From Ritual to RomanceWeston, Jessie L. (Jessie Laidlay)
Religion
From Ritual to Romance
Weston, Jessie L. (Jessie Laidlay)
Grail -- Legends -- History and criticism; Romances -- History and criticism
In the same way the advocate of a Folk-lore origin is met with the
objection that the section of the cycle for which such a source can be
definitely proved, _i.e._, the _Perceval_ story, has originally nothing
whatever to do with the Grail; and that, while parallels can be found
for this or that feature of the legend, such parallels are isolated in
character and involve the breaking up of the tale into a composite of
mutually independent themes. A prototype, containing the main features
of the Grail story—the Waste Land, the Fisher King, the Hidden Castle
with its solemn Feast, and mysterious Feeding Vessel, the Bleeding
Lance and Cup—does not, so far as we know, exist. None of the great
collections of Folk-tales, due to the industry of a Cosquin, a
Hartland, or a Campbell, has preserved specimens of such a type; it is
not such a story as, _e.g._, _The Three Days Tournament_, examples of
which are found all over the world. Yet neither the advocate of a
Christian origin, nor the Folk-lorist, can afford to ignore the
arguments, and evidence of the opposing school, and while the result of
half a century of patient investigation has been to show that the
origin of the Grail story must be sought elsewhere than in
ecclesiastical legend, or popular tale, I hold that the result has
equally been to demonstrate that neither of these solutions should be
ignored, but that the ultimate source must be sought for in a direction
which shall do justice to what is sound in the claims of both.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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