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.