If Chrêtien of Troyes, the master, hath done to this tale a wrong, Then _Kiot_ may well be wrathful, for he taught us aright the song, To the end the Provençal told it--How Herzeleide's son the Grail 665 Did win, as was fore-ordainèd when Anfortas thereto did fail. And thus, from Provence, the story to the German land was brought, And aright was it told, and the story doth lack in its ending naught. I, Wolfram of Eschenbach, think me that here-of will I speak no more-- Of Parzival's race, and his kindred, of that have I told afore; 670 To the goal of his bliss have I brought him--he whose life such an end shall gain, That his soul doth not forfeit Heaven for sins that his flesh shall stain, And yet, as true man and worthy, the world's favour and grace doth keep Hath done well, nor hath lost his labour, nor his fame shall hereafter sleep! And if good and gracious women shall think I be worthy praise, 675 Since I tell to its end my story, then joyful shall be my days. And since for the love of a woman I have sung it, this song of old, I would that, in sweet words gentle, my guerdon by her be told! APPENDICES EXCURSUS A WOLFRAM'S SOURCE In examining into the source whence Wolfram derived this poem, it may be well to restate briefly the problem as indicated in the Preface. We may take it as an acknowledged fact, disputed by none, that for the bulk of his work, from the commencement of Books III. to XIII., and inclusive of part of the latter, Wolfram drew from a French source; he himself says that this source was the poem of 'Kiot the Provençal,' and, while acquainted with the work of Chrêtien de Troyes, he distinctly avows his preference for Kiot over Chrêtien, saying that Chrêtien had told the story wrongly, for which Kiot might well be wrathful with him. From this we gather that, granting the existence of the two French versions, Kiot's had preceded Chrêtien's. The difficulties in the way of accepting Wolfram's own definite statement are twofold: first, that no trace of such a poem, or such a poet, exists (which in itself is not an insuperable difficulty); second, and more serious, that we do possess the poem of Chrêtien de Troyes, and that it presents such striking features of similarity to Wolfram's version that it is clear that if one were not the source of the other, there is a common source at the root of both.