Chapter X

The Moral and Spiritual import of the Grail-Legend
universally recognised--Popularity of the Arthurian Romance--
Reasons for that Popularity--Affinities of the Mediæval
Romances with early Celtic Literature; Importance of the
Individual Hero; Knighthood; the _rôle_ of Woman; the Celtic
Fairy and the Mediæval Lady; the Supernatural--M. Renan's
views--The Quest in English Literature, Malory--The earliest
form of the Legend, Chrestien, his continuators--The Queste
and its Ideal--The Sex-Relations in the Middle Ages--
Criticism of Mr. Furnivall's estimate of the moral import of
the Queste--The Merits of the Queste--The Chastity Ideal in
the later versions--Modern English Treatments: Tennyson,
Hawker--Possible Source of the Chastity Ideal in Popular
Tradition--The Perceval Quest in Wolfram; his Moral
Conception; the Question; Parzival and Conduiramur--The
Parzival Quest and Faust--Wagner's Parsifal--The Christian
element in the Legend--Ethical Ideas in the folk-tale
originals of the Grail Romances: the Great Fool; the Sleeping
Beauty--Conclusion page 228

APPENDIX A.: The Relationship of Wolfram to Chrestien page 261

APPENDIX B.: The Grand St. Graal Prologue and the Brandan
Legend page 264

INDEX I. The Dramatis Personæ of the Legend page 266

INDEX II. page 275