Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/291

 The Legend of the Holy Grail. 279

Mr. Nutt has pointed out that the story of the Irish and Scotch- Gaelic hero Fionn has similar traits. The latter is also a posthu- mous son whose life is in danger, is reached in the desert by Druid- esses, exhibits extraordinary strength, and overtakes wild deer by speed of foot. He has no proper name of his own, receiving his appellation from the whiteness of his skin. I can see in these traits no resemblance to the story of Perceval, further than that some of the subordinate incidents, like the running down of the deer, floating adventures common to mediaeval folk-lore, do appear, not in the tale of Crestien, but in certain of its popularized forms.

Beyond these, it seems scarce worth while to cite folk-tales for the purpose of illustrating the story. According to the analysis previ- ously given, the incidents of Crestien's plot do not belong to any single folk-tale, but represent separate elements, such as floated in solution in the folk-lore of all European countries, threaded together in purely literary fashion.

As respects the Grail, examples of healing and food-producing vessels might be cited in abundance from the popular belief of every age and country ; but, as already observed, the dish of Crestien's tale has none of these properties ; the analogy, such as it is, belongs solely to the later variants, which are nothing more than free inter- pretations of a theme made continually more and more mysterious.

Brief mention may be made of the two modern compositions which have made the Holy Grail a household word. Tennyson's idyl, "The Holy Grail," follows the outlines of the French prose romance, the Queste ; as in the latter, the quest begins with the apparition at Camelot of the sacred vessel. A quest is vowed, in which, as in the French work, Galahad, Percivale, and Bors are the most honored participants ; but whereas in the Queste these three remain together and journey to the Spiritual City, the English author makes Galahad depart alone. Percivale is subject to delu- sive visions, and ultimately returns to court to tell the story. It is explained that the duties of the king forbid his taking part in the search. The insight of the poet induced him to represent the Grail as the cup of the eucharist, a function which, as above shown, it had performed in the tale of Robert de Boron. In Tennyson's account, the moral and religious ideas connected with the Grail are not essen- tially changed from the mediaeval history.

On the other hand, the Parsifal of Wagner exhibits a complete reconstruction. The composer based his drama on the work of Wolfram of Eschenbach, whose proper names he uses ; but while in Wolfram the story still consists of two independent narrations, Wagner wove the adventures into one whole. In Crestien, Arthur's queen has retired of her free choice into the desert, where, by

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