Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/135

 REVIEWS.

matter of our studies is universally human, forming a protoplasm common to every agglomeration of mankind that has attained a certain level of culture. But every such agglomeration possesses definite characteristics, the outcome of geographical, economic, racial, and historic conditions, and these characteristics react upon and modify that common protoplasm which we call folklore. Thus it is that each of the historic entities styled races, peoples, or nations offers folklore problems with factors special, in a measure, to itself, the solution of which constitutes, or should constitute, a portion of its special intellectual task. For the historic entity Britain, the Arthurian Romance cycle forms such a problem, and of that cycle the legendary nebula of which the Grail is the apparent nucleus is the most mysterious and fascinating section. As a student of British folklore I early felt that none of the quests of our study had a higher claim upon the enthusiasm and perseverance of one born within the bounds of la bloie Bretaigne, and now, after thirty years have passed since I first experienced the attractive power of the mystic vessel, I make no apology for dwelling at length upon the latest contribution to the story of the Grail legend.

At the outset let me note that, in so far as there is still division of opinion respecting the essential nature of the legendary matter embodied in the Grail romances, and respecting the manner in which that matter came to assume its extant form. Dr. Nitze belongs, in the main, to the school of which I had the honour to be the