D. L. Min here den Coninc Pelles—enten Coninc Vischere min ouder vader.
1533. Mon oncle le roy pescheur—et mon aieul le roi Pelles.
The greeting is omitted in W.
It is difficult to know what to make of such confusion, but of the four variants I prefer the last as possessing a certain raison d'être. The Fisher King was certainly the uncle of the original Grail Winner, and King Pelles is as certainly the grandfather of Galahad. It looks to me as if the compiler of this version had made an effort to combine the Perceval and Galahad stories, though his version as it stands is in contradiction to his text.[175]
D. L. text should be noted as compared with the statement of the earlier section, that the Maimed King and Fisher King are one, and that the personage thus named is not King Pelles but his father. The manifest uncertainty of the Galahad Queste as to the identity of this personage, and his relationship to the Grail Winner, as compared with the much clearer statements of the early Perceval story appear to me a proof of the lateness of the former. As to which of the four versions given represents the real view of the author of the Queste, I should not like to hazard an opinion—probably copyists altered according to their own particular view of the matter!
After the appearance of the Grail there is an interesting passage, omitted in M., where Gawain remarks that each has been served with whatever food or drink he desired, which had never happened before save in the court of the roi mehaignet (Q.); roi Perles (1533, which generally adopts this spelling), coninc Vischer (D. L.). Here Q. stops, but D. L. and 1533 continue Gawain's speech, nom-pourtant ils ne peuvent onques veoir le sainct vaisseau ainsi comme nous l'avons veu, ainsi leur a este la semblance couverte (vol. iii. fo. 69). Maer si waren bedrogen in dien, Dat sijt niet oppenbare mochten sien (687-8). Nevertheless, since he has not seen it as clearly as he might, he will go in quest till it be wholly revealed to him. I think the above passage is the source of M. '/ one thynge begyled vs we myght not ſee the holy Grayle / it was ſoo precyouſly couered /.' The compiler omits, as I said above, Gawain's reference to the previous appearance, but adapts the latter part of his speech to the circumstances he is narrating. W. gives the passage practically in its entirety, but so freely rendered that we cannot use it for textual comparison. The king is called King Peleur.
Here again I think we may postulate an agreement between M., D. L., 1533 and W. in a feature omitted by Q.[176]
D. L. is alone against the other three in not giving the owner of the castle 'Vagan' the same name as his castle, but simply says: 'Nu was een goet man te Vagan' (l. 1146), which I suspect is the right version. W., on the contrary, does not name the castle, but says it belonged to Bagan, 'a good and religious man.'
In the account of the adventure with the shield, both D. L. and 1533 give Galahad's remarks to his companions more fully than do Q. or M., though the general bearing of the passage is well represented in this latter. In both the first Galahad tells his companions that if they fail in the adventure then he will attempt it; 1533, 'et se vous ne le pouez emporter ie l'emporteray, aussi n'ay ie point d'escu'; they then offer to leave him the adventure, but he tells them they must essay it first. D. L.: