Page:Studies on the legend of the Holy Grail.djvu/201

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 * 2 The King bids the hero eat. Lance and Grail, and a fair silver dish pass before them, the latter held by a damsel. The hero sighs and begs to learn about these three. He is told about lance, Grail, Grail-bearing bearing damsel, dish-bearing damsel, and in answer to further questions, learns the history of the broken sword, and of the chapel haunted by the black hand. After sleeping in a splendid bed he sets forth on the morrow on the sword quest (the slaying of Partinal).


 * 4. The hero would hold it sin if he did not ask concerning the Grail. The King first submits him to the sword test. The existence of the  flaw is apparently held to constitute failure, due to the hero's sin   in quitting his mother so abruptly. In the night the hero has a vision, which warns him to hasten to his sister's aid. On the morrow the Grail Castle has vanished. Mounting his horse, which stands ready saddled, he rides forth. After a  vain essay to gain entrance to a magnificent castle, in which he breaks his sword, and thereby loads upon himself seven further years of adventure, but learns how the sword may be made whole again, he finds the land which the day before was waste fertile and peopled. The peasants hail him: the townsmen come forth in his honour—for through him the folk have won back lands and riches. A damsel tells him how: at the Court of the Fisher King he had asked about the Grail. At her castle he has his sword mended. (Later the hero learns that his failure to win the Grail comes from his not having wedded his lady-love).
 * 4. The hero would hold it sin if he did not ask concerning the Grail. The King first submits him to the sword test. The existence of the  flaw is apparently held to constitute failure, due to the hero's sin   in quitting his mother so abruptly. In the night the hero has a vision, which warns him to hasten to his sister's aid. On the morrow the Grail Castle has vanished. Mounting his horse, which stands ready saddled, he rides forth. After a  vain essay to gain entrance to a magnificent castle, in which he breaks his sword, and thereby loads upon himself seven further years of adventure, but learns how the sword may be made whole again, he finds the land which the day before was waste fertile and peopled. The peasants hail him: the townsmen come forth in his honour—for through him the folk have won back lands and riches. A damsel tells him how: at the Court of the Fisher King he had asked about the Grail. At her castle he has his sword mended. (Later the hero learns that his failure to win the Grail comes from his not having wedded his lady-love).


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In comparing with these versions of the incident that found in the Didot-Perceval, we find that the hero at his first visit is welcomed by the squires of the castle, clad in a scarlet cloak,