Chapter VII

The various forms of the visit to the Grail Castle in the
romances--Conte du Graal: Chrestien; Gautier-Manessier;
Gautier-Gerbert--Didot-Perceval--Mabinogi--Conte du Graal;
Gawain's visit to the Grail Castle--Heinrich von dem
Türlin--Conte du Graal: Perceval's visit to the Castle of
Maidens--Inconsistency of these varying accounts; their
testimony to stories of different nature and origin being
embodied in the romances--Two main types: feud quest and
unspelling quest--Reasons for the confusion of the two
types--Evidence of the confusion in older Celtic literature--
The Grail in Celtic literature: the gear of the Tuatha de
Danann; the cauldron in the Ultonian cycle; the Mabinogi of
Branwen; vessel of balsam and glaive of light in the
contemporary folk-tale--The sword in Celtic literature:
Tethra; Fionn; Manus--Parallels to the Bespelled Castle; the
Brug of Oengus, the Brug of Lug, the Brug of Manannan Mac
Lir, Bran's visit to the Island of Women, Cormac Mac Art, and
the Fairy Branch; Diarmaid and the Daughter of King Under the
Waves--Unspelling stories: The Three Soldiers; the waiting of
Arthur; Arthur in Etna; the Kyffhäuser Legend, objections to
Martin's views concerning it--Gawain's visit to the Magic
Castle and Celtic parallels; The Son of Bad Counsel; Fionn in
Giant Land; Fionn in the House of Cuana; Fionn and the Yellow
Face--The Vanishing of the Bespelled Castle--Comparison with
the Sleeping Beauty cycle--The "Haunted Castle" form and its
influence on Heinrich's version--The Loathly Grail Messenger page 170

CHAPTER VIII.

The Fisher King in the Conte du Graal, in the Queste, and in
Borron and the Grand St. Graal--The accounts of latter
complete each other--The Fish is the Salmon of Wisdom--
Parallel with the Fionn Saga--The nature of the Unspelling
Quest--The Mabinogi of Taliesin and its mythological
affinities--Brons, Bran, Cernunnos--Perceval's silence: Conte
du Graal explanation late; explanation from the Fionn Saga--
Comparison of incident with _geasa_; nature of latter;
references to it in Celtic folk-tales and in old Irish
literature, Book of Rights, Diarmaid, Cuchulainn--_Geasa_ and
_taboo_ page 207

CHAPTER IX.

Summing up of the elements of the older portion of the
cycle--Parallelism with Celtic tradition--The Christian
element in the cycle: the two forms of the Early History;
Brons form older--Brons and Bran--The Bran conversion
legend--The Joseph conversion legend, Joseph in apocryphal
literature, the Evangelium Nicodemi--The Bran legend the
starting point of the Christian transformation of the
legend--Substitution of Joseph for Bran--Objection to this
hypothesis--Hypothetical sketch of the growth of the legend page 215