The most intricate, though not the least fascinating, problem connected with the Arthurian legends is that of accounting for the origin, and for the attachment to the original Arthurian stock, of the story of the Grail and its quest. Here, at any rate, we have presented to us, in Tennyson’s words, “Soul at war with Sense”; and it is clear enough that the gradual manipulation of the Grail stories marks a deliberate effort by ecclesiastical writers to neutralise the influence of the dangerous ideals of chivalry upon Arthurian romance. Celibacy had to be shown to be compatible with true knighthood; there was no reason why a knight-errant should make love, and, all too often, illicit love, the sole motive of his quest for adventure. So, we have ultimately created for us the character of Galahad, who “never felt the kiss of love Nor maiden’s hand in his,” and who alone, by virtue of his purity, is allowed to “find the Holy Grail.” The earlier forms of the Grail legend know nothing of Galahad, nor is there any reason for supposing that they had any religious significance. Gawain, apparently,--he who, in his progress through the romances, degenerates so much as to be finally described as “light in life and light in death,”[104]--was the original hero of the Grail quest. It is Perceval, however, who is the central figure of the best-known versions of the story--as, for example, the _Conte del Graal_, the Welsh _Peredur_, and Wolfram von Eschenbach’s _Parzival_. But Perceval was not immaculate, and so had to be superseded by one who “exemplified, in a yet more uncompromising, yet more inhuman, spirit, the ideal of militant asceticism,”[105]--the virginal and youngest knight of the Round Table, Galahad. And, in order to establish Galahad’s right to a place in the Arthurian fellowship, he is introduced as the son of Lancelot. Here is an artistic touch deserving much more appreciation than it has yet generally received. The sin of Lancelot is largely expiated by the unsullied purity of his son. Truly, the “militant ascetics” knew their romantic business as well as the best of the secular scribes.[106]