But the whole position is made absolutely clear by a passage preserved in _Sone de Nansai_ and obviously taken over from an earlier poem. This romance contains a lengthy section dealing with the history of Joseph ‘d’Abarimathie,’ who is represented as the patron Saint of the kingdom of Norway; his bones, with the sacred relics of which he had the charge, the Grail and the Lance, are preserved in a monastery on an island in the interior of that country. In this version Joseph himself is the Fisher King; ensnared by the beauty of the daughter of the Pagan King of Norway, whom he has slain, he baptizes her, though she is still an unbeliever at heart, and makes her his wife, thus drawing the wrath of Heaven upon himself. God punishes him for his sin: “Es rains et desous l’afola De coi grant dolor endura.”[21] Then, in a remarkable passage, we are told of the direful result entailed by this punishment upon his land: “Sa tierre ert a ce jour nommée Lorgres, ch’est verités prouvée, Lorgres est uns nons de dolour Nommés en larmes et en plours, Bien doit iestre en dolour nommés Car on n’i seme pois ne blés Ne enfes d’omme n’i nasqui Ne puchielle n’i ot mari, Ne arbres fueille n’i porta Ne nus prés n’i raverdïa, Ne nus oysiaus n’i ot naon Ne se n’i ot beste faon, Tant que li rois fu mehaigniés Et qu’il fu fors de ses pechiés, Car Jesu-Crist fourment pesa Qu’à la mescréant habita.”[22] Now there can be no possible doubt here, the condition of the King is sympathetically reflected on the land, the loss of virility in the one brings about a suspension of the reproductive processes of Nature on the other. The same effect would naturally be the result of the death of the sovereign upon whose vitality these processes depended. To sum up the result of the analysis, I hold that we have solid grounds for the belief that the story postulates a close connection between the vitality of a certain King, and the prosperity of his kingdom; the forces of the ruler being weakened or destroyed, by wound, sickness, old age, or death, the land becomes Waste, and the task of the hero is that of restoration.[23] It seems to me, then, that, if we desire to elucidate the perplexing mystery of the Grail romances, and to place the criticism of this important and singularly fascinating body of literature upon an assured basis, we shall do so most effectually by pursuing a line of investigation which will concentrate upon the persistent elements of the story, the character and significance of the achievement proposed, rather than upon the varying details, such as Grail and Lance, however important may be their _rôle_. If we can ascertain, accurately, and unmistakably, the meaning of the whole, we shall, I think, find less difficulty in determining the character and office of the parts, in fact, the question _solvitur ambulando_, the ‘complex’ of the problem being solved, the constituent elements will reveal their significance.