“The Celtic hero who in the twelfth century became Perceval le Chercheur du basin ... in the end became possessed of that sacred basin le Saint Graal, and the holy lance which, though Christian in the story, are the same as the talismans which appear so often in Gaelic tales ... the glittering weapon which destroys, and the sacred medicinal cup which cures.”—J. F. Campbell.
“In all the Fenian stories mention is made of Fionn’s healing cup ... it is the same as the Holy Grail of course.”—J. F. Campbell.
London:
DAVID NUTT, 270-71, STRAND.
1888.
HARRISON AND SONS,
PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY,
ST. MARTIN’S LANE, LONDON.
DEDICATION.
To the Memory
OF
J. F. CAMPBELL,
FROM WHOM
I FIRST LEARNT TO LOVE CELTIC TRADITION.
CONTENTS.
| [CHAPTER I.] | |
| Description of the leading forms of the Romance: Conte del Graal—Joseph d’Arimathie—Didot-Perceval—Queste del SaintGraal—Grand Saint Graal—Parzival—Perceval le Gallois—Mabinogi of Peredur—Sir Perceval—Diu Crône—Informationrespecting date and authorship of these works in the MSS. | [page 1] |
| [CHAPTER II.] | |
| Summaries—Conte du Graal: Pseudo-Chrestien, Chrestien, Gautier de Doulens, Manessier, Gerbert—Wolfram—Heinrich von demTürlin—Didot-Perceval—Mabinogi of Peredur—Thornton MS. Sir Perceval—Queste del Saint Graal—Grand Saint Graal—Robertde Borron’s poem, Joseph of Arimathea | [page 8] |
| [CHAPTER III.] | |
| The legend formed of two portions: Early History of Grail, Quest—Two forms of each portion distinguished—Grouping of the variousversions—Alternative hypotheses of development—Their bearing upon the alleged Celtic origin of the Grail—Closer examination of thevarious 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 theQueste—The work and the qualification of the Promised Knight—Conclusions: Priority over Early History of Quest—Chronological arrangementof the versions | [page 65] |
| [CHAPTER IV.] | |
| SKETCH OF THE LITERATURE CONNECTED WITH THE GRAIL CYCLE. | |
| Villemarqué—Halliwell—San Marte (A. Schulz)—Simrock—Rochat—Furnivall’s reprint of the Grand St. Graal and ofBorron—J. F. Campbell—Furnivall’s Queste—Paulin Paris—Potvin’sConte du Graal—Bergmann—Skeat’s Joseph of Arimathea—Hucher: Grail Celtic, date of Borron—Zarncke, Zur Geschichte der Gralsage; Grailbelongs to Christian legend—Birch-Hirschfeld develops Zarncke’s views: Grand St. Graal younger than Queste, both presuppose Chrestien and an earlier Queste,the Didot-Perceval, which forms integral part of Borron’s trilogy; Mabinogi later than Chrestien; various members of the cycle dated—Martin combatsBirch-Hirschfeld: Borron later than Chrestien, whose poem represents oldest stage of the romance, which has its roots in Celtic tradition—Hertz—Criticismof Birch-Hirschfeld | [page 97] |
| [CHAPTER V.] | |
| Relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du Graal—The former not the source of the latter—Relationship of the Conte du Graaland the Mabinogi—Instances in which the Mabinogi has copied Chrestien—Examples of its independence—The incident of the blood drops inthe snow—Differences between the two works—The machinery of the Mabinogi and the traces of it in the Conte du Graal—The stag hunt—TheMabinogi and Manessier—The sources of the Conte du Graal and the relation of the various parts to a common original—Sir Perceval—Steinbach’stheory—Objections to it—The counsels in the Conte du Graal—Wolfram and the Mabinogi—Absence of the Grail from the apparently oldest Celtic form | [page 127] |
| [CHAPTER VI.] | |
| The Lay of the Great Fool—Summary of the Prose Opening—The Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula—Comparison with the Mabinogi, SirPerceval, and the Conte du Graal—Comparison with various Gaelic märchen, the Knight of the Red Shield, the Rider of Grianaig—Originalityof the Highland tale—Comparison with the Fionn legend—Summary of the Lay of the Great Fool—Comparison with the stag hunt incident in theConte du Graal and the Mabinogi—The folk-tale of the twin brethren—The fight against the witch who brings the dead to life in Gerbert andthe similar incident in the folk-tale of the Knight of the Red Shield—Comparison with the original form of the Mabinogi—Originality of Gerbert | [page 152] |
| [CHAPTER VII.] | |
| The various forms of the visit to the Grail Castle in the romances—Conte du Graal: Chrestien; Gautier-Manessier;Gautier-Gerbert—Didot-Perceval—Mabinogi—Conte du Graal; Gawain’s visit to the Grail Castle—Heinrichvon dem Türlin—Conte du Graal: Perceval’s visit to the Castle of Maidens—Inconsistencyof these varying accounts; their testimony to stories of different nature and origin being embodied in the romances—Two maintypes: feud quest and unspelling quest—Reasons for the confusion of thetwotypes—Evidence of the confusion in older Celtic literature—The Grail in Celtic literature: the gear of the Tuatha de Danann; the cauldron inthe Ultonian cycle; the Mabinogi of Branwen; vessel of balsam and glaive of light in the contemporary folk-tale—The sword in Celtic literature:Tethra; Fionn; Manus—Parallels to the Bespelled Castle; the Brug of Oengus, the Brug of Lug, the Brug of Manannan Mac Lir, Bran’s visit tothe Island of Women, Cormac Mac Art, and the Fairy Branch; Diarmaid and the Daughter of King Under the Waves—Unspelling stories: TheThree Soldiers; the waiting of Arthur; Arthur in Etna; the Kyffhäuser Legend, objections to Martin’s views concerning it—Gawain’s visit to theMagic Castle and Celtic parallels; The Son of Bad Counsel; Fionn in Giant Land; Fionn in the House of Cuana; Fionn and the Yellow Face—TheVanishing of the Bespelled Castle—Comparison with the Sleeping Beauty cycle—The “Haunted Castle” form and its influence on Heinrich’sversion—The Loathly Grail Messenger | [page 170] |
| [CHAPTER VIII.] | |
| The Fisher King in the Conte du Graal, in the Queste, and in Borron and the Grand St. Graal—The accounts of latter complete each other—The Fish isthe Salmon of Wisdom—Parallel with the Fionn Saga—The nature of the Unspelling Quest—The Mabinogi of Taliesin and its mythologicalaffinities—Brons, Bran, Cernunnos—Perceval’s silence: Conte du Graal explanation late; explanation from the Fionn Saga—Comparison ofincident with geasa; nature of latter; references to it in Celtic folk-tales and in old Irish literature, Book of Rights, Diarmaid, Cuchulainn—Geasaand taboo | [page 207] |
| [CHAPTER IX.] | |
| Summing up of the elements of the older portion of the cycle—Parallelism with Celtic tradition—The Christian element in the cycle: the two forms of theEarly History; Brons form older—Brons and Bran—The Bran conversion legend—The Joseph conversion legend, Joseph in apocryphal literature,the Evangelium Nicodemi—The Bran legend the starting point of the Christian transformation of the legend—Substitution of Joseph for Bran—Objectionto this hypothesis—Hypothetical sketch of the growth of the legend | [page 215] |
| [CHAPTER X.] | |
| The Moral and Spiritual import of the Grail-Legend universally recognised—Popularity of the Arthurian Romance—Reasons for thatPopularity—Affinities of the Mediæval Romances with early Celtic Literature; Importance of the Individual Hero; Knighthood; the rôle ofWoman; the Celtic Fairy and the Mediæval Lady; the Supernatural—M. Renan’s views—TheQuest in English Literature, Malory—The earliest form of the Legend, Chrestien, his continuators—The Queste and its Ideal—The Sex-Relationsin the Middle Ages—Criticism of Mr. Furnivall’s estimate of the moral import of the Queste—The Merits of the Queste—The Chastity Ideal in thelater versions—Modern English Treatments: Tennyson, Hawker—Possible Source of the Chastity Ideal in Popular Tradition—The Perceval Questin Wolfram; his Moral Conception; the Question; Parzival and Conduiramur—The Parzival Quest and Faust—Wagner’s Parsifal—The Christianelement in the Legend—Ethical Ideas in the folk-tale originals of the Grail Romances: the Great Fool; the Sleeping Beauty—Conclusion | [page 228] |
| [Appendix A.]: The Relationship of Wolfram to Chrestien | [page 261] |
| [Appendix B.]: The Grand St. Graal Prologue and the Brandan Legend | [page 264] |
| [Index I.] The Dramatis Personæ of the Legend | [page 266] |
| [Index II.] | [page 275] |