Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/218

 206 Journal of American Folk-Lore.

The two then return to the Maiden's Land, and Percevelle lives happily with Lufamour until he departs to the Holy Land, where he ends his days.

This curious example of a popular rhymed novellette of the four- teenth century assuredly can boast no more remote antiquity. The love story may very well be explained as made up under the influence of suggestions indirectly obtained from the extant French poem, and the style and proper names correspond to such supposition. A lin- gering remnant of the portion of Crestien's story, relating to the unasked question, may be found in the untimely revery of the hero. That the knight of the cup should be represented as the slayer of Percevelle's father is entirely in the manner of a reconstructor ; that the vengeance is unintentional, and even unknown, shows that the feature is not ancient.

A considerable number of verbal coincidences attest the connection with the French verse, which is further made clear by the proper name of the hero, Sir Percevelle le Galayse.

The incidents of the German, Welsh, and English versions of the story, where they vary from the tale of Crestien, also disagree with each other ; such aberration, according to the remarks above offered, is a plain indication that the changes must be considered as due only to the fancy of the several recasters. Minor agreements be- tween traits of the English poem and those, for example, mentioned by Wolfram, are to be disregarded, being in every case explicable as due to a common interpretation of the data of the French original.

The assumption of an early Anglo-Norman romance as the pre- sumed source of the English verse (suggested by G. Paris) ought not to be considered so long as the production can be explained as a variation founded on a vera causa, on the celebrated and easily accessible work of Crestien. The outlines of the latter composition might easily, in the fourteenth century, come into the knowledge of a popular poet.

NOTES.

ParcevaVs saga. The saga is edited by E. Kolbing, Riddarasbgur, 1872. The Norseman spells graal as braid!, and defines it as textus, again explained as ganganda greiZa. The dictionary defines gretZa as comb. It is impossible to guess just what the Tenderer meant, or how he got his idea.

Parzival. In the abundant literature of Wolfram's poem, I have not met with the explanation of sources above given, and which seems to be indicated by the correspondences to Robert de Boron and his successors. As to Wolfram's notion of the Graal, compare his definition, as the wish of Paradise (v. 351), or the abun- dance of earthly desire (v. 354), with the lines of Robert, where it is said to be the accomplishment of man's wish, La douceur Vaccomplissement — De leur cuers tout entierement (2565, 2566; see, also, 3042, 3043), and his derivation from agrder.

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