ABSTRACT
https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315828060/49546f0e-ce84-4e70-9b40-7107f16ee305/content/ufig_t_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>HE Cycle of Graal Legends contains within itself a whole mass of Mediæval legendary lore, much of which seems to have come originally from pre-Christian traditions, which were later taken up and developed in a Christian and mystical direction by various writers of that period. Moreover, there are good reasons for suspecting that the Graal motif was in part an ancient initiation rite, (a) connected with the old Fertility Cult, and curiously linked up with the Knights Templar. It is, however, abundantly clear that large sections of these tales are an allegory of the journey of the soul through the Underworld to Heaven. Perhaps one of the most useful versions of the Graal legend is that translated by Dr. S. Evans (b) from the first volume of Perceval le Gallois ou le Conte du Graal, edited by M. Ch. Potvin, in 1886, from the M.S.S. numbered 11,145 in the library of the Dukes of Burgundy at Brussels. The M.S, was written in the opening years of the 16th century, but is copied from a work of about 1220 A.D., which is of special interest since in point of time it corresponds very closely with St. Patrick’s Purgatory, and precedes Mallory by over 200 years.
