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One version, alone, the source of which is, at present, undetermined, links the PERCEVAL with the GAWAIN form; this is the version preserved in the Gerbert continuation of the Perceval of Chretien de Troyes.
In his pocket was found his last letter, still unposted, in which he told his father of a fresh distinction for valour which he had just received, and in the course of which, with a manifest presentiment of his approaching end, he wrote, "Je mourrai, si Dieu veut, en bon chrétien et en bon Français."
The change that came over plastic art in France towards the end of the twelfth century is reflected in the accomplished triviality of Chrétien de Troyes. The eleventh century had produced the Chanson de Roland, a poem as grand and simple as a Romanesque church. Chrétien de Troyes melted down the massive conceptions of his betters and twisted them into fine-spun conceits.
There is no need here to go over old, and well-trodden, ground; in my studies of the Perceval Legend, and in the later popular resume of the evidence, The Quest of the Holy Grail, I have analysed the texts, and shown that, while the poem of Chretien de Troyes is our earliest surviving literary version, there is the strongest possible evidence that Chretien, as he himself admits, was not inventing, but re-telling, an already popular tale.
This novelty originated in a single plant in a culture from the seed of the dwarf variety "Jules Chretien." The seeds were taken from introduced plants in my garden, and as the sport has no ornamental value it is uncertain whether this was the first instance or whether it had previously occurred in the nursery at Lyons, from whence the bulbs were secured.
I reproach myself for them, I swear to you, as for a mortal sin, and I now, in my hours of repose, occupy myself only with my 'Methode des Controverses', and my book on the 'Perfection du Chretien. I remember that I am fifty-six years old, and that I have an incurable malady."
The king thanked them, and so did his uncles, and would not refuse their offer, for he knew not what need he should have after. The earliest extant form of the story of the Holy Grail is the French metrical romance of "Perceval" or "Le Conte du Graal" of Chrétien de Troies, written about 1175.
Here we strike what I hold to be the main crux of the problem, a feature upon which scholars have expended much thought and ingenuity, a feature which the authors of the romances themselves either did not always understand, or were at pains to obscure by the introduction of the obviously post hoc "motif" above referred to, i.e., that he was called the Fisher King because of his devotion to the pastime of fishing: a-propos of which Heinzel sensibly remarks, that the story of the Fisher King "presupposes a legend of this personage only vaguely known and remembered by Chretien."
Robert de Borron is the only writer who gives a clear, and tolerably reasonable, account of why the guardian of the Grail bears the title of Fisher King; in other cases, such as the poems of Chretien and Wolfram, the name is connected with his partiality for fishing, an obviously post hoc addition. The story in question is found in Borron's Joseph of Arimathea.
Hearing the shouting and seeing the crowd a Belgian gendarme came up. To him Vivie said, "Si vous êtes Chrétien et pas Allemand " "Prenez garde, Madame," he said warningly "Vous m'aiderez
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