[146] Hucher, vol. i. p. 421.
[147] Quoted by Professor Heinzel: 'Über die französischen Gralromane,' p. 177. The parallel passage is on p. 279, vol. ii. of Dr. Evans' translation, The High History of the Holy Grail; but it is not included in the Welsh translation.
[148] Professor Heinzel's study did not come into my hands till the MS. of this chapter had been sent to the press. The support afforded to my theory by the above expression of opinion was most welcome to me. A point which deserves notice in connection with this romance is the appearance in it of the above-named Briant des Illes, and the story of the death of Lohot, King Arthur's son. So far as I know, no other prose romance knows either of these characters, but Chrétien refers to both in his Erec, ll. 6730 and 1732. I think it is possible that the name given by Wolfram von Eschenbach to Arthur's son, Ilinot, may rest upon a misreading of Lohot; the story connected with the latter is certainly curiously archaic in detail.
[149] I cannot at all agree with Dr. Wechssler's view that the Galahad Queste has been largely worked over; on the contrary it has been the least tampered with of all the Arthurian romances. I shall show this presently by comparison of texts.
[150] The worst fault of Dr. Wechssler's Grail study is that he predicates the distinctive traits of Perceval as being of Galahad—to whom they never in any sense belonged. Galahad is not Perceval's understudy, much less is he his original: he is an absolutely and entirely independent creation. The only quality they have in common is that of virginity, which is not of them, but of the monkish redactors of the legend. It is certainly no part of the primitive Perceval tale.
[151] The passage which represents Gawain as admitting himself to be the slayer of eighteen out of the twenty-two knights who have lost their lives in the Queste, Baudemagus, his dearest friend according to the Merlin Suite, among them, should, I think, be printed at the end of the Queste, not at the beginning of the Mort Artur, where it is now generally found. It is entirely in accordance with the tone of the first named romance, and out of keeping with the latter. Moreover, both the Dutch Lancelot and the 1533 version print it in the former position. The compiler of the Tristan has generally been supposed to be the first to introduce the vilification of Gawain's character; in the light of Dr. Wechssler's suggestion it would be interesting to examine whether this presentment is to be found in the Tristan before its contamination with the later Lancelot-Map cycle. I think there were peculiarities in the original Gawain story, which, misunderstood by later compilers, helped to cast a false light on his character, but it is open to question whether it was the Tristan compiler or the author of the Galahad Queste who was the original propagator of calumny.
[152] The Queste writer dwells upon instances of heroes betrayed through their love of women—Samson, Solomon, etc. If he had known the earlier Lancelot-Borron story, with the instance of Merlin's betrayal by the lady who brought up Lancelot, he would surely have made use of so very à propos an illustration.
[153] I suspect this sword of being the sword of the original Perceval story, for which an edifying legend has been invented. It probably belongs to a very early stage of the tradition. I hope some day to make it the subject of special study.
[154] Cf. the Perceval of Chrétien, and more especially the Parzival of Wolfram, with the hero of the Didot Perceval or Perceval li Gallois. I consider the two first represent the independent, the two latter the cyclic form.
[155] It may be noted here that in Wolfram's version of the Perceval story—a version which, as we have seen, has certainly influenced the Lancelot legend—the Grail-bearer, Repanse-de-Schoie eventually becomes the mother of Prester John. The circumstance that the details of the begetting of Galahad are found in the Lancelot, and not in the Queste, suggests the consideration that the author of this latter romance may have worked over the section of the Lancelot in question, so as to bring it into superficial accord with his story. Or he may have worked in conjunction with one of the later redactors.