From Ritual to Romance | Page 6

the Grail romances. Gawain as
Healer. Persistent tradition. Possible survival from pre-literary form.
Evidence of the Triads. Peredur as Healer. Evolution of theme. Le Dist
de l'Erberie.
CHAPTER IX
The Fisher King
Summary of evidence presented. Need of a 'test' element. To be found

in central figure. Mystery of his title. Analysis of variants. Gawain
version. Perceval version. Borron alone attempts explanation of title.
Parzival. Perlesvaus. Queste. Grand Saint Graal. Comparison with
surviving ritual variants. Original form King dead, and restored to life.
Old Age and Wounding themes. Legitimate variants. Doubling of
character a literary device. Title. Why Fisher King? Examination of
Fish Symbolism. Fish a Life symbol. Examples. Indian--Manu, Vishnu,
Buddha. Fish in Buddhism. Evidence from China. Orpheus. Babylonian
evidence. Tammuz Lord of the Net. Jewish Symbolism. The Messianic
Fish-meal. Adopted by Christianity. Evidence of the catacombs. Source
of Borron's Fish-meals. Mystery tradition not Celtic Folk-tale.
Comparison of version with Finn story. With Messianic tradition.
Epitaph of Bishop Aberkios. Voyage of Saint Brandan. Connection of
Fish with goddess Astarte. Cumont. Connection of Fish and Dove. Fish
as Fertility Symbol. Its use in Marriage ceremonies. Summing up of
evidence. Fisher King inexplicable from Christian point of view.
Folk-lore solution unsatisfactory. As a Ritual survival completely in
place. Centre of action, and proof of soundness of theory.
CHAPTER X
The Secret of the Grail (1)
The Mysteries
The Grail regarded as an object of awe. Danger of speaking of Grail or
revealing Its secrets. Passages in illustration. Why, if survival of Nature
cults, popular, and openly performed? A two-fold element in these cults,
Exoteric, Esoteric. The Mysteries. Their influence on Christianity to be
sought in the Hellenized rather than the Hellenic cults. Cumont. Rohde.
Radical difference between Greek and Oriental conceptions. Lack of
evidence as regards Mysteries on the whole. Best attested form that
connected with Nature cults. Attis-Adonis. Popularity of the Phrygian
cult in Rome. Evidence as to Attis Mysteries. Utilized by
Neo-Platonists as vehicle for teaching. Close connection with
Mithraism. The Taurobolium. Details of Attis Mysteries. Parallels with
the Grail romances.

CHAPTER XI
The Secret of the Grail (2)
The Naassene Document
Relations between early Christianity, and pre-Christian cults. Early
Heresies. Hippolytus, and The Refutation of all Heresies. Character of
the work. The Naassene Document. Mr Mead's analysis of text. A
synthesis of Mysteries. Identification of Life Principle with the Logos.
Connection between Drama and Mysteries of Attis. Importance of the
Phrygian Mysteries. Naassene claim to be sole Christians. Significance
of evidence. Vegetation cults as vehicle of high spiritual teaching.
Exoteric and Esoteric parallels with the Grail tradition. Process of
evolution sketched. Bleheris. Perlesvaus. Borron and the Mystery
tradition. Christian Legendary, and Folk-tale, secondary, not primary,
features.
CHAPTER XII
Mithra and Attis
Problem of close connection of cults. Their apparent divergence.
Nature of deities examined. Attis. Mithra. The Messianic Feast.
Dieterich, Eine Mithrasliturgie. Difference between the two initiations.
Link between Phrygian, Mithraic, and Christian, Mysteries to be found
in their higher, esoteric, teaching. Women not admitted to Mithraic
initiation. Possible survival in Grail text. Joint diffusion through the
Roman Empire. Cumont's evidence. Traces of cult in British Isles.
Possible explanation of unorthodox character of Grail legend. Evidence
of survival of cult in fifth century. The Elucidation a possible record of
historic facts. Reason for connecting Grail with Arthurian tradition.
CHAPTER XIII
The Perilous Chapel

The adventure of the Perilous Chapel in Grail romances. Gawain form.
Perceval versions. Queste. Perlesvaus. Lancelot. Chevalier à Deux
Espées. Perilous Cemetery. Earliest reference in Chattel Orguellous.
Âtre Perilleus. Prose Lancelot. Adventure part of 'Secret of the Grail.'
The Chapel of Saint Austin. Histoire de Fulk Fitz-Warin. Genuine
record of an initiation. Probable locality North Britain. Site of remains
of Mithra-Attis cults. Traces of Mystery tradition in Medieval romance.
Owain Miles. Bousset, Himmelfahrt der Seele. Parallels with romance.
Appeal to Celtic scholars. Otherworld journeys a possible survival of
Mystery tradition. The Templars, were they Naassenes?
CHAPTER XIV
The Author
Provenance and authorship of Grail romantic tradition. Evidence points
to Wales, probably Pembrokeshire. Earliest form contained in group of
Gawain poems assigned to Bleheris. Of Welsh origin. Master Blihis,
Blihos, Bliheris, Bréri, Bledhericus. Probably all references to same
person. Conditions of identity. Mr E. Owen, and Bledri ap Cadivor.
Evidence not complete but fulfils conditions of problem Professor
Singer and possible character of Bleheris' text. Mr Alfred Nutt. Irish
and Welsh parallels. Recapitulation of evolutionary process. Summary
and conclusion.

"Animus ad amplitudinem Mysteriorum pro modulo suo dilatetur, non
Mysteria ad angustias animi constringantur." (Bacon.)
"Many literary critics seem to think that an hypothesis about obscure
and remote questions of history can be refuted by a simple demand for
the production of more evidence than in fact exists.--But the true test of
an hypothesis, if it cannot be shewn to conflict with known truths, is
the number of facts