Our version of the story explains that, just as he was about to sit down in the Siege Perilous, the witch Kundrie arrived, and hotly denounced him as an unfeeling wretch, a sufficient reminder to make Parzival immediately renew his quest.  Adequate penance having been done at last, and the young knight having stood every test without losing his purity, Parzival was finally allowed to atone for his unconscious fault.  Once more he arrived at the castle, once more entered the banquet hall, and once more beheld the mystic procession.  Strengthened by silent prayer, Parzival then asked the momentous question; whereupon Amfortas’ wound was instantly healed, the aged Titurel released from the pain of living, Kundrie baptized, and Parzival unanimously hailed as future guardian of the Grail, an office he humbly yet proudly assumed.

Another legend claims that his son Lohengrin, ordered by the Holy Grail to go and defend Elsa of Brabant, received from his father a magic horn, by means of which he was to announce his safe arrival at his destination, and to summon help whenever he wished to return.  Instead of riding a charger, Lohengrin was conveyed in a swan-drawn skiff to Brabant, where he found Elsa praying for a champion to defend her against Frederick of Telramund’s accusation of having slain her little brother, who had mysteriously disappeared.

Lohengrin, having proved the falsity of the charge by defeating the accuser in a judicial duel, married Elsa, warning her she must never seek to discover his name or origin, under penalty of seeing him depart as suddenly as he had arrived.  The machinations of Frederick of Telramund, and of his artful wife, finally drove Elsa to propound the fatal question, and, as soon as Lohengrin has sorrowfully answered it, the swan appeared and bore him away!  But, as Lohengrin departed, Elsa’s brother reappeared to serve as her protector.[32]

This—­mostly German—­version of the Grail legend—­has been used by Wolfram von Eschenbach for a long and famous epic, and by Wagner for his operas Parzival and Lohengrin.  In the French and particularly in the English versions of the Quest for the Holy Grail, or Sangreal, Percival is with the other knights of Arthur’s Round Table when they take this vow.  He seeks for it, perceives it through a veil, but never entirely achieves the quest, since that privilege is reserved for the peerless Galahad.

The versions of the Holy Grail Story of which Galahad is hero run about as follows:  Galahad is the son of Launcelot and Elaine, the latter’s nurse having, by means of enchantment, made her to appear as Guinevere—­whom Launcelot loved.  Deserted by the accidental father of her coming child, this Elaine—­daughter of King Pelles—­took refuge in a nunnery, where she gave birth to Galahad, whom when dying she entrusted to the nuns.  Brought up by those holy women and strengthened in early infancy by frequent glimpses of the Holy Grail,—­whose light was blinding to all but the perfectly pure,—­Galahad