BOOK V

TRADITIONAL EVENTS

Hero meets with the Fisher King; Chrêtien and continuators: visits the Grail Castle, sees Peredur; Perceval; Perceval li the Grail, lance, etc., but asks Gallois. (Sir Percyvelle omits no question, and is therefore everything connected with the reproached by maiden with dead Grail.) knight.

(The reader will find all this part of the legend, the varying forms of the visit to the Grail Castle, the Fisher King, the Grail, etc., fully discussed in Mr. Alfred Nutt's _Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail_.)

Page 131, line 58--'_Abenberg's field_.' Castle and town of Abenberg, in the neighbourhood of Eschenbach.

Page 131, line 75--'_Repanse de Schoie_.' This name appears to signify 'Thought of joy.' The Grail maidens are not named in other versions.

Page 132, line 87--'_Then one to the host would call him_.' This was evidently the Court Jester, always a privileged person.

Page 132, lines 109, 110--'_Lignum Aloe_.' Bartsch holds this to be a mistake of the poet, who has misunderstood the old French word _Aloer_. Chrêtien has simply _seces boises_. 'Wildberg' was the home of the poet, who is here making allusion to his poverty, as in Book IV. p. 106.

Page 132, line 111--'_And the host had bid them lay him_.' 'The Maimed King' invariably figures in the Grail Romances, whether they deal only with the Quest, as here, or with the early history of the Grail. He is generally wounded through the thighs, either with a lance, or with a sword, but the circumstances under which he receives the wound vary greatly. In most of the versions he is met with while engaged in fishing, and is known as the Fisher King, or the 'Rich Fisher.'

Page 132, line 125--'_The bleeding lance_.' This is a feature in most of the Grail Romances, and seems to have been an original feature of the story, though it had not the close connection with the _Grail_, which the fully developed Christian legend has given to it. In the earlier versions of the story it is the weapon with which the Maimed King was wounded; finally, it became the spear with which our Lord's side was pierced on the cross. Wolfram, who never appears to connect the Grail with the Passion, gives it the first meaning. The visit to the Grail Castle is told in varying forms, but the King, the Grail, Sword, and Lance almost invariably appear, and the hero is either Perceval or his companion Gawain, but Perceval is, undoubtedly, the original hero of the Quest.

Page 133, line 137 and _seq._--'_The Grail Procession_.' In Chrêtien this is much more simply treated. There are two squires bearing candlesticks, and two maidens, one of whom carries the Grail, the other a silver dish, _tailleor_. Wolfram has evidently seized the opportunity to give play to his love of detailed description, and his account of the Grail Feast and the Grail Maidens is far more elaborate than any given elsewhere.

Page 136, line 223--'_The food-supplying powers of the Grail_.' In other romances of the cycle we find similar powers attributed to the Grail. Malory, who borrowed largely from the _Queste_ and _Grand S. Graal_, gives a like account. There is evidently a connection between this feature of the Grail, and the food-supplying talismans which figure largely in the legendary lore of most countries.

Page 137, line 247--'_A squire who a sword did bear_.' Cf. p. 144, lines 472 and _seq._ This incident also occurs in Chrêtien, and in varying form in most of the versions. In this poem the meaning and use of the sword are somewhat inexplicable. In Chrêtien that sword will break in _one_ peril, known only to its maker, and then can be made whole by dipping it in a _lake_. Wolfram's account seems to be based on a misunderstanding of a French original. In some of the other versions the sword is already broken, and can only be made whole by the achiever of the Quest. In Wolfram the sword is a very puzzling feature of the story, with which indeed it seems to have little or no connection. The sword, which breaks in Parzival's deadly combat with his unknown brother, is not _this_ sword, but the one taken from Ither of Gaheviess.

Page 137, line 267--'_The fairest of old men ancient_.' Titurel, cf.