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.