Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/384

 350 Reviews.

attachment to preconceived theories, would do well to lay these words to heart.

But to return to our subject. Granting that the germ of the story was the legend of Joseph, and the original hero this trans- formed Galahad, where did the romance first take shape ? Here we again meet the combination method. To the advocates of the Celtic origin of the Grail Herr Wechssler concedes that the story first took literary form in Wales, both branches alike, the Early History and the Quest being at root Welsh stories ; while the advo- cates of the Christian theory are reassured by the assertion that it was written in ecclesiastical language — in Latin. The choice of Galahad was determined by the fact that he was already a popular hero. But was he ? That is the question. Apart from the Grail quest, what do we know of Galahad ? What'part does he play in genuine Welsh tradition and popular literature? W^hat indivi- duality has he, taken out of the setting which the quest provides? Absolutely none. Even when Herr Wechssler has borrowed with both hands from the Perceval legend to endow this shadowy figure, he is obliged to admit that he has so little substance, so poor a vitality, that the folk would have none of him, but put Perceval in his place.

And if the romances dealing with the origin of the Grail were composed in Wales, how is it that they are only represented now by translations from demonstrable French originals ? ^Vhile the ?^«original Peredur = Perceval reigns triumphant in genuine Welsh heroic tradition ?

As to the language of the first Grail romances, this is of course a debatable point. There is very slight evidence that a Latin Grail story ever existed, none that it was the first ever composed. The two distinct statements are, as is well known, that of the chronicle of Helinandus, who says such a book existed, though he had been unable to obtain a sight of it, and that of the colophon to the French MSS. of the Quesfe, which states that the romance was translated from the Latin by Walter Map. Of the Latin original no trace has ever been discovered.

The argument which seems to have most weight with Herr Wechssler is that derived from the word Grail itself. He says: " Jener erste Urheber der Grallegende nahm aus dem Lateinischen das Wort Gradal, um damit das von ihm in die Josephslegende eingefUhrte Wunsch-gefass in seiner Eigenart zu bezeichen : nun