Page:Speeches and addresses by the late Thomas E Ellis M P.pdf/106

 predict so much, how Lancelot and Tristan grew to be so strong, some priest connected all this with religion, and set the Arthurian heroes in quest of the Holy Grail or dish containing the blood of our Lord which was given to Joseph of Arimathea. The Arthurian romances made the mind of Europe young again. They seized hold of the imagination of princes, courts and people Flemish, Provencal, Norman-French and German. Hence it is, I think, that in the national church at Innsprück which contains the superb monumental tomb of the great Maximilian, the representative of Britain among the noble company of Europe's emperors and warriors who guard his tomb, is Arthur, the hero and central figure of the Celtic romances.

In a word, Walter Map put, as one writer says, a Christian soul into the body of the Arthurian Romances. Then Layamon, a priest from Celtic Worcestershire, rendered these romances into English. Rendered to the language of the people, they profoundly influenced their whole genius. How strong and abiding a hold these Celtic legends