CHAPTER V.

Relationship of the Didot-Perceval to the Conte du Graal--The former not the source of the latter--Relationship of the Conte du Graal and the Mabinogi--Instances in which the Mabinogi has copied Chrestien--Examples of its independence-- The incident of the blood drops in the snow--Differences between the two works--The machinery of the Mabinogi and the traces of it in the Conte du Graal--The stag hunt--The Mabinogi and Manessier--The sources of the Conte du Graal and the relation of the various parts to a common original--Sir Perceval--Steinbach's theory--Objections to it--The counsels in the Conte du Graal--Wolfram and the Mabinogi--Absence of the Grail from the apparently oldest Celtic form page 127