In the light of the foregoing investigations and hypotheses we may now -amplify the sketch history of the whole cycle given in Chapter III. The -Peredur-saga probably came into existence in much its later form at an -early date in the Middle Ages. A number of older mythical tales centered -in a, perhaps, historical personage. The circumstances of his life and -adventures may have given them not only cohesion, but may also have -coloured and distorted them; nevertheless they remained, in the main, -mythical tales of the same kind as those found all over the world. One of -these tales was undoubtedly a Cymric variant of the Celtic form of the -Expulsion and Return formula; another dealt with the hero's journey to the -Land of Shades; traces of many others are to be found in the Mabinogi. -Another Celtic worthy, Gwalchmai, was early associated with Peredur, and -the two stood in some such relation to each other as the twin brethren of -a widely spread folk-tale group. Curiously enough, whilst comparatively -few incidents in the Peredur-saga were worked up into the version which -served as immediate model to the North French romances, that version -contained many adventures of Gwalchmai's which have not been preserved in -Welsh. We can trace three main crystallizations of the original saga-mass; -one represented by the Proto-Mabinogi contained the feud quest, and, -probably, some only of the other adventures found in the present Mabinogi; -the second, based more on the lines of the Expulsion and Return formula, -is represented by the Thornton MS. romance; in the third the feud quest -was mixed up with the hero's visit to the Bespelled Castle, and those -portions of the Gwalchmai-saga which told of his visit to Castle Perillous -as well as to the Bespelled Castle. Whilst the Proto-Mabinogi was probably -in prose, the Proto-Conte du Graal was probably in verse, a collection of -short _lais_ like those of Marie de France. Meanwhile, one of the chief -personages of the older mythic world which appear in the Peredur-saga, -Bran, the Lord of the Land of Shades, of the Bespelled Castle, of the -cauldron of healing, increase and wisdom, and of the knowledge-giving -salmon, had become the Apostle of Britain, his pagan attributes thus -suffering a Christian change, which was perfected when Joseph took the -place of Brons, bringing with him his gospel associations and the -apocryphal legends that had clustered round his name. Thus a portion of -the saga was Christianised, whilst the other portion lost its old, fixed -popular character, owing to the fusion of originally distinct elements, -and the consequent unsettling both of the outlines and of the details of -the story. Incidents and features which in the earlier folk-tale stage -were sharply defined and intelligible became vague and mysterious. In this -state, and bearing upon it the peculiarly weird and fantastic impress of -Celtic mythic tradition, the story, or story-mass rather, lay ready to the -hand of courtly poet or of clerical mystic. At first Christian symbolism -was introduced in a slight and meagre way--the Brons-Joseph legend -supplied the Christian meaning of the talismans, and that was all. But the -Joseph legend was soon vigorously developed by the author of the work -which underlies the Queste and the Grand St. Graal. He may either not have -known or have deliberately discarded Brons, the old Celtic hero of the -conversion, as he certainly deliberately thrust down from his place of -pre-eminence Perceval, the Celtic hero of the Quest, substituting for him -a new hero, Galahad, and for the adventures of the Conte du Graal, based -as they were upon no guiding conceptions, fresh adventures intended to -glorify physical chastity. With all his mystic fervour he failed to see -the full capacities of the theme, his presentment of the Grail itself -being in especial either over-material or over-spiritual. But his work -exercised a profound influence, as is seen in the case of Chrestien's -continuators. Robert de Borron, on the other hand, if to him the merit -must be assigned, if he was not simply transcribing an older, forgotten -version, was a more original thinker, if a less gifted writer. Although he -was not able to entirely harmonise the conflicting accounts of which he -made use, he yet succeeded in keeping close to the old lines of the legend -whilst giving a consistent symbolical meaning to all its details. His work -came too late, however, to exercise the influence it should have done upon -the development of the legend; the writers who knew it were mere heapers -together of adventures, and the very man who composed a sequel to it -abandoned Robert's main conception. - -The history of the Legend of the Holy Grail is, thus, the history of the -gradual transformation of old Celtic folk-tales into a poem charged with -Christian symbolism and mysticism. This transformation, at first the -inevitable outcome of its pre-Christian development, was hastened later by -the perception that it was a fitting vehicle for certain moral and -spiritual ideas. These have been touched upon incidentally in the course -of these studies, but they and their manifestation in modern as well as in -mediaeval literature deserve fuller notice. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - - Popularity of the Arthurian Romance--Reasons for that - Popularity--Affinities of the Mediaeval Romances with early Celtic - Literature; Importance of the Individual Hero; Knighthood; the _role_ - of Woman; the Celtic Fairy and the Mediaeval Lady; the Supernatural--M. - Renan's views--The Quest in English Literature, Malory--The earliest - form of the Legend, Chrestien, his continuators--The Queste and its - Ideal--The Sex-Relations in the Middle Ages--Criticism of Mr. - Furnivall's estimate of the moral import of the Queste--The Merits of - the Queste--The Chastity Ideal in the later versions--Modern English - Treatments: Tennyson, Hawker--Possible Source of the Chastity Ideal in - Popular Tradition--The Perceval Quest in Wolfram; his Moral - Conception; the Question; Parzival and Conduiramur--The Parzival Quest - and Faust--Wagner's Parsifal--The Christian element in the - Legend--Ethical Ideas in the folk-tale originals of the Grail - Romances: the Great Fool, the Sleeping Beauty--Conclusion. - - -Few legends have attained such wide celebrity, or been accepted as so -thoroughly symbolical of one master conception, as that of the Holy Grail. -Poets and thinkers from mediaeval times to our own days have used it as a -type of the loftiest goal of man's effort. There must be something in the -romances which first embodied this conception to account for the enduring -favour it has enjoyed. Nor is it that we read into the old legend meanings -and teachings undreamt of before our day. At a comparatively early stage -in the legend's existence its capacities were perceived, and the works -which were the outcome of that perception became the breviary and the -exemplar of their age. There are reasons, both general and special, why -the Celtic mythic tales grew as they did, and had such overwhelming vogue -in their new shapes. In no portion of the vast Arthurian cycle is it more -needful or more instructive to see what these reasons were than in that -which recounts the fortunes of the Grail. - -The tales of Peredur and Gwalchmai, bound up with the Arthurian romance, -shared its success, than which nothing in all literary history is more -marvellous. It was in the year 1145 that Geoffrey of Monmouth first made -the legendary history of Britain accessible to the lettered class of -England and Continent. He thereby opened up to the world at large a new -continent of romantic story, and exercised upon the development of -literature an influence comparable in its kind to that of Columbus' -achievement upon the course of geographical discovery and political -effort. Twenty years had not passed before the British heroes were -household names throughout Europe, and by the close of the century nearly -every existing literature had assimilated and reproduced the story of -Arthur and his Knights. Charlemagne and Alexander, the sagas of Teutonic -tribes, the tale of Imperial Rome itself, though still affording subject -matter to the wandering jongleur or monkish annalist, paled before the -fame of the British King. The instinct which led the twelfth and -thirteenth centuries thus to place the Arthurian story above all others -was a true one. It was charged with the spirit of romance, and they were -pre-eminently the ages of the romantic temper. The West had turned back -towards the East, and, although the intent was hostile, the minds of the -western men had been fecundated, their imagination fired by contact with -the mother of all religions and all cultures. The achievements of the -Crusaders became the standard of attainment to the loftiest and boldest -minds of Western Christendom. For these men Alexander himself lacked -courage and Roland daring. The fathers had stormed Jerusalem, and the -sons' youth had been nourished on tales of Araby the Blest and Ophir the -Golden of strife with the Paynim, of the sorceries and devilries of the -East. Nothing seemed impossible to a generation which knew of toils and -quests greater than any minstrel had sung, which had beheld in the East -sights as wondrous and fearful as any the jongleur could tell of. -Moreover, the age was that of Knight Errantry, and of that phase of love -in which every Knight must qualify himself for the reception of his lady's -favours by the performance of some feat of skill and daring. Such an age -and such men demanded a special literature, and they found it in -adaptations of Celtic tales. - -The mythic heroic literature of all races is in many respects alike. The -sagas not only of Greek or Persian, of Celt or Hindu, of Slav or Teuton, -but also of Algonquin or Japanese, are largely made up of the same -incidents set in the same framework. But each race shapes this common -material in its own way, sets upon it its own stamp. And no race has done -this more unmistakably than the Celtic. Stories which go back to the first -century, stories taken down from the lips of living peasants, have a -kinship of tone and style, a common ring which no one who has studied this -literature can fail to recognise. What stamps the whole of it is the -prevailing and abiding spirit of romance. To rightly urge the Celtic -character of the Arthurian romances would require the minute analysis of -many hundred passages, and it would only be proving a case admitted by -everyone who knows all the facts. It will be more to the point to dwell -briefly upon those outward features which early (_i.e._, pre-eleventh -century) Celtic heroic literature has in common with the North French -romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, especially as we thus -gain a clue to much that is problematic in the formal and moral growth of -the Arthurian cycle in general and of the Grail cycle in particular. - -In Celtic tradition, as little as in mediaeval romance, do we find a record -of race-struggles such as meets us in the Nibelungenlied, in the Dietrich -saga, or the Carolingian cycle.[144] In its place we have a glorification -of the individual hero. The reason is not far to seek. The Celtic tribes, -whether of Ireland or Britain, were surrounded by men of their own speech, -of like institutions and manners. The shock of opposing nations, of rival -civilisations, could not enter into their race-tradition. The -story-teller had as his chief theme the prowess and skill of the -individual "brave," the part he took in the conflicts which clan -incessantly waged with clan, or his encounters with those powers of an -older mythic world which lived on in the folk-fancy. To borrow Mr. -Fitzgerald's convenient terminology, the "constants" of this tradition may -be the same as in that of other Aryan races, the "resultants" are not. To -give one instance: the conception of a chief surrounded by a picked band -of warriors is common to all heroic tradition, but nowhere is it of such -marked importance, nowhere does it so mould and shape the story as in the -cycles of Conchobor and the Knights of the Red Branch, of Fionn and the -Fianna, and of Arthur and his Knights. The careers of any of the early -Irish heroes, the single-handed raids of Cet mac Magach or Conall -Cearnach, above all the fortunes of Cuchullain, his hero's training in the -Amazon-isle, his strife with Curoi mac Daire, his expeditions to -fairy-land, his final holding of the ford against all the warriors of -Erinn, breathe the same spirit of adventure for its own sake, manifest the -same subordination of all else in the story to the one hero, that are such -marked characteristics of the Arthurian romance. - -Again, in the bands of picked braves who surround Conchobor or Fionn, in -the rules by which they are governed, the trials which precede and -determine admission into them, the duties and privileges which attach to -them, we have, it seems to me, a far closer analogue to the knighthood of -mediaeval romance than may be found either in the Peers of Carolingian saga -or in the chosen warriors who throng the halls of Walhalla. - -In the present connection the part played by woman in Celtic tradition is -perhaps of most import to us. In no respect is the difference more marked -than in this between the twelfth century romances, whether French or -German, and the earlier heroic literature of either nation. The absence of -feminine interest in the earlier _chansons de geste_ has often been noted. -The case is different with Teutonic heroic literature, in which woman's -_role_ is always great, sometimes pre-eminently so. But a comparison of -the two strains of traditions, Celtic and Teutonic, one with the other, -and again with the romances, may help to account for much that is -otherwise inexplicable to us in the mediaeval presentment of the -sex-feelings and sex-relations. - -The love of man, and immortal, or, if mortal, semi-divine maid is a -"constant" of heroic tradition. Teuton and Celt have handled this theme, -however, in a very different spirit. In the legends of the former the man -plays the chief part; he woos, sometimes he forces the fairy maiden to -become the mistress of his hearth. As a rule, overmastered by the prowess -and beauty of the hero, she is nothing loth. But sometimes, as does -Brunhild, she feels the change a degradation and resents it. It is -otherwise with the fairy mistresses of the Celtic hero; they abide in -their own place, and they allure or compel the mortal lover to resort to -them. Connla and Bran and Oisin must all leave this earth and sail across -ocean or lake before they can rejoin their lady love; even Cuchullain, -mightiest of all the heroes, is constrained, struggle as he may, to go and -dwell with the fairy queen Fand, who has woed him. Throughout, the -immortal mistress retains her superiority; when the mortal tires and -returns to earth she remains, ever wise and fair, ready to welcome and -enchant a new generation of heroes. She chooses whom she will, and is no -man's slave; herself she offers freely, but she abandons neither her -liberty nor her divine nature. This type of womanhood, capricious, -independent, severed from ordinary domestic life, is assuredly the -original of the Vivians, the Orgueilleuses, the Ladies of the Fountain of -the romances; it is also one which must have commended itself to the -knightly devotees of mediaeval romantic love. Their "_dame d'amour_" was, -as a rule, another man's wife; she raised in their minds no thought of -home or child. In the tone of their feelings towards her, in the character -of their intercourse with her, they were closer akin to Oisin and Neave, -to Cuchullain and Fand, than to Siegfried and Brunhild, or to Roland and -Aude. Even where the love-story passes wholly among mortals, the woman's -_role_ is more accentuated than in the Teutonic sagas. She is no mere -lay-figure upon a fire-bound rock like Brunhild or Menglad, ready, when -the destined hero appears, to fall straightway into his arms. Emer, the -one maiden of Erinn whom Cuchullain condescends to woo, is eager to show -herself in all things worthy of him; she tests his wit as well as his -courage, she makes him accept her conditions.[145] In the great tragic -tale of ancient Ireland, the Fate of the Sons of Usnech, Deirdre--born -like Helen or Gudrun, to be a cause of strife among men, of sorrow and -ruin to whomsoever she loves--Deirdre takes her fate into her own hands, -and woos Noisi with outspoken passionate frankness. The whole story is -conceived and told in a far more "romantic" strain than is the case with -parallel stories from Norse tradition, the loves of Helgi and Sigrun, or -those of Sigurd and Brunhild-Gudrun. And if the lament of Deirdre over her -slain love lacks the grandeur and the intensity with which the Norse -heroines bewail their dead lords, it has, on the other hand, an intimate, -a personal touch we should hardly have looked for in an eleventh century -Irish epic.[146] - -Another link between the Celtic sagas and the romances is their treatment -of the supernatural. Heroic-traditional literature is made up of mythical -elements, of scenes, incidents, and formulas which have done service in -that account of man's dealings with and conceptions of the visible world -which we call mythology. All such literature derives ultimately from an -early, wholly animistic stage of culture. Small marvel, then, if in the -hero-tales of every race there figure wonder-working talismans and -bespelled weapons, if almost every great saga has, as part of its -_dramatis personae_, objects belonging to what we should now call the -inanimate world. Upon these a species of life is conferred, most often by -power of magic, but at times, it would seem, in virtue of the older -conception which held all things to be endowed with like life. All heroic -literatures do not, however, accentuate equally and similarly this magic -side of their common stock. Celtic tradition is not only rich and varied -beyond all others in this respect, it often thus secures its chief -artistic effects. The talismans of Celtic romance, the fairy branch of -Cormac, the Ga-bulg of Cuchullain, the sounding-hammer of Fionn, the -treasures of the Boar Trwyth after which Prince Kilhwch sought, the -glaives of light of the living folk-tale, have one and all a weird, -fantastic, half-human existence, which haunts and thrills the imagination. -No Celtic story-teller could have "mulled" the Nibelung-hoard as the poet -of the Nibelungenlied has done. How different in this respect the twelfth -century romances are from the earlier German or French sagas, how close to -the Irish tales is apparent to whomsoever reads them with attention.[147] - -I do not for one moment imply that the romantic literature of the Middle -Ages was what it was, wholly or even mainly in virtue of its Celtic -affinities. That literature was the outcome of the age, and something akin -to it would have sprung up had Celtic tradition remained unknown to the -Continent. The conception of feudal knighthood as a favoured class, in -which men of different nations met on a common footing; the conception of -knightly love as something altogether disassociated from domestic life, -must in any case have led to the constitution of such a society as we find -portrayed in the romances. What is claimed is that the spirit of the age, -akin to the Celtic, recognised in Celtic tales the food it was hungering -for. It transformed them to suit its own needs and ideas, but it carried -out the transformation on the whole in essential agreement with tradition. -In some cases a radical change is made; such a one is presented to us in -the Grail cycle. - -The legend thus started with the advantages of belonging to the popular -literature of the time, and of association through Brons with Christian -tradition. Its incidents were varied, and owing to the blending of diverse -strains of story vague enough to be plastic. The formal development of the -cycle has been traced in the earlier chapters of these studies; that of -its ideal conceptions will be found to follow similar lines. Various -ethical intentions can be distinguished, and there is not more difference -between the versions in the conduct of the story than in the ideals they -set forth. - -To some readers it may have seemed well nigh sacrilegious to trace that - - ... vanished Vase of Heaven - That held like Christ's own Heart an Hin of Blood, - -to the magic vessels of pagan deities. In England the Grail-legend is -hardly known save in that form which it has assumed in the Queste. This -French romance was one of those which Malory embodied in his _rifacimento_ -of the Arthurian cycle, and, thanks to Malory, it has become a portion of -English speech and thought.[148] In our own days our greatest poet has -expressed the quintessence of what is best and purest in the old romance -in lines of imperishable beauty. As we follow Sir Galahad by secret shrine -and lonely mountain mere until - - Ah, blessed vision! Blood of God, - The spirit beats her mortal bars, - As down dark tides the glory slides, - And star-like mingles with the stars. - -we are under a spell that may not be resisted. And yet of the two main -paths which the legend has trodden that of Galahad is the least fruitful -and the least beautiful. Compared with the Perceval Quest in its highest -literary embodiment the Galahad Quest is false and antiquated on the -ethical side, lifeless on the aesthetic side. - -As it first meets us in literature the legend has barely emerged from its -pure and simple narrative stage. There is a temptation to exaggerate -Chrestien's skill of conception when speculating how he would have -finished his work, but we know enough, probably, to correctly gauge his -intentions. It has been said he meant to portray the ideal knight in -Perceval. As was formerly the wont of authors he presents his hero in a -good light, and he may be credited with a perception of the opportunity -afforded him by his subject for placing that hero in positions wherein a -knight could best distinguish himself. In so far his work may be accepted -as his picture of a worthy knight. But I can discover in it no scheme of a -quest after the highest good to be set forth by means of the incidents at -his command. Perceval is brave as a matter of course, punctual in obeying -the counsels of his mother and of his teachers, Gonemans and the -hermit-uncle, unaffectedly repentant when he is convicted of having -neglected his religious duties. But it cannot be said that the hermit's -exhortations or the hero's repentance, confession, and absolution mark, or -are intended to mark, a definite stage in a progress towards spiritual -perfection. The explanation of the hero's silence as a consequence of his -sin in leaving his mother, shows how little real thought has been bestowed -upon the subject. This explanation, whether wholly Chrestien's, as I am -tempted to think, or complacently reproduced from his model, gives the -measure of his skill in constructing an allegory. Beyond insistence upon -such points (the hero's docility) as were indicated to him by his model, -or, as in the case of his religious opinions, were a matter of course in a -work of the time, Chrestien gives Perceval no higher morality, no loftier -aims than those of the day. The ideal of chastity, soon to become of such -importance in the development of the legend, is nowhere set forth. -Perceval, like Gawain, takes full advantage of what _bonnes fortunes_ come -in his way. And if the Quest connotes no spiritual ideal, still less does -it one of temporal sovereignty. Had Chrestien finished his story he would -have made Perceval heal the Maimed King and win his kingdom, but that -kingdom would not have been a type of the highest earthly magnificence. We -have seen reason to hold that Chrestien made one great change in the story -as he found it in his model; he assigns the Fisher-King's illness to a -wound received in battle. This he did, I think, simply with a view to -shortening the story by leaving out the whole of the Partinal episode. No -mystical conception was floating in his mind. Yet, as we shall see, the -shape which he gave to this incident strongly influenced some of the later -versions, and gave the hint for the most philosophical _motif_ to be found -in the whole cycle. - -The immediate continuators of Chrestien lift the legend to no higher -level. I incline to think that Gautier, with less skill of narrative and -far greater prolixity, yet trod closely in Chrestien's footsteps. In the -love episodes he is as full of charm as the more celebrated poet. The -second meeting of Perceval and Blanchefleur is told with that graceful -laughing _naivete_ of which French literature of the period has the -secret. But of a plan, an animating conception even such slight traces as -Chrestien had introduced into the story are lacking. Here, as in -Chrestien, the mysterious talismans themselves in no way help forward the -story. Chrestien certainly had the Christian signification of them in his -mind, but makes no use of it. The Vessel of the Last Supper, the Spear -that pierced Christ's side might be any magic spear or vessel as far as he -is concerned. The original Pagan essence is retained; the name alone is -changed. - -Thus far had the legend grown when it came into the hands of the author of -the Queste. The subject matter had been partly shaped and trimmed by a -master of narrative, the connection with Christian tradition had been -somewhat accentuated. It was open to the author of the Queste to take the -story as it stood, and to read into its incidents a deep symbolical -meaning based upon the Christian character of the holy talismans. He -preferred to act otherwise. He broke entirely with the traditional -framework, dispossessed the original hero, and left not an incident of his -model untouched. But his method of proceeding may be likened to a shuffle -rather than to a transformation. The incidents reappear in other -connection, but do not reveal the author's plan any more than is the case -in the Conte du Graal. The Christian character of the talismans is dwelt -upon with almost wearisome iteration, the sacramental act supplies the -matter of many and of the finest scenes, and yet the essence of the -talismans is unchanged. The Holy Grail, the Cup of the Last Supper, the -Sacramental Chalice is still when it appears the magic food-producing -vessel of the old Pagan sagas. What is the author's idea? Undoubtedly to -show that the attainment of the highest spiritual good is not a thing of -this world; only by renouncing every human desire, only by passing into a -land intermediary between this earth and heaven, is the Quest achieved. In -the story of the prosecution of that Quest some attempt may be traced at -portraying the cardinal virtues and deadly sins by means of the adventures -of the questers, and of the innumerable exhortations addressed to them. -But no skill is shown in the conduct of this plan, which is carried out -chiefly by the introduction of numerous allegorical scenes which are made -a peg for lengthy dogmatic and moral expositions. In this respect the -author compares unfavourably with Robert de Borron, who shapes his story -in full accord with his conception of the Grail itself, a conception -deriving directly from the symbolic Christian nature he attributed to it, -and who makes even such unpromising incidents as that of the Magic Fisher -subserve his guiding idea.[149] - -If the author's way of carrying out his conception cannot be praised, how -does it stand with the conception itself? The fact that the Quest is -wholly disassociated from this earth at once indicates the standpoint of -the romance. The first effect of the Quest's proclamation is to break up -the Table Round, that type of the noblest human society of the day, and -its final achievement brings cheer or strengthening to no living man. The -successful questers alone in their unhuman realm have any joy of the -Grail. The spirit in which they prosecute their quest is best exemplified -by Sir Bors. When he comes to the magic tower and is tempted of the -maidens, who threaten to cast themselves down and be dashed to pieces -unless he yield them his love, he is sorry for them, but unmoved, thinking -it better "they lose their souls than he his." So little had the Christian -writer apprehended the signification of Christ's most profound saying. The -character of the principal hero is in consonancy with this aim, wholly -remote from the life of man on earth. A shadowy perfection at the outset, -he remains a shadowy perfection throughout, a bloodless and unreal -creature, as fit when he first appears upon the scene as when he quits it, -to accomplish a quest, purposeless, inasmuch as it only removes him from a -world in which he has neither part nor share. Such human interest as there -is in the story is supplied by Lancelot, who takes over many of the -adventures of Perceval or Gawain in the Conte du Graal. In him we note -contrition for past sin, strivings after a higher life with which we can -sympathise. In fine, such moral teaching as the Queste affords is given us -rather by sinful Lancelot than by sinless Galahad. - -But the aversion to this world takes a stronger form in the Queste, and -one which is the vital conception of the work, in the insistence upon the -need for physical chastity. To rightly understand the author's position we -must glance at the state of manners revealed by the romances, and in -especial at the sex-relations as they were conceived of by the most -refined and civilised men and women of the day. The French romances are, -as a rule, too entirely narrative to enable a clear realisation of what -these were. Wolfram, with his keener and more sympathetic eye for -individual character--Wolfram, who loves to analyse the sentiments and to -depict the outward manifestations of feeling of his personages--is our -best guide here. The manners and customs of the day can be found in the -French romances; the feelings which underlie them must be sought for in -the German poet. - -The marked feature of the sex-relations in the days of chivalry was the -institution of _minnedienst_ (love-service). The knight bound himself to -serve a particular lady, matron or maid. To approve himself brave, hardy, -daring, patient, and discreet was his part of the bargain, and when -fulfilled the lady must fulfil hers and pay her servant. The relation must -not for one moment be looked upon as platonic; the last favours were in -every case exacted, or rather were freely granted, as the lady, whether -maid or wedded wife, thought it no wrong thus to reward her knight. It -would have been "bad form" to deny payment when the service had been -rendered, and the offender guilty of such conduct would have been scouted -by her fellow-women as well as by all men. Nothing is more instructive in -this connection than the delightfully told episode of Gawain and -Orgueilleuse. The latter is unwedded, a great and noble lady, but she has -already had several favoured lovers, as indeed she frankly tells Gawain. -He proffers his service, which she hardly accepts, but heaps upon him all -manner of indignity and insult, which he bears with the patient and -resourceful courtesy, his characteristic in mediaeval romance. Whilst the -time of probation lasts, no harsh word, no impatient gesture, escapes him. -But when he has accomplished the feat of the Ford Perillous he feels that -he has done enough, and taking his lady-love to task he lectures her, as a -grave middle-aged man might some headstrong girl, upon the duties of a -well-bred woman and upon the wrong she has done knighthood in his person. -To point the moral he winds up, at mid-day in the open forest, with a -proposition which the repentant scornful one can only parry by the naive -remark, "Seldom she had found it warm in the embrace of a mail-clad arm." -Not only was it the lady's duty to yield after a proper delay, but at -times she might even make the first advances and be none the worse thought -of. Blanchefleur comes to Perceval's bed with scarce an apology.[150] -Orgueilleuse, overcome with admiration at the Red Knight's prowess, offers -him her love. True, she has doubts as to the propriety of her conduct, but -when she submits them to Gawain, the favoured lover for the time being, he -unhesitatingly approves her--Perceval's fame was such that had he accepted -her proffered love she could have suffered naught in honour. - -Customs such as these, and a state of feelings such as they imply, are so -remote from us, that it is difficult to realise them, particularly in view -of the many false statements respecting the nature of chivalrous love -which have obtained currency. But we must bear in mind that the age was -pre-eminently one of individual prowess. The warlike virtues were all in -all. That a man should be brave, hardy, and skilful in the use of his -weapons was the essential in a time when the single hero was almost of as -much account as in the days of Achilles, Siegfried, or Cuchullain. That -_minnedienst_ tended to this end, as did other institutions of the day -which we find equally blamable, is its historical excuse. Even then many -felt its evils and perceived its anti-social character. Some, too, there -were who saw how deeply it degraded the ideal of love. - -A protest against this morality was indeed desirable. Such a one the -Queste does supply. But it is not enough to protest in a matter so -profoundly affecting mankind as the moral ideas which govern the -sex-relations. Not only must the protest be made in a right spirit, and on -the right lines, but a truer and loftier ideal must be set up in place of -the one attacked. In how far the Queste fulfils these conditions we shall -see. Meanwhile, as a sample of the feelings with which many Englishmen -have regarded it, and as an attempt to explain its historical and ethical -_raison d'etre_, I cannot do better than quote Mr. Furnivall's -enthusiastic words: "What is the lesson of it all? Is the example of -Galahad and his unwavering pursuit of the highest spiritual object set -before him, nothing to us? Is that of Perceval, pure and tempted, on the -point of yielding, yet saved by the sight of the symbol of his Faith, to -be of no avail to us? Is the tale of Bohors, who has once sinned, but by a -faithful life ... at last tasting spiritual food, and returning to devote -his days to God and Good--is this no lesson to us?... On another point, -too, this whole Arthur story may teach us. Monkish, to some extent, the -exaltation of bodily chastity above almost every other earthly virtue is; -but the feeling is a true one; it is founded on a deep reverence for -woman, which is the most refining and one of the noblest sentiments of -man's nature, one which no man can break through without suffering harm to -his spiritual life." - -It would be hard to find a more striking instance of how the "editorial -idol" may override perception and judgment. He who draws such lofty and -noble teachings from the Queste del Saint Graal, must first bring them -himself. He must read modern religion, modern morality into the mediaeval -allegory, and on one point he must entirely falsify the mediaeval -conception. Whether this is desirable is a question we can have no -hesitation in deciding negatively. It is better to find out what the -author really meant than to interpret his symbolism in our own fashion. - -The author of the Queste places the object and conditions of his mystic -quest wholly outside the sphere of human action or interest; in a similar -spirit he insists, as an indispensable requirement in the successful -quester, upon a qualification necessarily denied to the vast majority of -mankind. His work is a glorification of physical chastity. "Blessed are -the pure--in body--for they shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven," is the -text upon which he preaches. In such a case everything depends upon the -spirit of the preacher, and good intent is not enough to win praise. His -conception, says Mr. Furnivall, is founded upon a deep reverence for -woman. This is, indeed, such a precious thing that had the mediaeval -ascetic really felt it we could have forgiven the stupidity which ignores -all that constitutes the special dignity and pathos of womanhood. But he -felt nothing of the kind. Woman is for him the means whereby sin came into -the world, the arch stumbling-block, the tool the devil finds readiest to -his hands when he would overcome man. Only in favour of the Virgin Mother, -and of those who like her are vowed to mystical maidenhood, does the -author pardon woman at all. One single instance will suffice to -characterize the mediaeval standpoint. When the Quest of the Holy Grail was -first proclaimed in Arthur's Court there was great commotion, and the -ladies would fain have joined therein, "car cascune dame ou damoiselle -(qui) fust espousee ou amie, dist a son chiualer qu'ele yroit od lui en la -queste." But a hermit comes forward to forbid this; "No dame or damsel is -to accompany her knight lest he fall into deadly sin." Wife or leman, it -was all one for the author of the Queste; woman could not but be an -occasion for deadly sin, and the sin, though in the one case less in -degree (and even this is uncertain), was the same in kind. Fully one-half -of the romance is one long exemplification of the essential vileness of -the sex-relation, worked out with the minute and ingenious nastiness of a -Jesuit moral theologian. The author was of his time; it was natural he -should think and write as he did, and it would be uncritical to blame him -for his degrading view of womanhood or for his narrow and sickly view of -life. But when we are bidden to seek example of him, it is well to state -the facts as they are.[151] - -If his transformation of the story has been rudely effected without regard -to its inherent possibilities, if the spirit of his ideal proves to be -miserably ascetic and narrow, what then remains to the Queste, and how may -we account for its popularity in its own day, and for the abiding -influence which its version of the legend has exercised over posterity. -Its literary qualities are at times great; certain scenes, especially such -as set forth the sacramental nature of the Grail, are touched with a -mystical fervour which haunts the imagination. It has given some of the -most picturesque features to this most picturesque of legends. But I see -in the idea of the mystic quest proclaimed to and shared in by the whole -Table Round the real secret of the writer's success. This has struck the -imagination of so many generations and given the Queste an undeserved -fame. In truth the conception of Arthur's court, laying aside ordinary -cares and joys, given wholly up to one overmastering spiritual aim, is a -noble one. It is, I think, only in a slight degree the outcome of definite -thought and intent but was dictated to the writer by the form into which -he had recast the story. Galahad had supplanted Perceval, but the latter -could not be suppressed entirely. The achievement of the quest involved -the passing away out of this world of the chief heroes, hence a third less -perfect one is joined to them to bring back tidings to earth of the -marvels he had witnessed. Lancelot, to whom are assigned so many of -Perceval's adventures, cannot be denied a share in the quest; it is the -same with Gawain, whose character in the older romance fits him, moreover, -excellently for the _role_ of "dreadful example." By this time the -Arthurian legend was fully grown, and the mention of these Knights called -up the names of others with whom they were invariably connected by the -romance writers. Well nigh every hero of importance was thus drawn into -the magic circle, and the mystic Quest assumed, almost inevitably, the -shape it did. - -This conception, to which, if I am right, the author of the Queste was led -half unconsciously, seems to us the most admirable thing in his work. It -was, however, his ideal of virginity which struck the idea of his -contemporaries, and which left its mark upon after versions. An age with -such a gross ideal of love may have needed an equally gross ideal of -purity. Physical chastity plays henceforth the leading part in the moral -development of the cycle. With Robert de Borron it is the sin of the flesh -which brings down upon the Grail host the wrath of Heaven, and -necessitates the display of the Grail's wondrous power. Here may be noted -the struggle of the new conception with the older form of the story. -Alain, the virgin knight, would rather be flayed than marry, and yet he -does marry in obedience to the original model. Robert is consistent in all -that relates to the symbolism of the Grail, but in other respects, as we -have already seen, he is easily thrown off his guard. In the -Didot-Perceval, written as a sequel to Robert's poem, the same struggle -between old and new continues, and the reconciling spirit goes to work in -naive and unskilful style. The incidents of the Conte du Graal are kept, -although they accord but ill with the hero's ascetic spirit. In the -portion of the Conte du Graal itself which goes under Manessier's name, -along with adventures taken direct from Chrestien's model, and far less -Christianised than in the earlier poet's work, many occur which are -simply transferred from the Queste. No attempt is made at reconciling -these jarring elements, and the effect of the contrast is at times almost -comic. In two of the later romances of the cycle the fusion has been more -complete, and the result is, in consequence, more interesting. The prose -Perceval le Gallois keeps the original hero of the Quest as far as name -and kinship are concerned, but it gives him the aggressive virginity and -the proselytising zeal of Galahad. Gerbert's finish to the Conte du Graal -is, perhaps, the strangest outcome of the double set of influences to -which the later writers were exposed. Without doubt his model differed -from the version used by Gautier and Manessier. It is more Celtic in tone, -and is curiously akin to the hypothetical lost source of Wolfram von -Eschenbach. The hero's absence from his lady-love is insisted upon, and -the need of returning to her before he can find peace. The genuineness of -this feature admits of little doubt. Many folk-tales tell of the severance -of lover and beloved, and of their toilful wanderings until they meet -again; such a tale easily lends itself to the idea that separation is -caused by guilt, and that, whilst severed, one or other lover must suffer -misfortune. Often, as in the case of Diarmaid and the Daughter of King -Under the Waves (_supra_, p. 194), definite mention is made of the guilt, -as a rule an infringed taboo. Such an incident could scarcely fail to -assume the ethical shape Gerbert has given it. Thus he had only to listen -to his model, to take his incidents as he found them, and he had the -matter for a moral conception wholly in harmony with them. The chastity -ideal has been too strong for him. His lovers do come together, but only -to exemplify the virtue of continence in the repulsive story of their -bridal night. After Gerbert the cycle lengthens, but does not develop. The -Queste retains its supremacy, and through Malory its dominant conception -entered deeply into the consciousness of the English race. - -How far the author of the Queste must be credited with the new ideal he -brought into the legend is worth enquiry. Like so much else therein, it -may have its roots in the folk and hero tales which underlie the romances. -The Castle of Talismans visited by Perceval is the Land of Shades. In -popular tradition the incident takes the form of entry into the hollow -hill-side where the fairy king holds his court and hoards untold riches. -Poverty and simplicity are the frequent qualifications of the successful -quester; oftener still some mystic birthright, the being a Sunday's child -for instance, or a seventh son; or again freedom from sin is required, -and, perhaps, most frequently maidenhood.[152] The stress which so many -peoples lay upon virginity in the holy prophetic maidens, who can -transport themselves into the otherworld and bring thence the commands of -the god, may be noted in the same connection. No Celtic tale I have -examined with a view to throwing light upon the Grail romances insists -upon this idea, but some version, now lost, may possibly have done so. -Celtic tradition gave the romance writers of the Middle Ages material and -form for the picture of human love; it may also have given them a hint of -the opposing ideal of chastity.[153] - -All this time it should be noted that no real progress is made in the -symbolical machinery of the legend. The Holy Grail becomes superlatively -sacrosanct, but it retains its pristine pagan essence, even in the only -version, the Grand St. Graal, which knew of Borron and of his mystical -conception. - -Such, then, had been the growth of the legend in one direction. The -original incidents were either transformed, mutilated, or, where they kept -their first shape, underwent no ethical deepening or widening. The -talismans themselves had been transferred from Celtic to Christian -mythology, but their fate was still bound up with the otherworld. He who -would seek them must turn his back upon this earth from which the Palace -Spiritual and the City of Sarras were even more remote than Avalon or -Tir-na n-Og. Was no other course open? Could not framework and incidents -of the Celtic tales be retained, and yet, raised to a loftier, wider -level, become a fit vehicle for philosophic thought and moral exhortation? -One side of popular tradition figured the hero as wresting the talismans -from the otherworld powers for the benefit of his fellow men. Could not -this form of the myth be made to yield a human, practical conception of -the Quest and Winning of the Holy Grail? - -We are luckily not reduced to conjecture in this matter. A work largely -fulfilling these hypothetical requirements exists in the Parzival of -Wolfram von Eschenbach. On the whole it is the most interesting individual -work of modern European literature prior to the Divina Commedia, and its -author has a better claim than any other mediaeval poet to be called a man -of genius. He must, of course, be measured by the standard of his time. It -would be useless to expect from him that homogeneity of narrative, that -artistic proportion of style first met with 150 years later in Italy, and -which from Italy passed into all European literatures. Compared with the -unknown poets who gave their present shape to the Nibelungenlied or to the -Chanson de Roland he is an individual writer, but he is far from deserving -this epithet even in the sense that Chaucer deserves it. His subject -dominates him. Even when his philosophic mind is conceiving it under a new -aspect he anxiously holds to the traditional form. Hence great -inconsistencies in his treatment of the theme, hence, too, the frequent -difficulty in interpreting his meaning, the frequent doubt as to how far -the interpretation is correct. Here, as in the discussion respecting the -_origines_ of the Grail legend, resort must often be had to conjecture, -and any solution of the fascinating problems involved is necessarily and -largely subjective. - -Wolfram's relation to his predecessors must be taken into account in -estimating the value of the Parzival. The earlier portion of his work -differs entirely, as we have seen, from any existing French romance; so -does the finish in so far as it agrees with the opening. The greater part -of the story is closely parallel to Chrestien; there are points of -contact, peculiar to these two writers, with Gerbert. Little invention, -properly so called, of incident can be traced in the Parzival. The part -common to it and Chrestien is incomparably fuller and more interesting in -the German poet, but the main outlines are the same. Wolfram has, however, -been at some pains to let us know what was his conception of the legend. -That much is allowed to remain at variance therewith is a clear proof of -his timidity of invention. - -Doubt, he says, is the most potent corrupter of the soul. Whoso gives -himself over to unfaith and unsteadfastness treadeth in truth the downward -path. God Himself is very faithfulness. Strife against Him, doubt of Him, -is the highest sin. But humility and repentance may expiate it, and he who -thus repents may be chosen by God for the Grail Kingship, the summit of -earthly holiness. Peace of soul and all earthly power are the chosen -one's; alone, unlawful desire and the company of sinners are denied him by -the Grail. - -How is this leading conception worked out? The framework and the march of -incidents are the same as in the Conte du Graal. One capital change at -once, however, lifts the story to a higher level. The Fisher King suffers -from a wound received in the cause of unlawful love, in disobedience to -those heavenly commands which govern the Grail community. The healing -question can be put only by one worthy to take up the high office Amfortas -has dishonoured, in virtue of having passed through the strife of doubt, -and become reconciled to God by repentance and humble trust. If Parzival -neglected to put the question on his first arrival at the Grail Castle, it -was that in the conceit of youth he fancied all wisdom was his. Childish -insistence upon his mother's counsels had brought down reproof upon him; -he had learnt the world's wisdom from Gurnemanz, he had shown himself in -defence of Conduiramur a valiant knight, worthy of power and woman's love. -When brought into contact with the torturing sorrow of Amfortas, he is too -full of himself, of his teacher's wisdom, to rightly use the opportunity. - -The profound significance of the question which at once releases the -sinner, and announces the one way in which the sin may be cancelled, -namely, by the coming of a worthier successor, is due, if we may credit -Birch-Hirschfeld, to an accident. Wolfram only knew Chrestien. The latter -never explains the real nature of the Grail, and the German poet's -knowledge of French was too slight to put him on the right track. The -question, "Whom serve they with the Grail?" which he found in Chrestien, -was necessarily meaningless to him, and he replaced it by his, "Uncle, -what is it tortures thee?" The change _may_ be the result of accident as -is so much else in this marvellous legend, but it required a man of genius -to turn the accident to such account. It is the insistence upon charity as -the herald and token of spiritual perfection that makes the grandeur of -Wolfram's poem, and raises it so immeasureably above the Queste. - -The same human spirit is visible in the delineation of the Grail Kingship -as the type of the highest good. Wolfram's theology is distinctively -antinomian--no man may win the Grail in his own strength; it choseth whom -it will--and has been claimed on the one hand[154] as a reflex of orthodox -Catholic belief, on the other as a herald of the Lutheran doctrine of -grace.[155] Theological experts may be left to fight out this question -among themselves. Apart from this, Wolfram has a practical sense of the -value of human effort. With him the Quest is not to be achieved by utter -isolation from this earth and its struggles. The chief function of the -Grail Kingdom is to supply an abiding type of a divinely ordered Society; -it also trains up leaders for those communities which lack them. It is a -civilising power as well as a Palace Spiritual. - -In the relation of man to Heaven, Wolfram, whilst fully accepting the -doctrines of his age, appeals to the modern spirit with far greater power -and directness than the Queste. In the other great question of the legend, -the relation of man to woman, he is likewise nearer to us, although it -must be confessed that he builds better than he knows. To the love ideal -of his day, based wholly upon passion and vanity and severed from all -family feeling, he opposes the wedded love of Parzival and Conduiramur. -The hero's recollection of the mother of his children is the one saving -influence throughout the years of doubt and discouragement which follow -Kundrie's reproaches. Whilst still staggering under this blow, so cruelly -undeserved as it seems to him, he can wish his friend and comrade, Gawain, -a woman chaste and good, whom he may love and who shall be his guardian -angel. The thought of Conduiramur holds him aloof from the offered love of -Orgeluse. In his last and bitterest fight, with his unknown brother, when -it had nigh gone with him to his death, he recalls her and renews the -combat with fresh strength. She it is for whom he wins the highest earthly -crown, of which her pure, womanly heart makes her worthy. Reunion with her -and with his children is Parzival's first taste of the joy that is -henceforth to be his. - -Passages may easily be multiplied that tally ill with the ideas of the -poem as here briefly set forth. But the existence of these ideas is patent -to the unprejudiced reader. Despite its many shortcomings, the poem which -contains them is the noblest and most human outcome of that mingled strain -of Celtic fancy and Christian symbolism whose history we have traced.[156] - -In Wolfram, equally with the majority of the French romance writers, there -is little consistency in the formal use of the mystic talismans. Be the -reason what it may, Wolfram certainly never thought of associating the -Grail with the Last Supper. But its religious character is, at times, as -marked with him as with Robert de Borron or the author of the Queste. It -is the actual vehicle of the Deity's commands; it restrains from sin; it -suffers no unchaste servant; it may be seen of no heathen; the simple -beholding of it preserves men from death. This last characteristic would -be thought in modern times a sufficient tribute to the original nature of -the old pagan cauldron of increase and rejuvenescence. But Wolfram was of -his time, and followed his models faithfully. Along with the lofty -spiritual attributes of his Grail, he pictures in drastic fashion its -food-dispensing powers. The mystic stone, fallen from Heaven itself, -renewed each Good Friday by direct action of the Spirit, becomes all at -once a mere victual producing machine. We can see how little Wolfram liked -this feature of his model, and how he felt the contrast between it and his -own more spiritual conception. But here, as elsewhere in the poem, he -allowed much to stand against which his better judgment protested. His own -share in the development of the legend must be gauged by what is -distinctively his, not by what he has in common with others. Judged thus, -he must be said to have developed the Christian symbolic side of the -legend as much as the human philosophic side. If in Robert de Borron the -Grail touches its highest symbolic level through its identification with -the body of the dead and risen Lord, we can trace in Wolfram the germ of -that approximation of the Grail-Quester to the earthly career of the -Saviour which Wagner was to develop more than 600 years later.[157] - -What influence Wolfram's poem, with its practical, human enthusiasm, its -true and noble sexual morality, might have had on English literature is an -interesting speculation. It would have appealed, one would think, to our -race with its utilitarian ethical instinct, with its lofty ideal of wedded -love. The true man, Parzival, should, in the fitness of things, be the -English hero of the Quest, rather than the visionary ascetic Galahad. -Mediaeval England was dominated by France and knew nothing of Germany, and -when in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries we can trace German -influence on English thought and writ, taste had changed, and the Parzival -was well-nigh forgotten in its own land. It remained so almost until our -own days. The Quest after Perfection still haunted the German mind, but it -was conceived of on altogether different lines from those of the twelfth -century poet. The nation of scholars pictured the quester as a student, -not as a knight. When it took shape in the dreary period of Protestant -scholasticism the quest is wholly cursed. Faust's pursuit of knowledge is -unlawful, a rebellion against God, which dooms him irrevocably. Not until -Goethe's day is the full significance of the legend perceived, is the -theme widened to embrace the totality of human striving. Thus the last -glimpse we have of Faust is of one devoted to the service of man; the last -words of the poem are a recognition of the divine element in the love of -man and woman.[158] - -In Germany, as in England, the old legend has appealed afresh to poets and -thinkers, and then, as was natural, they turned to Germany's greatest -mediaeval poet. Wagner's Parsifal would, in any case, be interesting as an -expression of one of the strongest dramatic geniuses of the century. -Considered purely as a work of literature, apart from the music, it has -rare beauty and profound significance. The essentially dramatic bent of -Wagner's mind, the stage destination of the poem, must be borne in mind -when considering it. Wolfram's conception--youthful folly and inexperience -chastised by reproof, followed by doubt and strife, cancelled by the -faithful steadfastness of the full-grown man--is obviously unsuited for -dramatic purposes. At no one point of Wolfram's poem do we find that clash -of motives and of characters which the stage requires. In building up -_his_ conception Wagner has utilised every hint of his predecessor with -wonderful ingenuity. Klinschor, the magician, becomes with him the active -opponent of the Grail King, Amfortas, from whom he has wrested the holy -spear by the aid of Kundry's unholy beauty. Kundry is Wagner's great -contribution to the legend. She is the Herodias whom Christ for her -laughter doomed to wander till He come again. Subject to the powers of -evil, she must tempt and lure to their destruction the Grail warriors. And -yet she would find release and salvation could a man resist her love -spell.[159] She knows this. The scene between the unwilling temptress, -whose success would but doom her afresh, and the virgin Parsifal thus -becomes tragic in the extreme. How does this affect Amfortas and the -Grail? In this way. Parsifal is the "pure fool," knowing nought of sin or -suffering. It had been foretold of him he should become "wise by -fellow-suffering," and so it proves. The overmastering rush of desire -unseals his eyes, clears his mind. Heart-wounded by the shaft of passion, -he feels Amfortas' torture thrill through him. The pain of the physical -wound is his, but far more, the agony of the sinner who has been unworthy -his high trust, and who, soiled by carnal sin, must yet daily come in -contact with the Grail, symbol of the highest purity and holiness. The -strength which comes of the new-born knowledge enables him to resist -sensual longing, and thereby to release both Kundry and Amfortas. - -In the latest version of the Perceval Quest, as in the Galahad Quest, the -ideal of chastity is thus paramount. This result is due to Wagner's -dramatic treatment of the theme. The conception that knowledge of sin and -fellowship in suffering are requisite to enable man to resist temptation, -and that thus alone does he acquire the needful strength to assist his -fellows, however true and profound, can obviously only be worked out on -the stage through the medium of one form of sin and suffering. The long -psychological process of Wolfram's poem, the slow growth of the unthinking -youth into the steadfast, faithful man, is replaced by a mystic, -transcendental conversion. From out a world of human endeavour, human -motive, we have stepped into one wholly ascetic and symbolical. The love -of man for woman only appears in the guise of forbidden desire; the aims -and needs of this world are not even thought of. Every incident has been -remoulded in accord with Christian tradition. Wagner fully accepts the -sacramental nature of the Grail, and the Grail feast is with him a -faithful reproduction of the Last Supper. Holiness and purity are the -essence of the Grail, which is cleared from every taint of its pagan -origin. And whilst Wagner, following the French models, identifies the -Grail with the most sacred object of Christian worship, he also, -developing hints of Wolfram's, reshapes the career of his Grail-seeker in -accord with that of Christ. Parsifal, the releaser of sin-stricken Kundry, -of sin-stricken Amfortas--Parsifal, the restorer of peace and holiness to -the Grail Kingdom--becomes a symbol of the Saviour. - -In the reasoned, artistic growth of the legend, the plastic, living -element is that supplied by Christian tradition. From the moment that the -Celtic lord of the underworld is identified with the evangelist of Britain -we see the older complex of tales acquire consistency, life, and meaning. -Even where the direct influence of the intruding element is slightest, as -in the Conte du Graal, we can still perceive that it is responsible for -the germs of after development. Sometimes violently and unintelligently, -sometimes with a keen feeling for the possibilities of the original -romance, sometimes with the boldest introduction of new matter, sometimes -with slavish adherence to pre-Christian conceptions, the transformation of -the Celtic tales goes on. The cauldron of increase and renovation, the -glaive of light, the magic fish, the visit to the otherworld, all are -gradually metamorphosed until at last the talisman of the Irish gods -becomes the symbol of the risen Lord, its seeker a type of Christ in His -divinest attributes. - -The ethical teaching of the legend becomes also purely Christian as the -Middle Ages conceived Christianity. Renunciation of the world and of the -flesh is its key-note. Once only in Wolfram do we find an ideal human in -its essence, though dogmatic in form; the path thus opened is not trodden -further, and the legend remains as a whole, on the moral side, a monument -of Christian asceticism. - -We have seen reason to surmise that the folk-tales which underlie the -romances themselves gave the hint for the most characteristic -manifestation of this ascetic ideal. It is worth enquiry if these tales -have developed themselves independently from the Christianised legend, and -if such development shows any trace of ethical conceptions comparable with -those of the legend. Can we gather from the tales as fashioned by the folk -teaching similar to that of the preachers, philosophers, and artists by -whom the legend has been shaped? Few enquiries can be more interesting -than one which traces such a conception as the Quest after the highest -good as pictured by the rudest and most primitive members of the race. - -Many of the tales which formed a part of the (hypothetical) Welsh original -of the earliest Grail romances have been shown to come under the Aryan -Expulsion and Return Formula (_supra_, Ch. VI). Among most races this -formula has connected itself with the national heroes, and has given rise -to hero-tales in which the historical element outweighs the ethical. -Sometimes, as in the tale of Perseus, the incidents are so related as to -bring out an ethical _motif_; Perseus is certainly thought of as avenging -his mother's undeserved wrongs. I cannot trace anything of the kind among -the Celts. All the incidents of the formula in Celtic tradition which I -know of are purely historical in character. This element of the old -Saga-mass thus yields nothing for the present enquiry. Others are more -fruitful. Perceval is akin not only to Fionn, but also to the Great Fool. -The Lay of the Great Fool was found to tally closely with adventures in -the Mabinogi and in the Conte du Graal (_supra_, Ch. VI). It also sets -forth a moral conception that admits of profitable comparison with that of -the Grail romances. - -Ultimately, the Lay is, I have little doubt, one of the many forms in -which a mortal's visit to the otherworld was related. Wandering into the -Glen of Glamour, the hero and his love encounter a magician; the hero -drinks of the proffered cup, despite his love's remonstrances, and -forthwith loses his two legs. This is obviously a form of the -widely-spread myth which forbids the visitant to the otherworld to partake -of aught there under penalty of never returning to earth. But this -mythical _motif_ has taken an ethical shape in popular fancy. According to -Kennedy's version, it is the hero's excess in draining the cup to the -dregs which calls for punishment. This change is of the same nature as -that noted with regard to a similar incident in the Grail romances. There, -the old mythic taboo of sleeping or speaking in the otherworld called at -last for an explanation, and found one in Wolfram's philosophic -conception. The parallel does not end here. Perceval may retrieve his -fault, and so may the Great Fool; Wolfram makes his hero win salvation by -steadfast faith, the folk-tale makes its hero in the face of every form of -temptation a pattern of steadfast loyalty to the absent friend and to the -pledged word. It may, or may not, be considered to the advantage of the -folk-tale that, unlike the mediaeval romance, it deals neither in mysticism -nor in asceticism. The sin and atonement of the Great Fool are such as the -popular mind can grasp; he is an example of human weakness and human -strength. The woman he loves is no temptress, no representative of the -evil principle--on the contrary, she is ever by his side to counsel and to -cheer him. - -When it is remembered that the two off-shoots, romantic-legendary and -popular, from the one traditional stem have grown up in perfect -independence of each other, the kinship of moral idea is startling. The -folk-lorist has often cause to wonder at the spontaneous flower-like -character of the object of his study; folk-tradition seems to obey fixed -laws of growth and to be no product of man's free thought and speech. The -few partisans of the theory that folk-tradition is only a later and -weakened echo of the higher culture of the race are invited to study the -present case. A Celtic tale, after supplying an important element to the -Christianised Grail legend, has gone on its way entirely unaffected by the -new shape which that legend assumed, and yet it has worked out a moral -conception of fundamental likeness to one set forth in the legend. It -would be difficult to find a more perfect instance of the spontaneous, -evolutional character of tradition contended for by what, in default of a -better name, must be called the anthropological school of folk-lorists. - -We must quit Celtic ground to find another example of an element in the -originals of the Grail romances, embodying a popular ethical idea. This -instance is such an interesting one that I cannot pass it by in silence. -As was shown in Chapter VII, one of the many forms of the hero's visit to -the otherworld has for object the release of maidens held captive by an -evil power. A formal connection was established between this section of -the romance and the folk-tale of the Sleeping Beauty. As a whole, too, -this tale admits of comparison with the legend. Its origin is mythic -without a doubt. Whether it be regarded as a day or as a year myth, as the -rescue of the dawn from night, or of the incarnate spring from the bonds -of winter, it equally pictures a victory of the lord of light and heat and -life over the powers of darkness, cold, and death. With admirable fidelity -folk-tradition has preserved the myth, so that its true nature can be -recognised without fail. It would be wrong, though, to conclude that -retention of the mythic framework implied any recognition of its mythic -character on the part of those who told or listened to the story. Some -investigators, indeed, hold it idle to consider it otherwise than as a -tale told merely for amusement. But a story, to live, must appeal to moral -as well as to aesthetic emotions. In the folk-mind this story sets forth, -dimly though it may be, that search for the highest human felicity which -is likewise a theme of the Grail romances. What better picture of this -quest could be found than the old mythic symbol of the awakening of life -and increase beneath the kiss of the sun-god. The hero of the folk-tale -makes his way through the briars and tangle of the forest that he may -restore to the deserted castle life and plenty; so much has the tale -retained of the original mythic signification. As regards the quester -himself, the maiden he thus woos is his reward and the noblest prize earth -has to offer him. Where the romance writers made power, or riches, or -learning, or personal salvation the goal of man's effort, the folk-tale -bids him seek happiness in the common human affections. - -Such, all too briefly sketched, has been the fate and story of these -tales, first shaped in a period of culture wellnigh pre-historic, gifted -by reason of their Celtic setting with a charm that commended them to the -romantic spirit of the middle ages, and made them fit vehicles for the -embodiment of mediaeval ideas. Quickened by Christian symbolism they came -to express and typify the noblest and the most mystic longings of man. The -legend, as the poets and thinkers of the twelfth century fashioned it, has -still a lesson and a meaning for us. It may be likened to one of the -divine maidens of Irish tradition. She lives across the western sea. Ever -and again heroes, filled with mysterious yearning for the truth and beauty -of the infinite and undying, make sail to join her if they may. They pass -away and others succeed them, but she remains ever young and fair. So long -as the thirst of man for the ideal endures, her spell will not be -weakened, her charm will not be lessened. But each generation works out -this Quest in its own spirit. This much may be predicted with some -confidence: henceforth, whosoever would do full justice to the legend must -take pattern by Wolfram von Eschenbach rather than by any of his rivals; -he must deal with human needs and human longings; his ideal must be the -widening of human good and human joy. Above all, he must give reverent yet -full expression to all the aspirations, all the energies of man and of -woman. - - -FINIS. - - - - -APPENDIX A. - -THE RELATIONSHIP OF WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH AND CHRESTIEN. - - -The various arguments for and against the use of any other French source -than Chrestien by Wolfram have been clearly summed up by G. Boetticher, Die -Wolfram Literatur seit Lachmann, Berlin, 1880. The chief representative of -the negative opinion is Birch-Hirschfeld, who first gives, Chapter VIII. -of his work, a useful collection of passages relating to the Grail, the -Castle, and the Quest, from both authors. His chief argument is this:--The -Grail in all the romances except in Wolfram is a cup or vessel, but in -Wolfram a stone, a peculiarity only to be explained by Wolfram's ignorance -of any source than Chrestien, and by the fact that the latter, in -accordance with his usual practice of leaving objects and persons in as -mysterious an atmosphere as possible, nowhere gives a clear description of -the Grail. He undoubtedly would have done so if he had finished his work. -Such indications as he gave led Wolfram, who did not understand the word -_Graal_, to think it was a stone. It is inconceivable that Kyot, if such a -personage existed, should have so far departed from all other versions as -not to picture the Grail as a vessel, inconceivable, again, that his -account of it should have been just as vague as Chrestien's, that he -should have afforded Wolfram no hint of the real nature of the object. In -Chrestien Perceval's question refers to the Grail, but Wolfram, missing -the significance of the holy vessel owing to the meagreness of the -information respecting it given to him by Chrestien, was compelled to -transform the whole incident, and to refer it solely to the sufferings of -the wounded King. Again, Chrestien meant to utilise the sword, and to -bring Gawain to the Grail Castle; but his unfinished work did not carry -out his intention, and in Wolfram Gawain also fails to come to the Grail -Castle; the sword is passed over in silence in the latter part of the -poem.--Simrock, jealous for the credit of Wolfram, claimed for him the -invention of all that could not be traced to Chrestien, resting the claim -chiefly upon consideration of a sentimental patriotic nature.--In -opposition to these views, although the fact is not denied that Wolfram -followed Chrestien closely for the parts common to both, it is urged to be -incredible that he, a German poet, should invent a prologue to Chrestien's -unfinished work connecting with an Angevin princely genealogical legend. -It was also pointed out, with greatest fulness by Bartsch, Die Eigennamen -im Parcival und Titurel, Germanist. Studien, II., 114, _et seq._, that the -German poet gives a vast number of proper names which are not to be found -in Chrestien, and that these are nearly all of French, and especially -Southern French and Provencal origin.--Simrock endeavoured to meet this -argument in the fifth edition of his translation, but with little -success.--Boetticher, whilst admitting the weight of Birch-Hirschfeld's -arguments, points out the difficulties which his theory involves. If -Wolfram simply misunderstood Chrestien and did not differ from him -personally, why should he be at the trouble of inventing an elaborately -feigned source to justify a simple addition to the original story? If he -only knew of the Grail from Chrestien, what gave him the idea of endowing -it, as he did, with mystic properties? Martin points out in addition (Zs. -f. d. A., V. 87) that Wolfram has the same connection of the Grail and -Swan Knight story as Gerbert, whom, _ex hypothesi_, he could not have -known, and who certainly did not know him.--In his Zur Gralsage, Martin -returned to the question of proper names, and showed that a varying -redaction of a large part of the romance is vouched for by the different -names which Heinrich von dem Tuerlin applies to personages met with both in -Chrestien and in Wolfram. If, then, one French version, that followed by -Heinrich, who is obviously a translator, is lost, why not another? - -The first thorough comparison of Chrestien and Wolfram is to be found in -Otto Kuepp's Unmittelbaren Quellen des Parzival, (Zs. f. d. Ph. XVII., l). -He argues for Kyot's existence. Some of the points he mentions in which -the two poems differ, and in which Wolfram's account has a more archaic -character, may be cited: The mention of Gurnemanz's sons; the food -producing properties of the Grail on Parzival's first visit; the -reproaches of the varlet to Parzival on his leaving the Grail Castle, "You -are a goose, had you but moved your lips and asked the host! Now you have -lost great praise;"[160] the statement that the broken sword is to be made -whole by dipping in the Lake Lac, and the mention of a sword charm by -virtue of which Parzival can become lord of the Grail Castle; the mention -that no one seeing the Grail could die within eight days. In addition Kuepp -finds that many of the names in Wolfram are more archaic than those of -Chrestien. On the other hand, Kuepp has not noticed that Chrestien has -preserved a more archaic feature in the prohibition laid upon Gauvain not -to leave for seven days the castle after he had undergone the adventure of -the bed. - -Kuepp has not noticed that some of the special points he singles out in -Wolfram are likewise to be found in Chrestien's continuators, _e.g._, the -mention of the sons of Gurnemanz, by Gerbert. - -I believe I have the first pointed out the insistence by both Wolfram and -Gerbert upon the hero's love to and duty towards his wife. - -The name of Parzival's uncle in Wolfram, Gurnemanz, is nearer to the form -in Gerbert, Gornumant, than to that in Chrestien, Gonemant. - -The matter may be summed up thus: it is very improbable that Wolfram -should have invented those parts of the story found in him alone; the -parts common to him and Chrestien are frequently more archaic in his case; -there are numerous points of contact between him and Gerbert. All this -speaks for another French source than Chrestien. On the other hand, it is -almost inconceivable that such a source should have presented the Grail as -Wolfram presents it. - -I cannot affect to consider the question decidedly settled one way or the -other, and have, therefore, preferred to make no use of Wolfram. I would -only point out that if the contentions of the foregoing studies be -admitted, they strongly favour the genuineness of the non-Chrestien -section of Wolfram's poem,[161] though I admit they throw no light upon -his special presentment of the Grail itself. - - - - -APPENDIX B. - -THE PROLOGUE TO THE GRAND ST. GRAAL AND THE BRANDAN LEGEND. - - -I believe the only parallel to this prologue to be the one furnished by -that form of the Brandan legend of which Schroeder has printed a German -version (Sanct Brandan) at Erlangen, in 1871, from a MS. of the fourteenth -century, but the first composition of which he places (p. 15) in the last -quarter of the twelfth century. The text in question will be found pp. 51, -_et seq._: Brandan, a servant of God, seeks out marvels in rare books, he -finds that two paradises were on earth, that another world was situated -under this one, so that when it is here night it is day there, and of a -fish so big that forests grew on his back, also that the grace of God -allowed some respite every Saturday night to the torments of Judas. Angry -at all these things he burnt the book. But the voice of God spake to him, -"Dear friend Brandan thou hast done wrong, and through thy wrath I see My -wonders lost." The holy Christ bade him fare nine years on the ocean, -until he see whether these marvels were real or a lie. Thereafter Brandan -makes ready a ship to set forth on his travels. - -This version was very popular in Germany. Schroeder prints a Low German -adaptation, and a chap book one, frequently reprinted during the -fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. But besides this form -there was another, now lost, which can be partially recovered from the -allusions to it in the Wartburg Krieg, a German poem of the thirteenth and -early fourteenth century, and which is as follows:--An angel brings -Brandan a book from heaven: Brandan finds so many incredible things in it -that he taxes book and angel with lying, and burns the book. For his -unfaith he must wander till he find it. God's grace grants him this at -last; an angel gives him the sign of two fires burning, which are the eyes -of an ox, upon whose tongue he shall find the book. He hands it to -Uranias, who brings it to _Scotland_ (_i.e._, of course Ireland) Schroeder, -p. 9. - -The closeness of the parallel cannot be denied, and it raises many -interesting questions, which I can here only allude to. The Isle of -Brandan has always been recognized as a Christian variant of the Celtic -Tir-na n-Og, the Land of the Shades, Avalon. Schroeder has some instructive -remarks on this subject, p. 11. The voyage of Brandan may thus be -compared with that of Bran, the son of Febal (_supra_, p. 232), both being -versions of the wide-spread myth of a mortal's visit to the otherworld. It -is not a little remarkable that in the Latin legend, which differs from -the German form by the absence of the above-cited prologue, there is an -account (missing in the German), of a "conopeus" ("cover" or "canopy,") -_cf._ Ducange and Diez, _sub voce_; the old French version translates it -by "Pavillon of the colour of silver but harder than marble, and a column -therein of clearest crystal." And on the fourth day they find a window and -therein a "calix" of the same nature as the "conopeus" and a "patena" of -the colour of the column (Schroeder, p. 27, and Note 41). - -Thus there is a formal connection between the Brandan legend and the Grail -romances in the prologue common to two works of each cycle, and there is a -likeness of subject-matter between the Brandan legend and the older Celtic -traditions which I have assumed to be the basis of the romances. But -German literature likewise supplies evidence of a connection between -Brandan and Bran. Professor Karl Pearson has referred me to a passage in -the Pfaffe Amis, a thirteenth century South German poem, composed by Der -Stricker, the hero of which, a prototype of Eulenspiegel, goes through the -world gulling and tricking his contemporaries. In a certain town he -persuades the good people to entrust to him their money, by telling them -that he has in his possession a very precious relic, the head of St. -Brandan, which has commanded him to build a cathedral (Lambl's Edition, -Leipzig, 1872, p. 32). The preservation of the head of Bran is a special -feature in the Mabinogi. I have instanced parallels from Celtic tradition -(Branwen, p. 14), and Professor Rhys has since (Hibb. Lect., p. 94) -connected the whole with Celtic mythological beliefs. This chance -reference in a German poem is the only trace to my knowledge of an earlier -legend in which, it may be, Bran and Brandan, the visitor to and the lord -of the otherworld, were one and the same person. - -It is highly desirable that every form of or allusion to the Brandan -legend should be examined afresh, as, perhaps, able to throw fresh light -upon the origin and growth of the Grail legend. In Pseudo-Chrestien -Perceval's mother goes on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Brandan. - - - - -INDEX I. - -DRAMATIS PERSONAE. - - -[This Index is to the Summaries contained in Chapter II, and the -references are not to page and line, but to Version and Incident. The -Versions are distinguished by the following abbreviations:-- - -Conte du Graal =Co=, Pseudo-Chrestien =PC=, Chrestien =C=, Gautier =G=, -Manessier =Ma=, Gerbert =Ge=, Wolfram =W=, Heinrich von dem Tuerlin =H=, -Mabinogi of Peredur =M=, Thornton MS. Sir Perceval =T=, Didot-Perceval -=D=, Borron's poem =B=, Queste =Q= (=Q={1} and =Q={2} refer to the -different drafts of the romance distinguished p. 83) Grand St. Graal =GG=. -With the less important entries, or when the entries are confined to one -version, a simple number reference is given. But in the case of the more -important personages, notably Perceval, Gawain, and Galahad, an attempt -has been made to show the life history, by grouping together references to -the same incident from different versions; in this case each incident -group is separated from other groups by a long dash ----. Any speciality -in the incident presented by a version is bracketed _before_ the reference -initial, and, when deemed advisable, reference has been made to allied as -well as to similar incidents. This detail, to save space, is, as a rule, -given only once, as under Perceval, and not duplicated under other -headings, the number reference alone being given in the latter cases. The -fullest entry is Perceval, which practically comprises such entries as -Fisher King, Grail, Sword, Lance, etc.] - -=ABEL= =Q=37, =GG=24. - -=ABRIORIS= =G=9. - -=ACHEFLOUR= =T=1. - -=ADAM= =Q=37, =GG=24. - -=ADDANC OF LAKE= =M=16, 19. - -=AGARAN= =Q=23. - -=AGRESTES= =GG=40. - -=AGUIGRENONS= =Co=, _Kingrun_ =W=, anonymous =M=, =C=6, =W=, =M=8. - -=ALAINS=, Celidoine's son =GG=43. - -=ALAINS= or =ALEIN= (=li Gros= =D=, =Q=, =GG=) =B=12----=Dprol=, 1, 6, 12, -=Q=26, =GG=30, 43, 45, 51, 58, 59. - -=ALEINE=, Gawain's niece, =D=1. - -=ALFASEM= =GG=51, 58. - -=AMANGONS= =PC=1, 2, 4. - -=AMFORTAS=, see Fisher King. - -=AMINADAP= =GG=58. - -=ANGHARAD= Law Eurawc, =M=12, 14. - -=ANTIKONIE=, see Facile Damsel. - -=ARGASTES= =Q=27. - -=ARIDES= of Cavalon =Ma=14, 16 (a King of Cavalon mentioned =C=12 -corresponds to _Vergulat_ of Askalon in =W=). - -=ARTHUR= =PC=2, 3, 5, =C=1, =Dprol=----arrival of Perceval at his court -=C=3, =W=, =M=3, =T=4, =Dprol=----=C=6, 9, 10, =W=, =M=9, 10, 11----=M=13, -14----=C=11, =W=, =M=20----=T=7----=C=18, =W=----=G=1, =W=----=G=2, 3, 6, -9, 11, 13, 16, 19, 20, =Ma=10, 16, 23, =Ge=5, =H=, =D=1, 3, 5, 8, 14, 16, -=M=25, =Q=3, 5, 13, =GG=33, 45, 48. - -=AUGUSTUS CAESAR= =GG=11. - -=AVALON= or =AVARON= =B=12, 13, =D=9. - -=BAGOMMEDES= =G=19, 20. - -=BANDAMAGUS= =Q=5, 6, 43. - -=BANS= =Q=26, =GG=30, 59. - -=BEAU MAUVAIS=, le, =G=11, =D=8. - -=BEDUERS= =D=2. - -=BLAISE= =Dprol=, 14. - -=BLANCHEFLEUR= =Co=, Conduiramur =W=, anonymous =M=, _cf._ Lufamour -=T=----Perceval's cousin =Co=, =W=----first meeting with Perceval =C=6, -=W=, =M=8----second meeting with Perceval =G=10----third meeting -=Ma=13-16----third meeting and marriage with Perceval =Ge=8-10, _cf._ =W=. - -=BLIHIS= =PC=1 = Blaise? - -=BLIHOS BLIHERIS= =PC=2. - -=BLIOCADRANS= (of Wales, Perceval's father), =PC=6. - -=BORS, BOHORS, BOORT= =Q=1, 3, 13, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, =Ma=18----=Q=35, -48-52. - -=BRANDALIS= =G=1, 2. - -=BRIOS= =G=16. - -=BRONS, BRON=, or =HEBRON=. =B=7, 8, 12, 14, =Dprol=, 6, 16, =GG=41, 42, -_cf._ p. 19. - -=BRUILLANT= =GG=58 = Urlain =Q=35. - -=BRUN DE BRANLANT= =G=1. - -=CAIN= =Q=37, =GG=24. - -=CAIPHAS= =GG=2, 3. - -=CAIUS= =GG=3. - -=CALIDES= =Ma=9. - -=CALOGRENANT= =Q=33. =CALOGRINANT= =Ma=18----_Calocreant_ in =H=, one of -the three Grail-seekers. - -=CARAHIES= =G=5. - -=CARCHELOIS= =Q=39. - -=CARDUEL= =C=3----_Carduel_ of Nantes =G=1. - -=CASTRARS= =PC=4. - -=CATHELOYS= =GG=58. - -=CAVALON= =C=12----=Ma=14, 16. - -=CELIDOINE= =GG=22, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 39, 59, =Q=26. - -=CHANAAN= =GG=45, 47. - -=CHESSBOARD CASTLE= =G=7, =D=4, =M=24----=G=14----=G=18, =D=13. - -=CHRIST= =B=1-3, 5, 6, 8, 11, =Q=7, 10, 13, 15, 20, 26, 50, =Dprol=, 16, -=Ge=15, =GG=1-4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16, 21, 23, 30, 37, 41, 45. - -=CLAMADEX= =C=6, Clamide =W=, the earl =M=8 = the Sowdane =T=7. - -=CLARISSE= =Co= Mons MS. or _Clarissant_ Montpellier MS., ITONJE -=W=----=C=18, =G=1, =W=. - -=CLAUDIUS= =GG=3. - -=CLAUDIUS=, son of Claudas =Q={2}51. - -=CORBENIC= =Q=, =GG=, =CORBIERE= =Ma=23, =Q=13, 43, 48, =GG=51. - -=CORSAPIAS= =GG=22. - -=COWARD KNIGHT= =Ma=17, 19. - -=CRUDEL= =Q=6, 15, =Ge=15, =GG=36-38. - -=DAVID= =Q=37. - -=DODINEL= =Ma=14. - -=ELIEZER= =Q=27. - -=EMPTY SEAT=, see Seat Perillous. - -=ENYGEUS=, =ENYSGEUS=, or =ANYSGEUS= =B=7, 8, 11, 12. - -=EREC= =D=2. - -=ERNOUS= =Q=39. - -=ESCORANT= =Q={2}51. - -=ESCOS= =GG=47. - -=ESPINOGRE= =Ma=5. - -=ESTROIS DE GARILES= =Q={2}51. - -=ETLYM GLEDDYV COCH= =M=16-18. - -=EVALACH.= Evalach li mescouncus =GG=, Eualac =Q= (Anelac 26), Evelac -=Ma=, =Ge=. Overcoming Tholomes =GG=6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, =Q=6, 15, 26, -=Ma=3, =Ge=15, name changed to _Mordrains_, which see. - -=EVE= =Q=37, =GG=24. - -=FACILE DAMSEL=, Anonymous =Co=, =H=, =M=, _Antikonie_ =W=, =C=14, =W=, -=H=, =M=21. - -=FEIREFIZ= =W=. - -=FELIX= =GG=3, 11. - -=FISHER KING.= Anonymous =Co=, Amfortas =W=, Brons =B=, =D=, Alain =GG=. -Anonymous (?), =Q={1}, Pelles =Q={2}. In =M= the Fisher corresponds to -Gonemans. In all the French works of the cycle the adjective rich is -commonly applied to the Fisher. Splendour of court =PC=1----learned in -black art =PC=3----old and sick =Dprol=, First meeting with Perceval =C=7, -=W=, =D=11, _cf._ =PC=3, =M=6----=C=8, =W=, _cf._ =D=2, 12----=C=11, =W=, -_cf._ =D=15, =M=21----=G=7, 8, 9, 16, 18, 19, 20----Second meeting with -Perceval =G=22, =Ma=1-7 or =Ge=1-5, =D=16, _cf._ =M=25----=Ma=10----Third -meeting with Perceval =Ma=22, =Ge=22, =W=----Grandfather of Galahad -=Q={1}2, 26. See also Maimed King. - - Surname given to Brons =B=12, to Alain =GG=43. - - Vessel given to him =D=1----commanded to go to the West =D=6. - -=FLEGENTYNE= =GG=22, 29, 31, 37, 59. - -=GAHMURET= =W=. - -=GALAHAD= (GALAAD). _Father_: Lancelot =Q=, =GG=----_Mother_: daughter of -King Pelles =Q={1}, =GG=, or Fisher King =Q={2}----Seat Perillous -=Q=2----Sword =Q=3----Quest proclaimed =Q=5----Evelac's Shield =Q=6, -=GG=50----Devil-inhabited tomb =Q=7, _cf._ =Ge=17----Melians' -discomforture =Q=8----Castle of Maidens =Q=9----overcoming of Lancelot and -Perceval =Q=11----destined achiever of Quest =Q=13----rescue of Perceval -=Q=16----Genealogy =Q=26, =GG=21, 30, 58----likening to a spotless bull -=Q=29----overcoming of Gawain =Q=34----stay on ship =Q=35, 36----sword -=Q=36----Maimed King =Q={2} 36----capture of Castle Carchelois -=Q=39----stag and lions =Q=40, _cf._ =GG=45----castle of the evil custom -=Q=41----stay with father =Q=42----healing of Mordrains =Q=44, _cf._ -=GG=39----cooling of fountain =Q=45----making white the Cross -=GG=40----release of Symeu =Q=46, =GG=49----making whole sword -=GG=44----release of Moys =GG=46----five years' wanderings -=Q=47----arrival at King Peleur's =Q={1}, Maimed King's =Q={2}, witnessing -of Grail and healing of Maimed King =Q=48-50----Sarras, crowning, death -=Q=51, 52. - -=GALAHAD= (GALAAD) son of Joseph =GG=8, 31, 34----King of Hocelice and -ancestor of Urien =GG=49----founding of abbey for Symeu =GG=49. - -=GANSGUOTER= =H=. - -=GANORT= =GG=33, 35. - -=GARALAS= =G=13. - -=GAWAIN.= Gauvain =Co=, =Q=, =GG=, Gwalchmai =M=, Gawan =W=, Gawein =H=, -Gawayne or Wawayne =T=----of the seed of Joseph of Arimathea =GG=48, -Arthur's nephew =Co=, =Q=----conquers Blihos Bliheris =PC=2----allusion to -his finding the Grail =PC=3----one of the knights met by Perceval in wood -=M=1, =T=2----helps Perceval to disarm Red Knight =T=4----meeting with -Perceval after blood-drops incident =C=10, =W=, =M=11----vow to release -imprisoned maiden =C=11, =M=20----reproached by Guigambresil =C=12, -(Kingrimur) =W=, (anonymous) =M=20----tournament at Tiebaut's =C=13, -(Lippaot) =W=, (Leigamar) =H=, _cf._ =D=15, where Perceval is hero but -Gawain best knight after him----adventure with the facile damsel =C=14, -(Antikonie) =W=, =H=, =M=21----injunction to seek bleeding lance =C=14, -=W=, (Grail) =H=----adventure with Griogoras =C=16, (Urjan) =W=, (Lohenis) -=H=----meeting with scornful damsel, Orgeuilleuse, arrival at ferryman's -=C=16, =W=----Magic Castle =C=17, =W=, _cf._ =GG=51----may not leave -castle =C=17----second meeting with Orgueilleuse =C=18, =W=, -(Mancipicelle) =H=----Ford Perillous, Guiromelant =C=18, (Gramoflanz) =W=, -(Giremelanz) =H=----marriage with Orgueilleuse =W=, (?) =C=18----arrival -of Arthur to witness combat with Guiromelant =C=18 continued by =G=1, =W=, -=H=----fight with Perceval =W=, _cf._ =T=7----reconciliation with -Guiromelant =G=1, =W=, =H=----departure on Grail Quest and winning various -talismans =H=----[first arrival at Grail Castle according to Montpellier -MS. of =Co=]----Brun de Branlant, Brandalis =G=1 and 2----slaying of -unknown knight and Quest to avenge him =G=3----Chapel of Black Hand -=G=3----arrival at Grail Castle (first according to Mons MS. of =Co=), -half successful =G=3, wholly successful =H=, _cf._ =M=25 found by Peredur -at Castle of Talismans, and reference in =Q=51 Welsh version----greetings -of country folk =G=3, _cf._ =Ge=3----meeting with his son =G=4----Mount -Dolorous Quest =G=19----renewed Grail Quest, reproached for conduct at -Fisher King's, slaying of Margon =Ma=10----rescue of Lyonel -=Ma=18----rescue by Perceval =Ge=16. - - Joins in search for Grail with remainder of Table Round =D={2}, =Q=, - betraying knowledge of Maimed King =Q=5. - - Meeting with Ywain, Gheheris and confession to hermit =Q=10. - - Meeting with Hector de Mares =Q=29. - - Overcoming at Galahad's hand =Q=34. - -=GHEHERIES= =Q=10. - -=GIFLES= =C=11, =G=2. - -=GONEMANS= or =GONEMANT= =Co=, Gornumant =Ge=, Gurnemanz =W=, Fisher Uncle -=M=, =C=5, =W=, =M=5, uncle to Blanchefleur =C=6, =C=7, =W=, second -meeting with Perceval =Ge=8-9, _cf._ =T=6. - -=GOON DESERT= =Ma=4. - -=GRAIL=, Early History of. Last Supper cup given to Joseph =B=2, 3, 4, -=GG=2, =Q=50, =Ma=3----Solace of Joseph =B=5, 6, =GG=2, =D=16, =Ma=3 -(Montpellier MS.)----Grail and Fish =B=8, 9 _cf._ =GG=43----Directs Joseph -what to do with Alain =B=12, _cf._ =GG=42, confided to Brons =B=14,15, -=Dprol= 6, (Alain) =GG=51----=D=6, 10----feeds host =GG=5, =Q=13, also -=GG=32----Blinding of Nasciens =GG=16, 21, 23, 30, passage to England 31, -=D=6, =Q=6, 13, 15----Crudel =GG=38, =Q=15, =Ge=15----Blinding of -Mordrains =GG=38, 39, 42, only feeds the sinless 43, 44, refuses meat to -Chanaan and Symeu 47, resting-place, Castle Corbenic =GG=51. - - Book of, revealed to hermit =GG=2. - -=GRAIL=, Quest of _by Perceval_: first seen at Fisher King's =PC=3, =C=7, -=W=, =D=11----properties of =C=8, =W=, =D=12----=C=11, =W=----=C=15, -=W=----lights up forest =G=14----=G=21----seen for second time -=G=22-=Ma=1-7 or =Ge=1-3, =D=16----heals Hector and Perceval -=Ma=20----taken from earth =Ge=6, _cf._ =W=----opposed by witch, =Ge=8, -9----connection with Shield =Ge=13----seen for third time =Ma=23, 24, -=Ge=22; _by Gawain_: =H= and =G=3; _by Lancelot_: =Q=12, 22, 43; _by -Galahad_: =Q=2, feeds Arthur's court =Q=4, quest proclaimed =Q=5, feeds -host =Q=13, =GG=32, denied to Gawain and Hector =Q=29, 30, accomplished -=Q=50-52. - -=GRAIL-MESSENGER=, see Loathly Damsel. - -=GRAMOFLANZ= see Guiromelant. - -=GRIOGORAS= =C=16 = Lohenis =H=. - -=GUIROMELANT= =Co=, Gramoflanz =W=, Giremelanz =H=, =C=18-=G=1, =W=, =H=. - -=HECTOR= (de =MARES= =Q=) =Q=29, 34, 43, =Ma=20. - -=HELAIN= =Q=27. - -=HELICORAS= =GG=22. - -=HELYAB= =GG=2, 8, 34. - -=HELYAS= =Q=26 = Ysaies =GG=30, 38. - -=HERZELOYDE= =W=. - -=HUDEN= =PC=4. - -=HURGAINS= or =HURGANET= =D=2, 3. - -=JONAANS= =Q=26, =JONANS= =GG=30, =JONAS= =GG=59. - -=JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA.= D'Arymathye =B=, de Arimathie =GG=, d'Abarimathie -or d'Arimathie =Q=, de Barimacie =G=, and =Ma= (Montpellier MS.), Josep -(without mention of town =Ma=, Mons MS.), de Barismachie =Ge=----care of -Christ's body, captivity, solace, release =B=2-7, =GG=2, 3, =D=16, _cf._ -=Q=6, =Ma=2----stay in Sarras =GG=4-11, =Q=6, 26, =Ge=15, -=Ma=3----=B=7----Passage to England =GG=31, =Q=6----feeding by Grail -=GG=32, =Q=13, _cf._ =B=8, 9----Moys =B=11, 12, =Dprol=, _cf._ -=GG=41----=B=12-15----=GG=34, 36, =Q=15, =Ge=15----=GG=38, 44, 45, 48, -50--=D=1, 6, 12. - -=JOSEPHES=, =JOSEPHE=, =JOSEPHUS=, or =JOSAPHES=, son of Joseph of -Arimathea, =GG=2, 5, 9, 10, 11 =Q=6, 13, 14, 16, 17, 31 =Q=6, 13 and 32, -36 =Q=6, 38 =Q=6 and 15, 40, 41 =Q=13 _cf._ =D=6, 42, 43, 45, 46, 49, 50 -=Q=6, =Q=50, 51. - -=JOSUE= =GG=51, 58. - -=KALAFIER= =GG=20, 22. - -=KARDEIZ= =W=. - -=KAY.= Kex =Co=----=T=2----=C=3, =W=, =M=3----=C=4, =W=, =M=4----=C=6, -=C=9----=C=10, =W=, =M=11----=M=14----=T=7----=G=3, 19, =Ma=10, =Ge=21, -=D=8----one of the three Grail-questers =H=. - -=KLINSCHOR= =W.= - -=LABAN= =Q=35 (query variant of Lambar?). - -=LABEL= =GG=26. - -=LABEL'S DAUGHTER= =GG=28, 29, 37, 39. - -=LAMBAR= or =LABRAN= =Q=35, =LAMBOR= =GG=58. - -=LANCE= (Spear) =PC=3, 4, =C=7, 8, =M=6, =C=11, 14, 15, =G=3, 22, =Ma=1, -2, 24, =Ge=22, =H=, =D=11, 12, 16, =Q=50, 51, =GG=9, 15, 16. - -=LANCELOT=, Lancelot of Lake's grandfather =Q=26, =GG=30, 59. - -=LANCELOT.= Galahad's father =Q=, =GG=, =Q=1, 2, 4 (_cf._ =C=11), 5, 11, -12 (_cf._ =C=7 and =G=3), 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 (_cf._ =GG=58) 27, 28, 29, -42, 43, =GG=30, 33, 40, 45, 58, 59, =PC=4. - -=LEUCANS= =GG=10. - -=LIONEL Q=1, 3, attacks Bors =Q=33, =Ma=18. - -=LOATHLY DAMSEL.= Anonymous =Co=, Kundrie =W=, Perceval's cousin =M=, -reproaches Perceval =C=11, =W=, =M=20----announces end of Quest, =Ma=23, -=M=25. - -=LOGRES= =PC=1, =G=3, =Q=12, 35, 47. - -=LOHENIS= =H= = Griogoras =C=16. - -=LOHERANGRIN= =W=. - -=LONGIS= =PC=4, =Ma=2, =D=16. - -=LOT= =GG=48. - -=LUCES= =GG=48. - -=LUFAMOUR= =T=7, _cf._ Blanchefleur. - -=MAIDENS' CASTLE= =PC=5, =G=12=a=, =Ge=6----=Q=9. - -=MAIMED= or =LAME KING=. Same personage as Fisher King. Designated in this -way _only_ =M=, almost entirely so =Q={2} (5, 13, also =Q={1} 36, 39, 47, -50), never so =B=, =D=. =GG=58 applies the designation to Pelleans. - -=MANAAL= =GG=58. - -=MANCIPICELLE=, see Orgueilleuse. - -=MARGON= =Ma=10. - -=MARIE LA VENISSIENNE= =GG=3 = Verrine, =B=6, =W=. - -=MARPUS= (=WARPUS= =Q=26) =GG=30, 59. - -=MEAUX= =GG=11. - -=MELIANS=, Galahad's companion =Q=8, 10. - -=MELIANS DE LIS= =C=13, =D=15. - -=MERLIN= (see p. 64D) =G=20, =Dprol=, 14, 15, =Q=13. - -=MORDRAINS= =GG=, Mordains =Q=, _once_ Noodrans =Ma=, _once_ Mordrach -=Ge=----Baptism =GG=14, 15, =Q=6, 26, =Ma=3 =Ge=15----=GG=16, 17, vision -of descendants 18, =Q=26----=GG=19, 20, stay on island 21, _cf._ -=Q=19----=GG=27, =Q=36----=GG=29 Crudel, and blinding by Grail 37, 38, -=Q=15, =Ge=15----retires to hermitage =GG=39, =Q=44----his shield =GG=50, -=Q=6. - -=MORDRED= =GG=45. - -=MORDRET= =Ge=6, 7. - -=MORGHE LA FEE= =G=18. - -=MORONEUS= =Q={2}26. - -=MORS DEL CALAN= =PC=4. - -=MOUNT DOLOROUS= =G=19, 20, =Ge=5. - -=MOYS=, =MOYSES= (=B=). Seat Perillous =B=10, 11, 12, =Dprol=, 1, =GG=41, -46. - -=NASCIENS= =GG=, =Q=, Natiien =Ma=----Baptism =GG=14, =Q=6, 26, -=Ma=3----Blinded by Grail =GG=16----=GG=18, 19, 20, 21, 22, turning isle -and Solomon's ship, 23-27, =Q=35-37----=GG=28, 29, 30, 32, 33, Crudel 37, -38, (called Seraphe) =Q=15----=GG=39----his tomb =GG=50----death -=GG=59----appears as hermit in Arthur's time =Q=4, 5, 6, 29. - -=NASCIENS=, son of Celidoine, =GG=39. - -=NASCIENS=, grandson of Celidoine =GG=30, 59. - -=NICODEMUS= =B=3, 4, 5. - -=NOIRONS=, _i.e._, Nero =GG=3. - -=ORCANZ= =GG=48. - -=ORGUEILLEUSE.= Orguellouse =C=, Orgeluse =W= = Mancipicelle =H=, -=C=16----=G=1, =W=, =H=. - -=OWAIN= =M=, =EWAYNE= =T=, =YONES= =C=4, =YWAIN= "li aoutres" =Q=6, 9, 10, -29, =GG=49----meets Perceval =M=1, =T=2----helps him =M=3, =C=4. - -=PARTINAL= =Ma=5, 8, 21, 22. - -=PECORINS= =PC=4. - -=PELEUR= =Q={1}5, 47, 48. - -=PELLEANS= =GG=58. - -=PELLEHEM= =Q={2}35. - -=PELLES= =Q={2}1-3, 14, 27, 36, 44, 48, 50, =GG=59. - -=PERCEVAL= =Co=, =D=, =Q=, =GG=; PARZIVAL =W=, =H=; PEREDUR =M=; -PERCYVELLE =T=.--_Father_: Bliocadrans =PC=; anonymous =Co=, =Q=; Alain -=D=; Gahmuret =W=; Evrawe =M=; Percyvelle =T=; Pellehem =Q={2}. _Mother_: -Anonymous =Co=, =D=, =Q=, =M=; Herzeloyde =W=; Acheflour (Arthur's sister) -=T=----brought up in wood =C=1, =W=, =M=, =T=1----meets knights (5) =C=1, -=W=, (3) =M=1, =T=2----leaves mother =C=1, =W=, =D=, =M=1, =T=2----first -meeting with lady of tent =C=2, (Ieschute) =W=, =M=2, =T=3----arrival at -Arthur's Court =C=3, =W=, =D=, =M=3, =T=4----laughing prophetic damsel -=C=3, =W=, dwarves =M=3----slays _red_ knight =C=4, (Ither of Gaheviez) -=W=, (colour not specified) =M=3, =T=4----overcomes 16 Knights -=M=4----burns witch =T=5----arrival at house of first uncle, Gonemans -=C=5, Gurnemanz =W=, Anonymous =M=5, and (different adventure partly -corresponding to =Ge=8) =T=6----first arrival at castle of lady love, -Blanchefleur =C=5, Conduiramur =W=, Anonymous =M=8, Lufamour =T=7----first -arrival at Fisher King's =C=7, =W=, =D=11, =M=6----is reproached by -wayside damsel, cousin: (Anonymous) =C=8, (Sigune) =W=, =D=12, foster -sister =M=7----second meeting with lady of tent =C=9, =W=, -=M=9----overcoming of Sorceresses of Gloucester =M=10----blood drops in -the snow =C=10, =W=, =M=11----Adventures with Angharad Law Eurawc; at the -castle of the huge grey man; serpent on the gold ring; Mound of Mourning; -Addanc of the Lake; Countess of Achievements =M=12-19----reproaches of the -loathly damsel =C=11, (Kundrie) =W=, =M=20----Good Friday incident and -confession to uncle =C=15, (Trevrezent) =W=, =D=14, =M=22----the Castle of -the Horn =G=6----the Castle of the Chessboard =G=7, =D=4, =M=24----meeting -with brother of Red Knight =G=8----Ford _amorous_ =G=9, _perillous_ -=D=9----second meeting with Blanchefleur =G=10----meeting with Rosette and -Le Beau Mauvais =G=11, =D=8----meeting with sister and visit to hermit -=G=12, =D=5 and 6----the Castle of Maidens =G=12=a=----meeting with the -hound-stealing damsel =G=13, =D=13, =M=24----meeting with the damsel of -the white mule =G=14----tournament at Castle Orguellous =G=16 = =D=15 -(Melianz de Lis) and =M=19 (?)----Deliverance of knight in tomb -=G=17----second visit to the Castle of the Chessboard =G=18, -=D=13----delivery of Bagommedes =G=19----arrival at Mount Dolorous -=G=20----the Black Hand in the Chapel =G=21----second arrival at Grail -Castle =G=22-=Ma=1-7 and =Ge=1, =D=16, (with final overcoming of -Sorceresses of Gloucester) =M=25. - - Puts on red armour for love of Aleine, accomplishes the feat of the - Seat Perillous, and sets forth on Quest =D=1 and 2. - - Slays the red knight, Orgoillous Delandes, =D=3. - - Overcomes Black Knight, slays giant and finds mother =T=9. - -Perceval and Saigremors =Ma=8----Second visit to Chapel of the Black Hand -=Ma=11----the demon horse =Ma=12, =Q=18----Stay on the island =Q=19, and -20, and temptation by damsel 21, =Ma=13----Delivery of Dodinel's lady love -=Ma=14----Tribuet =Ma=15----third meeting with Blanchefleur -=Ma=16----meeting with coward knight =Ma=17----combat with Hector -=Ma=20----slaying of Partinal =Ma=21----third arrival at Grail Castle -=Ma=22----learns death of his uncle the Fisher King from loathly damsel -=Ma=23, =W=----retires into wilderness =Q=52, =Ma=24----dies =Q=52, goes -to Palestine and dies (?) =T=. - - Encounter, unknown to either, with Galahad =Q=11. Meeting with recluse - aunt =Q=13. - - Assistance at the hands of the Red Knight =Q=16. - - Adventure of the ship =Q=33, essay to draw sword =Q=35. - - Receives Galahad's sword =Q=41, bears Galahad company for five years - =Q=47----adjusts the sword at the Court of Pelles =Q={2}48. - -Breaking of sword at the Gate of Paradise =Ge=2----Blessings of the -country folk for putting question =Ge=3----Mending of sword at forge of -the serpent =Ge=4----Accomplishment of the feat of the Perillous Seat -=Ge=5----adventures at sister's Castle, with Mordret, and at cousin's, -Castle of Maidens =Ge=6----encounter with Kex, Gauvain, and Tristan =Ge=7, -_cf._ =T=7----meeting with Gornumant =Ge=8 (_cf._ =T=6) and fight with the -resuscitating hag----third arrival at Blanchefleur's Castle, marriage -=Ge=9----deliverance of maiden, abolition of evil custom, knight on fire -=Ge=10-12----obtains the promised shield =G=13----combat with the Dragon -King =Ge=14----arrival at abbey and story of Mordrains =Ge=15, -=Q=15----the swan-drawn coffin =Ge=16----Devil in tomb =Ge=17, _cf._ -=Q=7----deliverance of maiden from fountain =Ge=18----punishment of -traitress damsel =Ge=19----combat with giant =Ge=20, _cf._ -=T=9----encounters Kex =Ge=21----third arrival at Grail Castle =Ge=22. - -=PERCEVAL'S AUNT= =Q=13, 14. - -=PERCEVAL'S SISTER=, daughter to Pellehem =Q={2}, =G=12, =D=5-7, =Q=35, -36, 38, 41, 42----_cf._ =M=7. - -=PERCEVAL'S UNCLE=, see Gonemans, Fisher King. - -=PETRONE= =GG=29. - -=PETRUS= =B=8, 12, 13, 14, =PETER= =GG=43, =PIERRON= =GG=45, 47, 48. - -=PHILOSOPHINE= =Ge=6, 15. - -=PILATE= =B=1, =GG=2, =B=3, 6. - -=PRIADAM THE BLACK= =Q=30. - -=QUIQUAGRANT= =Ma=5. - -=RED KNIGHT.= Slain by Perceval =C=3, 4, =T=1, 5, who takes his arms, and -is mistaken for him =C=6, =T=6, transferred to Galahad when latter takes -Perceval's place =Q=14, 16----=G=8, 9. - -=ROSETTE=, Loathly Maiden, =G=11, =D=8. - -=SAIGREMORS= =C=10, =Ma=8, 9, 18, =D=2. - -=SARRAQUITE= =GG=13, 16, 22, 28, 29, 59. - -=SARRAS= =GG=5, 11, 13, 15, 18, =Ma=3, =Q=26, 41, 50, =GG=30. - -=SEAT PERILLOUS= (empty) =B=10, =Dprol=, 1----=Q=2, =GG=41, =Ge=5, =Q=13. - -=SERAPHE= =GG=, =Q=, =Ge=, _once_ Salafres =Ma=----Battle with Tholomes -=GG=12, 14, =Q=6, 26, =Ma=3, =Ge=15, renamed _Nasciens_, which see. - -=SEVAIN OF MEAUX= =GG=11. - -=SOLOMON'S SHIP= =Q=35-38, =GG=24, 27, 30, 58. - -=SOLOMON'S SWORD= =Q=35, 38, =GG=27, _cf._ =Q=48. - -=SORCERESSES OF GLOUCESTER= =M=10, 25. - -=STAG HUNT= =G=7, 8, 16, 18, =D=4, 13, =M=24. - -=SWORD= =PC=3, =C=7, 8, =M=6, =G=3, 12, 22, =Ma=5, 22, =Ge=1, 2, 4, 15, -22, =H=, =Q=2, 3, 48, =GG=33, 44, 58. See also Solomon's sword. - -=SYMEU= =Q=46, =GG=31, 47, 49. - -=THOLOMES= =Q=6, =Ge=15, =GG=11, 12, 14. - -=THOLOME CERASTRE= =GG=11. - -=TIBERIUS CAESAR= =GG=3, 11, =Ma=3. - -=TITUS= =GG=3. - -=TREBUCET= or =TRIBUET= =C=8, =W=, =Ma=15. - -=URBAN OF THE BLACK THORN= =D=9, =Co=. - -=URLAIN= or =URBAN= =Q=35 = Bruillant =GG=58. - -=UTHER PENDRAGON= =GG=9, _cf._ p. 64D. - -=VERRINE= =B=6 = Marie la Venissienne =GG=3. - -=VESPASIAN= =B=6, =GG=3, 4, =Ma=3, =Q=7. - -=WASTE CITY=, King of the, =Ge=8. - -=WASTE LAND= =PC=1, (forest) 6, =Q=13, 35, =GG=58. - -=YSAIES= =GG=30, 59 = Helyas, =Q=26. - -=YWAIN=, see Owain. - - - - -INDEX II. - - -[This Index comprises the whole of the work with exception of the -Summaries, for which see Index I. The references are to the pages. The -entries apply solely to the page number or page group-number which they -immediately precede, and not to all the pages between themselves and the -next entry. In the majority of cases a simple number reference is given, -and the fuller entries are to those points which the author wishes -specially to emphasise.] - - Abundia and Herodias, 100. - - Adonis, 101. - - Alain (son of Brons), 66, 77, 79, 82, 83, 84, 89, 109, 112, 123, - as Fisher King, 208, 210, 218, 222, 245. - - Amfortas, Fisher King in Wolfram, 249, - in Wagner's Parsifal, 253-55, 263. - - Aminadap, 84. - - Arbois de Jubainville, 184-85, 188, 192-93. - - Arthur, Arthur saga, Arthurian romance or legend, 108, 114, 116, 117, - Martin's interpretation of, 122-24, 130, 134, 136, 144, 147, 148, 153, - 155, 156, 188, - A's waiting, 197-98, - A and Potter Thompson, 198, 205, 218, 219, 221, 222, - popularity of, 228-29, - Celtic character of, 230, 231, 236, 243, 244, 245. - - Avalon (Avaron), 77, - punning explanation of, 78, - parallel to the Grail, 122-23 and 188, - with the Magic Castle, 191, 198, 218, 222, - connection with Glastonbury, 223, 248, - parallel with Brandan's isle, 264. - - - Baldur, 100. - - Ban, 83, 84. - - Baring-Gould, 98. - - Bartsch, 261. - - Battle of Magh Rath, 185, 186. - - Bergmann's San Greal, 104. - - Bespelled Castle in Celtic tradition, 190-206. - - Birch-Hirschfeld, 4, 5, 6, 38, 52, 64_d_, 84, - full analysis of his work, 108-121, - Martin's criticism, 121-23, 124, - objections to his hypothesis, 125-126, 128, 132, 133, 134, 137, 138, - 145, 151, 168, 171, 174, 207, 217, 220, 250, - Wolfram and Chrestien, 261-62. - - Blaise, 113. - - Blanchefleur, 92, 114, 115, 133, - comparison of Chrestien and Mabinogi, 135, 140, 147, 204, 238, - example of sex-relations of the time, 241. - - Blood-drops in the snow, 137-38. - - Books of Rights and Geasa, 213. - - Borron, Robert de, author of the Joseph d'Arimathie, bibliographical - details, 2, - MS. statements respecting, 4-6, 19, - passage of Grail to England, 79-80, 94, 95, 96, - Hucher's views, 105-6, - relation to other versions according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 111-115, - 116, 118-20, - Martin's views, 121-124, 125, 131, 171, - secret words, 186, 188, - Fisher King in, 207-9, 220, 221, 222, - his conception, 239, - chastity ideal in, 245, 247, 251, 252. - - Bors, 66, - exemplification of spirit of Queste, 239. - - Boetticher, Wolfram and Chrestien, 261. - - Bran (the Blessed), 108, - and Cernunnos, 211, - connection with conversion of Britain, 218-20, 226, - connection with Brandan legend, 265. - - Bran the Son of Febal, 192, 194, 232, 265. - - Brandan legend, 264-65. - - Branwen (Mabinogi of), 76, 97, 108, 167, 168, - cauldron, 186, 211, 219, 260. - - Britain, evangelisation of, 80, 91, 95, 105-106, 107, 124, 218, - connection with the Brons and Joseph legends, 219-24. - - Brons, 66, 70, 72, 75, 77, - special form of Early History, 78-79, 80, 81, - two accounts respecting, 82-83, 84, 85, 86, 88, - in the Didot-Perceval, 89, 91, 93, 94, 95, 106, 109, 112, 113, 123, - 124, 125, 182, - as Fisher King, 208-11, - as Apostle of Britain, 218-26, 235. - - Bruillans, 84. - - Brunhild, 232. - - Bundling, 135. - - - Caesarius of Heisterbach, 122. - - Campbell, J. F., 102-03, 152, 159-60, - cup of healing, 187, 210. - - Campbell, - No. 1 Young King of Easaidh Ruadh, 187; - No. 10 The Three Soldiers, 195-96; - No. 41 The Widow and her Daughters, 187; - No. 47 Mac Iain Direach, 187, 212; - No. 51 The Fair Gruagach, 213; - No. 52 The Knight of the Red Shield, 156-57, - the resuscitating carlin, 166-67; - No. 58 The Rider of Grianaig, 157, 209; - No. 76 Conall Gulban, 167, 187; - No. 82 How the Een was set up, 158, 189; - No. 84 Manus, 189-90; - No. 86 The Daughter of King Under the Waves, 194-95, 246. - - Campbell, J. G., Muilearteach, 167. - - Catheloys, 84. - - Celidoine, 83, 84. - - Celtic tradition, origin of or elements in Grail legend, 7, - how affected by placing of versions, 68-69, - opinions of previous investigators, 97-107, - Birch-Hirschfeld, 111-113-14-15-17-20, - Martin, 121-24, - Hertz, 125, - Grail apparently foreign to, 151, 164-65, - Carlin in, 167-69, 170-71, 181, 183-84, - Vessel in, 184-88, - Sword in, 188-90, 191, 195, 197, 199, 208, - origin of legend, 215-18, 223-27, - relation to mediaeval romance, 230, - individualism in, 231, - woman in, 231-33, - the supernatural in, 234, 235, - chastity ideal, 247, 248, 251, - transformation of, 255, 265. - - Ceridwen, 186, 210-11. - - Cernunnos, 211. - - Cet mac Magach, 231. - - Chanson de Roland, 248. - - Charlemagne, Carolingian Saga, 197, 229, 230, 231. - - Chastity ideal in the Queste, 243-44, - in later versions, 245-46, - in popular and Celtic tradition, 246-47. - - Chessboard Castle, 127-30, 139-41. - - Chrestien, bibliographical description, 1, 2, - statements of MSS. respecting, 4, 5, 8, 66, 69, 70, 74, 76, 80, 81, - 85, 86, 91, 92, 93, 95, - views of previous investigators, 98-108, - Birch-Hirschfeld, 108-121, 122, 124, 125, 126, - relation to Didot-Perceval, 127-131, - to Mabinogi, 132-145, - nature of model, 145-46, - relation to Sir Perceval, 147-51, - relation to Great Fool, 155-56-58-59, 164, 168, - visit to Grail Castle in, 171-74, 175, - represents mainly feud quest, 180-82, 199, 207, 208, 211, 218, - his ideal, 237-38, 245, 249, 250, - relation to Wolfram, 261-63. - - Christian origin of or elements in Grail legend, Christian tradition, - legend, etc.; - as affected by placing of versions, 68, 80, 123, 143, 146, 165, - 170-73, 179, 181, 186, 209, - as affected by my hypothesis, 215-18, 220, 224, 226-27, - relation to the talismans, 238-39, 251-52, - influence on the legend as a whole, 255. - - Chronological arrangement of versions, 6, - Author's, 95-96, - Zarncke's, 107, - Birch-Hirschfelds', 120-21. - - Conall Cearnach, 231. - - Conan's delusions, 200. - - Conchobor, 192, 231, 233. - - Conduiramur, 204, - and Parzival, 249-51. - - Connla, 188, 194, 196, 232. - - Constituent elements in the romances, 215-16. - - Corbenic, 83, 84. - - Cormac's visit to the otherworld, 193-94, 234. - - Counsels, the, in the romances, 150. - - Crestiens, p. 83 = Nasciens, p. 84. - - Cuchulainn, 153, 185, 188, 189, - conception of, 192, - _gess_ of, 214, - parallel of legend to mediaeval romances, 231-34. - - Cumhall, father of Fionn, 158-59. - - Curoi mac Daire, 231. - - Cynewulf, 221. - - - Dagda, the, and the cauldron, 184-85, 192. - - Deirdre, 137, - and the Sons of Usnech, 233. - - Diarmaid, 202, - _gess_ of, 214. - - Didot-Perceval, prose sequel to Borron's poem, numbered as C 2, 65, 66, - 68, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 78, 79, 82, - the Quest in, 89-91, 92, 93, 94, 96, - Zarncke's opinion of, 107, - Authorship of according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 112-15, 117, 120, 121, - 125, 126, - relationship to Conte du Graal, 127-30, - origin of, 131, 138, 139, - stag hunt in, 141-42, 145-46, 172-73, 179, 182, 191, 198-99, 208, 245. - - Dietrich Saga, 230. - - Domanig, Parzival-Studien, 250. - - Duvau, 192. - - Dwarves incident in Chrestien and Mabinogi, 134. - - - Elton, 219. - - Emer, wooing of, 232-33. - - Encyclopaedia Britannica, 126. - - England, arrival of Grail in 76-80, - Birch-Hirschfeld 116, - Joseph legend in 221-22. - - Enygeus (Brons' wife), 81, 82. - - Evangelium Nicodemi, 221-22. - - Espinogre, 142. - - Expulsion and Return Formula (Aryan), 144, 153-54, 156, 159, 163-64, - 190, 210, 225, 256. - - - Fand, 232. - - Faust, 253. - - Fenian saga or cycle, sword in, 188-90, 230. - - Feud-Quest in the romances and in Celtic tradition, 181-90. - - Finn-eges, 209-11, 220. - - Fionn (Finn), Fionn-saga, 153-54, 157, - connection with Great Fool and boyhood of Peredur, 158-59, 163-64, - Fionn's enchantment, 186-87, - and sword, 189-90, 195, - in the otherworld, 200-03, - and salmon, 209-11, 214, 220, 224, 231, 234, 256. - - Fish, according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 112, - Martin, 123-24, 224. - See also Salmon. - - Fisher King, Fisher or Rich Fisher, 77, 78, - as Grail-Keeper, 80-86, - relation the Promised Knight, 87-89, 107, 110, 113, 115, - accounted for by Birch-Hirschfeld, 117, 123, 124, 134, 138, 139, 140, - 142, 143, 144, 180, 206, - Author's explanation of, 207-11, 237, - in Wolfram, 249. - - Fisher King's daughter, 140-42. - - Fisher King's father, 74, 81, 110, 191. - - Fitzgerald, 198, 231. - - Fomori, 188, 230. - - Foerster on Peredur, 132. - - Frederick II, 122, - in the Kyffhaeuser, 196-97. - - Frederick I (Barbarossa), 196-97. - - Furnivall, 2, 3, 102-03, - estimate of Queste criticised, 242-43. - - - Gaelic talismans = Grail and lance, 103. - - Gaidoz, 219. - - Galahad, Galahad Quest, 66, 67, 83-86, - as Promised Knight, 90-94, 102, 104, 106, 108, 109, 113, 131, 149, 226, - comparison with Perceval Quest, 236, - morality of, 240, 245-46, 252, 254. - - Gaston Paris on relation between Chrestien and Mabinogi, 132. - - Gautier (de Doulens), Pseudo-Gautier, numbered A II., 1-2, - statements respecting in MS., 4, - Berne MS. of, 19, 69-70, 72, 74-75, 76-77, 81, 87, 92-95, 101, 106, - 110, 113, 114, 120-21, - relation to Didot-Perceval, 128-30, - to Mabinogi ,133 and 140-44, 145, 146, - visit to Grail Castle in, 171-72, - Gawain Quest in, 174 and 178-79, 182, 189, 199, 237, 246. - - Gautier (Walter) de Montbeliart and Borron, 5, 103, 105, 120, 121. - - Gawain (Gauvain), 2, 67, 69, - visit to Grail King, 87, 92, 101, - Martin's view of, 122 and 124, 125, 164, 172, - special form of Quest, 176-78, 180, 189, 191, - visit to Magic Castle, 199-200, - in Heinrich, 203-05, 237, - and Orgueilleuse, 240-41, 245, 251, 261-62. - - Geasa, 212-14. - - Geoffrey of Monmouth, 91, 119, 219, 229. - - Gerald (Giraldus Cambrensis), testimony respecting Map's authorship, - 117-18, 122. - - Gerbert, numbered A IV., 1, 5, 69, - love _motif_ in, 92, 95, 110, 121, 126, - the witch who brings the dead to life in, 165-69, 172, 174-75, 179, - 180, 199, - chastity ideal in, 246, 249, - relation to Wolfram, 262-63. - - Gervasius of Tilbury, 122, 197. - - Glastonbury, Skeat's view, 105, - Zarncke, 107, 220, - and Avalon, 223-25. - - Goethe, 253. - - Gonemans, 130-34, - and Fisher King, 138, 140, - and the witch, 165-68, - advice to Perceval, 211-12. - See also Gurnemanz. - - Goon Desert, 81, 142. - - Grail, 66, - hypothetical Christian origin of, 68, - first possessor of, 69-70, - solace of Joseph, 70-72, - connection with Sacrament, 71 and 73, - and Trinity, 72, - properties and effect of, 74-76, - name, 76, - arrival in England, 76-79, 83-84, 89-90, 94, 96, 99, 100-112, - phraseology used by romances in mentioning it, 113, 114-16, - symbol of Christ's body, 117, 120, - symbol of Avalon, 123, 124-26, 136, 140-142, - absence of from Mabinogi and Thornton Sir P., 164, - apparently foreign to Celtic legend, 165, 169, - various forms of visit to castle of, 170-79, - double nature of, 182-83, - parallel to magic vessel of Celtic tradition, 185-96, - and Fionn, 202, 218, 221, - mode of transformation, 224, 245, 247, - in Wolfram, 250-52, - in Wagner, 254-55, 261-63. - - Grail (Early History of), two forms, 65-66, - Joseph form, 67, - relation to Christian origin hypothesis, 68, 69, - Brons form, 80, 86, - two forms in French romances, 93-94, - later than Queste, 93, 95-96, 103, - according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 108-21, 151, 208, - origin of, 218 and 224. - - Grail (Quest of), two forms, 65-67, - Perceval form, 67, - relation to Celtic origin hypothesis, 68, 69, 80, 83, 86, - object of according to different versions, 88-90, - original form of, 91, 92, - Perceval form older, 93-94, 95-96, 105-06, 109-26, 131, 138, - Mabinogi form of, 139-44, 151, - inconsistency of accounts respecting, 180-81, - two formulas fused in, 181, - constituent elements in, 215-16, - mode of transformation, 220, 237-39, 243, 245, 248, 251, 252. - - Grail legend, romance or cycle, origin of according to Birch-Hirschfeld, - 120, 159, - Christian element in, 217, - genesis and growth of, 225-27, - popularity of, 228, 230, - development of ethical ideas in, 235 _et seq._, 248, - future of, 259, 265. - - Grail-Keeper and Promised Knight, 80-81. - - Grail-Messenger and Rosette, 114. - See also Loathly Damsel. - - Graine, 214. - - Gramoflanz, 193. - - Grand St. Graal, numbered E 3, authorship ascribed to Borron, 5, - Helinandus' testimony, 52, 65-67, 70, 72-73, 75-76, 79, - conflicting accounts respecting Promised Knight in, 84-86, 90, 91, 93, - 94-96, 99, 102-112, 117, - authorship of, 119-20, 121, 126, 146, 207-08, 219, 220, 247, - prologue of and Brandan legend, 264-65. - - Great Fool, lay or tale of the, 101-02, 144, - prose opening, 152-53, - comparison with romances, 154-56, - originality of, 158, - relation to Fionn legend, 159, - Lay, 159-162, 163, 164, - ethical import of, 256-57. - - Gregory of Tours and Evangelium Nicodemi, 221. - - Greloguevaus, 81. - - Grimm, No. 122, Der Krautesel, 195, 197, 198, 204-05, 247. - - Gudrun, 233. - - Guinevere, 83. - - Gurnemanz, 113, 115, 249, 262-63. - See also Gonemans. - - Guyot = Kiot, 104. - - Gwalchmai, 225-26, 228. - See Gawain. - - Gwion and Fionn, 210. - - - Hahn, J. G. von, 153-54. - - Halliwell, 98, 147. - - Haunted Castle, 204-05. - - Hawker, 244. - - Hebron, 108 = Brons, which see. - - Hector, 187. - - Heinrich von dem Tuerlin, numbered K, 4, - citation of Chrestien, 6, 69, 91, - Martin's view of, 122, 125, - visit to Grail Castle in, 172-73 and 178, - double origin, 182, 191, - special form of Quest, 198-99 and 203, - parallel with Sleeping Beauty, 203. - - Helie de Borron, 105-06, - testimony of, 118-19, 121. - - Helinandus, 52, 95, 103, 121. - - Helyas, 83 = Ysaics, 84. - - Hennessy, 159. - - Henry II, 118-19. - - Herodias, 100, 254. - - Hertz' views, 124-25. - - How the Great Tuairsgeul etc., 212. - - Hucher, 2, - attempt to harmonise conflicting accounts in Borron, 82, - statement of views, 105-06, - criticised by Birch-Hirschfeld, 111 and 118, 130, - and cauldron, 184. - - - Iduna, apples of, 182. - - - John the Baptist, 100. - - Jonaans, 83, 84. - - Joseph of Arimathea, Joseph legend, 65-67, 69, 70, - and Grail, 70-73, 74, 77, - and England, 78-80, 81, 82, 84, 88, 89, 90, 93, 94, 99, 100, 104-109, - 112-117, 124, 146, - and the Fisher, 208, 218, - Apocryphal legend of, 220-24, 226. - - Joseph, Metrical, poem by Robert de Borron, numbered B 2, author of, 5, - 65-66, 68, 70-73, 74-76, 77-80, - two accounts in, 81-82, 88, 91, 93-94, 102-103, - relation to Didot-Perceval according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 112-14, 125. - - Josephes (son of Joseph), and Veronica, 79, 84-86, 109. - - Josue, 66, 84, 85. - - - Kay, 130. - - Keating and the treasures of the Tuatha de Danann, 184. - - Kennedy's Fellow with the Goat-skin, 134, - Castle Knock, 159, - Great Fool, 159-61, - Son of Bad Counsel, 199-200, - Fionn's visit to Cuana, 201, - haunted castle tale, 204, 257. - - Kiot, 6, - San Marte's view, 99-100, 107-08, 121, - and Wolfram, 261-63. - - Klinschor, 253, 263. - - Knight Errantry, 229. - - Knighthood, prototype of in Celtic tradition, 231. - - Knights of the Red Branch, 231. - - Knowles' Said and Saiyid, 196. - - Koch, Kyffhaeuser Sage, 197. - - Koehler, 195. - - Kundry in Wagner, 254-55, 263. - See Loathly Damsel. - - Kuepp on Pseudo-Chrestien, 8, 126, - and the branch, 193, 262. - - Kynddelw, 219. - - - Lambar, 83-84, 86, 183. - - Lame King, see Maimed King. - - Lance, 109, - and Grail legend according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 111, 113, 121. - - Lancelot, 83, 84, 108, 110, 112, 118, 119, 123, 172-173, 180, 240, 245. - - Latin original of French romances probable, 122. - - Liebrecht, 197-98. - - Llyr Llediath, 219-20. - - Loathly Damsel, 87, - and Rosette, 114, - in Mabinogi and Chrestien, 136, - hero's cousin, 139-41, - double origin of in romances, 205-06, - and Wagner, 254. - - Longis, 70. - - Luces de Gast, 118-19. - - Luces (Lucius), 91, 219. - - Lufamour, 147. - - Lug Lamhfhada, 184, 189, 192. - - Mabinogi of Peredur (generally Mabinogi sometimes Peredur) numbered H 3, - 5, 66, 68, 69, - Villemarque on, 97-98, 89, - Simrock on, 100, 101, - Nash, 102, 104, - Hucher, 106, - lateness of according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 114-115, 125-26, - relation to Conte du Graal, 131-37, - dwarves incident in, 134, - greater delicacy in Blanchefleur incident, 135, - blood drops incident, 137-38, - differences with Chrestien, 138-39, - machinery of Quest in, 139-42, - relation to Manessier, 142-44, - origin and development of, 143-145, - special indebtedness to Chrestien, 145, 146, - relation to Sir Perceval, 148-49, - counsels in, 150, - apparent absence of Grail from, 151, - comparison with Great Fool tale, 154-57, - with Great Fool Lay, 161-62, 164, - with Gerbert's witch incident, 168-69, 171, - visit to Talismans Castle in, 172-73 and 176, 180, 181, 183, 184, 190, - 216, - fusion of numerous Celtic tales in, 225-26, - Sex-relations in, 241, 256. - - Maidens' Castle, parallels to in Celtic tradition, 191-94. - - Maimed or Lame or Sick King, 66, 83-88, 90, 91, 109, - parallel with Arthur, 122, - probable absence from Proto Mabinogi, 145, - belongs to Feud Quest, 198, - parallel to Fionn, 202, 237. - - Malory, 236. - - Manaal, 84. - - Manannan mac Lir, 192-94, 208, - and Bran, 219. - - Manessier, numbered A III, 1-2, - date etc., 4-5, 69-71, 73-74, 77, 81, 88, 92, 95, 110, 121, 138, - relation to the Mabinogi, 142-46, 168-69, 171, 175, - disregard of question, 180-82, 199, 245-46. - - Manus, 189-90. - - Mapes or Map, 5, 104, 105, - not author of Queste or Grand St. Graal according to Birch-Hirschfeld, - 117-19. - - Martin's views, 121-26, - Kyffhaeuser hypothesis criticised, 197, 198, - Wolfram and Gerbert, 262. - - Meaux, 120. - - Menglad, 232. - - Merlin, 92, 114, 124. - - Merlin, Borron's poem, 2, 64D, 105, 106, 112-13, 117. - - Meyer, Kuno, 209, 233. - - Minnedienst, 240-41. - - Modred, 122. - - Montsalvatch, 66. - - Mordrains, 90, 109-10, 120, 173. - - Morgan la Fay, 122. - - Morvan lez Breiz, 148, 158, 162. - - Moys or Moses, 88-90, 106, 109, 112, 116. - - Mythic conceptions in the romances, 205. - - - Nasciens, 76, 83, 85, 120. - - Nash, 102. - - Nibelungenlied, 230, 234, 248. - - Nicodemus, 71. - - Noisi, 137, 233. - - - O'Daly, 159-61, 163. - - Odin, 100-01. - - O'Donovan, 185, 209, 213. - - Oengus of the Brug, 191-92, - and swanmaid, 196. - - O'Flanagan, 233. - - Ogma, 188. - - Oisin, 195, 200, - and Gwion, 210, 232. - - O'Kearney, 201. - - Orgueilleuse, Celtic character of, 124 and 232, - illustrates mediaeval morality, 240-41, 263. - - Osiris, 101. - - - Pagan essence of Grail etc. in the Christianised romances, 238. - - Partinal, 81, 88, 142-43. - - Parzival, 101, 252-53. - See Perceval and Wolfram. - - Paulin-Paris, 5, - explanation of word Grail, 103, 111, 116-17, 119. - - Pearson on the Veronica legend, 222, - and St. Brandan, 265. - - Peleur, 83. - - Pelleans or Pellehem, 83-86, 90. - - Pelles, 83-86, 90. - - Perceval, Perceval-Quest, type hero of Quest, 66-67, 72, 78, - relation to the Grail-keeper, 80-86, 88-89, 91-92, - oldest hero of Quest, 93, 94, 98, 101, 102-04, - according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 110-119, 125, - in Didot-Perceval and Conte du Graal, 127-31, - in Mabinogi and Conte du Graal, 131-45, - relation to (bespelled) cousin, 139-42, - relation of existing versions to earliest form, 146, - in the Thornton MS. romance, 147-51, - hero of Expulsion and Return Formula, 153-56, - parallel with Highland folk-tales, 157-58, - relation to Twin Brethren folk-tale and dualism in, 162-64, 169, - versions of Quest, 171-76, - visit to the Maidens' Castle, 178-79, 180, 181, - significance of Didot-Perceval form, 182, 187, - and sword, 189, - Castle of Maidens, 191, 195, 199, - parallel with Diarmaid, 202, - possible hero of Haunted Castle form, 204-05, - relation to Fisher, 207, - his silence, 211-14, 226, - superiority to Galahad Quest, 236, 237-38, 240-41, 245, 247, 254, 256, - 261-62. - See also Parzival and Peredur. - - Perceval's aunt, 79. - - Perceval's sister, 83-84, 163. - - Perceval's uncle, 78. - - Perceval le Gallois, numbered G 3, authorship, 6, 65-66, 69, 104, 121, - 126, 246. - - Peredur (hero of Mabinogi = Perceval), Peredur-saga, 106, - mother of, 115, 132-36, - parallel to Tom of the Goat-skin, 134, - the sword test, 138, - hero of the stag hunt, 139-42, 143, - original form of saga, 144-45, 153-54, 157, 162, 163, 164, 168-69, - and Fionn, 187 and 203, 220, - fish absent from, 224, - genesis and growth of, 225-227, 228, - Blanchefleur incident in, 241. - See Perceval. - - Peronnik l'idiot, 125, 158. - - Perseus, 256. - - Petrus, 77, 82, 88-90, 106, 109, 112, - connection with Geoffrey conversion legend, 219. - - Pfaffe Amis, 265. - - Pilate, 65, 70. - - Potter Thompson and Arthur, 198, 262. - - Potvin, 1, 2, 6, - his views, 104, 174, 177. - - Prester John, 100. - - Procopius, 191. - - Promised or Good Knight, and Grail Keeper, 80-86, - Galahad as, 85-86 - work of, 86-91, - qualifications of, 92-93, 107, 109. - - Prophecy incident in Grail romances, 156. - - Pseudo-Chrestien, 8, 209. - - Pseudo-Gautier, numbered AII_a_, 2, 15-16, 70, 72, 74, 77, 79, 81, 95. - - Pseudo-Manessier, numbered AIII_a_, 2, 19, 72-73. - - - Queste del St. Graal, numbered D 2-3, varying redactions distinguished - typographically, 38, 65-67, 72, 75-76, 79, - three drafts of, 83-86, 90-91, - glorification of virginity in, 93, 95, 103, 107, - relation to Grand St. Graal, 108-09, - to Conte du Graal, 110-11, 112, 113, - authorship of, 117-20, 121, 126, 131, 146, - visit to Grail Castle in, 172-73, 180, 183, 186, 207, 218, 220, 222, - 224, 226, 236, - ideal of, 238-40 and 243-44, - ideal criticised, 243-44, - merits of, 244-45, 246, - inferiority to Wolfram, 250, 251. - - Question, Birch-Hirschfeld's opinion, 171, 180, - belongs to Unspelling Quest, 181-82, 191, 196, 203, - Wolfram's presentment, 249-50. - - - Red Knight, 147-49, 155-56, 162, 189. - - Renan on Celtic poetry, 234-35. - - Rhys, 198, 209, 211, - Bran legend, 219-20, 265. - - Rich Fisher or King. See Fisher King. - - Riseut, 141. - - Robert de Borron. See Borron. - - Rochat, 19, - his views, 101-02. - - Roland, 229, 232. - - Romenie, 118. - - Rosette, 130, 141. - See Loathly Damsel. - - - Salmon of Wisdom, 209-10. - - San Marte, views, 99-100, 101-02, - and Wolfram, 250-5. - - Sarras, 72, 77, 79. - - Schroeder, Brandan legend, 264-65. - - Seat, empty or Perillous, 81-82, 88-90. - - Secret words, 73, 89, 179. - - Seraphe, 108. - - Sex-relations in Middle Ages, 240-42. - - Siegfried, 157, 162, 203, 210, 232-33. - - Simei, 90. - - Simrock, views, 100-101, 103, 132, 134, 164, 251, 261-62. - - Skeat, 104. - - Skene, 219-20. - - Sleep and the Magic Castle myth, 202-03. - - Sleeping Beauty, parallel with Heinrich's version, 203, - ethical import of, 258. - - Solomon's sword, 84. - See Sword. - - Sons of Usnech, 137, 233. - - Sorceresses of Gloucester, 101, 139, 156. - - Spontaneity of folk tradition, 254, 257-58. - - Stag Hunt in Conte du Graal and Mabinogi, 139-40, - in Didot-Perceval, 141, - parallel with Lay of Great Fool, 162. - - Steinbach on Sir Perceval, 147-50. - - Stephens, 219-20. - - Stokes, 188, 200, 233. - - Suetonius, 116. - - Sword, 113, 142, - belongs more to Feud Quest, 180-82, - found also in Unspelling Quest, 183, - of Lug, 184, - in Celtic myth, 187-90, 198-99. - - Taboo and Geasa, 214. - - Taliesin, 97, 186, - and Oisin, 210-11. - - Templars, 100. - - Tennyson, 236, 244. - - Tethra, 188. - - Thor, Irish parallels to, 200-01. - - Thornton MS. Sir Perceval (often simply Sir Perceval), numbered I 4, 66, - 68-69, 101-02, 125, 126, - Steinbach's theory of, 147-50, - criticised, 149, - absence of Grail from, 151, - connection with Great Fool tale, 154-58, 162, 164-65, - witch incident, 169, 190, 225. - - Tir-na n-Og, 191, 195, 223, 248, 264. - - Titurel, 66. - - Titus, 107. - - Trinity, symbolizing of, 88. - - Tuatha de Danann, treasures of, 184-85, 189-92, 223, 230. - - Two Brothers tale, 157, 162-63. - - - Ultonian cycle, 185. - - Unspelling Quest, 181, - Celtic parallels to, 190-206, 208. - - Urban (Urlain), 83, 84, 183. - - - Van Santen, 252. - - Vanishing of Bespelled Castle, 202-03. - - Veronica (Verrine), 79, 116, - Ward's theory, 222. - - Vespasian, 107, 116. - - Vessel in Celtic myth, 184, - in Ultonian cycle, 185, - in Welsh myth, 186, - in Celtic folk-tales, 187. - See Grail. - - Villemarque, views 97-98, 101, 131, 148. - - Virginity, 247. - - - Wagner, 252-54. - - Ward, 220, 222. - - Wartburg Krieg and Brandan legend, 264. - - William of Malmesbury, 105, - Zarncke's opinion of, 107, 115, - Ward's opinion of, 220. - - Windisch, 188, 219. - - Witch who brings the dead to life, 165-69. - - Wolfram von Eschenbach, numbered F 3, sources, 6, 25-26, 65-67, 69, - and Gerbert, 92, 99-102, 104, 107, 121-25, 150, 157, - brother incident in, 164, 172-73, - branch in, 193, - magician lord, 199, - account of mediaeval morality, 240-41, 246, - ideal of, 248-52, 254, 255, 256, - pattern for future growth of legend, 261, - relation to Chrestien, 261-63. - - Woman in Celtic tradition, 231-33. - - Wuelcker, Evangelium Nicodemi, 220-21. - - - Zarncke, views, 106-07, 115, 132, 220. - - - HARRISON AND SONS, - PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY, - ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON. - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Fully described by Potvin, VI, lxix, etc. - -[2] Potvin, VI, lxxv, etc. - -[3] Birch-Hirschfeld: Die Sage vom Gral, 8vo., Leipzig, 1877, p. 81. - -[4] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 89. - -[5] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 110. - -[6] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 232, quoting the colophon of a Paris MS., after -Paulin Paris, Cat. des MSS. francais, vol. ii, pp. 361, etc. - -[7] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 143. - -[8] This prologue is certainly not Chrestien's work; but there is no -reason to doubt that it embodies a genuine tradition, and affords valuable -hints for a reconstruction of the original form of the story. _Cf._ Otto -Kuepp in Zeitschrift fuer deutsche Philologie, vol. xvii., No. 1. - -[9] Potvin's text, from the Mons MS., is taken as basis. - -[10] Several MSS. here intercalate the history of Joseph of Arimathea: -Joseph of Barimacie had the dish made; with it he caught the blood running -from the Saviour's body as it hung on the Cross, he afterwards begged the -body of Pilate; for the devotion showed the Grail he was denounced to the -Jews, thrown into prison, delivered thence by the Lord, exiled together -with the sister of Nicodemus, who had an image of the Lord. Joseph and his -companions came to the promised land, the White Isle, a part of England. -There they warred against them of the land. When Joseph was short of food -he prayed to the Creator to send him the Grail wherein he had gathered the -holy blood, after which to them that sat at table the Grail brought bread -and wine and meat in plenty. At his death, Joseph begged the Grail might -remain with his seed, and thus it was that no one, of however high -condition, might see it save he was of Joseph's blood. The Rich Fisher was -of that kin, and so was Greloguevaus, from whom came Perceval. - -It is hardly necessary to point out that this must be an interpolation, as -if Gauvain had really learnt all there was to be told concerning the -Grail, there would have been no point in the reproaches addressed him by -the countryfolk. The gist of the episode is that he falls asleep before -the tale is all told. - -[11] The existence of this fragment shows the necessity of collating all -the MSS. of the Conte du Graal and the impossibility of arriving at -definite conclusions respecting the growth of the work before this is -done. The writer of this version evidently knew nothing of Queste or Grand -St. Graal, whilst he had knowledge of Borron's poem, a fact the more -remarkable since none of the other poets engaged upon the Conte du Graal -knew of Borron, so far, at least, as can be gathered from printed sources. -It is hopeless in the present state of knowledge to do more than map out -approximately the leading sections of the work. - -[12] It is by no means clear to me that Gerbert's portion of the Conte du -Graal is an interpolation. I am rather inclined to look upon it as an -independent finish. As will be shown later on, it has several features in -common with both Mabinogi and Wolfram, features pointing to a common -prototype. - -[13] In the solitary MS. which gives this version, it follows, as has -already been stated, prose versions of Robert de Borron's undoubted poems, -"Joseph of Arimathea" and "Merlin." - -[14] Birch-Hirschfeld, in his Summary (p. 37, l. 22) or his MS. authority, -B.M., xix, E. iii., has transposed the relationships. - -[15] And buried it, adds B. H. in his Summary, whether on MS. authority or -not I cannot say, but the Welsh translation has--"there was a period of -240 years" (an obvious mistake on the part of the translator) "after the -passion of J. C. when Jos. of A. came; he who buried J. C. and drew him -down from the cross." - -[16] Thus was Evelach called as a Christian, adds B. H. Here W. agrees -with Furnivall. - -[17] Here Birch-Hirschfeld's Summary agrees with W. - -[18] B. H. agrees with W. - -[19] According to B. H., the recluse tells him he has fought with his -friends, whereupon, ashamed, he hurries off. - -[20] B. H. here agrees with W. - -[21] B. H. has _five_ candles. - -[22] B. H.: "When will the Holy Vessel come to still the pain I feel? -Never suffered man as I." - -[23] B. H. agrees with W. - -[24] B. H. agrees with Furnivall. - -[25] B. H., the _ninth_. - -[26] B. H., the vision is that of a crowned old man, who with two knights -worships the cross. - -[27] B. H., Nasciens. - -[28] B. H. has all this passage, save that the references to the vision at -the cross-ways seem omitted. - -[29] B. H., the latter. - -[30] B. H., in Chaldee. - -[31] B. H., Labran slays Urban. - -[32] The 1488 text has Urban. - -[33] B. H., Thus was the King wounded, and he was Galahad's grandfather. - -[34] It does not appear from B. H.'s Summary whether his text agrees with -F. or W. - -[35] B. H., seven knights. - -[36] B. H., that was the Castle of Corbenic where the Holy Grail was kept. - -[37] B. H., the Castle of the Maimed King. - -[38] B. H., ten. Obviously a mistake on the part of his text, as the nine -with the three Grail questers make up twelve, the number of Christ's -disciples. - -[39] B. H., three. - -[40] B. H. agrees with F. - -[41] One cannot see from B. H. whether his text agrees with F. or W. - -[42] B. H. agrees with F. - -[43] It will be advisable to give here the well-known passage from the -chronicle of Helinandus, which has been held by most investigators to be -of first-rate importance in determining the date of the Grand St. Graal. -The chronicle ends in the year 1204, and must therefore have been finished -in that or the following year, and as the passage in question occurs in -the earlier portion of the work it may be dated about two years earlier -(Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 33). "Hoc tempore (717-719) in Britannia cuidam -heremitae demonstrata fuit mirabilis quaedam visio per angelum de Joseph -decurione nobili, qui corpus domini deposuit de cruce et de catino illo -vel paropside, in quo dominus caenavit cum discipulis suis, de quo ab -eodem heremita descripta est historia quae dicitur gradale. Gradalis autem -vel gradale gallice dicitur scutella lata et aliquantulum profunda, in qua -preciosae dapes divitibus solent apponi gradatim, unus morsellus post -alium in diversis ordinibus. Dicitur et vulgari nomine greal, quia grata -et acceptabilis est in ea comedenti, tum propter continens, quia forte -argentea est vel de alia preciosa materia, tum propter contentum .i. -ordinem multiplicem dapium preciosarum. Hanc historiam latine scriptam -invenire non potui sed tantum gallice scripta habetur a quibusdem -proceribus, nec facile, ut aiunt, tota inveniri potest." - -The Grand St. Graal is the only work of the cycle now existing to which -Helinandus' words could refer; but it is a question whether he may not -have had in view a work from which the Grand St. Graal took over its -introduction. Helinandus mentions the punning origin of the word "greal" -(_infra_, p. 76), which is only hinted at in the Grand St. Graal, but -fully developed elsewhere, _e.g._, in the Didot-Perceval and in Borron's -poem. - -Another point of great interest raised by this introduction will be found -dealt with in Appendix B. - -[44] The MS. followed by Furnivall has an illustration, in which Joseph is -represented as sitting under the Cross and collecting the blood from the -sides and feet in the basin. - -[45] MS. reading. - -[46] I have not thought it necessary to give a summary of the prose -romance Perceval le Gallois. One will be found in Birch-Hirschfeld, pp. -123-134. The version, though offering many interesting features, is too -late and unoriginal to be of use in the present investigation. - -[47] _Cf._ p. 78 as to this passage. - -[48] It is forty-two years, according to D. Queste (p. 119), after the -Passion that Joseph comes to Sarras. - -[49] It is plain that B I is abridged in the passage dealt with, from the -following fact: Joseph (v. 2,448, etc.) praying to Christ for help, -reminds Him of His command, that when he (Joseph) wanted help he should -come "devant ce veissel precieus Ou est votre sans glorieus." Now Christ's -words to Joseph in the prison say nothing whatever about any such -recommendation; but E, Grand St. Graal, does contain a scene between our -Lord and Joseph, in which the latter is bidden, "Et quant tu vauras a moi -parler si ouuerras l'arche en quel lieu que tu soies" (I, 38-39) from -which the conclusion may be drawn that B I represents an abridged and -garbled form of the prototype of E. - -[50] In the Mabinogi of Branwen, the daughter of Llyr, the warriors cast -into the cauldron of renovation come forth on the morrow fighting men as -good as they were before, except that they are not able to speak (Mab., p. -381). - -[51] The version summarised by Birch-Hirschfeld. - -[52] Curiously enough this very text here prints Urban as the name of the -Maimed King; Urban is the antagonist of Lambar, the father of the Maimed -King in the original draft of the Queste, and his mention in this place in -the 1488 text seems due to a misprint. In the episode there is a direct -conflict of testimony between the first and second drafts, Lambar slaving -Urlain in the former, Urlain Lambar in the latter. - -[53] This account agrees with that of the second draft of the Queste, in -which Urlain slays Lambar. - -[54] Only _one_ beholder of the Quest is alluded to, although in the -Queste, from which the Grand St. Graal drew its account, _three_ behold -the wonders of the Grail. - -[55] This, of course, belongs to the second of the two accounts we have -found in the poem respecting the Promised Knight, the one which makes him -the grandson and not the son merely of Brons. - -[56] The object of the Quest according to Heinrich von dem Tuerlin will be -found dealt with in Chapter VII. - -[57] This is one of a remarkable series of points of contact between -Gerbert and Wolfram von Eschenbach. - -[58] It almost looks as if the author of C were following here a version -in which the hero only has to go once to the Grail Castle; nothing is said -about Perceval's first unsuccessful visit, and Merlin addresses Perceval -as if he were telling him for the first time about matters concerning -which he must be already fully instructed. - -[59] It is remarkable, considering the scanty material at his disposal, -how accurate Schulz' analysis is, and how correct much of his -argumentation. - -[60] Wagner has admirably utilised this hint of Simrock's in his Parsifal, -when his Kundry (the loathly damsel of Chrestien and the Mabinogi) is -Herodias. _Cf._ _infra_, Ch. X. - -[61] Excepting, of course, the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century -Paris imprints, which represented as a rule, however, the latest and most -interpolated forms, and Mons. Fr. Michel's edition of Borron's poem. - -[62] Hucher's argument from v. 2817 (_supra_ p. 106) that the poem knew of -the Grand St. Graal is, however, not met. - -[63] _Vide_ p. 200, for Birch-Hirschfeld's summary comparison of the two -works, and _cf._ _infra_ p. 127. - -[64] _Cf._ _infra_ p. 128, for a criticism of this statement. - -[65] Opera V. 410: Unde et vir ille eloquio clarus W. Mapus, Oxoniensis -archidiaconus (cujus animae propitietur Deus) solita verborum facetia et -urbanitate praecipua dicere pluris et nos in hunc modum convenire solebat: -"Multa, Magister Geralde, scripsistis et multum adhue scribitis, et nos -multa diximus. Vos scripta dedistis et nos verba." - -[66] Printed in full, Hucher, I. 156, etc. - -[67] Printed by Hucher, I. p. 35, etc. - -[68] The remainder of Birch-Hirschfeld's work is devoted to proving that -Chrestien was the only source of Wolfram von Eschenbach, the latter's Kiot -being imagined by him to justify his departure from Chrestien's version; -departures occasioned by his dissatisfaction with the French poet's -treatment of the subject on its moral and spiritual side. This element in -the Grail problem will be found briefly dealt with, Appendix A. - -[69] I have not thought it necessary, or even advisable, to notice what -the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" (Part XLI, pp. 34, 35) and some other -English "authorities" say about the Grail legends. - -[70] They are brought together by Hucher, vol. i, p. 383, etc. - -[71] In the preface to the second volume of his edition of Chrestien's -works (Halle, 1887), W. Foerster distinguishes Peredur from the Lady of the -Fountain and from Geraint, which he looks upon as simple copies of -Chrestien's poems dealing with the same subjects. Peredur has, he thinks, -some Welsh features. - -[72] It is perhaps only a coincidence that in Gautier the "pucelle de -malaire" is named Riseut la Bloie, and that Rosette la Blonde is the name -of the loathly damsel whom Perceval meets in company of the Beau Mauvais, -and whom Birch-Hirschfeld supposes to have suggested to Chrestien _his_ -loathly damsel, the Grail messenger. But from the three versions one gets -the following:--Riseut (Gautier), loathly damsel (Didot-Perceval), Grail -messenger (Chrestien), = Peredur's cousin, who in the Mabinogi is the -loathly Grail messenger, and the protagonist in the stag-hunt. - -[73] I have not thought it necessary to discuss seriously the hypothesis -that Chrestien may have used the Mabinogi as we now have it. The foregoing -statement of the facts is sufficient to negative it. - -[74] THE COUNSELS. _Chrestien_ (v. 1,725, etc.): aid dames and damsels, -for he who honoureth them not, his honour is dead; serve them likewise; -displease them not in aught; one has much from kissing a maid if she will -to lie with you, but if she forbid, leave it alone; if she have ring, or -wristband, and for love or at your prayer give it, 'tis well you take it. -Never have comradeship with one for long without seeking his name; speak -ever to worthy men and go with them; ever pray in churches and monasteries -(then follows a dissertation on churches and places of worship generally). -_Mabinogi_ (p. 83): wherever a church, repeat there thy Paternoster; if -thou see meat and drink, and none offer, take; if thou hear an outcry, -especially of a woman, go towards it; if thou see a jewel, take and give -to another to obtain praise thereby; pay thy court to a fair woman, -_whether she will or no_, thus shalt thou render thyself a better man than -before. (In the italicised passage the Mabinogi gives the direct opposite -of Chrestien, whom he has evidently misunderstood.) _Sir Perceval_ (p. -16): "Luke thou be of mesure Bothe in haulle and boure, And fonde to be -fre." "There thou meteste with a knyghte, Do thi hode off, I highte, and -haylse hym in hy" (He interprets the counsel to be of measure by only -taking half the food and drink he finds at the board of the lady of the -tent. The kissing of the lady of the tent which follows is in no way -connected with his mother's counsel.) _Wolfram_: "Follow not untrodden -paths; bear thyself ever becomingly; deny no man thy greeting; accept the -teaching of a greybeard; if ring and greeting of a fair woman are to be -won strive thereafter, kiss her and embrace her dear body, for that gives -luck and courage, if so she be chaste and worthy." Beside the mother's -counsels Perceval is admonished by Gonemans or the personage corresponding -to him. In _Chrestien_ (2,838, _et seq._) he is to deny mercy to no knight -pleading for it; to take heed he be not over-talkful; to aid and counsel -dames and damsels and all others needing his counsel; to go often to -church; not to quote his mother's advice, rather to refer to him -(Gonemans). In the _Mabinogi_ he is to leave the habits and discourse of -his mother; if he see aught to cause him wonder not to ask its meaning. In -_Wolfram_ he is not to have his mother always on his lips; to keep a -modest bearing; to help all in need, but to give wisely, not heedlessly; -and in especial not to ask too much; to deny no man asking mercy; when he -has laid by his arms to let no traces thereof be seen, but to wash hands -and face from stain of rust, thereby shall ladies be pleased; to hold -women in love and honour; never to seek to deceive them (as he might do -many), for false love is fleeting and men and women are one as are sun and -daylight.--There seems to me an evident progression in the ethical -character of these counsels. Originally they were doubtless purely -practical and somewhat primitive of their nature. As it is, Chrestien's -words sound very strange to modern ears. - -[75] In the notes to my two articles in the "Folk-Lore Record" will be -found a number of references establishing this fact. - -[76] The hero renews his strength after his various combats by rubbing -himself with the contents of a vessel of balsam. He has moreover to enter -a house the door of which closes to of itself (like the Grail Castle -Portcullis in Wolfram), and which kills him. He is brought to life by the -friendly raven. The mysterious carlin also appears, "there was a turn of -her nails about her elbows, and a twist of her hoary hair about her toes, -and she was not joyous to look upon." She turns the hero's companions into -stone, and to unspell them he must seek a bottle of living water and rub -it upon them, when they will come out alive. This is like the final -incident in many stories of the Two Brothers class. _Cf._ note, p. 162. - -[77] O'Daly's version consists of 158 quatrains; Campbell's of 63. The -correspondence between them, generally very close (frequently verbal), is -shown by the following table:-- - - O'D., 1, 2. C., 1, 2. - -- C., 3. - O'D., 3. C., 4. - O'D., 4-15. -- - O'D., 16. C., 4. - O'D., 17-24. C., 5-12. - O'D., 25. -- - -- C., 13-15. - O'D., 26-47. C., 16-36. - O'D., 48-56. -- - O'D., 57-61. C., 37-40. - O'D., 62. -- - O'D., 63-65. C., 41-43. - O'D., 66. C., 45. - O'D., 67. C., 44. - O'D., 68, 69. C., 46, 47. - O'D., 70. C., 49. - O'D., 71. C., 48. - -- C., 50. - O'D., 72. C., 52. - O'D., 73. -- - O'D., 74. C., 53. - O'D., 75. C., 54. - O'D., 76-80. C., 55-59. - O'D., 81-134. -- - O'D., 135, 136. C., 60, 61. - -- C., 62. - O'D., 137. -- - O'D., 138. C., 63. - O'D., 139-158. -- - -[78] Of this widely spread group, Grimm's No. 60, Die zwei Brueder, may be -taken as a type. The brethren eat heart and liver of the gold bird and -thereby get infinite riches, are schemed against by a goldsmith, who would -have kept the gold bird for himself, seek their fortunes throughout the -world accompanied by helping beasts, part at crossways, leaving a life -token to tell each one how the other fares; the one delivers a princess -from a dragon, is cheated of the fruit of the exploit by the Red Knight, -whom after a year he confounds, wins the princess, and, after a while, -hunting a magic hind, falls victim to a witch. His brother, learning his -fate through the life token, comes to the same town, is taken for the -young king even by the princess, but keeps faith to his brother by laying -a bare sword twixt them twain at night. He then delivers from the witch's -spells his brother, who, learning the error caused by the likeness, and -thinking advantage had been taken of it, in a fit of passion slays him, -but afterwards, hearing the truth, brings him back to life again. Grimm -has pointed out in his notes the likeness between this story and that of -Siegfried (adventures with Mimir, Fafnir, Brunhilde, and Gunnar). In India -the tale figures in Somadeva's Katha Sarit Sagara (Brockhaus' translation, -ii., 142, _et seq._). The one brother is transformed into a demon through -accidental sprinkling from a body burning on a bier. He is in the end -released from this condition by his brother's performing certain exploits, -but there is no similarity of detail. Other variants are _Zingerle_ (p. -131) where the incident occurs of the hero's winning the king's favour by -making his bear dance before him; this I am inclined to look upon as a -weakened recollection of the incident of a hero's making a princess -_laugh_, either by playing antics himself or making an animal of his play -them (_see_ _supra_, p. 134, Kennedy's Irish Tale). Grimm also quotes -_Meier_ 29 and 58, but these are only variants of the dragon-killing -incident. In the variant of 29, given p. 306, the hero makes the king -laugh, and in both stories occurs the familiar incident of the hero coming -unknown into a tournament and overcoming all enemies, as in Peredur (Inc. -9). _Wolf._, p. 369, is closer, and here the hero is counselled by a grey -mannikin whom he will unspell if he succeeds. _Stier_, No. I. (not p. 67, -as Grimm erroneously indicates) follows almost precisely the same course -as Grimm's 60, save that there are three brothers. _Graal_, p. 195, has -the magic gold bird opening, but none of the subsequent adventures tally. -_Schott_, No. 11, is also cited by Grimm, but mistakenly; it belongs to -the faithful-servant group. Very close variants come from Sweden -(Cavallius-Oberleitner, V_a_, V_b_) and Italy (Pentamerone, I. 7 and I. -9). The Swedish tales have the miraculous conception opening, which is a -prominent feature in tales belonging to the Expulsion and Return group -(_e.g._, Perseus, Cu-Chulaind, and Taliesin), but present otherwise very -nearly the same incidents as Grimm. The second of the Italian versions has -the miraculous conception opening so characteristic of this group of -folk-tales, and of the allied formula group, the attainment of riches -consequent upon eating the heart of a sea dragon, the tournament incident -(though without the disguise of the hero), the stag hunt, wherein the -stag, an inimical wizard haunting the wood, is a cannibal and keeps the -captured hero for eating. In the story of the delivery by the second -brother, the separating sword incident occurs. The first version opens -with what is apparently a distorted and weakened form of the hero's -clearing a haunted house of its diabolical inmates (_see_ _infra_ Ch. -VII., Gawain) and then follows very closely Grimm's Two Brothers, save -that the alluring witch is young and fair, the whole tale being made to -point the moral, "more luck than wit." Straparola, _a_ 3, is a variant of -the dragon fight incident alone. It is impossible not to be struck by the -fact that in this widely spread group of tales are to be found some of the -most characteristic incidents of the Perceval and allied Great Fool group. -The only version, however, which brings the two groups into formal contact -is O'Daly's form of the Great Fool. - -[79] The brother feature appears likewise in Wolfram von Eschenbach, where -Parzival's final and hardest struggle is against the unknown brother, as -the Great Fool's is against the Gruagach. This may be added to other -indications that Wolfram _did_ have some other version before him besides -Chrestien's. - -[80] I cannot but think that these words have connection with the incident -in the English Sir Perceval of the hero's throwing into the flames and -thus destroying his witch enemy. - -[81] I must refer to my Mabinogion Studies, I. Branwen for a discussion of -the relation of this tale with Branwen and with the Teutonic Heldensage. - -[82] Another parallel is afforded by the tale of Conall Gulban (Campbell, -III., 274). Conall, stretched wounded on the field, sees "when night grew -dark a great Turkish carlin, and she had a white glaive of light with -which she could see seven miles behind her and seven miles before her; and -she had a flask of balsam carrying it." The dead men are brought to life -by having three drops of balsam put into their mouths. The hero wins both -flask and glaive. - -[83] _Cf._ my Branwen for remarks on the mythological aspect of the -ballad. It should be noted that most of the ballads traditionally current -in the Highlands are of semi-literary origin, _i.e._, would seem to go -back to the compositions of mediaeval Irish bards, who often sprinkled over -the native tradition a profusion of classical and historical names. I do -not think the foreign influence went farther than the "names" of some -personages, and such as it is is more at work in the ballads than in the -tales. - -[84] This may seem to conflict with the statement made above (p. 145), -that the Mabinogi probably took over the maimed uncle from Chrestien. But -there were in all probability several forms of the story; that hinted at -in Chrestien and found in Manessier had its probable counterpart in Celtic -tradition as well as that found in Gerbert. It is hardly possible to -determine what was the form found in the proto-Mabinogi, the possibility -of its having been exactly the same as that of Gerbert is in no way -affected by the fact that the Mabinogi, as we now have it, has in this -respect been influenced by Chrestien. Meanwhile Birch-Hirschfeld's -hypothesis that Gerbert's section of the Conte du Graal is an -interpolation between Gautier and Manessier is laid open to grave doubt. -It is far more likely that Gerbert's work was an independent and original -attempt to provide an ending for Chrestien's unfinished poem, and that he -had before him a different version of the original from that used by -Gautier and Manessier. - -[85] It occurs also in Peredur (Inc. 16), where the hero comes to the -Castle of the Youths, who, fighting every day against the Addanc of the -Cave, are each day slain, and each day brought to life by being anointed -in a vessel of warm water and with precious balsam. - -[86] For the second time, if Gerbert's continuation be really intended for -our present text of Gautier, and if Potvin's summary of Gerbert is to be -relied upon; Birch-Hirschfeld seemingly differs from him here, and makes -the King at once mention the flaw. - -[87] It may be worth notice that v. 35,473 is the same as Chrestien, v. -4,533. - -[88] It is evident that, although in the MS. in which this version is -found it is followed by Manessier's section, the poem was intended by -Gerbert to end here. - -[89] Told at other times, and notably by Gautier himself (Inc. 21), of -Perceval, where the feature of a dead knight lying on the altar is added. - -[90] According to the Montpellier MS., which here agrees substantially -with Potvin's text (the Mons MS.), this is Gauvain's second visit to the -Grail Castle. At his first visit he had been subjected to the sword test -and had slept. The mystic procession is made up as follows:--Squire with -lance; maidens with plate; two squires with candlesticks; fair maiden -weeping, in her hands a "graal;" four squires with the bier, on which lies -the knight and the broken sword. Gauvain would fain learn about these -things, but is bidden first to make the sword whole. On his failure he is -told - - Vous n'avez par encore tant fet - D'armes, que vous doiez savoir, etc., - -and then goes to sleep. His awakening finds him in a marsh. - -[91] It may be conjectured that the magic vessel which preserves to this -enchanted folk the semblance of life passes into the hero's possession -when he asks about it, and that deprived of it their existence comes to an -end, as would that of the Anses without the Apples of Iduna. I put this -into a note, as I have no evidence in support of the theory. But read in -the light of this conjecture some hitherto unnoticed legend may supply the -necessary link of testimony. - -[92] Nearly all the objections to the view suggested in the text may be -put aside as due to insufficient recognition of the extent to which the -two formulas have been mingled, but there is one which seems to me of real -moment. The wasting of the land which I have looked upon as belonging to -the unspelling formula, is traced by the Queste to the blow struck by King -Lambar against King Urlain, a story which, as we have seen, is very -similar to that which forms the groundwork of one at least of the models -followed by the Conte du Graal in its version of the feud quest. It does -not seem likely that the Queste story is a mere echo of that found in the -Conte du Graal, nor that the fusion existed so far back as in a model -common to both. But the second alternative is possible. - -[93] I do not follow M. Hucher upon the (as it seems to me) very insecure -ground of Gaulish numismatic art. The object which he finds figured in -pre-Christian coins may be a cauldron--and it may not--and even if it is a -cauldron it may have no such significance as he ascribes to it. - -[94] _Cf._ as to Lug D'Arbois de Jubainville, Cycle Mythologique -Irlandais; Paris, 1884, p. 178. He was revered by all Celtic races, and -has left his trace in the name of several towns, chief among them -Lug-dunum = Lyons. In so far as the Celts had departmental gods, he was -the god of handicraft and trade; but _cf._ as to this Rhys, Hibb. Lect., -p. 427-28. - -[95] _Cf._ D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._, p. 269-290. The Dagda--the -good god--seems to have been head of the Irish Olympus. A legend anterior -to the eleventh century, and belonging probably to the oldest stratum of -Celtic myth, ascribes to him power over the earth: without his aid the -sons of Miledh could get neither corn nor milk. It is, therefore, no -wonder to find him possessor of the magic cauldron, which may be looked -upon as a symbol of fertility, and, as such, akin to similar symbols in -the mythology of nearly every people. - -[96] _Cf._ as to the mythic character of the Tuatha de Danann, D'Arbois de -Jubainville, _op. cit._, and my review of his work, Folk-Lore Journal, -June, 1884. - -[97] I at one time thought that the prohibition to reveal the "secret -words," which is such an important element in Robert de Borron's version, -might be referred to the same myth-root as the instances in the text. -There is little or no evidence to sustain such a hazardous hypothesis. -Nevertheless it is worth while drawing attention in this place to that -prohibition, for which I can offer no adequate explanation. - -[98] Powers of darkness and death. Tethra their king reigns in an island -home. It is from thence that the maiden comes to lure away Connla of the -Golden Hair, as is told in the Leabhar na-h-Uidhre, even as the Grail -messenger comes to seek Perceval--"'tis a land in which is neither death -nor old age--a plain of never ending pleasure," the counterpart, in fact, -of that Avalon to which Arthur is carried off across the lake by the fay -maiden, that Avalon which, as we see in Robert de Borron, was the earliest -home of the Grail-host. - -[99] _Cf._ D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._ p. 188. - -[100] When Cuchulainn was opposing the warriors of Ireland in their -invasion of Ulster one of his feats is to make smooth chariot-poles out of -rough branches of trees by passing them through his clenched hand, so that -however bent and knotted they were they came from his hands even, -straight, and smooth. _Tain bo Cualgne_, quoted by Windisch, Rev. Celt., -Vol. V. - -[101] This epithet recalls Lug, of whom it is the stock designation. Now -Lug was _par excellence_ the craftsman's god; he, too, at the battle of -Mag Tured acted as a sort of armourer-general to the Tuatha de Danann. A -dim reminiscence of this may be traced in the words which the folk-tale -applies to Ullamh l.f., "he was the one special man for taking their -arms." - -[102] _Cf._ my Aryan Expulsion and Return formula, pp. 8, 13, for variants -of these incidents in other stories belonging to this cycle and in the -allied folk-tales. - -[103] This incident is only found in the living Fionn-_sage_, being absent -from all the older versions, and yet, as the comparison with the allied -Perceval sage shows, it is an original and essential feature. How do the -advocates of the theory that the Ossianic cycle is a recent mass of -legend, growing out of the lives and circumstances of historical men, -account for this development along the lines of a formula with which, _ex -hypothesi_, the legend has nothing to do? The Fionn-_sage_, it is said, -has been doctored in imitation of the Cuchulainn-_sage_, but the assertion -(which though boldly made has next to no real foundation) cannot be made -in the case of the Conte du Graal. Mediaeval Irish bards and unlettered -Highland peasants did not conspire together to make Fionn's adventures -agree with those of Perceval. - -[104] In the Gawain form of the feud quest found in Gautier, the knight -whose death he sets forth to avenge is slain by the cast of a dart. Can -this be brought into connection with the fact that Perceval slays with a -cast of his dart the Red Knight, who, according to the Thornton romance, -is his father's slayer. - -[105] This prose tale precedes an oral version of one of the commonest -Fenian poems, which in its present shape obviously goes back to the days -when the Irish were fighting against Norse invaders. The poem, which still -lives in Ireland as well as in the Highlands, belongs to that later stage -of development of the Fenian cycle, in which Fionn and his men are -depicted as warring against the Norsemen. It is totally dissimilar from -the prose story summarised above, and I am inclined to look upon the prose -as belonging to a far earlier stage in the growth of the cycle, a stage in -which the heroes were purely mythical and their exploits those of mythical -heroes generally. - -[106] The prohibition seems to be an echo of the widely-spread one which -forbids the visitor to the otherworld tasting the food of the dead, which, -if he break, he is forfeit to the shades. The most famous instance of this -myth is that of Persephone. - -[107] _Cf._ Procopius quoted by Elton, Origins of English History, p. 84. - -[108] Prof. Rhys, Hibbert Lectures for 1886, looks upon him as a Celtic -Zeus. He dispossessed his father of the Brug by fraud, as Zeus -dispossessed Kronos by force. - -[109] D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._, p. 275. Rhys, _op. cit._, p. -149. - -[110] M. Duvau, Revue Celtique, Vol. IX., No. 1, has translated the -varying versions of the story. - -[111] Like many of the older Irish tales the present form is confused and -obscure, but it is easy to arrive at the original. - -[112] The part in brackets is found in one version only of the story. Of -the two versions each has retained certain archaic features not to be -found in the other. - -[113] Summarised by D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._, p. 323. - -[114] D'Arbois de Jubainville, p. 326. - -[115] Otto Kuepp, Z.f.D. Phil. xvii, i, 68, examining Wolfram's version -sees in the branch guarded by Gramoflanz and broken by Parzival a trace of -the original myth underlying the story. Gramoflanz is connected with the -Magic Castle (one of the inmates of which is his sister), or with the -otherworld. Kuepp's conjecture derives much force from the importance given -to the branch in the Irish tales as part of the gear of the otherworld. - -[116] This recalls the fact that Oengus of the Brug fell in love with a -swanmaid. See text and translation Revue Celtique, Vol. III., pp. 341, -_et. seq._ The story is alluded to in the catalogue of epic tales (dating -from the tenth century) found in the Book of Leinster. - -[117] In a variant from Kashmir (Knowles' Folk-tales of Kashmir, London, -1888, p. 75, _et. seq._), Saiyid and Said, this tale is found embedded in -a twin-brethren one. - -[118] Frederick (I.) Barbarossa is a mistake, as old as the seventeenth -century (_cf._ Koch, Sage vom Kaiser Friedrich in Kyffhaeuser, Leipzig, -1886), for Frederick II., the first German Emperor of whom the legend was -told. The mistake was caused by the fact that Frederick took the place of -a German red-bearded god, probably Thor, hence the later identification -with the _red-bearded_ Frederick, instead of with that great opponent of -the Papacy whose death away in Italy the German party refused for many -years to credit. - -[119] Unless the passage relating to Carl the Great quoted by Grimm (D.M., -III., 286) from Mon. Germ. Hist., Vol. VIII., 215, "inde fabulosum illud -confictum de Carolo Magno, quasi de mortuis in id ipsum resuscitato, et -alio nescio quo nihilominus redivivo," be older. - -[120] Liebrecht's edition of the Otia Imperialia, Hanover, 1856, p. 12, -and note p. 55. - -[121] Martin Zur Gralsage, p. 31, arguing from the historical connection -of Frederick II. with Sicily, thinks that the localisation of this -Arthurian legend in that isle was the reason of its being associated with -the Hohenstauffen; in other words, the famous German legend would be an -indirect offshot of the Arthurian cycle. I cannot follow Martin here. I -see no reason for doubting the genuineness of the traditions collected by -Kuhn and Schwartz, or for disbelieving that Teutons had this myth as well -as Celts. It is no part of my thesis to exalt Celtic tradition at the -expense of German; almost all the parallels I have adduced between the -romances and Celtic mythology and folk-lore could be matched from those of -Germany. But the romances are historically associated with Celtic -tradition, and the parallels found in the latter are closer and more -numerous than those which could be recovered from German tradition. It is, -therefore, the most simple course to refer the romances to the former -instead of to the latter. - -[122] See Grimm, D.M., Ch. XXXII.; Fitzgerald, Rev. Celt., IV., 198; and -the references in Liebrecht, _op. cit._ - -[123] Personally communicated by the Rev. Mr. Sorby, of Sheffield. - -[124] In Chrestien the part of the Magician Lord is little insisted upon. -But in Wolfram he is a very important personage. It may here be noted that -the effects which are to follow in Chrestien the doing away with the -enchantments of this Castle, answer far more accurately to the description -given by the loathly Grail-Maiden of the benefits which would have accrued -had Perceval put the question at the Court of the Fisher King than to -anything actually described as the effect of that question being put, -either by Gautier, Manessier, or Gerbert. This castle seems, too, to be -the one in which lodge the Knights, each having his lady love with him, -which the loathly maiden announces to be her home. - -[125] Kennedy follows in the main Oss. Soc., Vol. II, pp. 118, _et. seq._, -an eighteenth century version translated by Mr. O'Kearney. This particular -episode is found, pp. 147, _et. seq._ I follow the Oss. Soc. version in -preference to Kennedy's where they differ. - -[126] The story as found in Heinrich may be compared with the folk-tale of -the Sleeping Beauty. She is a maiden sunk in a death-in-life sleep -together with all her belongings until she be awakened by the kiss of the -destined prince. May we not conjecture that in an older form of the story -than any we now possess, the court of the princess vanished when the -releasing kiss restored her to real life and left her alone with the -prince? The comparison has this further interest, that the folk-tale is a -variant of an old myth which figures prominently in the hero-tales of the -Teutonic race (Lay of Skirni, Lay of Swipday and Menglad, Saga of Sigurd -and Brunhild), and that in its most famous form Siegfried, answering in -Teutonic myth to Fionn, is its hero. But Peredur is a Cymric Fionn, so -that the parallel between the two heroes, Celtic and Teutonic, is closer -than at first appears when Siegfried is compared only to his Gaelic -counterpart. - -[127] I have not examined Gawain's visit to the Magic Castle in detail, in -the first place because it only bears indirectly upon the Grail-Quest, and -then because I hope before very long to study the personality of Gawain in -the romances, and to throw light upon it from Celtic mythic tradition in -the same way that I have tried in the foregoing pages to do in the case of -Perceval. - -[128] Kennedy, Legendary Fictions, p. 154, _et. seq._ - -[129] Grimm, Vol. III., p. 9 (note to Maerchen von einem der auszog das -Fuerchten zu lernen), gives a number of variants. It should be noted that -in this story there is the same mixture of incidents of the Magic Castle -and Haunted Castle forms as in the romances. Moreover, one of the trials -to which the hero's courage is subjected is the bringing into the room of -a coffin in which lies a dead man, just as in Gawain's visit to the Grail -Castle. Again, as Grimm notes, but mistakenly refers to Perceval instead -of to Gawain, the hero has to undergo the adventures of the magic bed, -which, when he lays himself down in it, dashes violently about through the -castle and finally turns topsy turvy. In connection with this story, and -with the whole series of mythical conceptions noted in the Grail romances, -Chapter XXXII. of the Deutsche Mythologie deserves careful study. Grimm -compares Conduiramur's (Blanchefleur's) nightly visit to Percival's -chamber to the appearance at the bedside of the delivering hero of that -white maiden, who is so frequently figured as the inmate of the Haunted -Castle. As niece of the Lord of the Grail Castle, Blanchefleur is also a -denizen of the otherworld, but I hardly think that the episode of -Perceval's delivering her from her enemies can be looked upon as a version -of the removal of the spells of the Haunted Castle. In a recent number of -the Revue des Traditions Populaires (III., p. 103), there is a good Breton -version of the Bespelled Castle sunk under the waves. A fair princess is -therein held captive; once a year the waves part and permit access, and he -who is bold enough to seize the right moment wins princess and castle, -which are restored to earth. - -[130] Whether it be the Castle of the Fisher King, _i.e._, the Castle of -the Perceval Quest; or the Magic Castle, _i.e._, the Castle of the Gawain -Quest. - -[131] For fuller information about this mysterious fish, see Rhys, Hibbert -Lectures, pp. 553-54. - -[132] In an already quoted tale of Campbell's (LVIII., the Rider of -Grianaig) allusion is made to the "black fisherman working at his tricks." -Campbell remarks that a similar character appears in other tales. Can this -wizard fisher be brought into contact with the Rich Fisher of -Pseudo-Chrestien (_supra_, p. 8), who knew much of black art, and could -change his semblance a hundred times? - -[133] Complete text, edited by Kuno Meyer, Revue Celt., Vol. V. Major -portion of text with English translation by Dr. J. O'Donovan, Oss. Soc., -Vol. IV. The tract as a whole is only known to us from a fifteenth century -MS.; but the earlier portion of it appears in the L.n.H., in a strongly -euhemerised form, only such incidents being admitted as could be presented -historically, and these being divested of all supernatural character. See -my paper, "Folk-Lore Record," Vol. IV., for a discussion of the genuine -and early character of the tract. - -[134] A reason for this concealment may be found in the idea, so -frequently met with in a certain stage of human development, that the name -is an essential portion of the personality, and must not be mentioned, -especially to possible enemies or to beings possessed of magical powers, -lest they should make hurtful use of it. - -[135] _Cf._ the whole of the Book of Rights for an exemplification of the -way in which the pre-Christian Irishman was hedged and bound and fettered -by this amazingly complicated system of what he might and what he might -not do. - -[136] They offer him dog's-flesh cooked on rowan spits, and, it has been -conjectured that the _gess_ has a totemistic basis, Culann's Hound -(Cuchulainn) being forbidden to partake of the flesh of his totem. - -[137] It is only within the last 100 years that our knowledge of savage -and semi-savage races has furnished us with a parallel to the "geasa" in -the "taboo" of the Polynesian. I am not advancing too much in the -statement that this institution, although traces of it exist among all -Aryan races, had not the same importance among any as among the Irish -Gael. It is another proof of the primitive character of Irish social life, -a character which may, perhaps, be ascribed to the assimilation by the -invading Celts of the beliefs and practices of much ruder races. - -[138] Mr. Elton (Origins, pp. 291, 292) looks upon Bran and Caradoc as -original war gods. Caradoc, he thinks, was confounded with Caractacus, -Bran with Brennus, and hence the two personages were sent to Rome in -imitation of the presumed historical prototypes. - -[139] Kynddelw's triad does not really refer to the "blessed" families at -all, but to the "faithful" or "loyal" families. Stephen's mistake arose -from the fact of the name Madawc occurring in two sets of triads, one -relating to the "lordly" families of Britain in which the family of Llyr -Llediath also figures, and one to the faithful families. In both triads -the name is probably a mistake for Mabon. (Note communicated by Professor -Rhys.) - -I let the statement in the text stand, to exhort myself and others to that -fear of trusting authorities which in scholarship is the beginning of -wisdom. - -[140] Professor Rhys tells me this passage can only mean "Blessed Bran's -head." - -[141] Mr. Ward endorses Zarncke's contention. According to him there is no -trace of any connection between Joseph and the evangelisation of Britain -which can be said to be older than the romances. The statements of the "De -ant. eccl. Glast." are, he thinks, no guide to the knowledge or opinions -of William of Malmesbury. - -[142] I may here notice a theory to which my attention has only just been -called. It is found cited in a work of great research, _Die Fronica_, by -Professor Karl Pearson, Strassburg, 1887. The author quotes an opinion of -Mr. Jenner, of the British Museum, that the head in the platter of the -Mabinogi may be derived from a Veronica portrait. Professor Pearson -expresses doubt, because such a procession of the Veronica portrait and -the Passion Instruments as the scene in the Mabinogi would, _ex -hypothesi_, imply is not known to him before the fourteenth century, -whereas the Mabinogi must be attributed, at latest, to the middle of the -thirteenth century. Mr. H. L. D. Ward informs me that the suggestion was -his. Noting the connection of the Veronica and Grail legends, testified to -by Borron, it occurred to him that the whole scene at the Wounded King's -might be derived from the former legends. The Wounded King, healed by the -Grail, would thus be a counterpart of the leprous Vespasian healed by the -Veronica portrait, which some wandering "jongleur" turned boldly into an -actual head. But it must be noted that in Borron, our authority for the -connection of the two legends, there is no Wounded King at all; in the -Conte du Graal the Maimed King is not healed by any special talisman, but -by the death of his enemy, the visible sign of which is that enemy's head, -whilst in the "procession" (which Mr. Ward thinks to have been intended as -a vision), the Grail is certainly a vessel, and has no connection whatever -with any head or portrait. The theory thus requires that the version which -gives the oldest form of the hypothetical remodelled Veronica legend -omitted the very feature which was its sole _raison d'etre_. - -[143] Mr. Ward thinks the localisation a late one, and that practically -there is no authority for it of an older date than the romances. He points -out in especial that Geoffrey's Vita Merlini, which has so much to say -about the "insula pomorum" in no way connects it with Glastonbury. There -is considerable doubt as the etymology of Glastonbury, but there is -substantial unanimity of opinion among Celtic scholars of the present day -in referring it to a Celtic rather than to a Saxon source. Be this as it -may, the fact remains that at sometime in the course of the twelfth -century the old Christian site of Glastonbury took, as it were, the place -of the Celtic paradise, and it seems far more likely that the -transformation was effected in virtue of some local tradition than wholly -through the medium of foreign romances. - -[144] The pre-Christian Irish annals, which are for the most part -euhemerised mythology, contain also a certain amount of race history; thus -the struggle between the powers of light and darkness typified by the -antagonism between Tuatha de Danann and Fomori, is doubled by that between -the fair invading Celts and the short dark aborigines. But the latter has -only left the barest trace of its existence in the national sagas. Not -until we come to that secondary stage of the Fenian saga, which must have -been shaped in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and which represents -the Fenians as warring against the harrying Northmen, does the foreign -element reappear in Irish tradition. - -[145] The Tochmarc Emer, or the Wooing of Emer by Cuchullain, has been -translated by Professor Kuno Meyer in the Archaeological Review, Nos. 1-4 -(London, 1888). The original text is found partly in the Leabhar na -h-Uidhre, partly in later MSS. - -[146] The fate of the Sons of Usnech is known to us in two main -redactions, one found in the Book of Leinster (compiled in the middle of -the twelfth century from older MS.) printed by Windisch, Irische Texte -(first series) pp. 67-82, and translated by M. Poinsignon, Revue des -Traditions Populaires, III, pp. 201-207. A text printed and translated by -J. O'Flanagan (Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, 1808, pp. -146-177), agrees substantially with this. The second redaction has only -been found in later MSS. Mr. Whitley Stokes has given text and translation -from a fifteenth century MS. (Irische Texte, II. 2, pp. 109-178), and -O'Flanagan has edited a very similar version (_loc. cit._ pp. 16-135). -This second version is fuller and more romantic; in it alone is to be -found Deirdre's lament on leaving Scotland, one of the earliest instances -in post-classic literature of personal sympathy with Nature. - -But the earlier version, though it bear like so much else in the oldest -Irish MS. obvious traces of abridgment and euhemerism, is also full of the -most delicate romantic touches. Part of Deirdre's lament over the slain -Noisi may be paraphrased thus:--"Fair one, loved one, flower of beauty; -beloved, upright and strong; beloved, noble and modest warrior. When we -wandered through the woods of Ireland, sweet with thee was the night's -sleep! Fair one, blue-eyed, beloved of thy wife, lovely to me at the -trysting place came thy clear voice through the woods. I cannot sleep; -half the night my spirit wanders far among throngs of men. I cannot eat or -smile. Break not to-day my heart; soon enough shall I lie within my grave. -Strong are the waves of the sea, but stronger is sorrow, Conchobor." - -[147] M. Renan's article "De la Poesie des Races Celtiques" (Revue des -Deux Mondes, 1854, pp. 473-506) only came into my hands after the bulk of -this chapter was printed, or I should hardly have dared to state in my own -words those conclusions in which we agree. It may be useful to indicate -those points in which I think this suggestive essay no longer represents -the present state of knowledge. When M. Renan wrote, the nature of popular -tradition had been little investigated in France--hence a tendency to -attribute solely to the Celtic genius what is common to all popular -tradition. Little or nothing was then known in France of early Irish -history or literature--hence the wild, primitive character of Celtic -civilization is ignored. The "bardic" literature of Wales was still -assigned wholesale to the age of its alleged authors--hence a false -estimate of the relations between the profane and ecclesiastical writings -of the Welsh. Finally the three Mabinogion (The Lady of the Fountain, -Geraint, Peredur), which correspond to poems of Chrestien's, are -unhesitatingly accepted as their originals. The influence of Welsh fiction -in determining the courtly and refined nature of mediaeval romance is, in -consequence, greatly exaggerated. It is much to be wished that M. Renan -would give us another review of Celtic literature based on the work of the -last thirty years. His lucid and sympathetic criticism would be most -welcome in a department of study which has been rather too exclusively -left to the specialist. - -[148] Malory is a wonderful example of the power of style. He is a most -unintelligent compiler. He frequently chooses out of the many versions of -the legend, the longest, most wearisome, and least beautiful; his own -contributions to the story are beneath contempt as a rule. But his -language is exactly what it ought to be, and his has remained in -consequence the classic English version of the Arthur story. - -[149] See p. 112 for a brief summary of Borron's conception; Sin the cause -of want among the people; the separation of the pure from the impure by -means of the fish (symbol of Christ); punishment of the self-willed false -disciple; reward of Brons by charge of the Grail; symbolising of the -Trinity by the three tables and three Grail Keepers. - -[150] The greater delicacy of the Welsh tale has already been noted. "To -make him such a offer before I am wooed by him, that, truly, can I not -do," says the counterpart of Blanchefleur in the Mabinogi. "Go my sister -and sleep," answers Peredur, "nor will I depart from thee until I do that -which thou requirest." I cannot help looking upon the prominence which the -Welsh story-teller has given to this scene as his protest against the -strange and to him repulsive ways of knightly love. The older, mythic -nature of Peredur's beloved, who might woo without forfeiting womanly -modesty, in virtue of her goddesshood, had died away in the narrator's -mind, the new ideal of courtly passion had not won acceptance from him. - -[151] The perplexities which beset the modern reader of the Queste are -reflected in the Laureate's retelling of the legend. Nowhere else in the -Idylls has he departed so widely from his model. Much of the incident is -due to him, and replaces with advantage the nauseous disquisitions upon -chastity which occupy so large a space in the Queste. The artist's -instinct, rather than the scholar's respect for the oldest form of the -story, led him to practically restore Perceval to his rightful place as -hero of the quest. _His_ fortunes we can follow with an interest that -passing shadow, Galahad, wholly fails to evoke. Nor, as may easily be -seen, is the fundamental conception of the twelfth century romance to the -Laureate's taste. Arthur is his ideal of manhood, and Arthur's energies -are practical and human in aim and in execution. What the "blameless king" -speaks when he first learns of the quest represents, we may guess, the -author's real attitude towards the whole fantastic business. - -It is much to be regretted by all lovers of English poetry that Hawker's -Quest of the Sangraal was never completed. The first and only chant is a -magnificent fragment; with the exception of the Laureate's Sir Galahad, -the finest piece of pure literature in the cycle. Hawker, alone, perhaps -of moderns, could have kept the mediaeval tone and spirit, and yet brought -the Quest into contact with the needs and ideas of to-day. - -[152] _Cf._ Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, II, 811, and his references. - -[153] The ideas held by many peoples in a primitive stage of culture -respecting virginity are worthy careful study. Some physiological basis -may be found for them in the phenomena of hysteria, which must necessarily -have appeared to such peoples evidences of divine or demoniac possession, -and at that stage are hardly likely to have been met with save among -unmarried women. In the French witch trials these phenomena are often -presented by nuns, in whose case they were probably the outcome of a life -at once celibate and inactive. On the other hand the persons accused of -witchcraft were as a rule of the most abandoned character, and it is a, -morally speaking, degraded class which has furnished Professor Charcot and -his pupils with the subjects in whom they have identified all the -phenomena that confront the student of witch trials. - -[154] Domanig, Parzival-Studien, I, II, 1878-80. - -[155] San-Marte, Parzival-Studien, I-III, 1861-63. - -[156] Some readers may be anxious to read Wolfram's work to whom -twelfth-century German would offer great difficulties. A few words on the -translation into modern German may, therefore, not be out of place. -San-Marte's original translation (1839-41) is full of gross blunders and -mistranslations, and, what is worse, of passages foisted into the text to -support the translator's own interpretation of the poem as a whole. -Simrock's, which followed, is extremely close, but difficult and -unpleasing. San Marte's second edition, corrected from Simrock, is a great -advance upon the first; but even here the translator has too often allowed -his own gloss to replace Wolfram's statement. A thoroughly faithful yet -pleasing rendering is a desideratum. - -[157] J. Van Santen, Zur Beurtheilung Wolfram von Eschenbach, Wesel, 1882, -has attacked Wolfram for his acceptance of the morality of the day, and -has, on that ground, denied him any ethical or philosophic merit. The -pamphlet is useful for its references, but otherwise worthless. The fact -that Wolfram does accept _Minnedienst_ only gives greater value to his -picture of a nobler and purer ideal of love, whilst to refuse recognition -of his other qualities on this account is much as who should deny Dante's -claim to be regarded as a teacher and thinker because of his acceptance of -the hideous mediaeval hell. - -[158] In the Geheimnisse Goethe shows some slight trace of the Parzival -legend, and the words in which the teaching of the poem are summed up: -"Von der Gewalt, die alle Wesen bindet, Befreit _der_ Mensch sich der sich -ueberwindet," may be looked upon as an eighteenth century rendering of -Wolfram's conception. - -[159] We may here note an admirable example of the inevitable, spontaneous -character of the growth of certain conceptions, especially of such as have -been partly shaped by the folk-mind. There is nothing in Wolfram or in the -French romances to show that the fortunes of the loathly damsel (Wagner's -Kundry) are in any way bound up with the success of the Quest. But we have -seen that the Celtic folk-tales represent the loathly damsel as the real -protagonist of the story. She cannot be freed unless the hero do his task. -Precisely the same situation as in Wagner, who was thus led back to the -primitive _donnee_, although he can only have known intermediary stages in -which its signification had been quite lost. - -[160] _Cf._ the reproaches addressed to Potter Thompson (_supra_, p. 198). -That the visitor to the Bespelled Castle should be reproached, at once, -for his failure to do as he ought, seems to be a feature of the earliest -forms of the story. _Cf._ Campbell's Three Soldiers (_supra_, p. 196). If -Wolfram had another source than Chrestien it was one which partook more of -the unspelling than of the feud quest formula. Hence the presence of the -feature here. - -[161] In Wolfram's work there is a much closer connection between the -Gawain quest and the remainder of the poem than in Chrestien. -Orgueilleuse, to win whose love Gawain accomplishes his feats, is a former -love of Amfortas, the Grail King, who won for her a rich treasure and was -wounded in her service. Klinschor, too, the lord of the Magic Castle, is -brought into contact with Orgueilleuse, whom he helps against Gramoflanz. -It is difficult to say whether this testifies to an earlier or later stage -of growth of the legend. The winning of Orgueilleuse as the consequence of -accomplishing the feat of the Ford Perillous and plucking the branch is -strongly insisted upon by Wolfram and not mentioned by Chrestien, though -it is possible he might have intended to wed the two had he finished his -poem. In this respect, however, and taking these two works as they stand, -Wolfram's account seems decidedly the earlier. In another point, too, he -seems to have preserved the older form. Besides his Kundrie la Sorciere -(the loathly damsel) he has a Kundrie la Belle, whom I take to be the -loathly damsel released from the transforming spell. - - - - -Transcriber's Notes: - -Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. - -Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=. - -Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}. - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, by -Alfred Nutt - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDIES ON LEGEND OF HOLY GRAIL *** - -***** This file should be named 42205.txt or 42205.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/2/0/42205/ - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you -do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the -rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose -such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and -research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do -practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is -subject to the trademark license, especially commercial -redistribution. - - - -*** START: FULL LICENSE *** - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at - www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy -all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. -If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" -or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the -collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from -copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative -works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg -are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project -Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by -freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of -this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with -the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by -keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project -Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate -access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently -whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, -copied or distributed: - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived -from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is -posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied -and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees -or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work -with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the -work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 -through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional -terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked -to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the -permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), -you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a -copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon -request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other -form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided -that - -- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is - owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he - has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments - must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you - prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax - returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and - sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to - the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." - -- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or - destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium - and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of - Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any - money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days - of receipt of the work. - -- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set -forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from -both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm -collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain -"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or -corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual -property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a -computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by -your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. -To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 -and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent -permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. -Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 -North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email -contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the -Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To -SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any -particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. -To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/42205.zip b/old/42205.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index e071071..0000000 --- a/old/42205.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/readme.htm b/old/readme.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 3b1a25d..0000000 --- a/old/readme.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,13 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html> -<html lang="en"> -<head> - <meta charset="utf-8"> -</head> -<body> -<div> -Versions of this book's files up to October 2024 are here.<br> -More recent changes, if any, are reflected in the GitHub repository: -<a href="https://github.com/gutenbergbooks/42205">https://github.com/gutenbergbooks/42205</a> -</div> -</body> -</html> |
