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—