The Legend of Sir Lancelot du Lac

of them, in a high degree, intricate and obscure. We have not yet succeeded in solving the problems connected with the evolution of the Grail romances; we can scarcely be said to have begun the exami

y the most important part in their final solution; that inasmuch as the Lancelot legend was the dominant factor in the later cyclic development of Arthurian romances, the disen

is again sharply divided into two sections differentiated from each other by the personality of the hero-the Perceval and Galahad Questes. I am not sure whether we ought not to go a step further and recognise a third clearly defined family, that of the Gawain Queste. Mr. Nutt in his Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail[132] partly recognises this, but does no

two main families of the Queste. In this latter case the general consensus of opinion is to regard Perceval, whose story is marked by certain defi

find that before we are in a position to examine it closely we must

e these adventures are marked by peculiarly wild and fantastic features, sometimes apparently borrowed from the hero's feats at the Chateau Merveil, as recorded by Chrétien and Wolfram, sometimes entirely independent of those feats, but strongly reminiscent of Perceval's experiences in the Grail castle. In the distinctively Lancelot romances, where Gawain, Lancelot, and Bohort all attempt the adventures of Corbenic,

stinct accounts, the Grail castle of the earlier Perceval story, and the Chateau Merveil of Gawain legend. The marvellous features which the G

ces we possess were familiar with two compilations, practically covering the entire ground of Arthurian romance, one of which, the earlier, was ascribed to Robert de Borron, the other, the later, to Walter Map; or rather, as the author is careful to write throughout, pseudo-Borron

om the original; redaction B. consisting of the Livre del Graal, the Merlin, and Suite Merlin, and the Quest

the Merlin and Suite Merlin, Queste and Mort Artur;

pseudo-Borron from the pseudo-Map cycle is the introduction into the fo

time dealing exclusively with the Grail romances,[139] in which Dr. Wechssler practically adopted the standpoint of Professor Birch-Hirschfeld, that the Grail is ab initio a Christian symbol, but at the same time endeavoured to harmonise this view with that which regards th

far astray in the quagmire of pure hypothesis and unfounded assumption? Simply and solely, I believe, because it had never occurred to Dr. Wechssler that the Lancelot romances could be associated with any Queste other than the Galahad Queste. He saw, and saw rightly, that the Lancelot story played a very important r?le in the cyclic evolution of the Arthurian romance;

usly referred, but which is of such paramount importance for the question before us that I make no apology for repeating it here: 'Et le grant conte de Lancelot convient repairier en la fin à Perceval qui est chiés et la fin de tos les contes ès a

s aventures. Galaad, le chevalier vierge, fils naturel de Lancelot, est substitué au Perceval des dernières laisses de Lancelot. La manie des prolongements aura con

theory of the early evolution of the Perceval story, but not till I had read Dr. Wechssler's study of the Grail-Lancelot cycles did its immense importance as evidence for the evolution of the Arthurian cycle, as a whole, dawn upon me. Yet here we have a piece of evidence of the very highe

this distinction had not occurred to the original framer of the thesis, any one familiar with the genuine Borron romances must be aware that the Queste they presuppose is a Perceval Queste. Probably the disinclination, to which I have referred above, to connect Lancelot with any Grail hero save his own son had very much to do with the matter; further, I do not think t

on became associated with a cycle representing the ensemble of Arthurian romance because there was a smaller cycle which was really

that writer's original poems, are closely connected with each other, and have every appearance of having been intended to form one consecutive work. These

Arthur's expedition to France, his conquest of Frollo and war with Rome, succeeded by Mordred's treachery, the final battle and Arthur's departure for Avalon-in fact, precisely the contents of the Mort Ar

al form in which Borron wrote it or not, as we possess it, shows d

ly appears to represent what we may perhaps call the first draft of the Grand S. Graal. Merlin was certainly expanded into the Merlin Vulgate and Suite.

n given by M. Paulin Paris, I should think it likely that, at first, the juxtaposition of the Lancelot and Perceval-Grail stories was purely external, and that they did not affect

ferences to an earlier Perceval story, Lancelot plays an important r?le, yet Galahad is unknown, and there are certain mysterious folk-lore features not met with elsewhere. Hitherto no one has succeeded in satisfactorily placing this romance. I would suggest that it represents the Queste of a late pseudo-Borron Lancelot-Perceval-Grail cycle; and I am encouraged in this su

presented as overthrowing all the knights of the Round Table, till the appearance of Perceval, by whom he is himself overthrown. He would thus appear to rank next to the hero of the tale and to be the superior of Gawain. So far as we can gather, the order of superiority runs thus: Perceval, Lancelot, Gawai

appears clearly to Gawain. The position, so far as Lancelot is concerned, is thus nearer to the presentment of the Galahad Queste than is the Didot Perceval. This last-named, we have seen above, shows clear indications of betraying a cyclic redaction; these indications, though differing in form, are not less clear in the Perceval li Gallois. The concluding passage runs thus: 'Après iceste estoire commence

em gr?sseren Romanwerk einverleibt, aus dem die Handschrift von Mons den Perlesv

nce, I think, we can show reason to believe that they did-have incorporated the Chrétien

33 (which, as I have remarked before, Dr. Sommer does not chronicle), and Malory's Lancelot and Queste sections all stand together as representing a much fuller and more accurate text than that of the prose Lancelot 1513, or the Queste MSS. consulted by Dr. Furnivall for his edition of that romance. Whether we have not here an important part of the unshortened pseudo-Borron-Lancelot into which the Map Queste has been introduced is a matter for careful investigation. The point to which at the present moment I would draw attention is, that the Dutch Lancelot incorporates a very considerable section of a Perceval romance, which bears a very close resemblance to Chrétien's poem, with this curious difference, that it gives an account of the achieving of the adventures named by the Grail messenger, whic

advanced period, it was connected with a Grail story, which regarded Perceval as its hero and knew nothing of Lancelot's so

and by different hands. There is no trace of an earlier and later redaction, save only in the directly edifying passages, which in some cases appear to have undergone amplification. The difference between the versions is not that of incident or sequence, scarcely even of detail, but rather of the superior clearness and co

t contradiction with it, and there is little doubt that the Lancelot would gain greatly in coherence if the Queste were omitted, and the passages preparatory to it eliminated from the original romance. These

ring. The genealogies, however they may vary (as they do in the different versions), are all devoted to this object. They are most closely connected with, and practically presuppose each other; yet admitting, as I think we must admit, that

gned as an introduction to the life and deeds of the Grail Winner, Perceval, so in this, the latest form of the cycle, the introduction to the Queste i

n with Perceval himself; he, too, achieves the Grail Queste. He has undergone a change, and a change for the worse, but that was quite as much due to the evolution of the Grail as a Christian talisman as to the invention of Galahad. The hero of the Didot Perceval and Perc

Neither is blamed for his or her action, neither is apparently conscious of wrong-doing. In the Queste Lancelot's conscience is sorely vexed, and his sin insisted upon. The compilers of the Lancelot have a very courtly respect f

h who, in the section preceding and following the Queste (the Lancelot and the Mort Artur), is the confidant and go-between of Lancelot and Guinevere. It is Bohort who seeks Lancelot at the secret bidding of the queen, Bohort who carries love-tokens between them, who arranges meetings. It is he and Lionel who consult the queen as to the delicate question of Lancelot's future relations with the lady who has cured him from the illness caused by

h Bohort and Lancelot are overcome with grief. But the Queste paints him in the most repulsive colours: violent, brutal, and unreasoning to a degree. He is so indignant with his brother for going to the rescue of a maiden rather than of himself (when both are equally in danger) that he do

he Lancelot proper, treated with the greatest respect. He is entirely loved and trusted by king and queen, and if his valour is in the long-run surpassed by that of Lancelot, the compiler is careful to preserve his honour intact by pointing out, first, that he never recovered from the severe wounds received in the war with Galehault, second, that

contact with what we may perhaps call the 'secular' section are all restricted to the later part of the story, that commencing with what M. Paulin Paris called the Agravain section. Between the Grand S. Graal, the Galahad Queste, and the later part of the Lancelot there are a number of what we may call cross-references, the precise value of which will be very difficult to determine. But

to two great divisions, the Enfances, Charrette, and Galehault section, which is practically unaffected by the Grail tradition, though it shows evident signs of contact with the Perceval story; and th

ule, the character of the Fisher King appears to be confined to the former, that of the Maimed King to the latter (the author of the Queste appears to have no idea that the two characters are one and the same);-the daughter of King Pelles, and his son Eliezer. This latter is, I think, peculiar to the Lancelot-Galahad story, the Perceval versions do not know him. The adventure of the broken sword borne by Eliezer, to

er by the compiler of Grand S. Graal; the Queste makes very little of them; they o

upon them as due to the influence of the Gawain story, and as already existing, in a pu

Perceval of the earlier Grail cycle. As I said above, the author was very little concerned about the harmony of his work. So long as by a superficial rearrangement and interpolation of incidental adventures he could produce an appearance of harmony, he care

f the earlier Perceval Queste, and what the causes which

they are diff

d more worldly and secular. The two appear to have had an equal hold on popular imagination, they early came into touch with each other, but they never really blended. The Lancelot, as the younger, borrowed at the outset certain features from the Perceval, but it reta

being drawn into the mystic circle; how could the most popular and most valiant of the knights of the Round Table, for this Lancelot had now become, remain outside the chosen group? It was plain that Lancelot must take part in the Grail quest; it was equally plain tha

nly in one way: by giving him a son who should achieve the quest and then vanish, leaving Lancelot still facile p

Winner than the fair maiden who filled the office of Grail-bearer?[155] The obvious propriety of such a relationship was bound sooner or later to strike the imagination of some redactor. The Arthurian story already possessed the machinery by which Lancelot could become father of the elect child, while remaining Guinevere's lo

quest once achieved. But having thus disposed in Lancelot's interest of the two who might have seriously challenged his fame as a knight, Perceval, the real, Galahad, the vicarious (for I think we can only regard him as his father's representative), achiever of the quest, it became necessary to add a third, who should bring back to court the tidings of their success. It is quite obviou

re prominent, till in the later portion of the prose Lancelot he has become a very efficient understudy to the hero, even surpassing in valour Gawain himself. Thus, on the return of the knights from one of their numerous quests in search of Lancelot, when they are called upon to rehearse their adventures, in order that a record of

a critical study of the Lancelot mss. is seriously undertaken, I think we shall find that the position

at which we employ for the earlier. The Arthurian poems, being in a large measure independent, and never having formed part of a 'cyclic' whole, may well be studied separately, in, and for, themselves, though of course we would not leave out of sight variants of the same story. But the later prose romances, those which have avowedly formed parts of a cycle, must be studied, no

it with the Lancelot, and if we do this certain points become absolutely clear. The Queste pre-supposes a very advanced stage of

y following the Queste. If we set on one side the introductory passage, which I have no shadow of doubt does not belong to the Mort Artur at all, but is the concluding passage of the Queste, there is no evidence of the influence of the latter throughout the whole of this last section of the cycle. Galahad is never mentioned; he was-and is not-as completely as if he had never been. Lancelot never thinks of, never refers to, his valiant son; his whole thought and care is for the queen, whom we were previously

-and I think we must own that if in their completed form they were to coalesce, that coalition could only be carried out under the conditions suggested above, which conditions we find fulfilled in the Galahad Queste. For me this romance