The second class of Grail romances gives, it has been
seen, a Quest of the Holy Vessel differing markedly in part from that
in the first class.
Now in two versions (Didot Perceval and P. le Gallois) belonging
to this class the hero is Perceval, as in the first class, and in the
Quête, Perceval is only second to the main hero. Again, one,
the Didot Perceval, reproduces many of the adventures of the Conte
del Graal, whilst the Quéte also has the central adventures
at the Fisher King's castle, though greatly altered and attached to a
secondary personage, Lancelot. The inference is unmistakable; the Quest
portions of the second class of Grail romances are in part based upon
and derived from a Quest story similar to that found in the Conte del
Graal and allied versions. To understand the real significance of the
Quest incidents we must address ourselves firstly and chiefly to the romances
of the first class. How does it stand with the other portion of the legend,
the Early History of the Grail? The later portions of the Conte del
Graal contain, we saw, fragments of an Early History substantially
the same as that found in Grand St. Graal and Quête.
Wolfram's Parzival, on the other hand, contains an Early History
which is absolutely and entirely different. Remembering that those portions
of the Conte del Graal which do yield this Early History are demonstrably
the latest in date of that vast compilation, noting that they bear the
traces of being obvious and at times inconsistent interpolations, the
further inference is, if not certain, at least highly probable, that the
Early History of the Conte del Graal is based upon and derived
from one akin to that found in the Grand St. Graal and the Quête.
In other words, each section of the legend has borrowed from the other
features and incidents inconsistent with its real essence. The fact that
Crestien's continuators had to turn for information to works animated
by such a different spirit justifies the surmise that they found nothing
of a similar nature in his source, and that, as in the intervening lapse
of time a special Christian account of the Grail had become the popular
one, they felt constrained to clumsily substitute this dominant version
for that of Crestien's source.
If what may be called the Joseph of Arimathea Early History be considered closely, it will be seen that in both its two main forms it is essentially a legend of the Conversion of Britain, Both forms start with Joseph, but at a later stage go widely asunder. In Borron it is kinsmen of Joseph, Brons, or Alain, or Petrus, who are the leaders of the evangelising emigration, it is to them that the Holy Vessel is confided. In the Grand St. Graal-Quête version Joseph's son, Josephes, is the leading spirit, and the fortunes of the Grail are bound up with those of Joseph's direct descendants or with the converted heathens Mordrains and Nasciens and their kin. This second is the popular version, the one which affected the later stages of the Conte del Graal. The fact that what may be called the Vulgate Early History (whether in its Brons or Josephes form) is in reality a Conversion of Britain legend, is important when we recollect that the personages of the Conte del Graal and allied versions (the oldest form of the Quest) are British, and that the scene of the story is Britain, as also that the Wolfram Early History is asserted to be derived from a chronicle of the Angevin princes, the lords of Britain throughout the formative period of the Grail cycle. The romances of this cycle belong, by their origin, their purport, and their content, to England and not to France, a fact obscured for us by their being written almost entirely in French, and to a large extent by French writers, and only intelligible when we recall that throughout the twelfth century French was almost as much the language of what is now England as of what is now France, and that throughout a large part of the century the Matière de Bretagne was the fashionable and influential romance for all that was cultured in Western Christendom. It also, I think, puts out of court all attempts to derive this great body of romance from the numerous Holy Vessels found on the Continent since the First Crusade, and of which the Sacro Catino of Genoa was the most famous. The legends connected with them have none of them any connection with Britain.
But if the Early History of the Grail be thus a conversion of Britain
legend, whence does it deprive its personages and incidents? The answer
to this question decisively confirms the contention that the Grail romances
are of insular and not of Continental origin. The account of Joseph, of
his relation to Christ, his captivity,&c., is derived, in addition
to the Gospel narrative, from a group of apocryphal writings, of which
the Evangelium Nicodemi is the central and dominant one. Now it
has been shown that, owing to circumstances of which we know nothing,
this group of apocrypha was familiar to, and influential with, English
writers in the eighth to eleventh centuries, at a time when no trace of
it can be found in the other literatures of Western Christendom. Of course,
these apocryphal writings are entirely silent about Joseph's conversion
of Britain. But we do find an elaborate twelfth century account of the
evangelisation of Britain by Joseph in a series of documents connected
with, and undoubtedly originating from, the famous West British abbey
of Glastonbury. Ignored as it is by Geoffrey of Monmouth, that insatiable
romance-monger, the legend can hardly be older than the second third of
the century. Whether it is as old; whether, in particular it is mentioned
in the genuine writings of Geoffrey's contemporary, William of Malmesbury
; whether it be not a reflection of the Grail romances, these are questions
still debated by scholars. As the details are different from anything
in the romances, as in its earlier and simpler form there is no mention
of the Holy Vessel, it is hard to see how the Glastonbury legend can be
regarded as an outcome of the Grail romances. The balance of probability
strongly inclines to the view that divers and independent legends of Joseph's
conversion of Britain originated in twelfth century England, and that
their origin and popularity was in some way connected with the early and
wide spread in England of the apocryphal texts which had Joseph as their
hero.
Quelle: The Legends of The Holy Grail, Alfred Nutt, London 1902, S. 37ff