The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal: IV. The Conte del Graal: § C.--The Extension of Gautier
It is certain that the poet who took up the thread of the story which was left by Chrétien had antecedent texts to go upon outside the work of his predecessor, and that one at least of these is not to be identified with purely folk-lore materials. It is considered that the metrical romance of De Borron was not one of his documents, and on the hypothesis--or perhaps I should say on the theory--of a primordial non-Graal Quest--as reflected into the Welsh Mabinogi and the English Syr Percyvelle--it would follow that he had seen this. Now, there are traces in the Mabinogi of an intention which might have led up to the marriage of Perceval and Blanchefleur, if his enchantment by the empress had not extended over a period which put such a possibility out of the question. In the English metrical story the marriage is a natural conclusion, and we have seen that it takes place accordingly. In Chrétien there are the same traces, and they reappear more strongly in Gautier, but the term of his intention is unmanifest because he failed to conclude. The common consent of scholarship would hold probably that the prototype of both poets celebrated a bridal at its end. It contained also the widely diffused story of the maiden and the hound, or brachet, which I have held over from the Welsh story to speak of in this place. Finally, in some form it had the curious episode of the chessboard. But, fully developed as they are in the long extension of Gautier, these things are of his accidents only, while of the essence is his zeal of the Graal Quest, which overrules all things else in his ingarnering of diverse memorials. Of that quest he has practically two heroes, and though a superior success attends the search of Perceval the adventures of his alternate Gawain are recounted at still greater length. This latter part, taken over from the first poet of the Conte, at once so extended
Blanc com flours en may novele."
Moult avenans et moult très bides."
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