and together they all behold the talismans, save Feirefiz, to whom as a heathen the sight of the Grail is denied. But soon, under the influence of the charms of the Grail damsel as Wolfram intimates, with some happy strokes of humor rather than from religious conviction, Feirefiz becomes a convert to Christianity, is, baptized, and weds the damsel (Repanse de Schoie); the two then go to India, and from them is born Prester John. On the other hand, Perceval rules henceforth over his Grail kingdom. Lastly, it is told of his (Perceval's) son, Lohengrin, 47 how he was led to the aid of the Duchess of Brabant by a swan, how he marries her on condition that she shall not inquire as to his origin and how on her breaking his command the swan carries him away from her. This introduction of the Swan-Knight into the Grail story was, of course, an innovation of Wolfram's, for the two legends had so far developed separately. So, too, with the idea that the lord of the magic castle where the queens were held in duress was a nephew of Virgil. Virgil and the same thing is true of Prester John had been well-known figures in mediaeval legend, before Wolfram composed his poem, but they had had no connection with the Holy Grail.

The conclusion just outlined calls for no particular remark. Like the corresponding prologue, it is, in the judgment of the present writer, plainly the invention of Wolfram.48

47

Probably Loherenc Garin, that is, Garin of Lorraine, with reference to Garin, a well-known character in the Old French chansons de geste. The Swan-Knight story had already been connected with the House of Lorraine. For its influence on an episode in PseudoWauchier, cp. p. 300, above. That episode, however, is not directly connected with the Grail, so that the assertion which I make in the next sentence above is valid.

48

* In his "Parzivalstudien", Germania, XXXVII, 74 ff. (1892), P. Hagen studies the relations of Chrétien, Wolfram, and Peredur, and finds in certain supposed agreements between the last two, as against the first, proof that they are independent of Chrétien. Peredur, however, is certainly derived directly from Chrétien. On this subject scholars of virtually every school are nowadays agreed. Cp. p. 344 note 3, below.

R. H. Griffith has made the same sort of comparison as Hagen, but on a more elaborate scale, in his Sir Perceval of Galles (Chicago,

1911), laying especial stress on agreements with the English Sir Per ceval. But on the subject of such supposed agreements cp. my review of Griffith's book in the Romanic Review, IV, 125 ff. (1913). What I have said there applies, in general, also, to similar comparisons in Carsten Struck's Münster dissertation, Der junge Parzival in Wolf rams von Eschenbach Parzival, etc. (Boma-Leipzig, 1910) and A. C. L. Brown's "The Grail and the English Sir Perceval", MP, XVI, 553 ff. (1919). Brown stresses, as the most important, five points of agreement (so he considers them) between Wolfram and the English poem, as against Chrétien, viz.: In both 1. Perceval meets three knights in the forest in the opening episode of the story, no five, as in Chrétien 2. had a bad mount 3. lives near "a natural source of water", i. e., according to the English poem "He dranke water of the welle"; according to Wolfram, bathed every morning in a river nearby, 4. is connected with a vengeance motif, 5. his father in his marriage tournament "made an enemy", who is later to do battle against the son.

Now as regards these five points: No. 1 is not accurately stated for in Wolfram there are really four knights. First three knights appear, and then, immediately afterwards, a fourth knight, who is lord of the rest. Besides, only the last of these in Wolfram has a name, viz. Karnahkarnanz, whereas in the English poem the three knights are Yvain, Gawain and Kay. No. 2. The idea that the young rustic's mount should be more or less ridiculous springs naturally out of the situation. Otherwise, there is no similarity between the two poems. In Wolfram Perceval's mother, when he first leaves home, purposely gives him a poor horse, to protect his life, since, if so mounted, the knights would not take him seriously. Nothing is said of this in the English poem in the only passage where the matter is mentioned (one much later in the narrative, viz. at the point where Perceval has just slain the Red Knight). There (11. 718 ff.) it is stated, merely in passing, that Perceval was riding a mare that was with foal. No. 3. Here, on the face of it, there is obviously no real resemblance between the two. Besides, "He dranke water of the welle And yitt was he wyghte," (11. 6f.) is introduced to emphasize the hero's sober bringing up, with which, of course, Wolfram's river has nothing to do.

No. 4. In the English poem the revenge motif (taken, doubtless, from the spurious Bliocadrans prologue to Chrétien) is one of the most important motifs of the romance and justifies Perceval's enmity to the Red Knight. In so far as there is any revenge motif at all in Wolfram, the object of it is Lähelin, who does not correspond to the Red Knight, in any way. Moreover, in Wolfram the matter has no

importance. I called attention to these differences in Romanic Review, IV, 127, note 6 (1913). No. 5. In Wolfram (unlike Sir Perceval) the knight overthrown (not killed) in the later encounter (Orilus) is not identical with the knight who was overthrown in the first encounter (Lähelin). One would have to read, however, the long and altogether different narrative in Wolfram to see how ill-supported this last point is.

Chapter VII.

Peredur, Diu Crône, and Sone de Nausay.

Different views have been expressed in regard to the relations of the French Conte del Graal (Chrétien's Perceval plus its continuations) and the Welsh tale, called Peredur, which is contained in the collection of Welsh tales, known generally as the Mabinogion. This tale has been frequently taken by advocates of Celtic

1

The best discussions of this question are by 1. W. Golther, "Chrestiens Conte del Graal in seinem Verhältniss zum wälschen Peredur und zum englischen Sir Perceval," Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-philologischen und historischen Classe der K. b. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München, 1890, Band I, Heft I, pp. 174 ff., and, 2. R. Thurneysen, in his review of Miss Williams's Peredur essay in the Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie, VIII, 185 ff. (1912). Thurneysen's discussion of the evolution of the Welsh tale is convincing. As he points out, Miss Williams, like previous scholars, fails to observe that the Red Book of Hergest indicates that the Peredur really consists of three separate stories, each beginning on a new page and with large initial letters. To be sure, on other grounds, Miss Williams recognized the third of these stories as a later addition to the original text, but, according to Thurneysen, so is the second (II). Still further, the first of the stories, which ends at the point where Peredur is reconciled to Angharat Law Eurawc, is itself composite, and consists of two parts designated by Thurneysen, Ia (ending at the point where, after the incident of the drops of the blood in the snow, Peredur is found by Arthur's knights) and Ib. This Ia is a free paraphrase of the corresponding portion of Chrétien, with little admixture of native Welsh materials. On the other hand, Ib and II are free inventions of Welsh story-tellers, independent of each other, but both writing under the influence of Ia, which first introduced Peredur as a knight errant into Welsh literature. The author of Part III follows Chrétien, as far as his fragmentary narrative permitted, but adds to it from some other non-Welsh source, terminating the whole with his

origins for the French romances as evidence of the existence in Wales of a Perceval legend embodying incidents that gave rise to the legend of the Holy Grail. Few, however, latterly have denied that it had some sort of connection with the French romances. Nutt speaks of it as "exhibiting . . . what is, on the whole, the oldest form of a sequence of incidents found in the most diverse shapes in the French Grail romances. It is practically a Grail Quest before the introduction of Christian symbolism has transformed both the Grail itself and the Quest for it." In his Studies on the Holy Grail (p. 145) he thinks that the extant Peredur must be an amplification of an earlier Welsh tale, and that the author of the story in its revised form was strongly influenced by Chrétien and drew upon him also for materials. In a special thesis on the subject, Essai sur la composition du roman gallois de Peredur (Paris, 1909), Miss Mary R. Williams maintains that only the final section (third, according to her division) is copied from the French (not Chrétien) the section which begins with Peredur's return to Caerleon after his visit to the Grail castle (pp. 13f.), although there was also a French poem corresponding to Section I. J. Loth, Les Mabinogion, I, 53 (Paris, 1913), accepts Peredur, like The Lady of the Fountain and Geraint the

own inventions, but on the basis of suggestions, which he found in Ia. This Part III, as said above, begins with Peredur's return to Caerleon after his visit to the Grail castle.

2

The Mabinogion, p. 354 (New York, 1902).

=

In his Studies in the Arthurian Legend, Ch. 4-6, J. Rhys discusses Peredur in Welsh literature, and tries to connect him with the stories of Yvain and Lancelot, but, as far as I am aware, has convinced no one. To prove that Peredur was "early known" as a Grail hero in Wales, Evans cites the Black Book of Caermarthen, 65, 7 9 (of the twelfth century, it seems), where we have Peredur called penwelic. He interprets this as pen-vedig chief physician i. e. who healed the Grail king, and remarks: "Thus an independent source of genuine antiquity reveals Percdur to us as the Welsh hero of the Grail quest." Cp. The White Book Mabinogion, Welsh Tales Romances reproduced from the Peniarth Manuscripts, edited by J. Gwenogvryn Evans, p. 14 (Pwllheli, 1907 - really issued, however, in 1909, it appears, since the Preface is dated in the latter year).