Perceval.  The Perceval versions, which form the bulk of the existing Grail texts, differ considerably the one from the other, alike in the task to be achieved, and the effects resulting from the hero’s success, or failure.  The distinctive feature of the Perceval version is the insistence upon the sickness, and disability of the ruler of the land, the Fisher King.  Regarded first as the direct cause of the wasting of the land, it gradually assumes overwhelming importance, the task of the Quester becomes that of healing the King, the restoration of the land not only falls into the background but the operating cause of its desolation is changed, and finally it disappears from the story altogether.  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 Chrétien de Troyes.  Here the hero having, like Gawain, partially achieved the task, but again like Gawain, having failed satisfactorily to resolder the broken sword, wakes, like the earlier hero, to find that the Grail Castle has disappeared, and he is alone in a flowery meadow.  He pursues his way through a land fertile, and well-peopled and marvels much, for the day before it had been a waste desert.  Coming to a castle he is received by a solemn procession, with great rejoicing; through him the folk have regained the land and goods which they had lost.  The mistress of the castle is more explicit.  Perceval had asked concerning the Grail: 

       “par coi amendé

Somes, en si faite maniére
Qu’en ceste regne n’avoit riviére
Qui ne fust gaste, ne fontaine. 
E la terre gaste et soutaine.”

Like Gawain he has ‘freed the waters’ and thus restored the land.[4]

In the prose Perceval the motif of the Waste Land has disappeared, the task of the hero consists in asking concerning the Grail, and by so doing, to restore the Fisher King, who is suffering from extreme old age, to health, and youth.[5]

“Se tu eusses demandé quel’en on faisoit, que li rois ton aiol fust gariz de l’enfermetez qu’il a, et fust revenu en sa juventé.”

When the question has been asked:  “Le rois péschéor estoit gariz et tot muez de sa nature.”  “Li rois peschiére estoit mués de se nature et estoit garis de se maladie, et estoit sains comme pissons."[6] Here we have the introduction of a new element, the restoration to youth of the sick King.

In the Perceval of Chrétien de Troyes we find ourselves in presence of certain definite changes, neither slight, nor unimportant, upon which it seems to me insufficient stress has hitherto been laid.  The question is changed; the hero no longer asks what the Grail is, but (as in the prose Perceval) whom it serves? a departure from an essential and primitive simplicity—­the motive for which is apparent in Chrétien, but not